Anti Ancient Arts

 Eric pov

Straight thrust with a spear into my face. I dodge slightly while stepping closer and strike them in the stomach with my spear. He doesn’t dodge and I hit his thick-skinned clothing. My spear doesn’t pierce it. He staggers back a bit. I know it wasn’t strong enough blow to make any real damage, but they look at me with seriousness now. They didn’t think I would put up a fight, but I am prepared enough to win. I quickly glance at the audience one last time trying to find Lily, but she isn’t here. I can only see the same thick skulls shouting at the leader to beat me down quickly. He gets angry and charges at me again. Predictable movements and one direction of hitting. There is a reason why they can barely even hunt anything. I dodge it again and make the same strike but this time I aim at his legs that are unprotected. He screams in pain as the spear pierces his leg, of course it doesn’t go too deep but there is plenty of blood to show that it hurts. He punches me with his hand that he took of from the spear and I barely manage to hold onto mine. Truly a lot more power than I have. I get up to see him running at me while wildly swinging his spear from side to side. Truly like an overgrown child, but it is a move that is dangerous. It is hard to protect and while it is very inefficient it still holds enough strength to hurt me severely. I start stepping back and watch the spear swing about, I get used to the rhythm and then quickly charge into him. I hold the spears end with both of my hands and lead it into his chin with all my strength. He falls to the ground with a boom and he lays there motionlessly. The whole area descends into silence. I sit down on the ground and breath deeply. It was a struggle even though it didn’t last long. I have gotten way stronger than I was in the past, but I still have even longer path ahead of me to match the thick skulls. Even so I won since I can actually think as well, not just brainlessly use my strength. I look around and still no Lily. I get up and say strongly:

 

“I am the new leader now! Anyone who disagrees can fight me when they want but until you beat me you need to listen to my orders!”

 

They look at me with dissatisfaction, but no one speaks up. The village leader is the strongest person in the village so if I could beat him others shouldn’t have the confidence to fight me.

 

“You are clearly weaker than him, but you won, doesn’t really make sense for you to be the leader, right? Anyone of us is stronger than you.”

 

Axel spoke up, he is the previous village leader and he is getting quite old already. I am surprised that he would still be interested in the position. Maybe he isn’t, just wants more prestige and live his life happily as the retired leader.

 

“If they are stronger than me then we can always fight. Strength isn’t only about how heavy of a rock you can lift. It is about how strong of a beast you can kill.”

 

“Can you kill stronger beasts than us then?”

 

“I will show you all in the next hunt!”

 

They look at me with suspicion and with slight respect. I am sure that if I don’t prove myself in the hunt, they will start challenging me for the leaders’ position immediately. It is fine though since I am confident in my skills.  I am also confident on the cracked head Lily even though she is unpredictable.

 

I walk through the crowd and head to Lily’s hut; the small village is similar to what it is every day. The women are outside talking with each other while doing menial tasks like cleaning their huts, clothes or bone wares. Some are cooking as well in the centre of the village. There is only one pot to make food after all and everyone uses it alternatively. They greet me while I walk past and ask about how the fight went. I said to call me the village leader and they all gasped in surprise. One of the women that are cooking came to me and offered a piece of meat on a bone. It is cooked well, and it has a lot of meat on it. This is truly a difference in the treatment between the weak and the strong. I take it happily and thank Olga. I bite chunks of the meat as I get nearer Lily’s hut, I see it by the river on the right. It takes a while to walk there with the river and it is the hut that is furthest away from the village. I often worry about her safety, but she never did listen to me about it. Thusly my hut is near as well but a bit further away from the river. Partly because I don’t like the river and partly because she didn’t want me to be too close to her. When I mentioned that I wanted to protect her she was more adamant on me being further away so all I could do was put it further away. But I did build it behind the trees so she didn’t technically see the hut even though it was way closer than she would have agreed to. As I arrive next to her hut, I see the same as always hut again. The outside appearance is the same as everyone’s, but the inside is peculiar. I knock on the door as I have grown accustomed to. It usually isn’t a thing but she made a big deal about it so I can only follow what she says. Lily opens the door and I see her normal appearance, brown hair and eyes. Loose clothes and messy hair.

 

“Lily! Where were you? You missed the whole fight!”

 

“The ritual I have been performing from the morning got prolonged and I couldn’t afford to interrupt it midway.”

 

“How does that compare to my fight?”

 

“I will witness many more and much greater fights of yours. I am sure.”

 

“But this one was special, even if there are more special fights in the future, I still want you to be there for all of them.”

 

“The time cannot be turned back now. What are your plans now after the victory?”

 

“I will need to slay a great beast tomorrow in the hunt. I need your help in finding it so I hope you will join me.”

 

“Only if you give me the skin and the claws of the beast in trade.”

 

“Of course, I would be happy to give meat as well if you want it.”

 

“You know I don’t like meat. You will never convince me otherwise.”

 

“I will still always try. Also, I would want you to be there for my future special moments. As much as you can.”

 

“If gods allow.”

 

“Alright, want some meat? I got it from the old women of the village after I became the leader.”

 

“I will curse you if you don’t stop.”

 

“Oh yeah. Also do you want to do anything today?”

 

“I will just start preparations for tomorrows hunt, you should as well.”

 

“Be careful no matter what you do, I will just do my practise near my hut if you need me.”

 

“Sure, good luck.”

 

I nod and turn to walk towards my hut. The walk isn’t far and when I get to the trees, I turn around to see Lily’s hut again. I am usually worried about her because of her cracked head ways but she has lived through many things and gotten benefits from them, so It is hard for me to say anything against her ways. She is also stubborn so even if I say something she wouldn’t change. I got to my shabby hut and see how in bad condition it is. I never cared for it too much, I only go there to sleep and store some of my things. Most of them I hide around the forest anyways, so it isn’t that important. Especially since I can just sleep on the open area. Our village is in a nice hidden pocket because of the river and the mountain so there usually is never anything too dangerous here. Only after you cross the river can you start meeting the beasts that are strong.

 

I put the meat in the hut and take my spear with two hands. I start stabbing a tree near my hut that is still standing. One of my ways to get stronger is to stab trees with my spear. Eventually the tree goes down as I stab it long enough, I just switch to another tree then. It is long and monotonous, but it grows my will to have a strike powerful enough to go through the whole tree. The previous leader can almost do it. He would only need ten to twenty strikes to make a tree fall. I admire them for their strength but only that. Anything else they do is terrible. I keep stabbing the tree until I hear a cracking sound. It isn’t a normal occurrence, but it has happened before. My spear broke. It is only a crack, but I know I can’t keep using this spear. This usually happens when I strength gets big enough to go beyond what the spear can handle. I take care of my equipment and I use them properly.

 

I need better wood for my spear. I can use my old spear tip, but I need new rope as well. At least I don’t have to worry about the rope since I can get it from Lily. I need to venture into the thick forest by myself to find proper wood though. I should get to lily’s place right now otherwise she might disappear before getting to her.

 

I quickly start walking back to lily’s place and arrive faster than it took me to get away from her place.

 

I go to her hut and knock on her door again and wait a while. There is no answer which doesn’t tell much.

 

“Lily! Are you there?”

 

I shout but even after another while there is no response. Either she is passed out again or she already left her hut.

 

I look around and notice Lily coming from thick forest. I put up my hand as a greeting.

 

“Hello again!”

 

I say cheerfully.

 

“What happened, why are you here already?”

 

“I broke my spear, so I needed a new rope from you. You still have an extra one, right?”

“Let me check, what kind of rope do you even want? Lily said as she walked back into her hut.

 

“The same rope as before, it worked perfectly so there is no reason to change right?”

 

“If it worked perfectly why do you need a new one? They are not easy to make, you know?”

 

“The wood cracked, there was nothing wrong with the rope, but it still got ruined with the wood. The splinter of the wood messed up the rope.”

 

Lily searched through her storages and pulled out a long thin rope.

 

“It’s my last one. It will take a long time before I will have finished another one. Be careful with it or you’ll have to be begging for it in the village”

 

“From tomorrow on they would be happy to give me all the ropes I would want but I would still want yours since they are way better.”

 

“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. We don’t know how tomorrows hunt will go yet.”

 

“With you by my side there is nothing that can go wrong.”

 

“We will see.” Lily answered sceptically.

 

I take the rope and start walking back to my hut.

 

“Thank you for the rope.”

 

I say as I wave her goodbye.

 

I get to my hut again and place the rope there. I won’t take it with me for the wood getting journey. I will need my stone that is sharpened so I can cut down the tree when I find a decent one.

 

I take the meat from my hut as well since it can take a long time to get it. With a meat on my left hand and a rock on my right hand I take off deeper into the forest.

 

Lily often tells me to drink more water and if I go on longer journeys that I should take water with me, but I never understood how water could be more important than meat. I can even go by the whole day without water with no problems but if I went the whole day without meat, I would be hungry enough for it to bother my sleep.

 

Still I usually take water with me but this time I don’t have the time for it.

 

The forest already after walking a small while turned into a thick forest. The trees are close to each other and there are bushes and roots that are in the way. There are occasional plants and shrooms, some small animals and lizards but the most abundant thing are bugs. They love the crowdy forests and that is the main reason the villagers don’t want anything to do with the thick forests.

 

For me at first it was out of necessity afterwards Lily tried out different bugs and none of them were too dangerous. That was when we were children still.

 

So, as long as there is not a new type of bug, I am safe here no matter how disgusting it is to have webs on my face and bugs crawling around my body. Taking them away would only be a solution for a while until I am covered in them again.

 

After a long while of walking I arrive at the place where I previously got my spears wood from. It was a decent one, but I need better. The further in I go the harder it is to walk and the harder the trees get. There are also different kinds of species here. I start walking slower, I look around more carefully and try to see if there is anything dangerous around me. I also need to find the new tree. I pass by quietly of the few creatures I know but don’t want to mess with. They aren’t strong or hard to kill but they are just annoying. I quickly spot a new type of tree. The colour is darker than the normal trees, enough to make it look black. I circle around the tree and see only a singular creature on it. It is a black snake and I do not like the look of it. I could go further in to try to find a different tree, but I feel like it is more dangerous than fighting this snake.

 

I approach it slowly and see that the snake has put its head up as it looks at me.

 

As I get closer the snake starts hissing at me. This is the moment where it decides whether to run away or fight. I take one more step and the snake jumps at me instantly. I don’t want to take it on with my rock, so I smack it with the meat piece as it flies at me. The snake drops to the ground on my right but there are no injuries on it. It also felt heavy on my hand as I struck it.

 

The snake quickly tries to slither behind me, but I keep track of where it is. I move in closer since I don’t want to lose sight of it. The snake jumps at me again and I push its head on the ground with the meat piece. It is struggling fiercely but I keep it in place and start hacking at its neck with my rock. The scales are hard, and the rock doesn’t pierce the skin. The tail of the snake coils around my leg and starts to squeeze me, it stops my blood flow from my leg, so I need to finish it off quickly. I keep hacking at it and soon there is blood flowing from its neck. I keep going with all my strength until I get through the whole neck and the head stops struggling.

 

I quickly get the body that is squeezing my leg away from my leg to let blood flow to it again. I walk next to the tree and then sit down with it as the support. I start calming down my breathing and relaxing as I look around to see if any other creature would jump on me while I am weak. They don’t seem to do it. There doesn’t seem to be anything as strong as this snake around here.

 

After I am recovered, I look at the place where the snake was on the tree and see four eggs. This explains why it didn’t run away. At least partly.

 

I put them on the ground next to the snake with my meat and start hacking the wood with my rock.

 

It is a tough wood luckily. It is a bit tougher than what I would have wanted but when I make it, it will be the most durable spear I have ever had.

 

As I keep hacking it the place is getting even darker than it already was. The sun is going down.

 

When I finally finish cutting down the tree the place is very dim. Luckily the snake’s body is behind me, so I don’t need to worry about the tree falling on them. The crash from the tree as it falls down was softer than I expected. I try lifting the tree and it is very heavy. Which is surprising. Even normal trees are hard for me to lift but when we get to the tougher trees, I never was able to lift them. This tree must be light and tough making it perfect for making spears.

 

I go to my meat piece and start eating it as I recover my strength again. I can’t take the meat with me so I need to finish it now or eat as much as I can. The meat is still very delicious, and I enjoyed every last bit of it. The bone could normally be used for various things, but it isn’t too valuable.

 

I throw it to the side and stand up as I pick up the snake’s body. I wrap it around the tree and then I get the eggs gently to my left hand. I take the tree from the thin point of it and start dragging it behind me. It will be hard to move in past the trees, but I don’t want to stay in the forest as it gets pitch black.

 

I struggle with moving but by wiggling the tree and using a lot of force I manage to walk further and further away from the forest. The light got taken away completely so I have to walk now blindly. I know the direction though but at times I bump into trees, but it isn’t bad. The bigger problem is not seeing the tree behind and the trees around it, so it gets stuck more often and I cant see how to clear it so I have to go from one side to another and feel what helps.

 

After a long while of struggling it starts to get brighter a bit. The trees aren’t too thick anymore either. I am close to home. Soon I see the river and with that I know what direction to go to get to my hut. I quickly walk there and collapse next to it.

 

I made it back! It is the dead of night and everyone is already asleep probably but for me the night has only started.

 

I say while wanting to cry. I still have to cut the whole tree down into a piece that is perfect for a spear and then I should go clean up since I am incredibly dirty. Spider webs with various bugs on me mixed with the blood of the snake and splinters of the wood. I really wouldn’t mind a cleaning myself and then just going to sleep.

 

I get up and take the rock again with my weak hands. I put the eggs away into my hut before starting to hack away the bark from the tree. It takes me five hacks to get a piece of bark away. I want to get to the inner tree and get that as the spears handle. I don’t even want to think how long it will take but I keep hacking. My arms are hurting but I have to keep doing it or I won’t have a spear tomorrow.

 

The hunt starts in the morning so I can’t do it tomorrow no matter how fast I am. I quickly lose track of time and I focus on the hacking. I start finding better angles and it starts being more effective. After the bark has been cleared off, I keep hacking the normal wood until what is left is only the middle part of the wood. It is still a bit too thick, so I slim it down where I need and cut a big piece off from the tip. Now it is a proper size and it fits well into my hands. I would normally smoothen it out and make it perfect but now I don’t have the energy for it.

 

I take apart my old spear to get the tip and then I take the rope Lily gave me and tighten the tip to the spear. This is all thanks to Lily, before I made the spear by just the wood and then sharpening the tip.

 

I look at my finished spear and it is beautiful. Dark as black wood tied to a rock tip. I guess the most special part is the wood. I love it. The sun is starting to rise, and I know that if I went to sleep now, I wouldn’t wake up by myself for the hunt. I could trust that Lily would come to wake me up, but she is unpredictable.

 

Not in a bad way but anything can happen with her so I should make sure a bit more.

 

I walk with my spear sluggishly to her hut and then I lay down In front of her door. I close my eyes.