Once again at the training field, Dirin waited with Keith for the others to arrive. Ritchard was coming along just like the other days, and Tillie decided to join them last night as well. As far as Dirin was aware, Ritchard and Tillie hadn't met yet, and he wasn't the best at introducing people. Keith told him to let them introduce themselves, but Dirin still worried about it anyway.
Mr. Till was there as well, and he scrolled on his phone since it was just Dirin and Keith here. He was a great help to Dirin as of late. He told Dirin how to train in certain areas and even helped him with firsthand knowledge on what he's seen people train and what it resulted in as well.
Dirin never openly revealed his path to others, but he also didn't hide it, so he assumed that Mr. Till also knew and was doing his duty as a teacher and was helping him out. What Dirin was mainly looking forward to was Tillie and Keith working together, since they were going down similar paths as well, with her wanting to do everything with fire while Keith wanted to do everything with shadows. He was definitely going to benefit from this a lot as well.
Dirin was currently doing some light exercises to get his blood flowing before he and Ritchard were going to spar. Today, he had to go through fifteen different weapons and get familiar with them before he was finally done with them. Since Ritchard was with him, they have been focusing heavily on weapons and life energy, but Dirin still didn't neglect his other paths.
The weapons were set aside on a wall as Dirin examined them and went over notes he had mentally as a way to quiz himself when he finally saw them. He muttered to himself about their basic history and how warriors used them in combat, and why they were used instead of other weapons. The weapon Dirin had the most trouble with was the bows. There were so many of them with different reasons for why they were made, and he even learned why they were made the way they were.
After a bit of review with himself, Ritchard finally showed up with the padding this time, as per Dirin's request. He looked still groggy from waking up and groaned when he saw Dirin and Keith here before him as well. "How early do you get up? It's still six and I thought I was early." Ritchard grumbled as he put the padding down before going over to Mr. Till to get his attendance marked.
When Ritchard got back, he looked Dirin up and down before sighing. "Why are you dressed like that?"
Dirin looked down at his clothes. A simple white shirt and loose pants, the same he has been wearing these past couple of days. "I put them through the washer and dryer, so they aren't dirty..." Dirin looked at Ritchard as he explained.
"Not what I meant. You're inviting a girl over, and you aren't dressed like it. Keith and I can get away with it, morning, Keith, but you simply need to dress better." Ritchard shook his head.
This time, Dirin sighed. "Tillie isn't someone who's interested in m-"
"Odd choice of words," Keith commented with a smile as he cut Dirin off. He got a glare back at him, though, while Ritchard nodded in agreement.
Dirin put his hands up as he looked at both of them. "And they were the correct ones as well. I would never make a move myself. I'm too busy to focus on dating or anything like that, but if she offered..." Dirin trailed off at the end, assuming he didn't need to finish his statement. "Anyway, put the padding on so I can beat you black and blue."
"Just because your girlfriend will be here, Dirin, doesn't mean I'm going to hold back. I'm a better man than that." Ritchard teased him as he started to wrap the padding around him. "Which weapon do you plan on using today? I want to take the whip after what you did to me yesterday." Ritchard rubbed his back as he remembered all of the unfair hits Dirin got, and it still hurt a lot.
"I'll take the mace. I find blunt weapons a lot more fun. I just need to hit you repeatedly until you tap out." Dirin said as he also started to wrap the padding on his forearm.
Keith muttered something about brutes as he flashed a light on a water bottle filled halfheartedly with paper straws. When the light hit the bottle, a patchy shadow was made where some beams of light made it through, making the shadow look like it was shot repeatedly.
Dirin walked over to the mace and picked it up before wrapping leather strips around the spikes to make sure it wouldn't pierce into the padding and hurt Ritchard more than he was hoping for, though Ritchard did deserve every accidental beating he got anyway.
Ritchard started to flick the whip with his wrist and caused multiple loud snaps in the air. Dirin gulped as he saw this. At least he had padding, unlike Ritchard, who stupidly took it without the padding. Dirin still chuckled at how Ritchard insisted on going on despite much force. Dirin made sure to give him much more force the next time. This was the real reason why they had the padding.
After cracking the whip one last time, Ritchard looked at Dirin and nodded his head for the spar to start. Mr. Till opened one of his eyes as he viewed the scene with interest. Dirin already knew he was about to lose all of these exchanges. He still didn't know how to counter a whip after reading every way on how to. He knew it, but couldn't execute it. The lashes that Keith put on his legs were proof enough of that.
Dirin sprinted forward. His plan was to hope that a part of his padding was the first thing to be hit once he got in range to attack Ritchard before he could hit him more, but Ritchard was much more skilled with whips with Dirin, and he made it obvious by hitting the whip on Dirin's foot, causing him to yelp and fall to the ground. It took everything Ritchard had not to keep his assault on Dirin for payback from yesterday.
Keith laughed as he saw Dirin trip. He had no remorse after seeing what he did to Ritchard just a couple of days ago. Dirin slowly got up and rubbed his foot, and finally apologized to Ritchard, but Ritchard didn't accept and snapped the whip again and hit Dirin on his thigh. Dirin went back on his charge and finally closed the distance between them before using mace on the shoulder Ritchard was using with the whip.
Ritchard's face contorted a bit, but he bit back the pain and made a face that made Dirin laugh immediately and forget any pain he had in his thigh and foot. After a couple more rounds, they finally put the weapons away. Both of them were glad to see that the whip was gone; neither of them were smart nor skilled enough to beat the other when they had that weapon.
After an hour, the training field was starting to get a little bit more people to fill it. This also meant sharing the weapons with the others, but they used this time as rest, or for Dirin, it meant time to train on something else while he wasn't busy. Ritchard and Keith were talking about whether there were any connections between life energy and shadows. Keith was on the side that there would be absolutely no connection, while Ritchard said that there could be a possible connection between the two.
"Isn't there a lot of myths and theories where life and shadows are connected, though? You can't deny that these myths and theories might have some semblance of truth." Ritchard reasoned as he ate some food he had packed so he didn't have to go out for lunch.
Keith sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Those myths talk about a lot of things! Are you saying that a rock has some form of life energy? It has a shadow as well, but last I checked, it wasn't alive." Keith was mainly arguing with him, so he didn't have to join Dirin and Keith in their sparring.
"Maybe shadows have a different connection with rocks than living beings. Ever thought of that? It's a very magical world, Keith. Just keep an open mind." After seeing that Keith wasn't going to budge, he looked over at Dirin, who was now looking at more of his notes. "Dirin, have you heard of the guy who became a Rank 1 yesterday?"
Dirin waved the paper towards him. "I have. I visited him recently and collected notes from him. I asked about what it was like to become Rank 1 and everything. Apparently, I won't ever consider doing any type of drug or something along those lines once I do." Dirin chuckled as he looked over his notes. "Though he did tell me to head over to the headmaster's office after today."