Chapitre 29: Sparring Match [2]
"Lord Carl, this is a sparring match. I have no intention of killing Lord Carl."
"…!"
Only after hearing those words did Carl realize that he was considering this a battle, not a sparring match.
And Carl also knew why he hurriedly retreated after attacking once. After the attack was blocked, he chose to retreat to defend himself, as he had not learned how to defend himself and attack his opponent.
Catherine saw Carl's passive movements and saw through them, and told Carl what to do next.
Teaching linked movements directly to a sickly Carl who couldn't even master the basics was originally considered a taboo.
This is because if Carl develop a strange habit, he could lose his life the moment he wake up.
Nevertheless, Catherine decided to teach the linked movements to Carl, who had only been holding a sword for two days.
Carol gritted his teeth.
Because he was so impressed by Catherine's sparring, he couldn't attack her easily even though he was clearly aware that it was a sparring.
However, nothing would come of it if it stayed like this, so Carl swung his sword with as much courage as he could.
Slash—!
Clank—!
Wooden swords clash. Carl felt as if he had hit a rock.
Although his strength and stamina are good compared to his skinny body, his body cannot be considered that of a 16-year-old.
That alone put a strain on his thin, overworked wrists.
However, Carl, who was completely immersed, did not even feel pain.
Just swinging a sword at Catherine causes extreme stress, causing him to sweat profusely and his heart to beat like crazy.
Scary...
Like when he was dying of fever, like when he's first encountered Azgoth.
That's why Carl was able to move even more fiercely. Because of his fear, he can whip himself more harshly to protect himself.
With the wooden swords touching, Catherine slowly aims her sword at Carl's neck. If she stab it like this, she can take Carl's head. If Catherine attacks, she can kill Carl with her wooden sword.
And unlike Bilford, Catherine stabbed the sword in without the slightest hesitation.
Slowly enough for Carl to react, yet strong as a rock, with enough force to break his neck.
Unlike when sparring with Bilford, Carl did not back down.
In fact, Carol knows that simply stepping down is not a good choice. He just didn't know what to do and he just backed off.
Thinking of Catherine's movements, he pushed back Catherine's sword that was stabbing him and at the same time turned his body to the left.
As if by magic, Catherine's swordplay was blocked by Carl's crossguard, and as Carl's twisted his wrist and turned his body, the back blade of the spinning sword hit Catherine's side.
Thwack—!
Then, just like before, Carl hurriedly retreated back.
This is because he didn't know how to protect himself from the next attack.
"Fuuu!...Fuuu!...Huh!"
Even though he only attacked twice in a short period of time, Carl was breathing heavily as if he had sprinted.
Rather than the joy of copying a movement Carl saw once and succeeding, albeit somewhat clumsily, the thought that he could have died comes first.
It seems as if the neck where Catherine's wooden sword was aimed was pressed down.
"The angle of your step was a little wrong. It must have hurt your ankle."
"… Ah, um… ."
Carl hesitated and took a step back at Catherine's words, then winced at the slightly throbbing ankle.
"If you have a flexible body, it will be okay to make a more bold move. Then you can completely lower your stance and dig into the bottom."
Crack!
Catherine made the same movements as before, only changing the angle of her ankles. Then Catherine's body falls low.
Raising the sword high and perfectly protecting the head, it attacks the lower part of the opponent, and at the same time, wraps around to the right of the opponent and even grabs the side.
A step that is both light and heavy, contradictory, but cannot help but be explained.
Carl was completely entranced by the picture-perfect movements.
"Lord Carl, you have talent. You has a talent for martial arts, but more important that you have intuition about life and death."
"intuition?"
Carl raised his eyebrows and asked back at Catherine's incomprehensible words.
In response, Catherine stood in front of Carl. Her sword was raised high, but it was somewhat different from the basic posture Carl had learned.
"How will you fight back?"
"… … ."
Carl looked closely at Catherine's posture and moved the sword aimed at her middle finger back and forth.
His Sword couldn't stand upright with a firm decision, and he kept trembling and couldn't find a place to go.
In the end, Carl stepped back.
"Why did you step down?"
Carl clearly learned how to defend himself and attack against his opponent's downward slashes. However, he did not do as he was taught and chose to step down.
"I don't think I can do it."
Carl spoke honestly. He looked at Catherine's posture and was convinced that he could not compete with that simple downward slash posture.
"Please tell me in more detail."
Catherine speaks as if questioning.
Carl felt anxious and tense as he looked at Catherine's posture, and an eerie chill ran up his spine.
Carl explores the instinctive sensations that are too instinctive to explain in words, but then speaks as if he is not confident.
"I was thinking of blocking it, but it seems like the rest of my body is too defenseless."
"You mean the top?"
Nodding his head, Carl continue
"When I try to raise my arm to block the top, my side feels empty, when I put it in the middle, my head feels empty, and when I raise it diagonally and try to block the top and middle, the bottom feels empty."
Catherine nodded in response to Carl, and Bilford widened his eyes in surprise.
"Excellent."
Catherine said that briefly, and from that stance, she fired a sword strike at once.
Whoosh!
The sword that was raised high at the top went down Catherine's back, then popped out from her side like a lie and cut the middle part horizontally.
Catherine raised her sword again and swung it a few more times. Not only does she stop, she twists her center greatly and even slashes her bottom.
Dozens of attack trajectories come out from one stance.
A variety of attacks that cannot be performed without great flexibility and strength!
"The distance between the two hands holding the sword, the angle of the arms, whether the shoulder is pulled or pushed, the direction of the waist, the center of gravity, the angle of the knees, the stride, and the shape of the feet. You cannot know without learning."
That's why Carl afraid of swordsmanship and martial arts.
If he don't know, he will be hit and he will lose his life.
However, Carl instinctively judged that something he had not learned was dangerous and retreated.
It's not just that he's talented in martial arts, he feels it sensuously, like an animal that smells blood.
It is natural for Carl to act frightened during his sparring with Bilford and Catherine.
It will feel like his are facing a huge monster that he cannot hope to defeat.
This is a very precious talent.
"It would be a good idea to increase the sparring time."
Carl nods at Catherine's words. But he couldn't just agree.
"Lady Catherine, we are leaving tomorrow. It's hard to find time."
There were so many things Carl had to learn other than swordsmanship.
The most urgent thing is to write correctly.
It's to the point where he can't even sign anything.
"… Let's take some time."
"All right."
Catherine also knew that Carl needed a lot of learning in a wide range of areas, so she had no choice but to ignore it like that.
Cadeaux
-- Cadeau
reçu État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone