As the public execution cover as a religious cleansing came to a close Noah started to pay attention to everything around him. He became more conscious of the people around him thinking that one day they would find out who he was.
He walked through the hall following behind Troy and his friends toward the training area.they walked back outside to the right of the church to see a training field. The training field was filled with soldiers and regular members combined.
As they walked through the training fields he saw that some members looked off balance and awkward even to his eye they looked like amateur. This cooled Noah nerves a little bit because this indicated that not everyone knew how to fight in this cult. This means that he could probably pass as someone who wanted to learn how to fight.
As Troy and his friends grabbed their weapon of choice being a sword for Troy and Austin and a bow for Henry they saw Noah just staring at the people training.
Walking up to Noah, Troy asked" so never fought before?".
Startled out of his trance he responded to Troy " was it that obvious?".
Troy nodded and said" I could teach you how to use a sword if you want?".
Noah looked at him but shook his head in refusal. He looked at Troy and said" no thank you I'm gonna find my own thing to do."
Troy accepted this and turned around and went to spar with Austin.
Noah again turned to the field and was watching everyone spar with each other. As he watched he contemplated what fighting style he would commit himself to.
" For now weapons are out of the question. I have no experience with weapons so for now I think it's far safer to stay away from them till I am more experienced " thinking back to his life before his nightmare all he had done is use some tool like wrenches and wire cutter so there was no experience with weapons there.
" guess that leaves only fists to learn" . After he came to this conclusion he looked around for anyone who was focusing on training the fists exclusively. Scanning the field he saw a man in the church's knights attire to the far left of the training field he shadow boxing.
Noah walked across the training field to interact with this man. When he arrived at the corner of the training field he asked very simply.
"Help sir I'm sorry to bother but can you teach me how to fight? I'm pretty new and need some help."
The man with a gruff expression look over to me" you talking to me"
Noah responded politely" yes I am"
The man looked him up and down then asked in the same voice" how much do you know about striking"
Noah look at him confused " if striking is another words for punching then I know basically nothing"
He looked dumbfounded then his eyes lit up with an idea" you know nothing about striking, interesting" with a suppressed excitement he then said" sure I'll teach you".
Noah was elated it was that easy, all he had to do was ask him, but as this though crossed his mind the man continued" but you have to give me something in return" Noah's smile instantly dropped
Noah replied with " what do you want?" Knowing full well that he had nothing to offer.
"I need a favor sometime in the near future. Could you do that for me no question asked"
Noah replied "As long as it nothing weird"
The man looked happy as he gestured for Noah to follow him. As they walked the man started to teach Noah " so striking can best be described as using you body to cause the most damage to an enemy while simultaneously take the least damage upon your self"
He continued " striking can come from four major areas: feet, knees, elbows, and hands. Hands are the most common and easiest to learn when first trying to learn striking so we will start with them"
Noah nodded and keep on listening
" when using your hand there are four different basic punches; there's the jab which is a hit with your forward hand, there's a cross which is a hit with your back hand, there's the uppercut which is an attack from below, then there's the hook which is a strong close ranged hit. For now we will be focusing on foot work, jabs, and crosses."
Noah nodded but then asked "footwork?"
The man instructor nodded " when strikes a lot of you power comes from you hips, back, and legs"
Not one to question his instructor Noah nodded.
" oh forgot to mention, the names Garth "
" o ah my names Noah"
" ok first we are going to work on stance. Your stance is the most important part of fighting. Are you right handed or left?"
Noah answered " I'm right handed "
Garth answers right back " ok so you're going to be in a traditional stance. You're gonna want to point your non-dominant side towards the opponent. Bend your legs a bit and balance on the balls of your feet. Keep your left hand low and your right hand a little high like this" Garth stopped walking.
He proceeded to demonstrate the stance his right hand placed at the elevation of his eye while his left was hanging around the height of his rib cage.
Garth walked in front of Noah and put both his hands up. " Ok, I'm gonna show you how to do a jab. When jabbing you face your non-dominant shoulder towards the opponent. Since your non dominant shoulder is facing the opponent you should also use your left hand when jabbing. When jabbing you goal is to pepper your opponent and keep them at your most optimal range. Here's an example"
Garth shot is fist forwards at a blinding speed in quick succession" see while you're punching you want to twist your hip a little". Garth did the motion again but slower to emphasize the hip movement.
"This twist will give you extra striking power. Here you try now".
Noah tried to replicate Garth's jab he thought he did pretty good but then Garth stepped in" no you're doing it wrong the small twist in your hip timing was off try again." After several tries Garth just decided to move on to the second punch.
" Ok, let's move on to another strike. The next strike is called a cross. The cross is a heavier punch that comes from the dominant hand this punch is slower so it's best to combine this with a jab to created a combo call a one-two"
Noah nodded again to understand the premise of the strike . And again he tried to replicate what he saw to little success.
As the day went on Noah kept on trying his attacks he was leaning and started to get them down. As Garth watched him practice he was kind of impressed, his punches were pretty smooth. Nothing to write home about but they weren't all that bad. After a few hours training Noah was exhausted. By this time Troy, Austin and Henry had already left for their ritual so Noah was alone.
It was lunchtime so he got up and went to Garth
" Mr Garth sir, can I go get some food? I'm exhausted and need a break".
Garth looked at him and nodded
Noah, taking that as an acceptance of his request, left the training hall and searched for the cafeteria. As he walked through the hall he started to make some mental notes about the cathedral halls. Like Where guards were posted and where certain rooms were located. He did this until he made it to the cafeteria. He got in line to receive his much needed food. The line was pretty short; he had guessed he had missed the midday rush for food.
As he got his food he sat down at a table with nobody on it. He ate in quiet solitude thinking about the days ahead of him. " since the escapees partner has not been found yet that mean there's a chance that there is an army coming towards this cathedral right now "
Noah continued " if that's the case then this place is close to becoming an active war zone so I need to get as much knowledge about striking as I can from Garth. On another not agreeing to that deal could be dangerous but it was the only way to convince Garth to teach me to fight"
"There is also the matter of me escaping which could be a problem if there is a limit to the amount of time I have till the army of the sun gets here. There is also the problem of communion in 4 days. This place is a cult so I don't know what's going to happen. They could kill someone as an offering or they could just offer up blood either way I don't want to be here while the communion is happening. So I have 3 days to escape this hellhole"
While having this thinking session he had finished his food he sat there for a few more minutes with his head down trying to regain some energy. Eventually he had to leave and go back to the training arena.
As he returned back he saw that Garth was sitting in the same place he had left him except he was eating some food he got from god knows where. He also noticed that Garth had found a training dummy. Not trying to question the man teaching him how to fight he walked up to him and asked" so when I'm punching am I doing anything wrong"
Garth looked at him and said" your recovery after you punch is to slow it leaves you open to attacks after you punch"
Noah nodded at the advice and tried to correct himself. Following his instructor's advice he punched the air and pulled back as fast as he could. Garth looked at him and nodded" yeah like that".
Happy that he got it right he continued to practice. But before Noah could start again Garth stopped him." I know punch air can get boring so I found this training dummy" he got up and walk towards the dummy
" I want you to hit certain parts of the dummy while punching. For now since you only know jabs and crosses I want you to aim jabs to the face and aim crosses to the chin and and cheek bone"
Now sufficiently motivated to beat the crap out of the dummy instead of the air Noah got to work.
As the day came to a close Garth had stopped Noah and sat him down on the ground. Looking at Noah he spoke" your doing pretty good for you first time you might have a knack for hand to hand combat. Anyways you look pretty tired so as the last part of our training session I will tell you about the two other techniques"
" The first one is to call a hook. It's a close range arcing punch that is very powerful. It is usually used to do damage to the body, arms, or head, while an uppercut is used for the specific purpose of knocking someone unconscious. Both these techniques are meant to be used at close range so they combo well with a well placed cross to the head"
Noah absorbs this knowledge while nodding his head. Then Garth announced " well this marks the end of the first day see ya tomorrow"without sincerity or seriousness he spoke these words then turned around and strolled back into the church.
A few minutes after Garth walked into the church Noah followed. Hoping to find a place to wash off all his sweat he roamed the hall of the cathedral. He eventually found the place he was looking for. A lone well out back of the church. Dumbfounded at what he saw he hesitantly picked up one of the buckets. inspected his surroundings for anyone watching, he hid behind a wall stripes and started to bathe himself.
After his less than pleasant improvised rinse he headed to the cafeteria for his final meal of the day. He lazily waited in line, got his food and ate while he fought Against the grip of sleep. Once done eating he hobbled to his room and collapsed on his bed dead tired from the day's activities.
The archbishop sat in his office nervously looking out his window then back to his desk. He's been nervous all day. He has not heard back from the guards about the escapee which means they have not caught him yet he could already be at the capital telling them about their utopia.
As of now he could do nothing but sit and wait for the news of an impending war or the capture of the escapee.