Shortly after his 10th birthday, barely before the sun had risen, Cass was shaken awake by his father.
'Wake up, son, we have a long day today. Get changed, grab some breakfast, and bring it outside.
Cass immediately climbed out of bed and put on the simple items of clothing that Beatrice the maid had laid out for him the night before, dark pants which were starting to get a little small for him, and a black tunic.
He put on his leather boots, walked down to the kitchen, and helped himself to some of the food that was waiting on the table. Wheat gruel, a bread roll with cheese and ham, and some bacon on the side were his choices for the day.
After collecting it together, he walked outside to be greeted by his father and Marcus.
'Morning, lad,' said Marcus as he ruffled Cass's hair. 'There will be no martial training or academics today, but you cannot slack off! First, you will observe me and your father, and then you will accompany him for his day. Understood?'
Cass was a little confused at first, as he had never been forced to wake up this early or accompany his father in any of his daily outings. He tilted his head slightly as he looked at Marcus, who was carrying two wooden swords in his hands.
'Me and your father are going to spar for you, so watch closely!'
'Got it,' replied Cass, who had finally realised what was happening. He sat down at the outdoor table in the back yard of the manor, and placed his gruel on the table before taking a big bite out of his ham and cheese roll.
He watched as Marcus returned to a space in the garden and turned to face Lucius. Lucius was carrying a sword that appeared to be far larger than either of Marcus' twin swords, and he quickly realized it was a wooden zweihander.
The men bowed to each other and settled into their stances. Cass, having never seen his father or Marcus go all out, was excited. Usually, when they sparred, they walked off towards the foot of the mountain, 5 miles north of the village, so that nobody could observe them, but today was different.
Marcus initiated the spar by throwing a rock into the air and waiting for it to hit the ground. Immediately, both Marcus and Lucius vanished from Cass' eyesight, and the two reappeared instantly in the center of the gap that originally existed between them.
CLACK!
The noise from the collision of blades was louder than anything Cass had experienced so far in this world, and he could have sworn he felt a slight breeze passing by his ears. Marcus' blades were positioned like an X at head height, while Lucius' zweihander was bearing down from above.
Marcus grinned, stuck out his tongue, and launched a vicious front kick while still resisting the vertical strike from the zweihander. Lucius managed to avoid the kick by pivoting and stepping slightly to the side, using the momentum of Marcus's strike to follow through and force the twin blades down, and then resetting for another strike by manipulating his wrist and the second pommel of the sword. By the time he was set into his new stance with his sword horizontal at head height, Marcus had already jumped a few feet away from him, readying his twin blades for another assault. The whole exchange had taken less than 5 seconds.
The bread roll, which was in the process of being chewed by Cass, fell out of his gaping mouth and onto the floor in a sloppy mess. Cass was astonished! He knew that magic was a very real thing in this world, but he never knew that humans could surpass their physical limitations to the point that their movement could not be tracked by the naked eye.
He had just witnessed, in the flesh, something which in his previous world was relegated to entertainment media.
'Are you ready for the second phase of the demonstration?' Lucius asked with a raised voice
'Bring it,' came Marcus' reply
After a slight tremor, the earth around Marcus' feet began to rise and float around his body. It appeared as though he was surrounded by a swarm of insects, when really, they were just small pieces of dirt. Marcus brought his right sword back and extended his left arm forward, almost the same stance a bowman would use, and the dirt around him started to divide and collect into 7 groups.
At first, they were large, loose balls of dirt, however, they continued to get smaller and smaller until they were no bigger than the size of golf balls. After only a few seconds, the loose dirt on the ground had turned into 7 floating balls of compressed, hardened dirt. Marcus slid his front leg to the back and swapped which of his arms was extended and which was pulled back.
With the chant of 'earthen missile', the 7 dirt balls scattered outwards in all different directions, and then started to make their way towards Lucius with blinding speed.
Lucius parried one of the dirt balls, not by swinging his sword, but by simply slightly changing the angle he held it, using the zweihander's second pommel as a lever. The first and second dirt balls bounced off the wooden sword with an echoing CRACK, and Lucius again disappeared from Cass' line of sight, reappearing a few metres away in an instant.
The dirt balls changed direction and followed him, scattering outwards first to once again converge on Lucius' location. Lucius skillfully parried and swatted away the remaining 5 dirt balls while continuing to disappear and reappear a short distance away.
The wind around Cass' ears once again began moving, however, it was quite clear that it was rushing towards the blade of his father's sword, where several streams of air converged to form what appeared to be a small cyclone enveloping the blade.
Lucius swung the sword diagonally and released the skill with the chant of 'wind blade', and a distorted blade of wind flew towards Marcus, who tried to parry it with his off-hand sword, only for the wooden sword to be cut cleanly in half.
'Ah, let's stop here. Sorry, I shouldn't have used a wind skill with wooden blades; that was impractical for this sparring.' Lucius returned to a relaxed standing position.
'No worries, we can remember that for next time.' Marcus mirrored the gesture, also taking a relaxed pose.
After bowing to each other once more, they both turned to look at Cass, and his father started to speak.
'So, what do you ...'
Before he could even finish his sentence, one of the dirt balls he had previously deflected came flying from the direction of the manor, directly behind Cass, and slammed into his father's face, breaking into small pieces after colliding with the bridge of his nose. This was immediately followed by a lioness' roar!
'Bastard! What the hell was that all about?'
Turning towards the source of the raging individual, he saw his stepmother, Adeline, stomping in the direction of the two men, with a beet-red face, followed by his mother giggling with a groggy look in her eyes.
The pair were still in their night clothes and had just been woken up by the commotion of the spar. Adeline was fuming as she marched over to her husband.
'Why the hell are you doing this right next to the house when the sun has barely risen, me and Liz gave you a proper servicing last night to help you fall asleep easier and be able to wake up fresher, so that you could show off to Cass during this glorified dick swinging contest of yours, and you repay us by launching a fucking dirt missile through the open window into the bedroom, scaring us shitless while we are still asleep!'
Marcus tried to apologize 'My lady Adeline, I am sorry about....'
He was quickly cut off, but Adeline's reply was as sweet as honey.
'Don't trouble yourself, Marcus, you are hardly in a position to refuse the request of a noble who pays your salary, even if that particular noble is a small-brained barbarian with no sense of courtesy towards the two wonderful wives he managed to snag for himself despite them being far out of his league. Please do not apologise, I am sure that even with his underdeveloped brain, the noble lord will think of a way to quell the rage of the two princesses he keeps caged inside his house. His skills for deflecting earthern missiles away from open windows may be lacking, but, I am sure he can make up for that by showing his son how to treat an enraged loving wife who stayed up later than usual to help her husband despite being exhausted from managing the domain that is supposed to be his responsibility!'
Cass could only stare open-mouthed as his step-mother chastised his father, but then he felt a warm hand on his shoulder and realized that his mother was hugging him from behind.
'Good morning, son. Today, your father is going to take you with him so that you can learn some things you will need during adulthood and when you take over the village. Now that you are ten years old, you are going to see and hear things that you were never exposed to when you were younger. Try your best and don't hesitate to ask for support if you need it. She then kissed him on the top of his head and turned to look at the scene happening in front of her while continuing to hold her son from behind. 'Oh, and let this be a lesson to never irritate your step mum hahaha'
'Yes, mother, I understand'