Combat Lesson

[Seth Judkins]

Seth made his way to the combat station where a variety of weapons were lined up on silver racks, but he didn’t take any of them. Seth instead headed for the simulator and selected an option where holograms of enemies would appear and attack from a distance.

Seth began stretching to loosen up and calm his nerves. Hopefully someone had seen his messages. He really wanted to see what the other tributes were capable of.

[Ayla Farrow]

Ayla walked into the combat session as well. She saw Seth fighting with a variety of holographic fighters. Ayla jumped right in, aiding Seth rather than attacking him. She programmed the simulator to double the attackers. She felt at ease as she kicked left, and hooked right bending as necessary to avoid the holographic blows. It was just like fighting in the streets with the boys at home... except for the fact that her opponents weren't real here, nor were they as clever. Nevertheless, she enjoyed putting on a show for whoever was watching. It felt great to be fighting again.

[Derrick Voss]

Derrick walked over to the combat section and saw a couple of familiar faces.

"Mind if I join you guys? I don't know about you, but I would rather spar with a real person. If you don't though I suppose I could try using an ax for something other than cutting down a tree," Derrick said, breaking out into a grin.

He walked over to a simulator with a couple of axes and sparred with the holograms before throwing the axes into a couple of targets. During down time him and some of his coworkers liked to throw axes, but it was always just for fun.

[Seth Judkins]

Seth was relieved to have someone join them at the combat station.

"Of course you can join us! We were just about to run a few drills."

Seth showed Ayla and Derrick the formations he had learned in the academy. He taught them how to fight back to back when surrounded and how to provide covering fire and move efficiently across the battlefield. He also gave a demonstration on how to use an attacker's own force and weight against them. This was a specialty of Seth's since he could no longer use his own legs to get much leverage.

Seth coached intensely, much like his own instructors did.

"Make sure you're communicating! Call out the enemy positions! Move on three!"

He worked Ayla and Derrick as hard as they would allow him to and at the end of the day he felt more confident in his ability to lead a squad.

[Anton Schuhmacher]

Anton entered the training center and b-lined towards the spear at the combat station. It felt very familiar to him and he began to warm up with the holograms. With the long bladed stick swinging all around him, it seemed very difficult to get close to him. Holograms were easy though, compared to sparing with a real tribute. He approached one of the trainers to battle.

After many rounds of both winning and losing against the instructor, Anton was able to learn different ways to use his naturally athletic build to learn some new moves and catch his opponents off guard.