Cain looks at Samael with annoyance.
"That's ridiculous."
Samael looks at Cain,cofuzzled. What's wrong with his motivation? Everyone wants complete freedom. His motivation isn't malicious or evil either.
"What's ridiculous about it?"
Cain sighs at Samael.
"It's not the 'why' that's ridiculous, it's the fact that you say it's your why that's ridiculous. When people think about why they hold their weapon, they feel it in their souls, their hearts beat faster, and they focus in. Their reasons move them. When you told me that load of horseshit, nothing changed. You're either lying to me, or you don't know your reason."
Cain shrugs his shoulders nonchalantly and signals for Samael to go back to his training regimen.
"Then how do I find my reason, or how do I tell if whatever that reason is even real?"
"I dunno"
Samael sighs and walks back onto the path with disappointment. Samael stops him.
"Hey! I'm tired of those bitter baby plants from the path. Go deeper into the forest, the older and sweeter ones have a little wood on their stems."
Cain throws an illustration of the plant he described to Samael. Samael then proceeds to the forest, where he encounters an abundance of the stems Samael described.
"Let's test the waters before I do anything crazy."
Samael squats and begins an attempt to pull the plant from the ground. It feels almost twenty times as hard to pull it out. It feels like the first time he pulled out an excalidrake, but twenty times worse. His muscles burn, and he feels like all of his training and workouts so far were useless if he once again couldn't pull out a damn plant. After about half a minute, he hears the ground begin to rip and something flies out. It's hideous to him, a larger excalideake with claw-like hands and plant-like wrist blades. Not to mention it's a lot more spikey than the younger ones, with vine-like thorned roots running across its body.
"This thing has to go."
Samael rushes towards the abomination of a plant and attempts to overwhelm it with a flurry of slashes. Unfortunately for Samael, the older ones are much more agile. The dumb plant prepares the signature drill attack that the younger excalidrakes used, and Samael smirks as he prepares his counterattack. But it was a feint, the excalidrakes wraps one of its vine-like tendrils around Samael's leg, then pulls rapidly. This causes a medium-sized cut on Samael's calf. These plants are faster and even smarter. Even worse than that, the frown the excalidrake has. It's starting to look like a smirk.
"That thing is dead."
Samael rushes towards the plant while being filled with rage, but as he takes his next step, he feels an extreme pain in his lower leg that stops him in his tracks. Samael grits his teeth and continues his charge while sending a flurry of desperate slashes. The excalidrake easily dodges Samael's sad excuse of an attack and retaliates with a barrage of whips and slashes from its vines. The excalidrake circles around Samael, even though the things can't talk and have a single expression. It's undeniably amused by Samael's struggle.
Samael feels sharp pains all around his body. His muscles are contracting; those vines have a poison that causes muscle spasms. The excalidrake, now confident in Samael's incapacitation, prepares to finish him off. It jumps into the air and begins its signature spin attack. Samael takes advantage of this; he grits his teeth and aggressively thrusts his spear into the excalidrake. He faints shortly after his attack.
Samael wakes up next to a campfire. And as he turns his head, he sees Cain laughing up a storm. At the same time, mimicking him in an exaggerated voice.
"I would never lose to a plant!"
Cain wipes his tears and slowly regains his composure.
"Guess you're too good to dodge now, huh? Don't beat yourself up; it's a lesson we all have to learn the hard way. Well, not all of us. It's implied, you know? If something dangerous is coming towards you, you move out of the way. So I guess that's just a you thing."
Samael gets up with frustration clearly plastered on his face.
"You know what you-"
Cain smacks Samael across his face, and he passes out shortly after.
"Get some rest, kiddo."
Samael wakes up feeling a lot better and well rested. He slowly gets up, keeping the fear that his body might act up again. As his eyes adjust to the environment, he sees Cain leaving the fire.
"I hope you enjoyed your slumber. You should be able to move fine now."
Samael yawns and approaches the fire.
"I've had better naps, but I bet you slept like a baby, as you always do."
Cain grins at Samael while wiping the drool from his mouth.
"When you get to my age, maybe you'll learn to appreciate sleep as much as I do! HMPH, I'm gonna get a good stretch in, something you should do, or else you'll have bad knees when you're older."
Caine giggles and grins.
"If you're lucky, you might learn something, maybe you'll learn how to dodge. You know where to find me. Next to the river, as always."
Samael follows behind Caine, and he's met with a terrifying sight. It looks as if Ciane is trying to dance, and it isn't pretty. He's doing a series of spirratic movements.
"Please stop. Aren't you a little too old to be dancing like that?"
Samael comes to a sad realization, and he slowly approaches Cain and gently grabs his shoulder.
"You're blind, so you could never tell if you were good at dancing or not. No one ever had the heart to tell you. Cain, I'm sorry that you have to hear this from me, but... I don't think dance is your calling."
Cain stares blankly toward Samael. He swiftly smacks Samael in the face. As Samael is about to retaliate, he stops and thinks about the morality of assaulting someone who is blind and missing an arm, and he also remembers how quickly Caine almost removed his arm.
"You idiot, I'm not dancing. This is called footwork. You really are clueless."
Samael has heard the term footwork, but it was very briefly mentioned in the books he read.
"Could you elaborate?"
Cain sighs before explaining.
"Alright, listen closely, because I'm only explaining this once. Footwork is how warriors maneuver and move during battle. Like a movement manual but for fighting. What you just witnessed was a soldier's footwork, better known as the five-star movement technique. It's the most basic of movement techniques, which is taught to soldiers, and one of the first things academy students learn how to use and counter."
Samael listens and quietly writes the information down. Cain gets into a strange stance and begins to demonstrate.
"The technique has five basic movements; the first two movements are for offense. The first star is a powerful burst forward towards your opponent, and the second star is a quick, pivotal movement behind your opponent. The other three stars are used for evasion; the third star is a powerful burst backward, and the fourth star is a multidirectional burst of movement to your sides. And the fifth star is an extreme speed, minimalistic movement with the intent to leave an afterimage. Most people don't master the technique to that point and just use it as a quick last-minute dodge. And no, I won't be showing you the aftermath of the fifth star, not because I can't, but because I don't feel like it."
"Now you give it a shot."