After a stout drink of water to sustain him, as well as a bit of gnawing on a bit of bread one of the others offered to him, Noth felt right as rain to continue. Soon enough, Max called him back to continue the grueling exercises.
"Alright, listen up. The way I see it, the only time you'll ever have to throw your kukri is in one of three situations. The first is: if your trying to stop someone running towards you. And the second is if your trying to stop someone running away from you."
"So what's the third situation?" Noth asked snarkily.
"I'm getting to that. Hold 'yar horses. Nothie Boy. Yar acting like one of me brood and I want to drown those. Remember?"
"Yeah I remember, sorry. And hey, thanks for showing me this.""I ain't doing it for free , I'll be learning something else myself from Renaldo. Same as you did yesterday. Now where were we?"
"The third situation.""Yeah, Okay, the third situation is simple. It's when your fighting one opponent and dispatch him and then turn towards another to throw your knife, whether they're running at you or away from you. I would only throw that sixteen inch knife if you really have to slow someone down though. I know I wouldn't want anyone running off with a blade like that in them which was mine."
Noth nodded and smiled, thinking of how delaying someone with a tossed blade might prove useful to let him draw his gladius. As an archer, no, as someone of his former job description, he thought in the value of a graduated defense. Hitting the enemy hard at range, and successively stopping them from getting close to you with various methods. Finally hand to hand combat with weapons or hand to hand being the last defense.
For that, Max's suggestion made perfect sense.
"So what would you want me to do to train for that?"The other man scratched his head a moment. "That's a very simple answer, and a hard one to put into practice, with the idea of using the knife's making to your advantage. The construction of the heavy blade in momentum with the flip technique already helps user to inflict deep wounds and to cut through muscle and bone. And the only part of the knife to hold it by is the hilt. You actually toss it like a hatchet, or with the hilt in the no-flip method dependant on how close your enemy is. The blade itself does most of the work, and has adequate penetrating power against armored enemies. It can even get an inch or three into steel if thrown hard enough, and can easily behead someone if you need it too."
"Okay, so what do you want me to do here?" Noth queried.
Max sighed, "After you practice a few steady stance throws. Take a few combinations on the training post, then turn and run the few paces to the throw line of the target blocks. This is the only way I think of to help you out. After that, we're done for the day and getting back to the real work!"
Noth nodded a moment, and then set to work. He threw his kukri several times towards each of the multiple target blocks set up, hitting his target with few bouncebacks. After working through both techniques, he realized it was time to get in a little applied practice on the third scenario.
Marching over to the training dummy he assumed the fencer's stance and began working through several slices, thrusts and jabs, targeting the vital points against an imaginary opponent. Switching his hands from the hammergrip, to the ice pick and to the reverse he doggedly continued on, cut after cut. Slice after slice. Thrust after thrust. Stab after stab. Each time the feel of his kukri on the wooden target dummy sent reverberations down his arm, but he didn'st stop practicing. After each combination that ended in what would be a successfull killing blow, Noth turned and ran towards the targets, throwing in the middle of his running movement. It was dreadfully hard, and downright difficult to do properly dispatch a target, turn and find a new one, aim, throw, follow through on the release. The first eight times he did so were met with the failures of off target knives, and bouncebacks. But the ninth clearly stuck itself into the target block with a hail of splintery debris as his reward.
By now the rest of the woodsmen were watching him, and under their ever present gazes Noth continued the grueling regimen until his arms were sore and tired. Finally, after about fifty throws with his kukri, his time was up, and everyone was called back to the yard. Not Noth though, like the days before he was stuck cleaning up the sawdust from the targets and putting it in the barrels. The ranged target blocks were gone for good, battered and chipped beyond all use, so Big Herb instructed him to take an axe to their posts.
Noth felled them like he would a tree, coming with a side swing to split the mast. Afterwards he was instructed to split the remaining wood into as many pieces as possible. So he did, exactly in the same way he was shown to chop firewood. Every single action in the yard, be it work or play, seemed to go towards completely each new task, building upon the skills of the last.
Finally when walking towards the target post they'd set up first, Big Herb told him to leave it until it fell on its own. The lunch breaks would be a little less in time from now on but the idea of practicing for those who wanted to spend a bit of time would remain. Under Herb's direction he gathered all the splintered wood, and the now filled sawdust barrels in the wood shed and was told to come back the next day for the paper making process to begin.
A small weary smile graced his lips as Antar realized their sole purpose for having fun was complete, and that tomorrow, he'd be learning a valuable new skill. Thinking there was a bit of time before sunset he grabbed his bow and mounted his horse to head back to Sunberth proper. Keeping his eyes peeled as Dawstride walked past the greens of Aggrammon's South fields he spotted a luckless rabbit hopping towards a farmer's garden before staying still long enough to test the air with its nostrils.
Noth dismounted and drew an arrow, and cautioned himself on doing everything right. The knocking of the arrow, the pre-draw, the aiming as he drew back on the bow, adjustment for the wind and a bit of exhalation and re-aiming before the final release.
The luckless rabbit ended up in the pot later, after Antar returned to camp, fed and watered his horse and brushed her down. For a little while after, Noth tended the camp chores and whittled a bit, scraping at a stick he'd been working on before he turned in for the night. It had been a long day, and the next would be just as long.