Posted by Finishing up his battle and heading inside Aker was greeted to the smiling faces of Vance and Mavis. While Vance couldn’t leave the confines of the foray Mavis has the opportunity to take in the battle in all of its glory.
Seeing the smiling faces of both Vance and Mavis brought a little warmth to Akers heart. It wasn’t just two days ago he was in this strange place alone and with no one to count on. In just two days he had made a friend in Mavis and received a Master and mentor in Vance.
Walking up to the boy Mavis extended out his hand slapping the shoulder of Aker while calling out “Good fight boy….you remind me of me….hahahahaha….that’s how were supposed to fight. You stand right in front of your enemy and you go at it.” Mavis couldn’t contain himself after watching Akers battle. It wasn’t just he crowd that had the blood boiling watching the fight as Mavis was fired up too.
“It was all thanks to Master Mavis’s armor that I was able to fight so well.” Aker responded with respect. He meant it from the bottom of his heart. If it wasn’t for Mavis laboring away making his armor could he have walked away without significant injuries?
“Don’t be so humble boy. A man’s got to stand tall and be proud. When you go out and fight the way you did you have to brag I’m telling you. You have to brag otherwise people will think yer puttin on airs and such.” This was just the kind of person Mavis was. He was a giant man who towered above everyone else in the room. His laugh was so strong and overpowering you could feel your body shake. Of course he was used to being the center of attention so everything he did would re-enforce that idea that you should be the center of attention.
As Vance watched Mavis and Aker interact he couldn’t help but wonder what kind of influence this Mavis was going to have over Aker. Since Mavis seemed to genuinely care for Aker what ever influence he had could only be good he thought.
“All right enough of that let’s go see the doctor. You were out there playing around with that Kulga instead of finishing it off and got all cut up. What were you thinking?” Vance looked down at Aker and said in a stern voice. Secretly he so proud of Aker but he can’t let a fight like this go to his head, how hard would it be to train him if he felt like today’s fight was some huge accomplishment.
“I know I’m sorry. I was so caught up in going through the moves you taught me I felt like it was just a good time to practice. There were a couple of times in there that I could have ended the fight but it seemed like such a waste. Besides weren’t you the one who told me that I needed to practice now while I could?”
Aker asked back throwing Vance’s accusing question back at him.
“Ahem…yes I did say that but let’s not over do it either. While admittedly you made huge progress today don’t forget what you were using was the basics. Even at the end of the fight your basics still needed a significant amount of work!” Vance felt like he had managed to praise Aker while at the same time keeping him in line. It was imperative that he did not let his ego over take him. While this one fight certainly wouldn’t allow his ego to grow out of control what would happen after 100, 1000 or even 10,000 fights? He would lay the ground work today and make sure that Aker stayed focused and motivated. The worse mistake a fighter can make is thinking they are already strong enough.
“Besides, I learned something important in my fight with that last Kulga. I learned that those beast who are fighting against me are being forced to fight as well. While their nature is predatory they should be free and running wild not fighting in a cage with me. I’m not sure why but those four Kulga gave up on attacking me and it almost felt like they would listen to me when were done fighting. I’m not sure why but I want to practice defeating the beast.” Aker relayed his thoughts to both Vance and Mavis.
Both Vance and Mavis were slightly stunned. Did this boy on his own figure out that he could tame the beast? Certainly the hardest part in becoming a beast tamer is having the beast to tame. Typically becoming a beast tamer is a long and expensive process. As is with most learned skills it requires a considerable dedication of both time and money.
Vance and Mavis both had the same thought, ‘isn’t this arena perfectly setup for him to practice beast taming by force’?
Thinking back they had never heard of anyone trying to use The Pit to train their beast taming skills. While Aker didn’t exactly know what he was saying he had accidentally come on the precipice of understanding it.
After giving it some thought Vance replied back “I agree, your supposed to use this opportunity to train your skills. I was foolishly thinking those skills had to be relocated to only battle skills but learning to tame beast in battle is also a form of battle strength.”
Seeing that Vance agreed with his thoughts Aker felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. When he saw those Kulga lower their heads without attacking he realized that there might be an opportunity there. If he could do it to 1, 2,3,4 of them why couldn’t he do to 10, 100 or more? So what if the beast got stronger, wouldn’t he also get stronger with them? It didn’t matter that they were trying to kill him, weren’t they being forced to fight just like him? If that was the case then killing the beast only played into the hands of whoever brought him here. Wouldn’t it make them most angry if he didn’t kill the beast? Wouldn’t it upset all of those people who want to hurt him the most if he could do the opposite of what they wanted?
As he was thinking over these thoughts he was being led over to the table where Doctor Life & Death was waiting.
“Get on the table.” Just like a few hours ago the lifeless voice of Doctor Life & Death rang out and entered Akers ears.
The step stool was already waiting beside the table so without hesitation Aker jumped up and sat on the table.
Dr. Life & Death began again by cleaning up the injuries and examining them. After giving Aker a quick look over he cleared him and told him he could go on.
Dr. Life & Death already knew there was no problem with the boy before he ever jumped up on his table. He had seen enough people come to his table that he could immediately know before looking whether they had significant injuries or not. The way that Aker was moving indicated that he had been slightly injured but he didn’t sustain any heavy injuries.
After Aker hopped down off of the table he turned as if though he was ready to head back to his cell. Before he could take his first step Vance called out “wait a minute I need to talk with the Dr.”
Since Aker was just headed back to his cell it didn’t matter if he waited here or there so Aker just stood to the side as he watched his Master and the Dr. go back and forth.
Whatever his Master was talking to Dr. Life & Death about was troubling because the Dr. was being very animated….well, animated for the Dr. This continued on for a minute or two before his Master walked back with side by side with Dr. Life & Death. While his master was walking with the poise and face of a returning victorious King Dr. Life & Death’s steps seemed even more lifeless and deflated than normal.
“Aker, get over hear and greet your new mentor…..hurry up and pay respects…..The Dr. doesn’t have all day.” Vance called out to Aker as they got close to him.
Aker couldn’t help but be surprised and confused at his master’s statement. He should pay respects to the Dr…..wait he said he should greet his new mentor. ‘Does that mean Dr. Life & Death was going to be teaching me something?’
As Aker had this thought Vance called out with some impatience in his voice….”Didn’t you hear me, get over here and greet your new mentor.” This time Vance called out with significantly more force waking Aker up from his previous thoughts.
Without any further hesitation Aker called out to Dr. Life & Death “Hi, I’m Aker…” no sooner had the words I’m Aker left his mouth his Master had his hand on the back of his head forcing it down into a bow in front of Dr. Life & Death.
What is he doing? How did he get over here so fast? I didn’t even see him move?
Now that Aker found himself bowing before Dr. Life & Death he heard a faint whisper in his ear….”Silly boy, just because I didn’t push any kind of honorifics on you doesn’t mean others won’t. Do you know what kind of begging your Master had to do to get that emotionless walking dead man to agree to teach you medicine? In the future when and if you take on a teach you bow and tell them your name greets teacher….do you understand?”
Whispering back to his Master Aker replied “I understand.”
“It’s good that you understand.”
“…….”
“……”
An awkward silence filled the air as Aker had his head bent over. Nothing was coming out of his mouth. Vance’s face was turning red with frustration and embarrassment. He thought to himself ‘didn’t I just tell this kid that he needs to greet his teacher, why is he being so silent?’
While all of this was happening Mavis who was standing a meter away from the whole thing was holding his belly as his shoulders bounced up and down quietly. It took every bit of power and strength that this behemoth of man contained to prevent himself from laughing out loudly at the awkward silence of the situation. Every second felt like an eternity he had to hold it in.
“sigh….even taking a student misses all of the emotion and grandeur that its supposed to….it’s fine lets get started.” Doctor Life & Death couldn’t take the awkward silence anymore and decided to put an end to all of it.
With Doctor Life & Death’s words Vance’s already red face turned from a soft red to a candy apple red from the embarrassment. How is that the boy can train in one night to fight in The Pit taking basic knife moves and expounding on them but he can’t get “greets teacher”? Would there be anyone in the universe who could explain that to me?
Just after Vance released the back of Aker’s head allowing him to raise it up a loud voice bellowed out putting a stop to Vance’s and Dr. Life & Deaths steps.
“Now hold on just one minute….why he gettin to be a teacher but I’m not? Are ya tellin me that bein a Dr. is better than bein an armor?” Mavis said staring down both Vance and the Dr. clearly frustrated with the situation.
“Not at all, I didn’t know Master Mavis would want to take on a student. Of course if you are willing this young lad would be more than happy to learn.” Vance didn’t hesitate to fire back at Mavis. In reality he planned on getting Mavis to train Aker in the future, however he was of the mindset that Mavis simply wouldn’t want to take on a kid who had such a limited future. Who cares if he is a genius, he first and foremost a fighter in The Pit.
“Good, good, good…” energetically called back to Vance while looking at Aker.
Aker couldn’t help but smile internally thinking this teacher sure does like to wear his emotions on his sleeve. How am I ever supposed to figure out what my teachers want when I’m moving from the lifeless doctor to the excited armorer.
While he was having this thought of course Aker remembered his master words calling out to Mavis while bowing “Aker greets teacher.”
Hearing Akers greeting the frown on Dr. Life & Deaths face moved a little further down while Vance’s recovering red face almost exploded.