Today was, already, Tristan's fifth day in the Vanyar City. Throughout his entire stay, he had always been heavily guarded despite the fact that the queen allowed him to roam around.
This 'favorable' treatment resulted in him always receiving an unnecessary amount of attention due to the number of people that were appointed to guard him.
Fortunately, amidst the unfortunate things happening around him, there were a few that brought a smile onto Tristan's face.
He has managed to reach the first stage of Katra, which should not be an easy matter to achieve. Tristan had, one way or another, felt more adept to his surroundings ever since then. He could see, hear and feel the area around him more clearly than before.
If Tristan's battle power previously gave him heightened senses that allowed him to see objects far into the distance - for example, a leaf currently falling from a tree tens of meters away; then this time he could somehow perceive the weight of the leaf and predict how far it would fly by the wind.
It was discernible that this Katra skill, which seemed to be the elves' innate ability, was a powerful thing - a one-of-the-kind matter.
Today, Tristan once again made his return to the Warrior Hall. he was expecting to learn more about Katra from Master Ortiz, and even hoped that he could improve his almost nonexistent, brutish unarmed combat capability.
But this time, a different master had waited in the Warrior Hall, slightly surprising him.
It seemed that all these masters received the same request from the queen to train him.
At the moment, Tristan was introduced by Serene to an archery master, a female elf with short blue hair. She looked gorgeous despite the unassuming garb-like clothes on her.
"Tristan, this is Master Tella. She will be your training instructor for today."
Tristan noticed that Serene seemed to have a better relationship with this master as she showed a few smiles here and there during the conversation.
Just like the previous one, Tristan would receive a private lesson from the female elf.
And as expected, he was immediately presented with a basic training of using bow and arrow. Looking at the unfamiliar bow and arrow, he was instead excited inwardly about what he was about to learn this time.
Maybe he could shoot someone from a faraway distance? Maybe he could make the arrows curve and turn in the air?
His illogical and ridiculous train of thoughts was quickly broken by a glare from Serene. From her, Tristan learned that this personal archery training was a very high privilege, one that the other Vanyar elves didn't easily get. Therefore, she urged him to take this seriously.
Upon hearing so, Tristan swiftly threw all the distracting thoughts in his mind and focused on the incoming lesson.
There were two types of bow that the elves generally used, the longbow and the shortbow. The shortbow seemed to be an optional training because it was considered to be the weapon of choice for short distance combat. Meanwhile, the longbow was a mandatory discipline that all elves had to learn as it was considered the highest level of archery and always needed in a battle.
It was explained to him that with the right formation and preparation, a group of elven archers with longbows could critically decide the outcome of a war.
After thinking it through, Tristan couldn't find much benefit of learning bow when there were guns as an alternative. Thus, he adapted an impassive expression when he heard this.
The previous excitement of learning archery died down as he followed this train of thought.
He recalled the sight of the flying ship, which was completely made of metal, destroying the dozens of barbarians with each of its weaponry bursts. Heck, the barbarians archers couldn't even do a single thing while all of that was happening. They could only watch as their brethren got blasted into smithereens.
Because of that, Tristan gradually became disinterested in the lessons and his mind drifted to firearms.
When Master Tella managed to fire a bullseye from a mile away, he thought of a sniper rifle.
When she shows fast multiple arrow shots, Tristan cant help to compare with the use of machine guns instead.
After this 'impressive' display, Tristan was eventually convinced in his thinking that bows were simply inefficient. The firepower, distance, rate of fire and number of shots a firearm could do was unmatched when compared to firearms. It was proven in the Earth's World War history as none were using arrows anymore.
Even so, Tristan tried his best to stay attentive to the lesson. Even though he thought there was nothing to learn, it wouldn't hurt to broaden his view. After all, learning weapons and combat techniques was still very exciting for him.
However, Tristan started to change his mind bit by bit the moment the second part of the lesson began.
Master Tella began to exhibit things that Tristan was sure a firearm couldn't do. A multitude of different trickshots.
The multi shot, where she mounted several arrows in the bow and managed to hit multiple separately placed targets at the same time.
The curved shot, where Tristan could clearly see the arrow going around the obstacle before hitting the target right in the middle.
The spinning shot, where the arrow shot managed to easily pierce through several thick tree trunks and even boulders.
At that moment, Tristan realized there was] something that just couldn't be replaced by firearms.
At the end of the demonstration, Master Tella took out an exquisite wooden box. When she opened it, Tristan could see a pitch-black bow and a quiver of silver arrows lying inside. He wasn't sure if this was just his feeling, but he could faintly sense a formidable aura coming from the two objects.
"This here, is an artifact bow." said Master Tella when she saw Tristan's gaze fixed on the contents of the box.
She took the bow and the quiver out of the box slowly. Her attitude was clearly showing the importance of this artifact bow.
Next, she spoke to Tristan, "Now, I will show you the prowess of archery."
Master Tella calmly took out a silver arrow from the quiver, placed it on the pitch-black bow, slowly pulling the string with all her strength until it reached its breaking point and the bow was bent. Then, she let go.
…
…
BOOM!!!
A deafening sound filled the area and a strong gust of wind suddenly blew as the bow finally released the arrow. A stream of silver crossed through the expanse before stopping at a massive boulder a mile away, obliterating it and the area around it into nothingness.
Tristan watched with his mouth open as the fired arrow casually carved a patch of land out of existence. It finally hit him, the differences between firearms and archery in this world.
The firearm had its own limitation, where it would stop at its technology barrier.
Meanwhile, archery could go beyond what a firearm could do, linearly with the skill level of the user.
Because of the spectacle, Tristan began to be more open-minded about it. He began to train in earnest - shooting a few arrows, understanding and adapting to the weight and strength of bows and arrows.
In the end, he learned that for elves to be considered good archers also depended heavily on their mastery of Katra. Expert elven archers would naturally shoot arrows with greater numbers and accuracy because their high level Katra helped them immensely.
[you have learned the basics of archery techniques]
At the end of the lesson, Tristan bowed to Master Tella, expressing his gratitude for her lesson.
Next, it will be time to see the blademaster.
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