Chapter 62 - Acid
While I wasn't intimately close with the art of battle, I was getting there. It was hard not to with all of the experience. My fighting form would probably be called wild and unrefined by anyone of greater skill, but it worked for what I needed it to.
I learned early that wild swings and unbalanced aggression was not the way to fight. Sure, it had its uses, but it wasn't the way to get better. Sometimes wild aggression was the thing that you needed in a fight and all offense could often work, but not for sustained fighting.
If I had one enemy it would be fine. Or even a handful. At the numbers I faced, not so much. There was only so much one person could do and fighting with a raging flame was a quick way to burn out.
A raging fire still had its uses, but a properly stoked flame was more useful right now. Sustaining the burn over a longer period of time for the most use. Experience and training added together with my Endurance increased the amount of wood to burn and allowed the fire to burn for longer.
Using a hammer was different than other weapons. It wasn't a sword to be used for slicing in refined art forms, nor was it a spear for quick stabs from range. Hammers were similar to axes in a way.
Axes were unbalanced weapons mostly used for attacking. All of the weight was at the axe head and it had to be used as such. Swords were balanced at the hilt. They would feel different in the hand and they had different ways to swing them.
Most swords at least. There were exceptions and different styles of blade, but generally, swords were better balanced. Hammers matched axes in this regard. The hammerhead held all of the weight.
While feints and different techniques were common with swords, hammers were more straightforward. Calling it straightforward was not calling it simple.
With base human abilities, there was only so much someone could do with a hammer of this size. Its size and weight made most moves impractical. Now, with stats, normal conventions went out the window.
With my strength, I could maneuver the hammer better than what normal people could and my stats were designed for it. Asking Austin to swing one around would be the same as giving me a rapier.
I could use it, sure, but it wouldn't leverage all of my abilities. My strength was what made it possible. Hammer swings weren't the all-attack that some people might think. It was a balance of sorts, swinging versus defending.
Keeping the hammer swinging could work, conserving momentum, but it had problems of its own. There were 4 feet of shaft to work with and it would be a waste not to use it.