A semi-circle of blades.

You're surprisingly quiet as you step down the stone stairs. You know Rivianne made your armor this way for that exact purpose. With so much leather and fur it meant you could move quickly and quietly if needed. As you reach the bottom, you start to hear more wood getting hit into wood. You also hear some light grunts as well as some quiet talking. Your mind is really starting to race at what you are about to walk in on as the sun is only just starting to come up which means it's still extremely early in the morning. Are these Murnic civilian's planning an attack? Is it a secret meeting to assassinate you? Is it going to be a secret underground orgy?

The hallway you're in leads on and starts to open up a little more. The dim light you saw from the surface is coming from the room ahead of you. There wasn't a door blocking that room, but instead a few light sheets and curtains. It looked like that sheet was quite poorly placed there as it didn't seem to be hanging very securely.

Walking over the dirt floor you step closer, hugging your body against the stone wall, your hand still on your grip of your sword. As you get right up to the curtain blocking your vision, you listen briefly, trying to hear out what might be happening.

More shuffling happens. More wood on wood contact. More grunts and moans.

"What is going on..." you ponder to yourself.

"DEAD!" you hear a young boy shout out "DEAD DEAD DEAD!!!"

"SHHHHHHHH!!!" you hear about four or five other voices immediately let out. "Keep it down, stupid!" a young male's voice angrily whispers.

Releasing your grasp from the grip of your sword, with your back still flat against the wall, your reach your hand up, bringing it up to the curtain, to the side of it and hook your finger around it. You slowly pull it open just a few inches and slide your head forward so you can finally see what's behind.

"The hell?" you whisper to yourself.

Kids, about a dozen or so kids. All sitting crossed legged around in a semi circle. Their backs or sides all towards you. In front of them are two other kids glaring at each other. You look around the room and see that it is just a circular room with lots of pillars, barrels and boxes. Most likely just more and more storage. You also notice that there are no other exits that you can see, which means you block the only way out.

"Huh.." you quietly chuckle to yourself "I'll be damned."

"Alright, Fight!" you hear from another kid who is standing by the side, watching on.

The two kids in the middle start to poke and slash at each other with their wooden weapons. Practicing their fighting techniques, trying to "kill" the other person with their non-lethal weapon. As you watched this battle take place, you could only notice just how...sad?...pathetic?...terrible?...their footwork and technique actually was. You did realize these kids were probably no older then you were when your village back in Errian first got attacked by Commander Rixx and Rathkin.

You sucked ass at fighting then, but look at you now.

As you continue to watch on, you see one of the kids do a little spin. Normally this is a good move you tend to do, but you do it to either dodge a close attack or to parry with your sword into a stab of your dagger. This kid though, he twirls, trying to be fancy and the other kid just immediately stabs his wooden sword into his side.

"AHHH" the kid groans.

"DEAD!" you hear another one say, a whole lot quieter now.

And just like that, the kid who "died" walks back to the semi circle, sits down and the next kid in line gets up.

You loved it. These kids, probably ranging anywhere from ten to, maybe eighteen were all hidden away below the Tavern, practicing their techniques, while just a dozen or so feet above, all their friends and families were being held hostage inside.