Ginny!

Chapter 3 - Combat Training

Struggling to sleep, Erin tossed and turned for hours, all the while trying to decide on who should train him the following day. He considered the pros and cons for each, wondering which would benefit him the most. Magic did seem to be useful, plus the added benefit of working with Hella. But working with weapons seemed like a basic thing that almost anyone in the city would be able to do. If Erin couldn't do at least that, he would be in danger. Ginny also had a certain allure to her.

This was something else Erin had been considering. If there was a chance he would end up sleeping with these girls, which would he prefer? Hella was cute, small, her breasts about an average size. Her blonde hair only helped to point out her her pale skin and beautiful features. While Ginny, she had a bit more of a tomboy feel to her. Her hair, flaming red, though shorter than the other girls. Her body was toned and muscular. Her breasts, larger than all but one of the other girls. Erin couldn't help being attracted to both, though decided that picking a trainer based on attraction was probably a dumb move. He ultimately decided that Ginny would be the best pick. A basics in combat seemed necessary to survive here.

The night moved on and Erin still found it difficult to sleep. Someone in the middle, as Erin began drifting off, a scream quickly woke him in the room next to his own. He tried to shrug it off but once again was left awake. It was only in the very early hours of the morning that he found himself able to drift off once more. Though it wouldn't be for long, as a soft knocking on the door stirred him awake once more.

"Yes?" Erin groaned, hoping nobody was actually there.

"It's time." Hella's voice spoke softly through the door.

Wanting to sleep longer, but knowing it was a bad idea, Erin dragged himself out of bed. On instinct, he began taking off his shirt but quickly remembered, he had no other clothes to change into. A new fear had been unlocked. Living in a house full of girls, smelling awful was not an option. He decided to try and bring it up later, in hopes of getting new clothes.

Walking down the stairs shortly after, a pleasant smell of cooking bacon wafted towards Erin. His stomach let out a groan, reminding him of the measly meal he had eaten the day before. Walking into the main room of the tavern, a table had clearly been set. Feeling a little uncomfortable, Erin took a seat, waiting for somebody to join him. He didn't have to wait long as shortly after, Hella came walking into the room with a plate full of bacon.

"Feel free to eat as much as you like. You'll need your energy today." Hella spoke softly to Erin.

"Thanks, this looks great."

"No problem at all. I stopped by the butchers earlier this morning. Figured you would need your energy, regardless of who you pick to train you."

And there it was. Erin had thought he would have had a least a short while longer before finally locking in his pick, but the time had come.

"About that." Erin began telling Hella. "I think a basics in combat would probably be more beneficial right out the gate."

"Of course." Hella said with a smile. "Hopefully you will learn it all eventually anyway but basic combat is a really good place to start. Ginny is also a very good teacher. She knows how to be patient and gives really good advice to help out if you're struggling."

"Really?" Erin asked, a little taken aback. "I don't mean to sound rude but her...attitude towards me kind of gave me the opposite impression."

"I understand, but please understand, we have all been under a lot of stress at the moment. Ginny...she has been going through a lot trying to help in bringing you here safely. Not to mention she was one of the two that didn't think bringing you here was a bad idea to begin with."

"She didn't want to summon me here?"

"No. She thought that if she trained hard enough, battling in the Royale, that eventually she would be the one to make it to the top. It was only after her loss recently, that she truly grasped how hard that was going to be."

"I see." Erin said, beginning to see a slightly different side of the girl he had thought of only as a brute yesterday.

"Anyway, I'll go and fetch her now. She will also need to eat before you start."

Without another word, Hella headed upstairs. Erin heard a knock and a door swiftly swing open. He heard Ginny's voice but couldn't make out what she was saying. Not long after, both Hella and Ginny were making their way downstairs to join Erin at the table.

Ginny was already fully dressed up in her armour. Erin, now paying a little more attention, noticed how battered the armour actually looked. Even her sword which somehow looked even bigger than yesterday was heavily chipped and scratched. Ginny noticed Erin looking at her belongings and spoke up.

"From all the battles I've been in. Taken plenty of hits myself but the number one thing you're going to learn from me is this, never give up. Never accept defeat until you can literally go no further. Even when your body is screaming at you to stop, you push through, dig deep, and carry on."

Erin was not surprised by this mentality that Ginny was telling him, what did surprise him however, was how passionate she spoke. He found it hard not to cling to every word she said. He almost felt a little inspired and his hopes that Ginny would be a good teacher rose.

"Eat." Ginny said, pointing at the bacon. "I won't lie, training with me is going to be rough, tiring work. But, with a little bit of effort, we should be able to make a half decent fighter out of you yet."

Erin noticed her look up and down at his body, almost inspecting him. He then remembered his clothing and felt a little embarrassed.

"I was wondering." Erin began as both girls turned to look at him. "About my clothes."

"Ah." Hella spoke up this time. "Unfortunately, that is all you will be allowed to wear right now."

"It is a mark of your rank in the Royale." Ginny confirmed. "Most shops or businesses are tied in with the Royale. Refuse to enter the Royale and you aren't allowed to work. You are given a pittance to spend each week but are only allowed inside a single bakery. You're **** to wear rags and most are homeless. Joining the Royale and climbing it's ranks are the only way to unlock more options. This tavern for example. Only people of rank X or above are allowed inside. The same goes for working in one. Clothing options are also limited to your rank. Certain shops unlock at certain ranks and the clothing options and armour options become better."

"But what stops somebody from just entering a better store?" Erin asked, already thinking he knew the answer.

Both Ginny and Hella held out their arms to show their runes.

"Enter an area you're not supposed to be in and this alerts the authorities. They will be on you within a minute." Ginny told him.

Erin was beginning to understand the benefits of not having a rune. But another worry arose.

"What happens if I'm caught without a rune?" He asked

Both Ginny and Hella looked at each other for a moment before Ginny turned back to answer.

"Were not entirely sure. We have never known anyone who hasn't had one. Though there were a few rumours."

Ginny broke off, apprehensive to continue the tale, but she took a deep breath and continued.

"A few years ago, somebody versed in magic similar to Hella's decided to try and remove his rune. Apparently, though this is only a rumour, he managed to get rid of it. A week later he was caught. He was never heard from again. The last thing people say happened was that he was dragged up to the castle, covered in blood."

Erin looked shocked. He knew he had to make sure to avoid this fate as best he can but he didn't exactly feel confident on the matter.

"Well, enough chit chat. Bacon is all gone. Ready to get sweating?" Ginny said, perking up.

Erin nodded weakly. Ginny stood up, grabbed Erin by the shoulder and lifted him out of his chair. She pushed him behind the bar and led him out of a back door into an alleyway. Hella was following close behind. The alleyway seemed to only lead to one place. As they reached the end, they turned and entered a large field. Trees seemed to completely close off one side and the other was blocked by a large stone wall. At the other end of the field, lay another smaller wooden building.

"We own this bit of land too." Ginny told him as she stuck he blade into the grass. "That building over there is the bathhouse. Brilliant for winding down in after a good bit of exercise. Oh yeh, forgot to mention. They don't count exercise as training. So running, weights, that kind of thing is ok."

Erin noticed a sort of makeshift path that had been beaten into the grass around the edges. He figured this is where the group run, doing laps around the field. At that moment, Hella walked forward and got both of their attention by clearing her throat.

"Ok, remember how I said I am going to modify our runes to imitate the fact we are in a battle?"

Erin nodded.

"Very good, I'm going to do that now. You will have roughly a couple of hours before it wears off. You MUST have finished the training before then. So you must have some sort of battle and one of you wins or loses before the timer runs out."

Both Erin and Ginny nodded, though Erin felt a nervousness rise within. Hella walked forward, her palms facing our, a light blue glow beginning to form. She held out her hand and hovered it over Ginny's rune. A thin blue light connected with the rune and shortly after, Hella stepped back.

"I'll leave you too it then." Hella said before walking away from the field.

"Alright!" Ginny boomed loudly, suddenly seeming energetic. "Now, we have a lot to go over and not a lot of time. First things first, I assume you have never wielded a weapon before?"

Erin shook his head. He wanted to make a joke about being one of the worlds best swordsman in his favourite video game but thought it best not to.

"Very well." Ginny continued. "For now, you'll take this."

Ginny reached behind her back and pulled out a long wooden sword that Erin had not noticed until now. She made the same motion and pulled a second one from her back.

"Didn't think I would be using Bess now did ya?"

"Bess?" Erin questioned.

"This beauty here." She said, tapping the handle of her massive blade. "One hit from this and I don't even think the magic in the city would keep you alive."

Erin gave a weak laugh.

"Right! First things first, you need to learn the proper way to hold a blade. It can vary depending on the type of blade but I am only going to be teaching you with longswords so you don't need to know the others. Now, hold it exactly like I do."

She stood by Erin's side, demonstrating how to hold the blade. Erin thought it was a little silly but did his best. Though apparently it wasn't right as Ginny came over and began moving his fingers slightly. Surprisingly, it did feel as though the blade fit his hands a little better. He held the sword steady and readied himself for Ginny to continue.

"Very good. Now, you need to make sure that you keep hold of that grip tightly as you move yourself and your weapon. The positioning of your hands should not change, regardless of what happens in battle. Now, from here, we are going to work on a few basic motions."

Ginny began to slowly move her wooden blade around. It seemed almost like she was dancing with it. Erin tried his best to copy her motions, feeling a little silly.

"This should give you a solid feel of how the blade will try it's best to loosen your grip on it. Hold it firm, don't let it win."

They both continued swaying their swords slowly through the air for quite a while before Ginny finally stopped.

"Good, very good. I know you are probably eager to swing it properly, but doing so would be unwise. We must train your body to almost be one with the sword. A blade should almost be like an extra arm to you. Moving freely and exactly as you command it to. You seem to have a nice firm grip on it however so we shall move on."

Ginny stuck her wooden blade in the grass right next to Bess and rolled her shoulders.

"Now I need to see your stamina, your power and your endurance. These are the three main feats we will need to train up. You don't look particularly weak but to go up against the higher Royale ranks, you are going to need to build up a bit of muscle. Your stamina is probably the most important. This will determine how long you are able to battle for. Some battles can take hours. Each opponent weakening as the time goes on. We need you to be able to outlast them, no matter how long it goes on. You endurance is going to be how well you can take a hit. It's all well and good going into a battle and striking hard, fast and for a long time, but if you can't get hit and carry on, you may as well stop now. Understand all that."

Erin was doing his best to concentrate. It was very hard to do so however as while talking, Ginny had taken off her chest armour and had begun performing jumping jacks. Erin had to try his best not to stare at her large breasts that were now bouncing up and down rhythmically as she landed and jumped again.

"Right, copy me and don't lag behind."

Erin, snapping himself out of his breast induced stupor, copied Ginny with her jumping jacks. Before long, they had stopped but just as Erin was ready to take a break, Ginny began jogging around the field.

"Come on! No time for stopping now!" She shouted to him.

Erin, already feeling exhausted from his lack of sleep, did not do well with jogging laps. Not to mention that he could still see Ginny's breasts bouncing and swaying as she ran, now with the added benefit of her ass doing the same anytime she passed him. He had to muster everything he could to avoid getting hard.

Thirty minutes Ginny had Erin doing all manner of exercise. By the time they had stopped, Erin felt as though he could pass out any moment. Ginny however, seemed as though she hadn't even done anything. Apart from a single bead of sweat dripping down her forehead, she seemed wholly unbothered.

"This is a good look." She laughed, looking down at Erin as he lay in the grass.

Erin, struggling to breath, let out an exhausted laugh.

"You didn't do too badly, though I saw you began to faulter about half way through. Seems stamina is going to be something we need to work on."

Erin, too tired to say anything, simply nodded in agreement.

"Come on, were not done yet." Ginny said to Erin's surprise.

"Not...done?"

"Well, were done with training for now. We still need to fight though. I think we maybe have about twenty minutes or so left on the timer before the magic wears off."

Erin, already too tired to move, was in no state to fight. That was until he remembered that if he didn't, Ginny would be in serious trouble. He struggled climbing to his feet, standing before Ginny.

"Don't worry, we're not gonna fight for real. So long as you hit me with something and I hit you with something, we should be fine. You just have to make sure fall to the floor when I hit you. As long as you stay there, the rune should think I won. Once the timer runs out, it should think that I have completed the forfeit."

Erin nodded, struggling to pick up his wooden training sword. He lightly swung it and tapped Ginny on the arm.

"That won't work. That was barely a tickle. You're gonna have to at least put some oomph into it."

Erin didn't really want to hurt Ginny but did as she told him. He swung it harder towards her bare upper arm. A slap of wood on flesh rung out. Erin panicked a little thinking he had hit Ginny too hard but she was smiling at him.

"Your turn." She said, brandishing her wooden blade.

She swung it without giving any warning. Erin, instinctively tried to duck out of the way. In doing so, the blade connected straight with the side of his head. He didn't need to pretend to fall to the floor. His whole body gave out and he felt himself fall like a sack of potatoes. Ginny gasped and quickly knelt down.

"Why the hell did you duck?" She shouted at him.

Erin didn't respond, his ears were ringing, the side of his face burnt and he could feel a little bit of blood trickly down the side of his face. He shook his head a little before sitting up. He looked at Ginny who looked distraught. Erin, wanting her to realise he is ok, spoke up.

"Damn, I would hate to go against you in a proper fight."

"What the hell?" She responded. "Why did you duck?"

"Instinct sort of kicked in. Looked like you were about to hit me pretty hard and I just kind of ducked. Wasn't planning on getting hit in the head."

"I'm sorry. I definitely put way too much power into that. It worked though."

Ginny showed Erin her rune which now had a very small line through the middle.

"Means I have won one battle. Though that is also going to vanish once Hella's magic wears off. At least we know this works now."

Erin gave a weak smile.

"Come on. You're injured, sweaty and clearly need to relax. Want to head into the bathhouse?"

Erin was a little stunned at the question. Did Ginny not feel embarrasses at the idea of sharing a bath with a guy?

She must have understood the look on his face because she spoke up again.

"Don't worry, it's got two different sections. One for men and one for women. We occasionally rent it out to higher ranks. You have to be at least rank V to use them."

Erin, feeling a little dizzy, disappointed and glad at the same time picked himself up off of the floor. Did he really want t go and get naked in a strange building with a woman he barely knew. Even if they would be separate from her, would he really be ok with that?