"So, what now?"
Having spent the night at the elver village in one of their empty houses, Tom and Lisa woke up early, had a light breakfast before Tom led Lisa to an empty plot of land on the outskirts of the village.
"Now… Now you try to kill me, simple as."
Tossing a knife to the middle point between where Lisa and Tom were standing, Tom easily buried the knife blade down in the compacted dirt as Lisa finally figured out what was going on.
"Ah, so combat training?"
"Something like that."
Making a show out of flexing then stretching his arms, it was clear to Lisa that Tom was getting ready to fight, so she made the mistake of taking her eyes off of him as she reached down to grab the knife, then everything went blank for her.
Next thing Lisa saw was the sky, with the morning sun having climbed a bit further into the sky.
"Morning sleepyhead."
"... You're such a fucking dick, you know that?"
Just judging by her sudden headache and the smug smile she could hear on Tom's lips, Lisa realised what had happened.
"So, what did we learn?"
"That you're an asshole?"
"You already knew that, what else?"
Although she really hated to admit it, Lisa realised it had been a mistake on her part to take her eyes off of Tom just after he had confirmed they would be fighting each other.
As usual, Tom was being a dick about it, but he had made his point clear.
And he had made it stick.
"... Don't take your eyes off of your opponent."
"Good, now get up and let's go again."
Finding that the knife she had tried to pick up earlier already was in her hand, Lisa got up from the ground without breaking eye contact with Tom as she started clenching the knife and took a somewhat awkward stance.
"... You've never used a knife much, have you?"
Seeing how she stood made it clear that Lisa wasn't really used to fighting hand to hand.
"Was it that obvious?"
"Yeah, lower yourself a bit… Then space your legs a bit more."
Starting to instruct Lisa instead, Tom dropped his own stance and walked over to Lisa, coming to a stop right in front of her.
"Like this?"
"Yeah, now try to strike me, doesn't matter where."
Immediately following Tom's words, Lisa tried to stab him in the gut, but as expected Tom managed to block her by grabbing her arm, stopping the blade a hair's breadth from his shirt.
"See how that was easier than before?"
"I guess."
"Good, try again, but this time use more than just your arm. Turn into the jab with both your back and your hips."
Doing as Tom explained, Lisa already felt noticeably faster when Tom caught her arm again.
"Okay, good. Then quick quiz; what's the rear part of a knife called?"
Instead of answering Tom's question, Lisa used free hand to hit the pommel of her knife in an attempt to drive it into his gut, but having already predicted this Tom turned out of the way.
"Good, reset."
Letting go of her arm, Tom returned to a neutral position and took a step back as Lisa took a stance again, following his earlier instructions.
"I'm gonna go for your knife now, don't let me."
Waiting for those words to sink in and not a split second more, Tom rapidly closed in on Lisa and waited for her reaction. As expected of her relative inexperience, Lisa couldn't react in time and quickly had her arm caught by Tom who quickly threw her to the ground.
"GHA!-"
"Breathe."
Grabbing the knife Lisa had let go of as she hit the ground, Tom knelt down next to his pupil to check on her as she coughed violently from getting the air knocked out of her lungs.
"... Fuck me.."
"You're okay, come on."
Seeing Lisa was able to start complaining again Tom got back on his feet and reached out to Lisa before pulling her back up on her feet.
"What was that move?"
"Just a basic throw, I'll teach you that later… Reset."
Handing the knife back to Lisa, Tom returned to a neutral stance and distance as he continued teaching.
"Hand to hand combat has its ebbs and flows, momentum is powerful, but not all powerful. Just as you should be prepared to step in-"
Rapidly stepping towards Lisa, Tom caught her by the shoulder as she was about to fall over backwards.
"- You should be prepared to step back to create space."
"... Fair, then what should I do?"
Regaining her footing, Lisa spread her weight out a bit more evenly on both her feet so she was now prepared to both close in and open the distance.
"Well, unless they really know what they're doing, any opponent will generally tell you what they're doing before actually doing it with their eyes. You see someone going for your knife, then counter. Maintain your distance and go for their hand."
Stepping forward the same way he did before to grab her hand, Tom moved in slow motion this time to demonstrate the clear steps he took before stopping about midway in his movements.
"Step to the side, reduce your profile while identifying my path of attack, then punish."
Continuing to move forward slowly, Tom stopped in place when Lisa placed her body as he said and countered.
"Okay, again."
Seeing she understood the intent, Tom stepped back and waited for Lisa to get ready before he lunged for her knife again, this time a little faster than slow motion.
"Good, this time for real."
Seeing she got the form in place, Tom stepped back again before he came at her as fast as he had the first time, this time while clearly signalling the attack with his eyes.
This time Lisa barely saw Tom move, but as she had identified his intent to strike and already knew what to do she stepped out of the way and countered.
"Ah, sorry."
Although she tried to stop before she hit him, the speed of both of them made Lisa leave a shallow cut on Tom's forearm.
"No problem, it'll close up quickly."
Putting his hands back up and lowering his stance a bit, Tom formed a thin smile on his face when Lisa immediately understood and got ready again herself.
"Okay, the new objective is to maintain your current spacing with me, as well as keeping that knife pointed at me."
Having noticed Lisa was still slightly awkward moving, Tom decided to focus on her footwork next.
"Right."
Starting to walk around Lisa, Tom varied his distance to her as he watched her stance, soon he started upping his pase until he was lightly jogging.
"Keep up."
"I'm tr-"
Right as Lisa started complaining, Tom juked back on himself and moved in, forcing Lisa to back up fast, right into a tree.
"OW!- FUCK!"
"Remember to watch your surroundings."
Struggling to hold back a grin, Tom watched as the realisation of what had just happened washed over Lisa's face, her hurt turning to anger.
"You fucking did that on purpose!"
"And you still fell for it."
Without missing a beat Lisa swung at Tom in irritation, but was easily countered by him and spent a bit more time 'napping'.
-
"Fuck me…"
As evening started arriving Lisa collapsed to the ground as she no longer cared that her eyes and ears were showing, or how caked in dirt she had become from getting tossed around all day by Tom.
"Good work, I'm almost slightly impressed."
"The fuck does that even mean?"
"Exactly what I said, time for some homework."
Instead of letting Lisa continue to grumble, Tom pulled out a book from god knows where and tossed it to Lisa who was still on the ground.
"... What is this?"
Although she figured it was a book, this wasn't like any she had ever seen before. Inspecting the book closely, Lisa found the paper to way too fine, the print way too clean but worst of all she understood what was written so it couldn't-
"It's a book from my world, my boss made it so you could read it too."
"... Okay then. 'USIE FM-4-45.2 COMBINED DRONE OPERATIONS.' Is this some kind of grimoire?"
"Nope, it's a field manual explaining how to fight together with some of the drones I've recently unlocked. There'll be a lot you don't understand the first time going through it but I still expect you to read, understand and be able to remember page 1 to 120 before tomorrow."
"Wha!-"
Seeing how tiny and tightly packed the words were on each page, Lisa started protesting but didn't get far as Tom had somehow disappeared in the two seconds she had been looking at the book.
"TOM! Get back here! TOM!?"
Watching Lisa scream and shout for a bit before she begrudgingly sat down on the spot and started reading, Tom turned his attention to other matters now that homework had been successfully assigned.
"Please tell me why I shouldn't kill or at least gravely maim you at this point Nick."
"S-sorry, I wanted to see if I could help with anything but didn't want to intrude."
Having appeared behind Nick without any warning, Tom understandably freaked the kid out, and as this wasn't the first time Tom felt Nick was overstepping his bounds and snooping around he was extra cold this time around.
"This is the last time I will catch you, next time you're just going to disappear, understood?"
"Y-yes sir!"
With Nick scared shitless by Tom, it made him even more uncomfortable to find himself stared at in silence by Tom after he had told him off, but right as he was about to ask Tom finally spoke out.
"I need some help with a little something, we'll be burying some defences so get a shovel and meet me back here."
Assuming (correctly) that Nick wanted to get on his good side, Tom realised he didn't need Lisa by his side to secure a few contingency plans, so he asked Nick instead who readily agreed.
"Y-yes sir, but I can just use magic to do that."
"Fantastic, then let's head out."
Using his mental map and an overview of the surrounding terrain from the Albatross drone at the edge of space, Tom soon found himself in a clearing about a kilometre south of the elver village together with Nick.
"Give me a sec."
Focusing his mind, Tom started radiating devine mana as he accessed his resupply module.
(I need 5 M19 Wasp block II's, 5 block XV's and a single 203mm OF43 with a custom radio detonation fuse.)
BULK_REQUEST_CONFIRMED:NOW_SEACHING.
M19_WASP_BLOCK_II
STANDBY… QUERY_COMPLEATE
STATUS:_AVALIBLE
COST_PER_UNIT:_5.000_POINTS
M19_WASP_BLOCK_XV
STANDBY… QUERY_COMPLEATE
STATUS:_AVALIBLE
COST_PER_UNIT:_2.500_POINTS
203MM_HE_OF43
STANDBY… QUERY_COMPLEATE
STATUS:_AVALIBLE
COST:_6.000_POINTS
IDE_REMOTE_FUSE_KIT
STANDBY… QUERY_COMPLEATE
STATUS:_AVALIBLE
COST:_500_POINTS
TOTAL_COST:_44.000_POINTS
POINT(S)_AVALIBLE:_46.321
CONFIRM_TOTAL_PURCHASE_Y/N?
(Yes please.)
Although it wiped out most of his available points, leaving him with just over 2.000 to spare, Tom still bought the mass of equipment without hesitation. Over the next couple of minutes, the packaged UAVs in their launch tubes started appearing around him, in addition to the single 203mm high explosive shell and its fuse kit.
"What is all this?"
"Weapons to defend this place. Although I hope we got those knights off of our tail I wouldn't like a repeat of last time so these will help deal with them if they ever come near this village. The tubes need to be buried 2 metres apart in a grid with this bad boy in the centre of it all."
Briefly explaining what he had just summoned and its overall purpose, Tom quickly got Nick on board with helping.
"Okay, I'll start digging."
Quickly convinced that he was both helping an apostle of the most cruel lady of the hunt and helping to keep the village safe, Nick quickly examined the UAV containers to get a feel for their size before he closed his eyes to focus.
Spreading out his arms like he was feeling after the surrounding wind currents, some kind of silent pressure seemed to spread out from Nick's body. As this pressure spread out, the ground beneath him started vibrating slightly as holes for the UAV's started opening up in the clearing.
"Hmm, I've compacted the dirt so the holes won't close up and put pressure on the contents. what kind of hole do you want for that big one?"
Although it took him a few minutes, the fact that Nick had dug 10 holes for the UAV launch tubes to an exact specification in just that time was quite impressive.
"The shell I want buried in the centre of the formation about 2 metres down, but I need to prep it first so start putting these containers into the holes."
"Okay."
Instructing Nick, Tom watched over him for the first UAV launch container to make sure he put them in the right side up before he got started on the 203mm artillery shell that would serve as the launch site's denial protocol. Screwing in the radio fuse and configuring it to detonate on an encrypted sequence sent by the Albatross, Tom sealed the shell, fuse and its accompanying antenna inside a thick plastic back which had come with the fuse kit. Already lined in the inside with an industrial grade desiccant, the plastic bag would protect the delicate explosives from moisture and other elements that would degrade its effectiveness.
By the time Tom was finished with his IED, Nick was finished placing the 10 UAVs and had opened up a hole for the artillery shell so he joined Tom in placing the 40 kilo shell in its final resting place.
"Inform the village chief that I've placed these things here and that they'll serve as protection of his village, but if he or anyone else tries retrieving or examining them things will end very badly for them."
"O-okay, I'll get on that right away."
Watching Nick leave with a slightly panicked expression on his face, Tom eventually found himself staring at the evening sky for a bit.
"... I guess I'll need to start hunting for points tomorrow."