บท 6: Sparring
After some time, resting Brom grew restless from laying there. He got up and headed out to the mead hall and from there out the back doors to the training yard. There were still a few hours of daylight before he needed to go to sleep. So, Brom started wandering around and watching the others train.
He saw Alea the huntress shooting arrows out of her bow at extreme speeds. All of the arrows were hitting either vital points of crippling points in the target dummy. Brom stood there and counted, 24 arrows in 13 seconds. That speed was amazing, Brom figured he could probably do about 24 arrows in closer to 30 seconds, still fast but not near a master like Alea.
He kept walking and saw Vilkas, he was wielding a greatsword like it was a paper toy. The sword looked to be made of some interesting looking steel. Probably sky forged steel Brom guessed. He decided to watch him too, Vilkas was using a strong stance and whole-body twists and very little arm extension. This allowed him to swing in fast arcs at closer ranges while still being stable. Brom nodded, he would remember that.
Brom continued around the yard and saw two people sparring, one looked to be Njada Stonearm and the other looked like Athis. They were experts in blocking and one-handed weapons respectively. Brom decided he'd definitely need to watch this one. He leaned against a pole and watched them spar. As he watched them start, Athis would swing and then retreat and attack again leaving no time for retaliation. And Njada would easily deflect the blows instead of taking them head-on.
This was when Brom saw a shift in movement on Njada's part, she suddenly started moving slower and taking more blows head on. After a few minutes of this, she moved even slower. Athis now seeing an advantage stopped madly assaulting and went into slower harder attacks to try and wear Njada's defense even more. On one of his attacks, he pulled his arm back to too much, and all the exhaustion from Njada was gone. She shoved her shield up and hit Athis in the chin, then using her own sword started an advance.
Unlike Athis her actions were steady and controlled, but Athis was faster and dodged most of these attacks while parrying a few. But every counterattack by Athis met Njada's shield. Brom was unsure who was the better fighter by this point. Njada was more experienced and steadier, but Athis was a natural fighter with fast reflexes. They continued this state of sparring, neither one getting an advantage over the other long enough to end the fight.
After an hour Brom had learned many small tricks from just watching these two experts battle it out. Then Athis finally tripped up on one of his spins, Njada took advantage of this immediately and shield bashed him stunning the already exhausted Athis and then taking his legs out with her sword before slamming her shield in his gut and putting her blade at his throat. All this happened within 3 seconds.
Deciding he wanted to spar one of them, Brom went to walk towards them but was stopped by Farkas.
"No, wait until after your assessment tomorrow, then you can spar"
"I don't need an assessment; I know I can hold my own."
"It takes more than good swordplay to beat either of those two in a fight. You're not ready"
"Wanna bet on that?"
"Fine, 50 septims says you won't last 10 minutes" Farkas agreed, unbeknownst to Brom, with a smile. He was ready to watch another arrogant whelp get beaten black, red, and blue.
"Deal," Brom said and walked over to Athis, handing him a health and stamina potion "Here, wouldn't want you at a disadvantage." Brom then drank one of his own.
The two stood where Njada just fought Athis and both got in ready positions. Brom equipped with a sword in his right and a reinforced gauntlet on his left. Athis was now duel-wielding swords, leaving little defense but huge amounts of attack power.
"On my command, you will start. First to get knocked out loses. Got it?" Farkas said.
"Got it"
"Yep"
Both replied, now they were just waiting on Farkas.
"Fight!" Farkas shouted.
As Athis charged Brom quickly switched from the classic fighting stance seen here in Skyrim to the Schlussel Stance. He knew this stance from the game For Honor, and it was a good stance for protecting against overhand attacks while allowing for quick counter attacks. Although usually only paired with a long sword Brom managed to adapt this technique to the regular arming sword. And practiced extensively with it on all of the bandits he has killed over the past month. Using the switch of stance and unpredictability it would bring, Brom had the advantage before the first swing.
Seeing this change in Brom's stance, Athis decided it had to be a bluff as it came from a whelp who hasn't even been here a day. With this decided Athis ran the few feet separating and jumped at Brom, normally he wouldn't attempt such a maneuver but he wanted to make a show of this whelp. Brom seeing this stunt, smiled. He quickly flicked his blade up deflecting both of Athis's and then twirled his sword in a vertical arc back towards Athis. This type of maneuver wouldn't do anything against someone with decent armor. But the speed at which it was executed allowed Brom to land the first hit on Athis's collar bone, bruising it. Not letting up Brom twirled his sword into a reverse grip and slammed the pommel into Athis further stunning him. Then kicked Athis off to let him recover, this was going to Brom's show.
Farkas and Njada both had grim faces as they saw this technique used. They now knew that Brom had more skill than any whelp before and was simply trying to show off after that move.
"Cmon, I thought this was supposed to be a fight!" Brom taunted Athis, whose pride was now damaged.
Athis now approached cautiously, no longer underestimating this new opponent. Brom saw this caution and knew he'd have to mix things up again to get another hit in. So Brom charged this time, and let lose a flurry of slashes backed up with both speed and power. Athis was being pushed back slowly under this sudden attack and while he could match and even beat Brom's speed, he was weaker so every hit he blocked was a loss. Brom quickly switched fighting styles once again, never slowing his lighting attacked he switched from fast slashes to even faster short thrusts and lunges. Athis got tripped up by this sudden switch and Brom managed to hit and crack one of his ribs before he was able to match the new style.
Brom didn't let up though, he switched once more, this time surprising everybody. He backed off his assault and took up a weird defense that left his entire left side open. Athis noticed it and figured it was some kind of trap, but he was desperate and started swinging anyways. With his concussion and cracked rib he was no longer dancing through his forms as he did against Njada, he was barely keeping up with the forms now. Brom let him swing a few times getting a feel for his attacks.
Now sure he could do it, Brom used his own unique fighting style, a mixture of different martial arts he had seen on movies and shows. He was still learning these styles but no one here had ever seen them before so he once again had the advantage. Throwing all his might into his sword an overhead counter Brom let go of his sword taking everyone off guard. Then before Athis could even bat away the blade. Brom followed up with his reinforced gauntlets and got up close and used his knee and elbows to repeatedly hit Athis hard and fast. Then he stomped on his knee and then brought the same leg up and kneed Athis in the chin. While Athis was on his knees reeling back from the blow Brom swung a strong uppercut and knocked Athis out cold.
This was when the others realized Brom never intended to fight Athis, he was just here to dominate him in battle and strike fear in the hearts of everyone watching and he employed various skills to play with Athis before dropping his weapon and beating him down with only his fists.
"There, told you I could hold my own" Brom said as he walked to pick up his sword, then walking back to Athis he used the healing hands spell fixing Athis broken bones and rendering him conscious.
"There, no hard feelings?" Brom said as he extended his down to help him up.
Athis, confused on what just happened, just nodded his head and accepted the offered hand.
Brom helped him up and then looked up at the sky,
"I'm going to bed now, it is getting kinda late and I do have my assessment tomorrow," Brom said and he then walked past the stunned companions and headed to the quarters for the whelps.
As he got to his bed he sat down and started undressing. Now he knew that they wouldn't treat him like everyone else, he needed more training then what people like Athis and Njada would receive. He needed to learn from the masters, not these other whelps.
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