“Oh, brother Roy.” Mary jumped out of the trunk seat. “You came back early today.”
“Big brother Roy this, big brother Roy that. Come, Mary, come give big brother Robb a hug.” Robb opened up his arms after his little rant. Mary chuckled before jumping into Robb’s arms.
Robb laughed before patting Mary’s hair, “That’s a good girl. How have you been doing? You’ve been eating well?”
“Yeah,” the little girl nodded. “That boar meat was delicious!”
Greg and Martha’s daughter, Elena, also stood up from their seat and walked toward the rest of the group. Greg immediately went and did a special handshake with Jaimie, while Elena stood shyly in the back, not knowing what to do.
“Come here, Elena.” Roy gestured to the little girl with his hand. “How have you been? Enjoying yourself?”
“Yeah, it’s nice here,” Elena nodded. “We get to play all day, and we can even sleep together! Dad never let us sleep together before.”
Roy raised his eyebrows and laughed at the unexpected response. “That’s great to hear. I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself.”
Roy then looked at the three struggling little kids on the ground. Both Jeanie and Daniel were heaving deep breaths while looking at the ground with focused eyes. They were both about to do one more push-up when Jeanie’s hands gave out and she rolled to the side, tired and weary. Daniel pushed through that final push-up before also rolling over to lie on his back.
Seeing that her two friends stopped, Claire did not continue. However, she had a much healthier complexion than that of Daniel or Jeanie. She stood up and caught her breath before walking toward Roy.
“We just finished sixty-five,” she stated with a proud expression on her face. “Yesterday too, we finished the hundred by the night. We stayed up so late, but we did it!”
“Yeah, we’re going to finish it today too.” Daniel took a shallow breath after each word. “You better keep your promise!”
Robb looked at Roy with an “I told you” smile, while the latter shook his head. He then looked at the dead tired siblings before saying, “Catch your breath first, we’ll talk after.”
After a few minutes of the two kids recovering, Daniel and Jeanie stood up with their shirts wet from sweat. With their eyes glued to him, Roy took a deep breath.
“It’s good that you guys are doing your 100 push-ups, but that’s not the only thing we talked about. Did you play with a knife yet?”
“We tried, but Madam Martha didn’t let us,” Claire complained. “She told us we’re too young and we shouldn’t be taken out knives.”
Hearing the young girl’s words, Roy pursed his lips. “Honestly, she is right. You guys wanna see blood when you’re so young?”
Robb looked at Roy with furrowed eyebrows, “You, especially, don’t have the right to say that. You killed your first rabbit when you were five.”
Daniel who looked sad at Roy’s words, jumped with joy when Robb came to their rescue. “Yeah! Plus a promise is a promise, you have to teach us!”
“Okay, okay, I understand,” Roy raised his hands in surrender. “Let’s search for some pieces of wood that are as tall as a knife. We can use that first before you hurt yourself with a blade.”
“Okay, sure! I’ll find it first!” Daniel jumped into action without waiting for his sister or Claire.
“Wait, why does everything have to be a competition with you!” Claire too joined the little boy and started searching all around for a suitable piece of wood. Jeanie soon followed after her.
As the trio of kids was looking all around, Jaimie tucked at Roy’s jacket. “Ehm, is it okay if I am the one that teaches them?”
Roy raised an eyebrow at Jaimie’s request, “Why is that?”
“Hmm, I just wanna teach them like you thought me before when we were at the hideout. That seems fun.”
Hearing Jaimie’s reason, Roy shrugged his shoulders, “Sure, if you wanna do it, be my guest. I’m sure you know how to handle a knife better than me now since you’ve been fighting real monsters with it.”
“Yay, thank you,” Jaimie jumped in happiness. “I always wanted to teach someone!”
After a couple of minutes of searching, Claire finally grabbed a piece of wood that she was satisfied with, “Yes! Found it!”
She then immediately run toward Roy while Daniel just found a good piece of wood himself. He looked at Claire with an open mouth before running after her with all his might.
Just as Claire stopped in front of Roy, Daniel blew past her and almost crashed into Robb. The latter casually jumped backward before stopping the little boy who could not deaccelerate in time.
“Easy there little boy. It’s good to be competitive, but don’t take it too far.”
Daniel scratched his head in embarrassment at Robb’s criticism, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Robb scratched the little boy’s head. “Now go there, your teacher is gonna be Jaimie.”
Daniel looked at the group of people once again. There was Roy, Claire and Jeanie, and another little boy that he hasn’t met many times before.
“What?” Daniel turned toward Robb with a confused expression. “But he is just a little kid like us? How is he going to teach us anything?”
Robb grinned at Daniel’s remark before gesturing with his head at Jaimie, “These guys are underestimating you, why don’t you show them what you can do?”
Jaimie smiled and shrugged, “Sure, if you want me to.”
To the surprise and horror of all the kids that were around, Jaimie slowly disappeared from in front of them.
“What the hell, where did he go?” Just as Daniel shouted in confusion, a hand patted him on the shoulder. He turned around only to find Jaimie’s smiling face looking at him.
Daniel jumped out of Robb’s arm from the surprise and landed ass-first on the ground. Jaimie on the other hand was playing with his dagger, spinning it on top of his finger.
“See, I could have killed you three times just right there.”
Claire looked in shock at the display of skill Jaimie had shown. “That. Can I learn to do that?!”
Jaimie pursed his lips in uncertainty, “I don’t know, this is my personal skill. I guess you will find your own skill too.”
Daniel, who had just regained his wits, looked at Jaimie with star-struck eyes. “Will it be as cool as yours?”
“Yeah, definitely.” Jaimie replied with a smile. “My skill is not that cool. You should see Roy’s fireball, It’s so much cooler than mine.”
The three little kids’ eyes darted toward Roy immediately. He almost felt that they were sharks that smelled his blood in the water.
“Roy, please show us your Fireball! Please show your skill!”
Roy looked at the three excited kids before glancing at Jaimie. Seeing that he was smiling and enjoying himself, Roy smiled too.
“Sure, I will show it to you. But only if you promise that you will listen to Jaimie’s orders, okay?”
The trio nodded and said in sync, “We promise!”
Hearing the magic word, Roy opened up his palm and conjured a fireball on top of it. As the ball of flame rotated, it let out small fire arcs and tongues that enamored the eyes of the little kids. With a smile, Roy stretched his arm at a 75-degree angle to the sky. He then blasted off his spell like a flaming arrow before it exploded into a big fireball in the sky.
The trio looked at the fireball as if it was fireworks on new years. While they didn’t understand how destructive that spell was, they were mesmerized by its beauty.
Seeing Roy smiling and happy with his performance, Robb clicked his tongue, “Flashy bastard.”
“Oh, is someone envious of my skill?” Roy looked at Robb with an even wider smile.
Robb shrugged his shoulders at his friend’s taunts, “Who needs a fireball when I can just take off my enemy’s head before they can react.”
Roy rolled his eyes at Robb’s retort before looking at the group of kids and clapping his hands. “Okay, so I showed you Fireball as promised. Now, you have to listen to Jaimie, understood?”
“Yeah, don’t worry. We will listen to him,” Claire nodded her head before looking at Jaimie.
As the little kids had all of their attention on him, the young boy felt a bit overwhelmed. He turned around to look at Roy only to find him smiling and giving him the thumbs up.
He then looked back at Claire, Daniel, and Jeanie and took a deep breath. “Okay, you have your wooden knives in your hand. Imagine that I’m a goblin that you need to kill, and come at me.”
“I’m gonna start first!” Daniel jumped right in. He put his makeshift knife in a reverse grip and pounced at Jaimie with no thought. The latter simply flicked at his hand and swiped Daniel’s legs to throw him off balance.
“Aye, that hurts!” Daniel fell right on his ass and massaged it while looking at his teacher with a wronged expression.
Jaimie just smiled and said, “You made two mistakes, do you know what they are?”
“That I tried to fight when you’re so much stronger than me?”
“No, not that,” Jaimie let out a chuckle. “The mistake you made is that you jumped at me from the front. You are fighting with a knife, you need to go from the back if it’s possible.”
“And what is the second mistake?” This time, it was Claire who asked. She had a pensive look in her eyes as she absorbed Jaimie’s teaching.
The young boy looked at Claire before focusing back on Daniel. “The second mistake you made is that you held your knife like this.” Jaimie showed the reverse grip that Daniel had used, he then switched to a normal grip before continuing, “You need to hold it like this. That way you don’t hurt your hand first. You can block with the knife before their sword cuts your hand.”
With Daniel’s turn over, Claire walked up. She made sure not to make the same mistake the young boy had done before her. She held her knife in a normal position and circled Jaimie so as to catch him off-guard.
Jaimie smiled as the little girl reached behind his back and jumped at him. While keeping his dagger in its sheath, Jaimie turned back and blocked Claire’s attack. Her makeshift knife flew out of her hand and she grabbed her slightly injured palm with a pained face.
Jaimie looked at the little girl with concern, “You okay?”
“Yeah, it’s okay,” Claire swallowed the pain away and smiled, “Wh-what mistake did I make?”
Jaimie kept staring at her hand with concern before shaking his head. “You weren’t holding the knife strong enough. It needs to be strong so that you don’t lose your weapon.”
With her turn now over, Claire went back to her friends and gave space to Jeanie who was next. The latter then walked up and slightly bowed to Jaimie.
Like Claire before her, she didn’t make Daniel’s mistake and continued with the same strategy. She circled around Jaimie before pouncing at his back.
The young boy, who had supernatural senses after his awakening, could feel where the young girl’s attack is going to hit. He turned around at the last second to block her wooden knife. Just as the two nondeadly weapons were about to clash, Jeanie changed the trajectory of her attack.
