AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.
“Ready yourself.” Instructor Greyham said as he pointed his wooden sword at in a casual stance.
Once I ready myself, he dashes towards at almost superhuman speed. It is slightly slower than Dad dashing at without aura, but if I compare their ages, Instructor Greyham is extrely spry for an oldtir.
I raise my sword to ready myself and anticipate the incoming strike, but that is when Instructor Greyham raises his sword in a totally impractical stance that I have never seen before, like so weeb who bought this first katana.
His blade was in front of his face, covering his eyes… how am I supposed to take soone who does that seriou- “GAHH!!!”
As I was wondering what Instructor Greyham was doing, a bright light flashed from the front of his blade, blinding . The only thing I was able to do was to bring my guard close into my body as I closed my eyes tight from the pain of getting flashed.
Next thing I knew, I felt a strong whack to my wooden sword that almost disard , but I caught my sword and took a wild swing in the direction I thought the attack ca from but hit air, and then I felt my legs get swept out from under as the blunt tip os a training sword t my shoulder.
As I was blinking the spots out of my vision, I found myself on my ass with a wooden sword pointed at my neck.
“Again.” Instructor Greyham said as he turned around and walked back to his starting position.
I got back on my feet, now more wary of magical trickery, but seeing what Instructor Greyham did to get the better of , I kind of grasped an idea of what he was aiming for, he was being tricksy.
Once again, Instructor Greyham charged at , but this ti he charged in while using sothing I had only read about. Single-handed gestures to help speed up the casting of spells he could not purely ntally cast.
In the blink of an eye, he was done with his preparation and outstretched his off-hand in my direction, and a haze of darkness crept toward and blocked my line of sight on him. The only way I could tell where he was, was his barely audible footsteps that told he changed directions and was coming at slightly off from his last seen approach.
I imdiately jumped backward to avoid fighting in the dark haze and heard the woosh of his sword barely miss my chest. As I jumped back, I ntally cast a first circle wind spell to blow away the haze, but when my wind spell ca in contact with the creeping haze… nothing happened.
Does that an this haze is pure darkness? I hold a hand above my head and cast the sa flash spell Instructor Greyham flashed with.
The mont my first circle light spell flashed, the dark haze was blown away, to reveal Instructor Greyham was hiding in a thin part of the dark haze I thought he could not fit in, and that he was too close for comfort.
In response to revealing his position, Instructor Greyham casts a first circle wind spell, but not at , he did it to the ground a couple of ters in front of , kicking dust up at .
I quickly countered with my own first circle wind spell to avoid dust being blasted in my eyes, and as I was lowering my hand from casting the spell, Instructor Greyham burst through the clash of wind and dust as he raised his sword to strike .
With no ti to put both my hands on my sword, I raised my sword in my right hand over my head and braced the tip of the wooden sword on my left shoulder, just in ti for the blow aiming for my shoulder to hit my sword and slide off, but even if I defended against the blow, I was still thrown off balance due to the weight difference in the force that could be applied.
As I stumbled to the side from the blow, I decided to make use of my side stumble to jump to the side, did a roll, and got into a sprinting position, from there, I pushed off the ground towards Instructor Greyham and t him blade to blade.
Knowing I would not be able to do anything to overpower him without aura, and even though it was not said, I knew that overpowering my opponent was not the moral of the lesson, instead of manifesting my aura, I grabbed Instructor Greyham’s main sword arm and cast a first circle Spark spell.
This made Instructor Greyham spasm and threw off of him with the sheer strength of his arm.
I went flying a good five ters before hitting the ground and rolling for a bit, and as I stopped rolling, Instructor Greyham sounded out, “Well done.”
By the ti I got up to reorientate myself, one of the healers was already at my side checking on my condition.
“Did all of you see how I fought? This is how you can fight to take advantage of weak spells to greater effect and provide openings to attack your opponents.” then he turned to , “Nice last move there Ironcrest.”
One of the boys raised his hand, and when he was allowed to speak, he asked, “Sir, what was nice about the last move? He grabbed you and you sent him flying.”
Instructor Greyham nodded and turned to , “Ironcrest, explain what happened when you grabbed .”
After telling the class that I cast the Spark spell and shocked him, Instructor Greyham took over, “None of you saw it because we were in direct contact, but shocking an opponent is a very effective way to incapacitate an opponent. Was I much weaker and he continued shocking , I would have been wide open for him to strike with his sword. And even with how it currently played out, I was vulnerable for a few seconds, a few seconds that I could have caught an arrow or spell to the face in a real fight.”
After he was done explaining, another hand went up, this ti it was so kid from a martial house from the look of his coat of arms, “Sir, are we to learn to fight like that? It kind of looks like the way thieves and other… less savory people fight, without elegance or honor.”
Hearing this Instructor Greyham gave a sowhat disappointed shake of his head, “Yes. That is because it works… if you are having a one-on-one dual in front of more polite company where you are more likely to survive, sure, by all ans, fight with elegance or honor… but outside of that, let assure you, you will be given no such luxury. When you enter the real world and find yourself in a fight to the death, nothing is off the table, eye gouging, aiming for the groin, poisons and hidden weapons, you na it, they will be used if your opponent wants to live another day.
What we have been teaching you in basic swordsmanship for the last four years is how to handle your sword, what I am teaching you in this class is how to apply it along with your magic, but most importantly, how to survive. Can’t swing your sword if you are dead, can you?”
From there, Instructor Greyham taught us when and how to best use first and second circle spells to cover our approach or retreat, and how to use them to open up our opponent for follow-up action.
After that, we were given so ti to practice so quick-cast spells of our choice, followed by letting us spar against Instructor Greyham and his assistant instructors to finish the lesson off.
User Comments
0 comments from readers