Deadly Decadence

Alisa

Lance also joined our training sessions after I told him I've been training here for a week. Now, a month has passed since I started my training with Uncle Vadim and Alisa. I know it was supposed to be just with Uncle Vadim, but he insisted that I train with Alisa first. After school, Alisa, Lance, and I would go straight to Uncle Vadim's shop. The shop's backyard is actually wide. This is where we train; the backyard is wide enough for us to learn long-range weapons. At the moment, Alisa and Lance are the only ones who practice on long-range weapons since I still have to master close-range combat skills first, and besides as what Uncle Vadim told me;

"You're body type and technique in fighting suit those daggers I gave you. And for you to use Kronos to your advantage, you must master close combat."

But I swore to myself that I'm going to train on using ranged weapons too. I got to train myself as much as possible if I aim to get to the bottom of this apocalypse.

The sun is about to set, but we're still here, training our asses off. I immediately get to my feet as I feel Alisa about to attack me again, and shifted on the other side to hopefully land an attack on her.

But surprisingly, she turned around in time to block my attack.

"Try to make your next move too obvious."

I looked at Alisa in the eyes and focused my strength on my next attack. Since she was blocking my attack, her stance was quite wide to my advantage. I moved away to give her the impression that I gave up, and then I turned around and swept her lead leg with mine. Fortunately, that worked, and she lost balance.

"Yes!"

I exclaimed and sighed as I feel exhaustion claim my body. Uncle Vadim told me that this week's goal is to land a hit on Alisa. I've been trying to do it for five days now, but I was always tackled by her. But I finally did it!

I extended my hand to help Alisa stand up. 

"You're getting the hang of it, Albie!"

She said as she smiles at me proudly.

"Thanks."

I replied shyly.

"That was sneaky, Albie!"

I hear Lance's praise as he gives us both a glass of water and a hand towel.

I slowly drank from the glass of water. And I wiped off my sweat with the hand towel.

We hear Uncle Vadim approaching us, so we stood straight. I mean, we stood in a ready stance. We kind of got used to Uncle Vadim's habit of suddenly attacking us when we think the training's over.

He grinned at us when he noticed our stances. 

"Good job, Albie."

He said as he taps on my shoulder, then he turned away. But I still stood on my ground, just like what he said to us every time; "Always be prepared, you're attackers will surely not inform you when they will attack you."

As expected, he suddenly turned around and tried to do the trick I did to his niece a while ago. When he figured that he failed to surprise me, he caught on and tried again to attack me by throwing a hook, which I blocked and saw that his chest area is vulnerable and aimed there. My attack on his chest pushed him away for a few inches, while dazed, I attacked again. I saw that his stance was wide as he tries to regain his balance after my recent attack. I dragged my foot into and through his, the final blow, and he fell to the ground.

He smirked at me and laughed. 

"To not hesitate is to be victorious."

He said as I helped him stand up. He looked at me proudly.

"That was great, Albie."

I smiled at him sheepishly.

"Thank you, Uncle."

I said, as this time, I smiled proudly.

"I think you're ready to practice with weapons."

"Really?! With what weapons?"

I asked, thrilled.

"With your daggers, Kronos."

"With who?"

I nervously ask. If I'm going to practice with daggers, it has to be close combat, of course, but isn't that dangerous?

"With me."

My eyes widened. I mean, yeah, that makes sense. But I'm nervous. Alisa specializes in fighting with long-range weapons. She sure can fight in close combat but without weapons. Her Uncle once told us that Alisa is not really good at handling melee weapons, such as daggers.

"Okay. I'm looking forward to it, Uncle."

I said and then gulped. Uncle laughed when he saw this.

He looked at me and said,

"Do not be nervous. Didn't I just say that to not hesitate is to be victorious?"

"Yes, Uncle."

I said and nodded at him.

"Go home now, all of you. It's almost nighttime."

We bid our goodbyes to Uncle Vadim after we got a change of clothes, and we went out of the shop.

We are currently walking home when Lance suddenly asked,

"How old is your Uncle, Alisa?"

"What? Why are you asking?" I asked.

"Nothing. Just wondering." He shrugged.

"As far as I remember, he's 26 years old?" She paused.

"Yeah, 26 years old. Why?" Alisa continued.

"Are you sure?" Lance insisted.

"Yeah. Why?" Alisa asked.

"Really? He looks too young for his age, actually. Heck, he even looks like he's just a couple years older than me, I mean a couple years older than us."

Lance explained.

"Yeah. Uncle was actually known for that. Folks around his street often say that he looks like his looks froze and he remained looking like 18 years old."

"Really? You know, I actually thought your Uncle was younger. In fact, I was actually expecting him to look older and a lot more muscular when we first went there." I confessed.

"Really?” Alisa asked as she let out a sweet laugh.

"Yeah. I mean, you said your Uncle is teaching self-defense and fighting with weapons, so I kinda pictured him to be a tough-looking guy. But man, I was surprised when I saw that he has these soft features instead, and a lithe body to add."

Alisa laughed at my confession. Aaaand he's actually good-looking, I wanted to add that, but I don't want to sound like a creep crushing on a friend's Uncle. It's not like I'm crushing on Uncle Vadim. It's just that I was expecting a burly looking man when we met Uncle Vadim.

"Is he married, Alisa?" I stopped when I heard Lance asking this.

"O my gosh, Lance. Could it be that --?" I asked as I look at him with a teasing smile plastered on my face.

"What? No! I'm just curious about our trainer, Albie. Who knows that we can use this info against him someday."

Alisa's laughing even more with our exchange.

"Woah, you really thought that far?" I asked Lance.

"Didn't he say, we should always be prepared? That's how I prepare myself, Albie."

"By asking about your potential enemy's personal info?"

"Yeah. Just answer me, Alisa."

He answered and then turned to Alisa. This stopped Alisa from laughing.

"I heard he was. But his wife died in an accident, poor soul. It was said that she was also pregnant when the accident happened."

We suddenly felt sorry for our trainer and continued to walk in silence.

“Why did you answer him? Didn’t he just tell you that he might use this information against your Uncle?”

I exclaimed after a while.

“Nah, he doesn’t seem to mind sharing this information to those who wanted to know. He shared it with us when we were younger, you know, the batch I was with when I first trained with Uncle Vadim.”

Alisa replied, and then silence.

"Did you know what type of accident killed your Uncle's wife?" I tried to break the silence by asking again.

"It was a car accident, but that's all we know. I asked Mom and dad for further information, but they told me Uncle was insistent on keeping everything to himself."

Alisa explained.

"Oh." That's all I can say. 

"Anyway, aren't you excited about your training tomorrow, Albie?"  Alisa asked.

"Ugh. I'm so nervous!"

I said as I feel the nervousness creep into my stomach.

"Don't worry. As you said, Uncle has these soft features and lithe body. He's not going to be so rough, is he?"

Alisa said as she teased and giggled at me. Lance even chuckled when Alisa said this.

"That's what I'm nervous about! Didn't they always say that looks can be deceiving?"

Alisa and Lance just laughed at my exaggerated facial expression and remark.

We chatted more as we make our way to our houses.