Learning to fight like an orc

Quinara shuts the door behind me, the room itself looks unimpressive just a standard looking room, likely the privacy was the main appeal rather than the quality of the room as an environment for fighting. Quinara takes her hammer off her back and tosses her bag to the side standing to face me wielding her hammer, now I may have a lot of feelings for her but there was something about a hulking orc wielding a weapon that evoked a primal fear deep within me. "Right, I've taught you how to swing a sword now it's time you learnt how to handle when someone swings back" Quinara says, I feel the hairs stand on the back on my neck as I realise what this means, "y-you're gonna use??" I stammer gesturing to her hammer, when the guards in Hearthwood sparred they used wooden training swords, though thinking about it if Quinara hit me with a wooden sword it would probably take me out too. "Yeah why?" Quinara says with a shrug, my eyes widen in horror about how unconcerned she was with this being an issue, "b-but like if you swing that at me..." I say trailing off leaving the rest unsaid, Quinara gives a smirk "what like this?" She announces rushing forward and swinging her hammer at my head with blinding speed.

"AAAAARGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" I scream in fear as the hefty hammer head hurtles towards me however as my life flashes before my eyes the hammer comes to an incredibly abrupt stop, only a couple of inches from shattering my skull with a direct hit. It was impressive how much control Quinara had over the hammer, stopping it so abruptly at the speed it was going required a huge amount of strength and her confidence in her ability to do it showed that she well and truly had mastered wielding this weapon. "See runt you're fine I'll make sure not to actually hurt you" Quinara says confidently, I still didn't like it as a momentary lapse in concentration would result in disaster but without training all my fights would end in disaster so I decided this would be the safer option in the long run.

"O-ok" I say still rattled from the ordeal "so you're going to teach me how to parry?" I ask expecting her training to somewhat resemble the training that the men in Hearthwood undertook. Quinara scoffs at the thought, "do you think you can parry me?" She asks, instantly I realise that no I could not parry her and there was no world in which I could, Quinara reads me like a book "that's what I thought, luckily for you you're being trained by an orc and we aren't keen on parrying either."

"what!? Why??" I ask dumbfounded by this revelation, Quinara puts down her hammer and brings herself closer to me. "Well there's a few reasons but it mostly comes down to two main things firstly humans, elves, dwarves, you all wear heavy armour, plate metal with chain shirts underneath, but feel my armour." Quinara says beckoning me close, I had no idea she was wearing armour, it just looked like regular clothes but as I reach out I feel exactly what she meant "leather woven into the fabric" Quinara explains as I feel the stiffer than standard clothes. "But this wouldn't protect against a good hit" I say, sure it would deflect a glancing blow but even I could pierce this with my sword with a direct strike, "yeah but it's light and being able to move in a fight is a far greater benefit than any armour, at least for an orc. We're fast and dodging a strike is far preferred to parrying." Quinara steps back and picks up her hammer once more "the second reason is orcs train against other orcs and you cannot parry such heavy blows without it taking it out of you runt. You try and parry fellow orcs and your shoulders and arms are gonna be fucked before you reach fifty" Quinara explains to me.

With the explanation and ground rules set Quinara starts me dodging without my sword drawn at first, she begins slow allowing me to dodge but ramps up intensity with each successful dodge, if Quinara wasn't so adept with her hammer I would have met my demise several times but gradually I do improve. Once we had at a decent amount of warming up we take a much needed water break and begin anew this time with me holding my sword, "ok runt keep hold of your weapon, you drop it in a fight and you're dead" she say while swinging her hammer at me. It is harder than it seems to hold a blade whilst darting backwards to avoid her glancing strikes, I do find myself dropping my blade in order to focus on avoiding her hammer but after a few admonishments from Quinara and some practice I get the hang of it.

We continue for hours, just me going back and forth around the room avoiding her swings where I can, sweat drips down my face as I exert myself, yet despite all the effort Quinara barely breaks a sweat. My muscles are screaming at me and I'm thoroughly exhausted when Quinara finally calls time, "you did good runt" she says before picking up her waterskin and emptying the rest of it into her mouth. "Thanks" I say panting for breath, a sharp stabbing pain in side from the effort of moving so much, I desperately gulp down the rest of my water as well. Quinara gives me a minute to catch my breath and recover before announcing "I'd say we earned a good meal after that" she then winks at me "your treat of course", I would argue with her but I was exhausted and if I was being honest most of Quinaras money was what I had paid her so regardless I was paying for this meal. However gripes about payment aside I couldn't deny how great a good meal sounded right now.

THUD THUD THUD! We hear a fist pound at the door to our room before hearing the familiar voice of the dwarf who we had booked with "yer times up!" Quinara lets out a soft chuckle at how perfect the timing had worked out for us, "coming!" She yells back before grabbing her bag and beckoning me to follow her.