Training The Guard

The man stopped in front of Ivan and bowed. The wind blew both of their hair in their faces. "It is good to see that you could make it!" Ivan said with a smile.

"I all most didn't come" the man responded, also smiling.

"So i think you know why you are here"

"Yes, unless I was much mistaken you wish to recruit and train me to be a member of your personal gaurd"

"That is indeed what I want"

"Well then we better get started, we have a lot to do."

Ivan waked a few paces back and then turned to the trainee. “Give me everything you got!” he said to him.

The trainee paused and thought a moment before taking a stance. Ivan took a classic fighting stance with one foot forward, the other one back, sword held in front of him, and waited for the trainee to make a move.

Once again the trainee, whose name was Edgar, stopped to think about what to do next, “Thinking will slow you down, you have to be spontaneous, improvise.” Ivan called out to him. Edgar nodded and then, with a look of determination on this face charged Ivan is sword above his head ready to swing downward.

Unfortunately as Edgar rushed forward his foot caught on a small root and he tripped, landing face first in the grass, his sword flying out of his hands and landing four feet away.

Ivan laughed and then walked over to Edgar, offering his hand to help him up, Edgar accepted the hand and got up looking sheepish and embarrassed, “sorry about that didn’t see that root” he said in a small voice.
“Don’t worry about it” Ivan said to him with a smile, “every one trips occasionally”. Edgar smiled at this and the picked up his sword from off the ground.

“Want to try again?” Ivan asked. “Of course” Edgar responded, but before either of them could move a man burst in to their small clearing. He was completely out of breath and wore the livery of a messenger of the court, he spotted Ivan and hurried over to him, talking slow deep breaths, it seemed as if he had run all the way from the city.

Ivan walked over to the man and asked, “What is it? Is something wrong, as you might be able to see I’m a bit busy at the moment?” The man nodded and then spoke in a very tired voice, “It’s urgent my lord, the captain of the guard told me to fetch you immediately,” He took a pause here to gasp for air a bit more then continued. “Something happened at the market place, he didn’t say what only that you were needed.”

“Thank you, rest for a bit and then come back to the castle at your own pace.” Ivan said, patting the man on the shoulder. Then turning to Edgar he said, “Come on, you ready for what might be some really training” Edgar nodded, ran to the horses and hopped on. Ivan followed and soon they were racing toward the city, toward an unknown threat, and hopefully to victory!

As they rode up to the city gates Ivan could see smoke rising for around the area of the market. Seeing his town burning filled Ivan with anger and a want to destroy those who would wish to hurt the lives and the lively hoods of the subjects under his rule.

He rode through the gates and people called out to him, asking what they should do and what was going on, he told them to stay calm and stay away from the market as he rode past.

When they reached the plaza Ivan and Edgar dismounted and immediately were greeted by the captain of the guard and four of his men. “It’s would seem that a large gang of outlaws decide to wreck the market place my liege, they’ve destroyed several stalls and a good number of merchants are either wounded or dead, fortunately my men got there in time to stop them from getting to any other districts of the city. My men will hold for now but the sooner we get to the front lines the better!” The captain of the guard informed Ivan as they hurried toward the market. “Does anyone know what caused this or who these men are working for?” Ivan asked, “No sire, but they targeted a fish merchant and his stall first.” Ivan paused for a second when he heard that, then continued walking, “This fish merchant, do you know what became of him?” Ivan asked, “Unfortunately, he is counted among the dead, we managed to push them back past several of the stalls and extracted the dead bodies from the battle ground, why do you ask sir? Did he mean something to you?”

“Not really” Ivan replied, “But he was a kind fellow and I helped him out of some trouble a little while ago, and I can guess that the same man who was hiring thieves to steal his fish, set these filthy bastards on the market” as Ivan said this they rounded a corner and in front of them lay the market place.

It was hardly recognizable, most of the stalls and shops were burnt or sacked and there was debris scattered everywhere. “I though you said only some of the stalls were destroyed” Ivan told the captain, “Well that might have been a bit of an understatement” the captain replied with a sheepish smile.

At the other end of the market place a fight was going on, and it appeared that the guard was losing it. About 40 armed men were fighting against a ragged looking group of 20 or so guards men who were doing their best to hold them in the market place. “Well it looks like your men need help” Ivan told the captain with a slight grin. “I guess so” He responded. Ivan looked over at Edgar who had a determined look on his face, “You ready for some real training?” he asked, Edgar looked at him and gave a small smile, “I was born ready” he said. All of them drew their swords and charged in to the melee.

Ivan’s first opponent was a medium sized man with no shirt welding a great sword, he spotted Ivan charging him and raised his sword and counter charged. At the last second Ivan stepped to his front right diagonal angle and slashed them man on the side opining up a large wound, but the man wasn’t done yet, he turned and swung his sword in a side strike at Ivan’s head. Ivan ducked and lunged forward impaling the man and driving his sword hilt deep in to the man’s chest. AS the man went limp Ivan side stepped twisting his sword so that as the man fell he fell off of the sword. Ivan looked about for his next opponent and saw a man rushing at him with a hand axe screaming at the top of his lungs.

As the man drew near Ivan adjusted his grip and faced the man. Just before the other warrior could connect his attack Ivan changed levels and stabbed his sword in to the man’s gut then used the man’s own momentum to flip him on to his back, dead. Ivan stood up and narrowly avoided being cut in half by a battle axe wielded by another crazed outlaw, the next attack Ivan deflected and then stepped forward slashing his sword across the man’s torso from shoulder to hip, the man stumbled back as a long gash opened up tracing the blades path. Ivan didn’t let if have a break, as the man stumbled Ivan stepped forward slashing the opposite direction across the man’s chest deepening the wound already found there. The man fell. Ivan turned and once again was faced with another warrior this one was a bit more careful , he circled Ivan, testing his defenses with a occasional thrust, then right after Ivan had blocked a viscous overhead, he charged him. Ivan side stepped and swung his blade at the other man’s neck, and felt it go clean though, the man body fell and was soon followed by his head.

Ivan looked around and with now next opponent readily visible checked how his allies were doing, Edgar was doing fine, he was launching a steady barrage of attacks down upon a rather panicked looking outlaw. The captain on the other hand looked overwhelmed, he was fighting two very large brutes and  all he could do, it seemed was bock there attacks, and eventually one of them would get lucky.

Seeing this Ivan immediately ran over to help his friend, he managed to get behind one of the brutes and before the man realized what was going on Ivan grabbed his head and pulled him back while driving his blade through the man’s back. Pulling it out the man crumpled to the ground. The other one was surprised by the sudden death of his friend and was momentarily distracted, the captain’s sword hilt sent him reeling and then as he recovered the captain drove his sword through the man’s chin and dropped him next to the other.  The captain nodded at Ivan and said, “Thanks!” before rushing off to find another opponent. The next few minutes were a blur of blocking and slashing as Ivan and the guard cut down the remaining outlaws, soon only one remained.
The last one standing appeared to be the leader of the group, he was tall and had multiple runes inscribed on his body. He stood in the middle of the market place surrounded by a circle of city gaurs all with the weapon’s pointed at him. Ivan stepped forward and addressed the man, “surrender, your men are dead and whatever foul deed you have tried to wrought has failed, give up and you will get a fair trial.” The man studied Ivan as he said this and when Ivan was finished speaking he smiled and responded, “A fair trial, ha, I know who you are and I know that you despise my kind with every fiber of your being, ha, do you think that your mummy and your daddy would be proud of you? I wonder what they thought of when the lay there on the grass their life seeping in to the grass” at this last comment Ivan recoiled as if struck, “You…,you were there?”, the man smiled when he saw Ivan’s reaction, “Oh yes I watched them die, I was there the day you became an orphan!” Ivan’s heart began to race, this man had helped kill his parents, he felt his anger boiling over, “Guards!” He yelled at the top of his lungs, “KILL THIS MAN” all the guards and Ivan charged at the man at once. The man laughed and spread his arms, right before the guards and Ivan reached him he exploded, using a rune on his back, to kill himself and causing massive explosion emanating out ward. It killed him instantly but Ivan and the other were thrown backward, Ivan felt himself flying through the air and then he hit something very hard and his vision went black.

Ivan was back at his family’s house, he and his father were out back practicing, his father had just taught him a disarming technique and now Ivan was practicing it. His father laughed when Ivan missed and hit his head with his sword instead of his father’s blade. Ivan recovered and laughed to, when he glanced back at the house he saw his mother standing there watching, he waved and she waved back, Ivan turned back to his father who ruffled his hair and said, “that’s enough for today Iv, we can practice more tomorrow” Ivan tried to protest but his father only shook his head and said that if they worked out to hard the next day would be hell. Ivan Hugged his father then ran up toward the house, toward his mother’s waiting arms.

Ivan was jolted awake when someone placed something down on the table next to his bed very loudly. He looked around and saw that he was in the infirmary area of the castle. He sat up and took a better look around, laying I beds throughout the room were the rest of the contingent of guards men who had been hit by the blast. “You’ll want to be careful my liege” said a calm, soothing voice from nearby, “you had some rather bad injuries and will want to take things a bit slow for a bit.” Ivan looked at the source of the voice and saw the lead physician smiling at him, “What happened” he asked, “Well you were almost killed by an explosion sir, about half of your men perished” The physician answered. Ivan rubbed his head and felt a large amount of pain flare through his side hi cringed and the physician’s smile flickered and he came over as if to help. Ivan waved him away and pulled off the blanket and swung his legs around and off of the bed. “Um… sir I really don’t think that you should be getting up right now” The physician said in a worried tone. “I must see my men” Ivan said through clenched teeth. As he stood up he was hit by an almost over powering wave of nausea and pain, he swayed and almost fell back down on the bed. The physician, admitting defeat, hurried over and helped Ivan retain his balance. They hobbled down the rows of bed’s Ivan stopping at each soldier and thanking them and wishing them a speedy recovery, most of them were in a similar shape as him, damaged but no irreparably so. But there were those few who had been hit  more directly by the blast and they were hard to look at, barely recognizable through all of the charred flesh, Ivan had been immensely lucky that he hadn’t received the full force of the blast. To those who were badly wounded Ivan spent a little more time with, listening to their wishes and having a scribe take down any messages that they wished to give to their families or loved ones. At each new man Ivan’s hatred of those who had caused this suffering Increased and with each, sentence that these damaged men uttered, Ivan made a vow to exact vengeance upon those who would seek to hurt others for personal gain or just for the sake of inflicting pain. By the Time They reached the Last man Ivan was feeling tired once more and directed the Physician to take him back to his bed.

Once he was laying down again Ivan asked the man, “What has become of the captain, and the young man Edgar?” the physician looked away for a moment and said nothing. “Tell me, I cannot rest until I know what has befallen these two.” Ivan insisted. The physician turned and looked at him the in a small sad voice he said, “the captain is dead we found his body half burnt lying in the wreckage of a fruit stand, the boy is fine he was wounded in the battle so he wasn’t there for the explosion.” At this Ivan nodded and turned his head to the side, “I will miss the loyalty of the captain” he said, showing little emotion, “But I am very glad that Edgar is Alive he showed much skill today and that shall not go unrewarded” With this last statement Ivan closed his eyes and fell quickly asleep.

Several days later Ivan stood in his chamber looking at his reflection in the mirror on the wall, most of the burns were gone and all that was left were a few bruises and a scar across his cheek. His beard and mustache had grown back out and he had trimmed them to perfection earlier, He took a deep breath and let it out, then again. He turned to the door that lead to the balcony and readied himself, beyond those oak wood doors stood a crowd of hundreds of his subjects waiting for their King to make his speech. Ivan crossed the room and stopped hands pressed against the doors and prepared himself one more time, repeating his speech over in his head for the hundredth time that day. HE pushed open the doors and was meet by a crash of solemn applause. He gestured and the crowd grew silent. Ivan cleared his throat and began to speak, “My loyally subjects, ten days ago our city was attacked by a large group of men acting outside the law, they destroyed many of the market stalls that so many people depend on for their income and thus their very lives. My self and the guard were able to get there in time to stop them from destroying everything, and after a short battle we were able to defeat them. But that wasn’t it, they were led by a wizard who refused to surrender, instead of giving up like a civilized man would do he tried to kill as many of us as he could, blowing up himself and many of the guards men. I would now like to ask that we take a moment of silence to remember those who fell to defend their city and their way of life from brutes and outlaws.” Ivan lowered his head and though of the Guard captain, who had tirelessly served him tell the day he died. After a respectable amount of time had passed Ivan lifted his head and once again addressed the crowd, “these blatant acts of terrorism cannot go unpunished, I swear that I will do all in my power to rid these lands of men who gain from the pain of others, men who would hurt another fellow man for personal gain. These types of men hold no place in my kingdom, they shall be rooted out and DESTROYED!” as he finished the crowd roared in approval, many of them had already lost something to the roving bandits and outlaws and very much desired to see them destroyed. Ivan turned and went back through the doors, he closed them behind him and let himself relax, finally he was going to do something about the men who had killed his family and had robbed so many others of their lively hoods, their loved ones, and even their lives. A new era was dawning in the west and it promised to be a glorious one.
 
[Exit]
 

((OOC: 3104 words= 62 points, 61 in strength, 1 in dexterity, using 3,000 words to train Edgar as a personal guard to me (category: fighter)  (Ha-ha, the longest post on the site, let’s see someone beat this !!!!!!!!!)))

Well then......approved. Just remember to refresh yourself on the rules of how to use your guard.

For the record, I count (by "I", I mean MS Word counts) 3,106 words. I do mean this literally for the record, because someone sometime, will try to make a longer post. 
Also, good job on the longest post yet.