First assessment

Following Captain Camilla around back, you find a small fighting pit. Well, it's not really a pit, maybe an inch lower than the surrounding ground, but it's surrounded by gathered rocks and a couple logs that you assume are seats for any observers.

"Alright Private, what's your weapon of choice?"

"Uh..." Your mind immediately drifts to a sword, but then you remember that polearms were the main weapon in medieval times. "...what do you have?" She looks at you expectantly. "Captain."

"We've got spears and swords for hand-to-hand combat. Spears give more reach, but swords let you carry a shield more easily." She picks up one of each from a relatively dingy rack of weapons leaning up against the wall of the barracks. "We'd have better ones, but Faust isn't an expert. We'd need to go to Recuan if we wanted anything else, and we don't have the money to do so anyway."

You think back to your days playing video games, as well as your current Sorcerer Knight combo. "I'll take the sword. Better to keep a hand free for other things."

She tosses the sword to you, and before you even begin to catch it, she starts lunging at you with the spear in her hands. You don't even manage to touch the blade as you barely dodge the blow, the sword dropping to the dirt. "You expect your opponents to be fair?" The spear stabs the dirt, and Camilla swipes the sword to the edge of the arena. "Those hornets will take the first chance they can get to kill you."

You step back to dodge her obvious wide arc to hit you, glancing to your sword as your captain steps between you and it. "Well, if you won't play fair, why should I?" You take three steps and reach the wall, pulling a second sword from the rack. The second you turn back around, you barely have time to deflect a lunge from your temporary foe. You switch to offense, going in for an awkward swipe that Camilla easily deflects. You swipe again, but your amateur skillset is showing, and she easily deflects it. The sparring match goes much like this for a while, with you barely dodging attacks and Camilla easily blocking yours.

"Alright, that's enough for now." She takes the sword she threw on the ground and her spear and shelves them. "You're utter garbage with a blade, by the way. I can feel the strength of your attacks, but it's no use to have strength without any skill to back it up. We'll continue in an hour. Until then, come inside. You still need a shirt, and you dropped your rags when you came by before."

You follow her inside after dropping off your blade, finding her rustling through a dresser. She finds something and tosses it to you. Your face gets covered by some kind of fabric. "I thought we were done with hitting each other." You pull the grey shirt off your head, noting its wool texture.

"Just put it on. It's not a man's usual shirt, but it'll do until you can get another one." She walks over to a fireplace and deftly sets alight a small stack of branches. "You want tea?"

"Uh, sure, I'll try it." You put the shirt on. It's a bit rough on the skin, but you'll manage. You sit in one of the two chairs next to the tiny table in the room.

"So...how'd you do it, rookie?" She doesn't look at you as she grabs some cups from the cupboard behind you, setting them on the table. "You're terrible with a blade, so how'd you kill a hornet?" Camilla sits across from you and now looks you in the eye, her hands clasped in front of her mouth.

Was I really that bad? You sigh. "Would you believe I'm trying to become a Magic Swordsman?"

"You expect me to believe you're a Knight with your skills?"

"No, not really. But I do know a bit of magic, and thanks to various...reasons, I killed the hornet." And also four more, but I doubt you'd believe that at all.

Camilla squints her eyes. "Okay, let's see some of this magic."

"I...can't do it on command." You immediately regret your phrasing. "What I mean is, I can only do it when I'm in actual danger. Like when one of the hornets attacked me in the forest."

"You're making it real hard to believe you, Dusk. Everyone knows hornets travel in groups. Their whole strategy is to swarm." She stands, leaning over the table intimidatingly. "What are you hiding?"