Stepping into an open part of the ruined meeting hall Gwin tightened his grip on the [Millitia's Steel] and took on his sword stance he had practiced so much at the academy. This time however his unfinished stance was made complete by his other arm.
His instructor had been quite the strategist and had designed the stance he taught Gwin to work both as a one-handed technique and a two-handed technique once Gwin regained his arm while in the dream realm. Feeling a sense of unfamiliar unity in his stance, Gwin began performing his training katas. He staggered slightly with his first swing due to the increased weight of his sword. An awakened memory weighed much more than the practice alloy swords he had used before after all.
He braced for the new weight and continued. After several hundred swings he was finally starting to feel the burn in his muscles. [Bestial Vitality] meant that he could train for extended periods of time without tiring. He had not realized how good this was until now since he had not been in combat for an extended period of time except for the black locust swarm. He was far too busy worrying about not getting ripped apart then to appreciate his attribute. He would have passed out from exhaustion without it for sure.
'How in the world did Elena make it through that? Are legacies really a different breed?'
The lusterless black blade continued to cut through the air in practiced arcs. He fell into the familiar rhythm of footwork and practiced keeping his blade aligned with the added weight. It was difficult and frustrating since he had decided against using his aspect to ease the burden.
He spared a glance at Elena who was still mulling over the carved map. Occasionally she would summon a red dagger and carve new lines into it.
'Is that a new memory? I haven't seen that one before.'
Practicing his swordsmanship while thinking of Elena made him reminisce of their time at the academy, where he hadn't beaten her a single time…
'Hm… she only won because she has legacy training…or did she? She had her aspect while I couldn't even use mine! It's different now!'
His frustration expressed itself through his swings. He decided it was a good time for a break and dismissed his sword. Wiping the sweat from his brow he walked towards Elena and held out his hand.
She spared it a glance before summoning the water skin memory that Gwin had learned was named [Chilled Respite] and tossing it to him without looking to see if he caught it. Gwin greedily gulped down the icy water before turning his gaze to the map on the table.
The map features twelve parallel horizontal lines with vertical lines cutting even squares between them. The horizontal lines were placed in pairs without any vertical lines between them. Occasionally the horizontal lines would split off vertically and connect with the line above it. Gwin recognized these as the streets and the squares represented buildings.
The map had changed yet again after they had scouted it this morning. They were still doing their best to lay low and avoid drawing the attention of any fallen abominations onto themselves so they couldn't make as much progress as they wanted to. So far that had meant they hadn't slayed a single nightmare creature since they had arrived, which was only the day before yesterday to be fair.
Gwin was feeling hungry. It had been over two full days since they had had anything to eat and they were both becoming a little antsy because of it. Well at least Gwin thought it was both of them since most of the time Lena was impossible to read unless she was angry with him.
Looking down at the changes in the map he noticed several new chunks of black stone and wooden debris blocking off several of the roads. In the center of all these lines was a particularly large chunk of stone meant to represent their temporary shelter, for whatever reason nightmare creatures seemed to avoid the area around them which made Gwin feel uneasy. The last time they had found a "safe place" like this it had been the empty home of an abomination so horrifying even other nightmare creatures would not approach.
The streets above their shelter on the map lead to the castle while the ones up under it lead to the monolithic walls surrounding the city.
"We are going to go on an excursion tomorrow"
{Are you sure?}
"Yes there is a group of awakened abominations dwelling close to the wall. We need to gain more shards if we wish to avoid the fallen abominations in our way and get to the palace."
'Makes sense but a whole group? I thought they were rare. Can we even handle something like that? Well I'm sure I'll be fine as long as I watch out for myself, I'm sure Elena can handle anything here.'
{What do these nightmare creatures look like?}
"Orange and scaly horned lizards. I believe a few of them are monsters."
{Monsters?!}
"Yes, I think three of them were monsters. There were a dozen total."
{When did you even see this? I've been with you all day.}
"This morning when we climbed to the top of the roof."
{You could see them from there? I couldn't spot anything but fallen abominations}
"…"
{What?}
"It's nothing. By the way I feel like I should mention something."
{What is it?}
"You have absolutely no talent with a sword. You should give up and try something else."
{How can you so calmly ignore all my effort?} Gwin responded with a flat facial expression.
She was dead serious though.
"It's my honest advice. You are far too clumsy with a sword for me to trust you with protecting me."
"…"
"Stop looking so pitiful. I'm not telling you to roll over and die. You are not fit to wield a sword due to your aspect. Isn't it a transformation aspect? How do you plan on using your aspect to its fullest extent while holding a human weapon?"
She actually had a good point. He had been so focused on getting a weapon that was comfortable to him he had ignored the obvious path forward for him. Sure he could just enhance his muscles and use his aspect that way to improve his swordsmanship but that method had clear limits since he couldn't fully transform his body and gain the most from his aspect.
{I'm just fine with a sword. You should worry about yourself instead}
Who was she to tell him that anyways? Most people would seem like they lack talent compared to her! He wasn't going to let her harsh words take away from his effort. Even if there were limits it's not like he would hit those limits soon. He couldn't fully transform yet like other people with transformation aspects could so using a sword was still the most effective way to fight for him right now.
"I think you're mistaken. I'm not giving you a choice, I'm telling you to change. I'm the reason you haven't been devoured already by a nightmare creature while you clumsily tried to slay it and I'm not going to risk my life to protect someone who will not listen to me. I suppose I can teach you the Song Clan's unarmed combat techniques if you beg…"
'I'm going to kill her…no…calm down…not yet…just wait till you find more people, then you can get away from her…you need her…don't hit her…don't hit her…"
Gwin's fists were balled into tight knots as he struggled with his internal battle to not clobber the smug smile on her face. He was equal parts enraged and ashamed. Ashamed because she was partially right and enraged also because she was partially right and also a bitch about it. He managed to compose himself through great effort, well at least he thought he was composed.
{I don't need you to protect me}
After doing his best to sign that calmly he turned and walked away to train once again. His arm split into red tentacles and shot to the ancient rafters. They wrapped around it and shortened while Gwin swung and pulled himself up. He landed roughly on the wood and nearly fell off but caught himself before he could. Once up there he dismissed his armor and summoned the [Dark Wing].
He was now going to train his aspect.