Chapter five

I growl savagely at my enemy. Sometimes looks are just as important as ability. Half the work is getting the opponent scared, and once they are, they can’t think. So, you make your mask look mean, you train your voice to growl, and grow your claws long.

My enemy almost seems to be smirking back at me, swinging his spiked flail with the gracefulness of the wind. I shriek and lunge at him, changing my left twinshifter into a sword and the right into a shield, stabbing the dummy as hard as I can through the chest, waiting for the cry of pain and the gasp of surprise.

I mean it. My opponent really is a dummy.

I feel the sword pierce his chest, right where the red heart is painted, and smile, landing on my hands and grinning, then feeling myself thrown forward, my back and ribs crying out in pain.

I lay on the sweet-smelling grass for some time, struggling to breathe. Nothing feels broken, thanks to the armor courtesy of twinshifter, but man did that hurt!

I sit up and groan, wrapping my left arm around my chest and retracting the blade back into my bracers.

“Too eager, Nee,” Mrenon-sesu observes from his perch in one of the trees, the branch hanging over my head. “You stabbed, but you forgot to block.”

“Yes, sir,” I blush, bowing feebly.

“Did you break anything?”

“No, sir. Just a bruise.”

He smiles, “Alright, good. Now try it again.”

I smile and slither away to the starting position, glancing at the other younglings, practicing under the watchful eye of Mrenon and the older students, learning by teaching. Sesu resets the dummy for me, and I take my place at the starting point, glancing at the other younglings one more time. Two more fall flat on their back and get smacked by their dummy’s weapons, a sword and a boken.

One of my snakes sees my mother perched in one of the trees, watching with interest. My clutchmates all earned crystals, so she’s taken a few days off to watch us learn. I smile through the snake and wave at her, before preparing to try again.

Mothers in particular teach, but don’t help. If two neonates are fighting, the mothers will sit back and watch, ‘cause helping one or the other shows that they believe their own hatchlings are weak and need help. If I screw up particularly badly, she’ll come down and show me what to do, but unless I’m seriously about to die, she’ll just watch and teach and no more.

This time, I raise my shield over my face and lunge with my sword, slicing the dummy’s head off cleanly, but remembering to block the flail. I don’t land on my belly this time, and I make a show of slicing the arm off the dummy as it comes around. Not making it flashy, just doing it even though just about everybody who had that done would be dead, not back at the last save point.

“Impressive, Niagra-niku. But tell me, was that really necessary?”

I jump and turn around. Mrenon-sesu is perched in his tree, watching me again. I cock my head to one side in confusion and wrinkle my brow. I don’t understand the question. Of course slashing the dummy’s arm off was necessary. It looked neat, and I did it, right?

“Um…sir?”

He sighs and sits down on the branch, stretching his legs in front of him and then letting them dangle.

“Did you do that to impress others, because you got carried away, or because you thought maybe on his way down, the flail would hit you?”

“Um…”

I look down at the ground and blush, watching the pale blue crystal gleaming against my chest armor. Maybe I should wear black armor when I’m older…wait, Sesu was saying something important.

Um…okay, showing off is bad. But why? No one got hurt. I didn’t get hurt. In fact, severing the arm should have gotten me more points.

Sesu rolls his eyes, almost silver in the dark brown of his scales, and says, “It could have gotten you hurt. It could have gotten someone else hurt. Even getting carried away could do that, why?”

He directs the question at me and I answer, “Getting carried away can blind you, like uncontrolled anger or sadness.”

He smiles under his mask and replies, “Good lad. Do you understand why showing off could get you hurt?”

I shake my head.

“Because,” he sighs, “it is just like getting carried away or angry. You could forget there are others around you, and forget to keep in mind what is best for their survival. You could forget that your comrades are your friends—your brothers and sisters—and mow them down in an effort to earn status. And yes, Niku, this is a bad thing!” He grins at the last part. “This isn’t to say that once the opponent has been returned to the save point that you can’t go any further. Just don’t be stupid.”

I nod slowly, feeling my brain pounding against the inside of my skull, trying to understand what he said. I see his point, but I don’t fully understand. Being a little cocky in battle, but not ambitious enough to forget your comrades…I don’t understand how that could get them hurt.

Sesu chuckles, “You’ll understand when you're older. It’s something that comes with age.”

I nod my head and go to get another dummy. I have a lot to learn.