Traveller Inceptio
48

Leishman had recovered quickly from the cowardly blow. The men knew they’d had to flee the scene. Police investigation would eventually track them to the Hyatt, but by then they were gone. Leishman had been only dazed, and as they read about their assailants online, they had no sympathy for any ruined football careers. In view of their training, Hunter thought the thugs were lucky to be alive.

Except for the ribbing Leishman received about his sore head, and the team’s excess baggage, their return to Welbeck was uneventful.

The months flew by as the teams’ education became more eclectic, and despite Hurley’s dire premonitions, the project hurtled along without letup. Language training took a solid three hours out of each day and they were to speak only Latin or Saxon. The competition was to be the most fluent with new grammar or quotations.

Though experienced medics, they trained to the level of Emergency Medical Technician, qualified for trauma wounds, emergency surgeries and even to deliver babies. They were also introduced to a more varied and challenging variety of weapons training. They spent a day with a Svebor expert from Serbia where they fought like traditional knights in a sport that included head-butts, stone throwing, and axe work.

One major change to their schedule was their long-anticipated introduction to sword training. A specialist named Harrison was recruited from a London Kumdo club. He had some notoriety in the Korean fighting art as he had supervised stunt work in a number of movies and some of the Game of Thrones’ fight scenes. Each of the team recognised one of the real obstacles in their training was how so many real fighting skills had become extinct. Sword skills had become more stylised to suit the needs of sport and their concern was how the skills had become too passive. How could a combatant trained in modern sword practices compete with a murderous Viking who was all too familiar with the practicality of killing?

After considerable research, the team eventually considered Kumdo as their training preference because it offered more freedom than the stylised Japanese fighting art of Kendo. To Hunter, the two styles looked similar, but when they began their training they soon made changes to suit their needs. Harrison obviously had no idea who they were, but within weeks the men became more than competent in attack and defence using the sport’s split bamboo training swords. McAlister wasn’t overly impressed, having labelled their sword training as useful, but little more than fancy dancing.

Harrison seemed somewhat daunted by the team’s overly aggressive bouts. They wanted to learn how to actually kill with a real sword. He often expressed how competing with bamboo swords was one thing, but to attack with real steel was too terrible to contemplate in this civilised age. Hunter found the training stimulating and satisfying. The men practiced their unarmed combat skills daily and he had gained deep respect and enjoyment in using the sword, even if it was bamboo, or as Hurley described it, a toy one. It wasn’t long before Parker pushed for the men to begin training with real swords.

Experts from German Long-Sword clubs were sourced and the men gained a greater appreciation on the use of long swords of the 1300s onwards, but these were not serious sword-fighters.

Hurley summed it nicely when they sent another specialist on their way: “These lads are good, and what they have to show us is fun, but it’s not going to help us when someone wants to kill us, is it? Look at them, they’re more like beer-loving historical role players than anything.”

Parker made the decision. “Stuff it! Let’s introduce shields. The smiths have been hard at it, so you lads are going to have to get used to things getting a little more realistic.”

Welbeck was soon assailed by helmeted warriors who busily attacked each other with weighted, dulled swords that clashed against real shields.

It was when Poxon broke a finger in one of these exercises that Parker made the rule that, in any weapon combat, they must wear the full Kumdo armour. Consisting of a mesh mask that also offered head protection, chest armour and armguards, and even reinforced gloves for their fingers, the armour became the uniform for most weapons combat. As a result, it ended up becoming even more vigorous and realistic. For a month, Poxon walked around with his finger firmly packed in white bandages. The fact it was his middle finger made his non-verbal expression even more poignant.

A constant source of amusement was their ongoing change in appearance. On a noticeboard was the photograph taken at the beginning of their training. Hunter smiled at how clean-shaven they looked. Now, with long hair that had grown lighter and a proliferation of luxurious moustaches, they Hunter smiled at how they barely resembled those men. What was more impressive was not so readily visible: their new expertise in unarmed combat and a fluency in the use of a knife, club, stick or staff. Their competency in Latin and Saxon language was coupled with newfound expertise in leatherworking, blacksmithing, brewing, and living off the land.

As Hunter and Hurley agreed, while training was enjoyable, it was still only a game.