The boy named Jaworski suddenly looked a lot less sure of himself, but he moved to the front to stand before Sergeant Tower, who raised his staff diagonally in front of him, planting his feet. Jaworski matched their teacher’s stance, and Sergeant Tower nodded supportively. “You’re a quick study, Jaworski, great job! Everyone take a look at how he’s got his feet shoulder width apart, better to keep a firm stance. And holding the staff like that, he’s ready in case I go high or low. Nice one!”

“So are we done, then?” Jaworski said, flashing what was probably supposed to be a smug look to his friends.

“Ah, not quite yet,” Sergeant Tower said, then moved faster than Fort could even see. His staff struck out like a snake, spinning Jaworski’s staff into the air with one end before sweeping the boy’s feet out from under him with the other.

As the boy slammed into the floor, Tower spun his staff straight at Jaworski’s face, freezing it just inches from the boy’s nose, all in one smooth movement. “Lesson one,” the sergeant said. “Never take your eyes off your opponent!”

Jaworski stared up at the staff in terror, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. Tower grinned, then reached down and yanked the boy to his feet, hard enough to send him flying for a moment. “Still, a good first attempt! Now, after you’re fully trained, each of you will be given your own staff, and it won’t be wood. Yours will be formed of segmented steel, which will obviously be heavier, but—”

“Steel?!” one of Jaworski’s friends said. “Isn’t that dangerous?”

“Only for your opponents, when I’m done teaching you,” Tower told him. “And I’m glad to see we’ve got another volunteer for the next lesson too! Thanks, Johnson.”

Johnson groaned. “You’re welcome.”

“Now, as I was saying,” Tower said, twirling his staff around absently. “We’ll start with wooden staffs to get the techniques down, then switch to your school-provided segmented-steel staffs. Not only will the weight add force to your attacks and defense, but each segment will hold its own magic spell, I’m told. You’ll be adding those spells to your staff as you go, so none of them will be unfamiliar.”

Fort’s eyes widened. They were making their own magical staffs? Okay, that was kind of awesome. Suddenly this whole weapons practice thing made a lot more sense. Not only did it give them something to defend themselves with, but it also gave them an easy way to train on making magical items for the military, too.