The Air at the Courtyard was so thick with the scent of Dust, pine needles, wet dirt, cold sweat and hard labour.
The courtyard was filled with different youths, each of them practising with their wooden swords; they trained in twos while others trained with the dummies stationed at different corners of the court.
Among the dozen youths practising with wooden training swords, Maya stood in a fighting stance as she fixated closely on the tool in front of her. Her red hair was woven tightly into two braids to keep it out of her eyes, even though a few strands of hair had already clung to her sweaty forehead from hours of exertion, and her determination was evident as she fixed her gaze on the dummy.
She was dressed in a sturdy leather jerkin buckled securely over her chest, with fitted leather trousers which clung tightly to her body.
Her focus was entirely fixed on a weighted swinging pendulum—a classic training contraption of logs and ropes designed to test agility. There were several other mechanisms alongside the pendulum which she had to go through.
The mechanism occupied the entire western edge of the courtyard. It was a massive timber scaffolding from which heavy iron-shod logs and lethal obstacles hung by thick ropes, swinging in chaotic intersecting arcs. It had three different stages, and with each stage came a higher level of difficulty, following the dummy mechanism, which was called the Reaper.
It was named the Reaper because it was a custom-built training dummy constructed from dense, iron-hard oak, studded with jagged iron spikes and fitted with counter-weighted wooden limbs. Unlike the static straw jack dummies which were stationed nearby, this contraption spun on a heavy iron pivot, its wooden hands whipping through the air in erratic, bone-breaking patterns, vigilantly waiting to punish a clumsy assailant.
She stood at the edge of its reach, her boots rooted to the dusty flagstones, watching the chaotic blur of spikes and wood.
She stood at the starting line, swallowing slowly.
" Well, I guess I just have to go through this", she said under her breath as she exhaled.
She remained focused despite the shouts and movement of her peers, who were all focused on their training.
" Okay, here we go ", she said under her breath.
She Swooped in.
The first phase began with two massive oak logs swinging horizontally across the path, alternating like giant pendulums just inches above the muddy flags. They moved with bone-shattering force, designed to sweep a trainee off their feet or crush their ribs.
She didn't hesitate; she had been monitoring the whole mechanics, figuring out what to do. She had tried consistently at previous times, hoping this time all her efforts and time would come in handy.
So, timing the rhythm by the creak of the ropes, she sprinted forward. As the first log rushed toward her shins, she planted her boot and leapt, tucking her knees to her chest as the timber passed beneath her. Before her boots even touched the ground, she dropped low into a sliding crouch, letting the second log whistle inches over her head, spraying her hair with dust.
Once she had gone past the logs, she immediately entered a narrow lane where iron-wrapped wooden spikes hung vertically, swaying randomly in a dense, chaotic pattern.
The spikes didn't just swing forward and back; they twisted and collided, leaving only slivers of unpredictable space between them.
She gulped really hard. This phase had given her a lot of hard times in the past; she mostly ended up with injuries each time she went through the phase, making her unable to get to the third phase.
She sighed quietly.
As the thick air stung her lungs, she wove through the moving maze. She parried a swinging wooden spike with her leather bracer, the impact rattling her teeth; it felt like they were all going to fall off. She twisted her torso sideways, the sharp tip of another spike ripping a clean tear through the shoulder of her black leather jacket. She didn't stop to look at the tear as she could only focus on overcoming the obstacles ahead of her; she kept her centre of gravity low, fluidly slipping through the deadly thicket like a shadow.
" YESSS", She squealed quietly.
Her excitement immediately came to a halt as she remembered she still had a third phase, which she hadn't tried before and which might prove more difficult.
The third phase was a narrow wooden plank suspended over a shallow ditch, at the end of which hung a single, massive iron-weighted sack that dropped blindly from above whenever a tripwire was triggered.
The trap relied on gravity and surprise, forcing the trainee to react entirely on sound rather than sight.
' Well, I guess I will have to be really light and alert on this phase, ' she thought.
Her boots hit the narrow plank, her balance wavering for a fraction of a second. Halfway across, she heard the sharp snap of the tripwire and the heavy groan of a releasing pulley above. Without looking up, she relied on pure instinct. Instead of pressing forward, she threw her weight backwards, dropping flat onto her back along the narrow plank. The massive iron sack plummeted down, missing her face by the breadth of a finger, the rushing wind of its descent cutting through the thick fog.
"WOAHHHHH "
She wavered on one leg, losing her balance before jumping quickly onto the padded platform, placed directly beside the mechanism. It was placed there for easy landing in order to prevent injuries of training.
She lay on the platform facing the sky, her lips curved up into a smile as the sweat rolled gently down her face.
Maya quickly stood up; she turned towards the last obstacle, which was the rotating dummy.
Her hair messy, as a few strands of hair plastered to her face; she blew the air, trying to get a strand of hair obstructing her eyes.
The terrifying nature of the dummy demanded her absolute focus, so she adjusted herself quickly, standing in a ready stance in front of the Dummy. She fixated closely on the dummy as she tried to observe it properly.
The counterweights inside the hardwood core caused the wooden arms to jerk up, down, and sideways without warning. One moment an arm mimicked a high slash, the next it swung low to break a knee. Fixed into the dummy's chest and shoulders were dull but brutal iron spikes, rusted with age but more than sharp enough to pierce a leather jerkin or tear open a wool kirtle. It didn't just spin; it tracked. The weighted base responded to momentum, meaning the harder it was struck, the faster and more aggressively it whirled back at the attacker.
She drew a slow breath of the thick mountain air, as she slowly drew her wooden sword from its sheath, her calloused hands tightening around the hilt of her sword. She didn't look at the spikes; she looked for the gap in the rotation.
A loud crash could be heard; it was the sound of wood hitting as she hacked her wooden sword onto the dummy.
She dodged and slashed at the dummy with determination fully evident in her face, but the dummy was really fast, and it seemed really difficult as the machine's heavy oak limbs seemed to anticipate her every move, matching her frantic pace beat for beat.
Sweat poured down her face, stinging her eyes, but she refused to blink. She ducked beneath a low, sweeping spike, the rushing air whistling loudly in her left ear. Gritting her teeth, she lunged forward, executing a vicious upward slash. Her wooden blade scraped hard against the dummy's central column with a screech of friction, but the dense hardwood barely took a scratch.
The harder she fought, the faster the Reaper responded. It became a blur of jagged iron and rotating wood, leaving her absolutely no time to plan her next strike. She was reacting on pure, raw instinct.
Her lungs burned from breathing the thick, dusty air. The muscles in her thighs screamed as she continuously pivoted, ducked, and leapt over the unpredictable limbs. A sweeping wooden arm clipped her hip, the blunt force spinning her sideways and causing her to stumble. She regained her footing just in time to see the iron-spiked arm swinging back around, aimed directly at her chest.
Her face was a mask of pure defiance, a mixture of mud, sweat, and absolute stubbornness. She knew that if she hesitated for even a fraction of a second, the machine would break her bones. Bracing her boots against the slippery gravel, she pulled her sword back into a tight defensive guard, waiting for the perfect millisecond to strike back.
Her breath came in ragged, burning gasps. Her legs felt like lead, and the heavy leather-wrapped hilt of her sword seemed to double in weight. Sensing her slowing down, the Reaper pressed its mechanical advantage, its spiked limbs whirring with relentless, terrifying speed.
Desperate to end the fight before her energy completely vanished, she gathered every ounce of strength left in her aching muscles. She planted her boots, twisted her torso, and poured all her remaining weight into a desperate, heavy force strike—a final, explosive blow aimed at the dummy's core.
But the Reaper was simply too fast.
Her blade didn't break the dummy; instead, it struck the solid, unyielding iron-hard oak centre at the exact wrong angle. The kinetic energy of her own massive force, combined with the momentum of the spinning machine, reversed instantly. The violent shockwave travelled up the sword, shattering her grip and lifting her clean off her feet.
She was sent flying backwards across the courtyard, her indigo dress billowing as she hurtled through the air. She hit the hard, gravel-strewn flagstones with a dull thud, tumbling over herself before finally coming to a halt several feet away, coughing violently as the dust settled around her.
Her wooden sword clattered uselessly into the mud far out of her reach. She lay flat on her back, staring blankly up at the grey sky, her body bruised and completely spent, while the dummy continued to spin vigilantly in the distance.
She lay exhausted on the floor, breathing really fast as she tries really hard to regain her strength. As she lay there with fatigue, she saw a shadow looming over her; she looked up to see who it was.
Right above her was Sophia.
" Hiyaaaa"
Sophia said, smiling widely, revealing her teeth.
" That was so cool, though. You are so cool, Maya"
Maya smiled.
" I thought we were training today", she asked.
" AAARGGGH" Maya rolled her eyes, turning to face the courtyard floor.