"Longsword, broadsword, zweihander, throwing knives, long knives, crossbow, longbow," he says. "My specialty is sniping, but I don't believe you have rifles that advanced here yet."
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
"Wow, that's impressive," Bo nodded, putting a hand to his chin as he started to think. "I've tried my hand at most of those, but I've always felt more comfortable just using my magic. People always say weapons are an extension of yourself, but magic is like... already a part of you. It almost goes deeper than that, haha. Not to make to too philosophical or anything."
"It's an extension on a different level, I think," Kratzer says. "I don't use magic myself but my vampirism gives me something...similar, anyways. A weapon - a good one, if you've used it for a long time - is just natural to use because you've done it a lot, but abilities like that are more...ach, the word...visceral. A deeper part of you."
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
Bo pointed to him. "Aha! Yes. That! Good. That's a good word. Visceral. Hoho. I like that." He straightened up with his shoulders back, wiggling his eyebrows and putting a hand on his chest. "Makes me feel smart."
Somehow, in that moment, all the tension and the wariness and guardedness he felt faded, and for the first time in forever he flashed a wholehearted smile and a deep laugh, shaking his head. "I came looking for a demon and praying for a last chance into Heaven and this is where I end up...I expected this to be my last day in the land of the living," he chuckled. "Ah, Fate's a helluva a mistress, ain't she? I'm certainly glad I ran into you instead of someone else, Herr Bo."
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
Bo looked down at Kratzer, his smile growing big and his cheeks bunching up around his eye (and missing eye). "Awe," he waved a hand at Kratzer. "I'm glad I ran into you too," he said with a laugh. "You're a cool dude. I'm excited to see you throw knives around and see what you can do! I'm usually the person training people, so it's not often I get to just... fight for fun with someone, haha!"
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
Bo clapped his hands in front of him with giddy excitement. "Then I'm sure this'll be fun!" He began to hurry in his step, not really realizing he was doing so. "How long have you been fighting and gettin' good at it?" he asked.
"Oh, lord, I started learning to fight professionally when I was...fourteen, I think. So, over a hundred years. A hundred and fortyish? Fifty maybe?"
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
Bo looked at Kratzer with his mouth in an open "O" shape and a smile tugging at his lips.
"Seriously?" he asked with excitement. "I've been training for probably just a little over that. Probably closer to 170 years or something? I'm gonna be honest, I don't really know how old I am, so it's mostly estimating, but I grew up being taught how to fight. So I've been learning since... I dunno, I was a child."
His smile grew. "Me too! I was mostly self-taught, or my brother showed me what he picked up, and as a little kid I was better at stealing than fighting but I was a scrappy kid even before Aurick picked me up. I was a bit smaller than everyone else and we all had to fight for our resources so I learned fast."
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
"Oh dang! For me it was more uhh, my kidnappers taught me how to fight, haha. But they were actually kind of nice! It's weird! Like, obviously what they did was messed up but they were nice and helpful to my little socially stunted self! Haha!" He shrugged. "Anywho, I was a bit of a lanky kid 'til the magic stuff started kicking in. Then I put on muscle really fast. And I got beefy."
"Why'd they kidnap you and then teach you how to fight? They sound like...very bad kidnappers, if I say so myself," he says.
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
"Oh! No, no, like, you don't uh, understand. Like. I didn't know I had parents. I was so young I thought they were my family. And they did a decent amount of uh... shoot I don't know if you'd call it brainwashing, but like, I was convinced that was just how life was with them. They would inject me with dragon blood. I would go to training. I'd have meals. I'd learn how to read and write and stuff too. They were basically training me into their own little soldier."
He blinks. "D***, that's...scheisse, that sounds like something Boomslang would do. That's seriously ficked up."
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
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