บท 21: Sparring against Old Sword

Eldrian woke up in his temporary bedroom after logging in. He stood up and looked over his stats, finding that his fatigue level wasn't visible anymore, which meant it had completely reset. He expected this since the same had happened the last time he had slept here.

Eldrian then stretched a bit, since he always found himself more comfortable after doing some stretches when he woke up. Thereafter he decided to go to the kitchen to get something to eat. He was surprised to find Diane awake and preparing a meal.

'People really do wake up early' Eldrian mumbled as he also looked at the time. Currently, it was almost 5 in the morning.

"Ah, Haru I see you're awake. If you aren't in too much of a rush you can wait until I finish here. Should be just a few more minutes." Diane said after she had turned around and saw Eldrian standing inside the kitchen.

"That would be very nice, I was just going to grab a banana and some bread otherwise," Eldrian replied, thankful for her offer. Having a full meal would be far better than just a quick snack. To pass the time Eldrian decided to go outside and enjoy the sunrise while waiting.

Outside he found Old Sword striking a dummy. The poor dummy was ruined after just a few strikes, making Eldrian realize why there were 6 next to each other. Not to allow more people to practice, but rather to be able to move on after one dummy is completely ruined. In this way, Old Sword's routine wasn't interrupted.

"Ha!" Old Sword screamed as he gave the last dummy, its last strike, causing it to fall into pieces to the ground. After this strike, Old Sword put his sword away before turning around and looking at Eldrian.

"So, you are awake. Good, I figured I will train with you again today. Last night you told me that you already mastered two weapons to rank 1."

"After you succeed in mastering the last two weapons we will move on to learning how to control mana. This is going to be far more difficult than the weapon training, seeing as you are a high elf and we have no knowledge on how you train for it." Old Sword said, breathing heavily between each sentence.

He then asked, "What weapons were you thinking of mastering today?"

"I am thinking to master my polearms. A double-headed spear and poleaxe, to be precise." Eldrian replied while the excitement was growing in him as he thought about starting learning magic. He had no idea how to even imagine, how he was going to learn magic.

"Good choices. That along with a standard sword and shield, and a two-handed sword you already mastered. You should be able to handle most common battles then and since you Chosen have an, inventory thingy, you won't have the problem of deciding which to use, you can just carry them all with you." Old Sword said as he wiped off his sweat.

At this time, they heard Diane calling them to eat breakfast. Together Eldrian and Old Sword went inside to enjoy the little things before another hard day started.

…

"Yah!" Eldrian screamed as he struck a dummy. Before sparing against Old Sword he wanted to warm up. He felt the best way to do this was naturally to train a bit against a dummy as Old Sword had done earlier.

After striking the dummy from an overhead attack with a double-bladed spear Eldrian retreated a step, trusting the spear as he retreated. After he thrust the spear he slashed horizontally with the spear's back blade, following the slash causing him to spin around, after which he thrust the back blade into the dummy with a lot of momentum.

"You have to be careful with that turn you did. If you do not succeed in knocking the enemy's blade away then you will have just presented your back to them, asking to be stabbed or slashed across your defenseless back." Old Sword commented after Eldrian had stopped his attacks.

"I know. My idea with that was that the slash with my back blade would open his guard, and the spin is to help me be able to penetrate his armor." Eldrian commented as he left the dummy to go to an open area with a new spear.

Old Sword didn't comment on whether it was correct or not, since one would never know when going against a dummy if it would truly achieve the same effect against a person.

Old Sword followed Eldrian to the open area, after taking a normal arming sword.

Old Sword was truly impressed with this youngster. He felt that Eldrian's growth was too fast to be normal, even when compared him to other Chosen, Eldrian showed far greater promise.

Old Sword was most impressed by the accomplishments Eldrian made, and not with regard to mastering two weapons, to rank 1 already. But instead, the fact that Eldrian would hit the dummy with a good edge alignment at least 90% of the time. He would also only go over his center of balance less than half the time.

These facts were normally only visible after months of training. Even for greatly talented people, it would take a few weeks at the least. Due to this Old Sword felt he should ensure Eldrian receives the training he was going to need to stay true and not become over-confident.

"Okay, different from how you fought Vivian, I should be able to give you just the amount of pressure I feel you need. So, excuse me for being a bit overboard." Old Sword said, right as he started attacking Eldrian.

Eldrian found himself on the back foot immediately. Old Sword never hit him, unlike Vivian, but he totally controlled Eldrian's pacing and weapon. Whenever Eldrian tried to block he will be surprised that the strike was a feint, followed by a reversed attack hitting his weapon away.

"Come now, I only have one sword. If I had another you would long be dead. Actually, if I just attack you now, or now, or now. You will be dead." As Old Sword said this, with every 'now' he struck Eldrian's spear away, opening Eldrian to an easy deathblow.

In one case Old Sword hit Eldrian's spear so hard, that it caused Eldrian to almost 'cut' himself with his own spear. As the weapons they were using were meant for training he wouldn't really cut himself, but Eldrian knew in real combat it would have completely crippled him if his own weapon injured him. He told himself that he had to remember to never let the blade, he wasn't attacking with, become his burden.

He also knew that the fact that Old Sword had so much control over his weapon showed how much their strengths differed. He knew he would have been defeated long ago if Old Sword wasn't keeping the fight going.

'Think, how can I stop his control over me?' Eldrian tried to brainstorm a solution, to no avail. Soon Eldrian ran out of stamina and collapsed onto his knees. Completely exhausted.

"Not bad. You managed to hold out for almost half a minute under my focused assault." Old Sword commented as he saw Eldrian trying to recover his breath.

'Are you kidding me? How on earth is that considered not bad! It sounds terrible.' Eldrian complained in his heart.

"So in this round, I just focused on controlling your weapon. I am certain you realized this already." To these words, Eldrian nodded soundlessly. "I just want to tell you that there is a fighting style focused on this type of fighting. And it is god-awful to fight against. Which is why I am pushing you with it."

'So he wants to let me feel completely at his mercy. I won't give in!' Eldrian thought as he heard these words.

'Certainly promising. He just needs to be molded well.' Old Sword said as he saw Eldrian standing up after 6 minutes of resting.

Eldrian prepared himself for the next round. Previously he hadn't expected the difference between Vivian and her dad to be so massive. Thus, this time he promptly retreated as Old Sword advanced. Keeping his spear in front ready to try and attack Old Sword if he rushed him.

Unfortunately, this was futile as Old Sword easily dodged his trust by sidestepping and lowering his body. Eldrian hadn't expected it to work in any case. Just as Old Sword was about to strike his legs Eldrian pushed his spear down, forcing Old Sword to stop his attack. Since if he didn't then he would deliver his own arm to the spear's blade.

Eldrian followed this up by now pushing the blade up again, aiming for Old Sword's chest. Old Sword promptly retracted his sword and blocked the attack with ease. Old Sword even smiled at Eldrian, as he felt that the move was good for a beginner, 'He can already feint a real attack. Not bad, I can see why he managed to almost draw even against Vivian. She would never consider going for broke.'

'Dang, he is just too fast for me. Not just physically but his reactions are lighting quick.' Eldrian analyzed as he tried to find a solution to his situation.

Currently, they were in a standstill with their blades crossed at chest height, with Eldrian's spear angled downward. In this standstill, they looked into each other's eyes. Resolution was clear in Eldrian's eyes, while Old Sword had playfulness in his.

A few seconds later Eldrian laid on the ground again. His ribs hurting from taking a blow. He had hoped to give blow for blow, but Old Sword seemed to have read his mind. As a result, he only ended up having all his breath hit out of him.

'I guess I have no chance to trade blows against him. Let's just focus on speed and distance next, trying to keep him at least a sword's length from me.' Eldrian thought as he stood up after a few minutes of rest.

"Oh, seems you have made up a plan. Let me see it then." Old Sword said as he saw the decisiveness in Eldrian's eyes. Still, Old Sword wasn't one to allow his opponent to attack first, thus he attacked with a swift overhead strike.

Eldrian dodged this by stepping back, but instead of just dodging he decided to try and attack Old Swords sword this time. Eldrian attacked the sword as it passed his position, trying to force Old Sword to overswing by adding more force into it. But as his blade made contact Eldrian just felt a shocking pain shoot through his arms, causing his hands to vibrate from the shock.

'Just how strong is he?' Was the only thing he could think of after that exchange. Old Sword had managed to stop his sword in time to foil Eldrian's plan.

In this manner, they continued to spar until finally, Eldrian gained his rank. In the end, it had taken just under two hours for Eldrian to succeed.

{Player has managed to unlock Rank 1 of the double-headed spear polearm}

'Wow, it is far more difficult to complete the rank challenge when fighting someone far stronger.' Eldrian thought as he looked at the message.

Eldrian wasn't upset by this revelation, rather he felt that the insights he had gained during this fight were worth the time spent.

"Are you ready?" Old Sword asked as he prepared to attack again.

"Wait! I just succeeded, so I would like to focus on my last weapon now." Eldrian said as he ran to change weapons.

'Seems like my guess on fatigue was correct. It is only increased if you do not rest well. In this case, I believe it would be a bigger factor in large or long battles. But short fights wouldn't really be affected it seems.' Eldrian thought as he saw he hadn't gained fatigue yet. He still felt he didn't quite understand it completely, but he felt he was much closer to it.

For his last weapon, Eldrian took a poleaxe. The poleaxe was of a typical make, with an axe head on one side and a hammerhead on the other, both on the top of the pole. There was also a spike going out of the head. Eldrian had decided earlier on this weapon as he needed a weapon good against armor, and a poleaxe filled this criterion while being similar to a spear.

With this sorted Eldrian was again beaten up by Old Sword until he managed to scrape together the mastery of rank 1 with the poleaxe.