[Unusual Predator] 4 – Training, Training, and more Training

Sitting within our quarters, I sat on my metal bed in a lotus position as I worked on fine-tuning the strings of my compound bow. I was one of the few in my group who opted to have a bow as a long-ranged option. I was by no means as strong or fast as my group's strongest and fastest, but I made up for it with intelligence and cunning. I proved my worth that way to the Teacher, and in her own words, she said, "You'll make a fine Forgemaster in the future!"

Forgemasters were the names of the Yautja who produced our ships and weapons and crafted everything Yautja needed and used in society. If I could prove myself as a Forgemaster, it would give me another path for my future. Forgemasters were...few in number but highly valuable to the clans. I desired to be both a Forgemaster and a hunter, as even fewer Yautja were both.

"What are you doing?" One of my brothers asked, standing tall as they stood before me.

'Prideful,' I thought to myself with a quick glance.

"Tunning the bow. It will make it harder to pull, therefore, better for strength, endurance, and dexterity training while also giving it a bit more punch," I explained.

"What else can you do?" the young Yautja asked, straight to the point.

'Is he...trying to scout me? Hmm. Wiser than the rest, that's for sure. Will be a good leader one day, though that would mostly depend on his leadership skills,' I thought to myself.

"I am training to become a Forgemaster," I answered, adopting the straightforwardness of the Yautja.

"Why?" The simpleton asked.

"Why not?" I asked in reply, leaving him silent.

"Fight me."

...

'I can't believe I agreed to this shit,' I thought to myself as I stood across from the young Yautja, training spear in hand while he stood across from me with his training wristblades. While I said 'training,' that did not mean they could not kill. It was survival of the fittest, after all, and our weapons were sharp and could kill, though there would be severe punishments if we killed our opponent in a spar. I believe that they did this to accustom us to pain and fear. At first, I wanted to train with only a few weapons, but I realized that each weapon had advantages and weaknesses. The main reason I chose to use a spear over another weapon in this bout was because of the reach and control it would give me over my opponent.

I had no choice but to accept the spar. If I declined, I would have been seen as weak, which would greatly limit my future and ruin some of my plans. 

Feeling many eyes on us, hoping to gauge our skills, I knew that I had to do my best. My opponent was larger and certainly stronger than me, no doubt, but I was faster. If he wanted to beat me, he would have to get close, close enough to use his wristblades.

We stood from one another, and abruptly, my opponent charged.

I waited, and waited...and once he got close enough, I feigned a jab of the tip of my spear and instead dropped to the ground, sweeping my opponent's feet and sending them to the ground. Before they could get up, I rushed forward, the head of my spear on their throat.

"Yield," I stated with a calm expression.

My opponent growled angrily but didn't push his luck, yielding and securing my victory.

Pulling my spear back, I reached out with my hand, offering him help to get up. 

He obviously smacked my hand away, leading me to chuckle a bit, knowing full well he would be too prideful to accept help of any kind, but foolishly, he has put himself in my sights, and I am not going to let him go now.

"What is your name?" I asked as he climbed to his feet.

"Yo-Ahn'ha," He answered.

"Yo...han...ha?" I asked, bewildered.

"No. Yo-Ahn'ha," the Yautja corrected me.

To me, his name was just a bunch of clicks and hisses, forming a word in the Yautja language that would be somewhat difficult to pronounce in any other language.

"Nice to meet you, brother," I chuckled before stepping back, "Are you ready to go again?"

He growled but stepped back as well, raising his wristblades, "You won't get me that dirty trick this time!" he shouted.

Nodding, I raised my spear and launched myself forward with a burst of speed, forcing him to block the attack or get stabbed with his wristblades.

Hearing the screech of metal on metal as he used the wristblades to slow and lock the tip of my spear in place, I wasted no time and let go, surprising the Yautja as I lunged forward, grappling onto his body before he could react and tossing him over my shoulder.

I stomped on his chest, making sure to knock the air out of him before quickly grabbing my spear from the ground and pointing it to his throat, "Yield!" I shouted.

He was unskilled, and while I was by no means trained, I'd spent enough time on social media in my past life to see some martial arts moves, though my techniques were likely full of problems. I may be skilled to my fellow young Yautja, but they'd quickly overtake me in terms of skill and experience over the next couple of years, if not decades. That's why I needed more experience. 

When he yielded, I backed up again, waiting for him to climb to his feet.

"Again!" I shouted, feeling strangely excited about the battle to come. I felt my heart pump harder and harder, speeding up as we both prepared to clash again and again, we did.

We sparred for hours, switching the weapons we fought with every now and then, but eventually, while our minds wanted to keep going, our bodies were at their limits as we panted and struggled to move anymore. We both returned to our quarters and slept before meeting once again in the morning and doing it all over again.

This was an opportunity I could not pass up, and with each session, our skills increased bit by bit as we were forced to adapt constantly.

Something I noticed was that he preferred close-quarters combat, preferring weapons like Wristblades, Schimitars, Quarterstaffs, spears, and similar weapons. Personally, I didn't have a preference, but I learned to use as many as possible.

Before long, I trained with him for over a year, greatly improving my skills in combat, though nowhere near the level of our Weapons Master who could kick both of our asses. That's right, about once a week, we would team up together and challenge the Weapons Master, mostly as a way to see where we stand and to measure how much we've progressed.

While Yo-Ahn'ha spent all day training or sparring with me, I continued my lessons with both the Weapons Master and the Mother Clan Teacher, learning everything that I could from them, which seemed limitless. The Mother Clan Teacher always had something new to teach me, whether it be history, more about our culture, stories, or basic mathematical skills and sciences the Yautja used.

The history was interesting, and learning more about our culture was interesting. Personally, I enjoyed the stories the most, as both the Mother and Father clans seemed to document their stories well and extensively. They had thousands of stories of the hunts, clan wars, and more of our two clans. I ended up having to drag Yo with me for some of the lessons, as I wanted him to actually learn something.

As he was, he would not survive long in any survival scenario. He does not know how to hunt, trap, or track; he only knows how to fight. I was hoping to take him on as one of my teammates in the flooding ritual we would need to take to officially be considered adults. Though for that, we'd also have to find a third member, one who'd be skilled enough to join us on taking the flooding ritual much earlier than usual. If possible, I'd like to become blooded before I am fifty years old at the latest and thirty years old at the earliest. 

However, everything changed in the tenth year of my group's training. Our Weapons Master gathered us with the Mother Clan Teacher.