Kopius awoke to the sharp pungent smell of something awful. With a mixture of scents like ammonia, fish guts and bleach, the stench reached into his brain and jerked him back to the world of the living. He waved away the foul smell and coughed until he almost puked. A strong pair of hands lifted him to a sitting position and placed something in his hand.

His nostrils felt collapsed making it hard to breathe in air, his upper lip had all the sensation of being badly swollen. As his senses returned, he could taste blood in his mouth and a ringing in his ears. When his vision was able to focus, his nose looked to be at an angle different to what he considered normal. All in all he felt like a pulp that had been beaten. He noticed the water container in his hand and took a tentative sip.

Half expecting to find a few teeth missing, Kopius inspected the rest of his body for damages. His chest was bruised, his jaw ached as if it had been recently disconnected and then reset and his face burned like someone had tried to slap him to death. He looked around the boxing ring until his eyes fell upon the source of his pain.

Salem sat resting against the closest corner with a drink of her own in her hand. She watched Kopius as he came to his senses, evening raising her drink in solute once he was fully aware. Her face had a blemish or two but Kopius couldn't tell if that had been his doing or not. The witch pulled a thin vial of liquid out of her shorts and handed it to Kopius.

"Bottoms up," she said without explanation.

Unable to smell the contents or produce audible words, Kopius briefly eye-balled the red-orange liquid before drinking it down. His throat warmed from the contents and it spread throughout his body. The swelling in his lip quickly began to dissipate, the taste of blood in his mouth evaporated. Meanwhile the bridge of his nose cracked several times like a knuckle with loud, painful pops as it returned to its original position. The healing only took a few moments and Kopius was left with nothing more than the dried blood stains and a bruised ego.

"Not bad," Salem finally said from her sitting position. Her bootcamp voice had reverted back to that of an instructor.

Kopius just grunted but not in amusement.

"Most folks don't make it to the second round," Salem offered with her southern twang. "I haven't handed out a beating like that in quite some time. It was… refreshing. You're resilient, I'll give you that. Or as stubborn as they come; probably both."

"Is that supposed to be a compliment?" Kopius groaned, still not fully recovered.

"Take it however you want. I won't sweeten my words to protect your male sensibilities. Your speed is exceptional, your instincts are solid and your willpower admirable. As I said before, you lack grace and composure. Your technique needs practice, your footwork requires more finesse and your strikes are unguided. As far as the assessment is concerned, you did well."

"Thanks," Kopius replied as he pulled himself to his feet. "I think."

"You're welcome," Salem responded, hopping to her feet. "Now, get yourself cleaned up, we have your Fighters challenge to complete."

***

The next several hours were part grueling indictment, part glowing testament to the assessment. There was more to fighting than just throwing punches and kicks, and Salem drilled them into Kopius with sharp words and a wooden yardstick used for correctional purposes.

She had started with his stance and foot work, slapping him on his exposed legs when his movements were not in accordance with her instructions. Welts had formed across his calves, hamstrings and quads before he was able to move in a smooth and fluid fashion. Kopius would have preferred the wild west approach to unload a gun into the ground while some yelled at him to dance.

Next she addressed his posture, focusing on the importance of balance. Her instructions were barked: "Back foot angled! Dominant hand to the rear! Hands up, protect that chin! Elbows in!" Just a few of the repetitive phrases Salem shouted until she could no longer slap Kopius in the face or rib cage with her stick. His torso looked like he had taken up a job as some noble's whipping boy.

Once the foot work was graceful and the posture sturdy, Salem finally began to cover the Fighter challenge itself. The two had exited the building and partnered with one of the many striking dummies in the arena. She performed the jab, the cross, the hook and the kick using both arms and legs. After that she showed him the combo they created when used in unison. By the time she got to the kicking part, the dummy looked as though it would crumple from the assault. Her movements were powerful and exact, gaining strength as the combo evolved.

Kopius picked up the moves with minimal punishment from the witch. He started with the jab, being careful to maintain his grace and composure until he didn't have to think about it. After finishing with both hands he moved to the cross, then the hook and finally the kick only being corrected a few times on each. To finish the challenge he only needed to string the combo together but that's when he was stopped by Salem.

"Again," she had instructed.

"Which part?" Kopius had asked.

"All of them."

"What? Why?" Kopius had mistakenly asked. That's when she broke her stick across his back.

"Ow! What the fuck! The challenge is thirty each side!" Kopius complained.

"Do the minimum, get the minimum," Salem had scolded, producing another yardstick out of thin air.

"Okay, okay!" Kopius agreed, his hands up.

{NX: Over-achiever END +.50, WIL .+50}

Ninety reps from both sides later and Kopius thought his extremities would fall off. The notification gave him the encouragement he needed to keep going and finish the combo section. Before starting, he was given a brief rest so that Salem could replace the sparring dummy that Kopus had beaten the straw out of, another point that gave him an energy boost. During the respite and with Salem's approval, Kopius drank a Stamina position to help finish the challenge. Once fully replenished, Kopius returned to his task.

***

{NX: Fighter Practice Challenge I Completed AGL +.50, PRE +.50, ACR +.25}

Kopius finished his last combo and was rewarded with a notification of completion. His limbs were fatigued, his mind fuzzy and his stomach begging for food. Salem escorted her pupil into her enclosed space and gave him a place to sit and rest. She provided water and a snack as the two awaited for Cici's return.

Things were cloudy after he sat down, fatigue trying to lull him into a deep sleep while his hunger kept up a groan loud enough to keep the dead awake. At some point Cici had come in with his usual charm and bravado but it was the smell of a cooked meal that caught Kopius's attention. How he managed to eat is still a mystery but food entered his body and tamed the beast within gut.

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In a food induced coma and on the precipice of a fatigue induced one, Cici escorted Kopius from the Circus making a bee-line to Oh-jin's. The big man talked the entire trip but Kopius took none of it in. Salem had beaten and then worked all sense from his mind, while Cici had finished off what little remained with dinner. He vaguely recalled opening the door to the alchemist's shop and sleep was upon him before he hit his cot.

***

Kopius woke up confused and dehydrated as though he had gone out binge drinking all night. The last thing he remembered was opening the door to Oh-jin's lab but even the events leading up to that were unclear. He stretched as he got to his feet. His body had all the aches and pain associated with getting run over by a car, or a six-foot Zulu warrior with a perverted teaching method. With the faint outline of the woman's foot on his chest, Kopius changed his clothes and headed out of his room.

Oh-jin was nowhere to be found. Kopius looked in the rooms that were unlocked, curious as to why some doors would be inaccessible but chalking it up to nothing in the same thought. What he did find in the laboratory was a tray of food and provisions. No note or any indication of where the old man might be, just a plate of morsels that Kopius ate with an eager satisfaction.

With little else to do, Kopius stretched his aches a few more times and exited the lab. He had hoped to find Cici waiting on the other side with one of his morning concoctions but was only greeted by the full moons and night sky. He took in a breath of disappointment and then began to retrace his steps back to the Circus. He wasn't thrilled about the prospect of training, more eager to be done with it and lick his wounds.

"Came back did ya," Salem greeted in her smooth southern tongue. She was attending the dummies in the arena when Kopius approached and smiled in a way that was both surprise and appreciation.

"I did pay for two days," Kopius replied with all the confidence a morning without coffee could manage.

"That you did," the witch said curiously.

"Was I not supposed to come today?"

"No you were," she answered with a slight laugh. "Most folks usually skip the second day after they wake up from the first. You that eager?"

"No," Kopius answered honestly with a laugh of his own, "but I figured if I get tossed around here first I might not get tossed around out there later."

"And here I thought you were just a pretty face with a stubborn brain," Salem said with a smirk. "Turns out you got some smarts too. We finished your Strike challenge, you want to work on your Stance?"

"I need that but no," Kopius admitted. "There's a Drill I need to work on."

"Weapons training? It's not in one of the Holo's you bought?"

"Yeah, swords. It looked like they were all offensive Drills though."

"Defense then?"

"Yeah, you know, a good defense is the best offense," Kopius offered before giving what he said a second thought. "Or was it the other way around?"

"The other way makes more sense but I like where your thoughts are. Do you have a Drill in mind or are we learning the basics?"

"I had one but it was broken like the other one I mentioned yesterday," he lied.

"Did it have a name?"

"Parry, Block–"

"Counter, Feet," Salem interrupted, finishing the title. "You are a beginner."

Kopius just shrugged and gestured with his hands that he was guilty as charged.

"You're in luck though," the witch continued. "The Feet portion covers about half of the Stance challenge, we can address that at the end though. Give me a few moments to complete my morning tasks and you'll get what you paid for."

Kopius wasn't sure if that was a threat or a promise but either option gave him a brief case of the butterflies. He girded what was left of his loins and opted to stretch for the umpteenth time that morning. His limbs were stiff front he prior days training and he figured doing defensive drills would require a limber frame. By the end of his morning calisthenics he had removed both swords and was attacking a dummy with both.

Salem returned after a short while carrying a bundle of wooden swords along with several other training items like a wooden mace, spear and shield. She placed the bundle of swords to one side and the singular weapons on the other. Kopius sheathed with swords and Salem raised an eyebrow in his direction.

She approached and reached out for his sheath. With a tremendous amount of strength Kopius resisted his urge to flinch away from the warrior witch. She grabbed the sheath as though he was wearing overall suspenders and rubbed her fingers across the material. Nodding her head she examined the rest of the device with a certain look of appreciation.

"I've heard of these before," she commented, tugging on the belt part before letting go. "Never seen one though. Looks comfortable. How many weapons does it hold?"

"Five," Kopius replied, adjusting the apparatus though he didn't need to.

"You wear it well, it fits nicely," she complimented.

"Well, you should have seen how I first wore it," Kopius joked uncomfortably.

He wasn't sure if the witch was flirting with him or if she was just impressed with his gear, either way the compliment threw him off. The ladies of Metem had always regarded him with sourness if they regarded him at all. Before he could dive down that rabbit hole Salem transitioned to instructor, producing a wooden yardstick out of thin air.

"We will begin with Feet!" Salem shouted in her drill sergeant tone.

Her voice snapped Kopius out of his internal debate and he practically stiffened to attention. The next hour was a crash course in foot work. Half the time Kopius felt like he was auditioning for the movie Flashdance, while the rest of the time he might have been tap dancing like Fred Astaire. He didn't even have a weapon in hand as she took whacks with her stick to keep him nimble and agile. Once he was allowed to arm himself she had him repeat all of his learnings while avoiding her barrage of strikes. If she was able to crack him with a blow, the whole thing started over. They were at this for the first half of the day.

After a brief lunch and his final stamina potion, Salem moved on to the next lesson: Block. Much the same as feet, Block consisted of the witch raining down blows of her wooden swords until Kopius was sturdy enough to withstand the assault. That was only achieved when Salem could break her wooden weapon when it collided with Kopius metal sword. He had to take the blow with little to no recoil. This exercise took half the time of the first and it was Salem who needed a stamina break this time, though Kopius felt certain he would have some PTSD from the whole endeavor.

Parry turned out to be his favorite lesson. With a combination of the first two, Kopius was quick in understanding how to deflect a strike. It dawned on him early in the lesson that Parry was a lot like stepping up to the plate in baseball. There, if the pitcher was throwing in the 90's, a batter had less than a half of a second to decide whether to swing, hold off or get the hell out of the way. If the hitter did swing, everything came down to angles and timing.

The deflection itself was like bunting a ball under the same conditions. The exception being that your whole body was exposed and getting out of the way of a wild pitch was infinitely more difficult. With only the width of the bat barrel for protection–roughly two and a half inches–the difference between a well placed bunt and losing your teeth was a matter of extreme focus and a hefty supply of courage. Once Kopius equated that experience to what he was facing now, the lesson was the shortest of the three.

Last came Counter; a combination of all three moves to turn the defender into the assailant. Again, Kopius conflated his experience on the ball field to his learning in the arena. Salem was gracious enough to show how certain blocks and parry's would expose specific areas when executed correctly. She explained how a series of deflections could lead to a better opening than a single block. There was a mental aspect to it that Kopius understood but it really all came down to being an opportunist.

The lesson took the rest of the day and only ended because Salem had broken her last weapon during the instruction. Kopius was internally relieved to find out she didn't have another stash of weapons in her lodgings. Apparently the Universe did too because once the last weapon splintered across his block he received a notification.

{NX: Weather the Storm STB +.50, RCT +.50}

"Counter will take practice," Salem instructed, breaking Kopius from viewing his new achievement. "Use your Holo's daily and your skills will improve. Overall, you've been an admirable student. You didn't complain as much as Cici said you would; I appreciate that."

"He said what?" Kopius answered with a hint of betrayal.

"You've done well," Salem laughed, ignoring his reaction. "I'll see you at tonight's performance."

"Performance? I don't know–"

"Cici is going to perform his new song," Salem said, cutting him off. "I understand you had a hand in it? At least, that is the rumor in town. The witches are very excited to hear what you taught him."

"Well, I mean, I didn't exactly–teach him anything," Kopius stammered as he caught up with the information. "I just gave him something to go with. He did the rest."

"I see. A bit of humility to go with that stubbornness," Salem looked him over anew. "Well as long as its better than your footwork, I am sure we will all enjoy it."

"All enjoy? Who's going to be there."

"Everyone. The whole village is ready to hear the Ballad of Cici Beo."

"Everyone?"

"Yes, everyone."

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