Chapter 9: Chapter 8- training 3
Asher replied once more with a nonchalant and indifferent expression as if to taunt her and say 'try your best already'.
"Okay then."
With the wooden sword in hand, Reika shot forwards at Asher. In the span of less than a second, she immediately closed the gap and brought her sword over the top, swinging in a downwards motion with assurance.
It was fast. And it was sharp. Asher admired Reika's swordsmanship inside of himself. He had guessed her full level of strength roughly, but it seemed that was not needed as she was already above his expectations. If she continued to grow like this, she could. Yes. If it was her, she might be able to reach the pinnacle of swordsmanship.
But not right now.
Asher drew his sword and lowered his posture in one gesture. His body moved like a blur for Reika and her face, for the first time, showed fright.
BANG!
Asher purposefully went to parry her sword even though there were several gaps he could have exposed at that very moment. It wouldn't be productive if he defeated her in less than 1 move.
As the two wooden swords collided, Reika's center of gravity was shaken and she didn't hesitate to step back and retreat from the sudden shock that was transmitted to her body through the single strike from Asher. However, she noticed something off with her body from that blow.
"…Urp-"
"Your motion was great."
Asher subtly commented while giving her some time.
"Ergh"
Reika gritted her teeth as hard as she could to suppress the raging nausea she was feeling at that moment. Soon she decided she needed to continue her attack no matter what. Her pride would not allow her to be made a fool without even taking one blow properly.
Darting back at Asher, Asher took one of his hands off the sword to reduce the amount of force in his blows to allow Reika to show more. However to Reika, this seemed to be as if Asher were simply making fun of her.
The sound of their swords clashing rang out once more throughout the courtyard, as dust flew about the entire training area from the pure ferocity being displayed in Reika's strikes. Asher smiled faintly. If it was a contest of displaying her raw strength, she wasn't doing too bad.
He remembered Lepenia's ruthless words. He had no talent. He knew that. That was the reason he could only practice imperial swordsmanship.
But that only applied to swordsmen who focused purely on their types of swordsmanship and practiced moves and sought the pinnacle of all swordsmanship. He also shared that commonality.
But when it came to being a warrior on the battlefield… It was a completely different story.
"Reika, I thought you were going to teach me as well?"
Asher said in an almost mocking tone. He wasn't doing it to be rude. He was simply humbling Reika.
Reika's strikes were incredibly fast for the common eye and even for her, she thought she was putting pressure on Asher. But, every single stroke of her sword was moving as slow as a snail in Asher's eyes.
Asher had enough. It was time. He reached out with his left hand abruptly and grabbed Reika's hand gripping the sword. Reika had no time to even react or be shocked. He ruthlessly snapped and broke her wrist. Reika realized what had just happened, and tried to kick her feet away to retreat, but Asher simply stuck a leg out and she tripped her leg movement. He then took his hand gripping her broken wrist and turned her around and pushed her right over.
Embarrassing.
That was all that could be said as the result of Reika's confidence of thinking she was close to Asher's level, or that she could even teach someone who had actually reached the realm of a swordmaster, albeit briefly, in his past life.
"Kak!"
Reika rolled on the ground and let out a cry of pain helplessly.
"….What nonsense."
Asher was simply stating the truth for her.
She looked at her hand with shocked eyes. She was thinking about displaying the full might of Lepenia's swordsmanship, but couldn't even form a proper move from the style since Asher had just deflected her balance slightly in each and every clash.
"Sparring and battle are completely different than practicing a swordsmanship Reika."
He muttered as he crouched down to her eye level.
Reika was by no means weak. In fact for her age, she was incredibly strong. She had even reached such a level of strength compared to any kid her age with absolutely zero teaching and only learned out of a book. It was a monstrous talent that had no equal. This was true since it was the most monstrous level of talent that Asher had ever seen in either of his two lives once he got to see her up close. Not even Lepenia was as talented as the little girl in front of him.
But she was weak. Pitifully weak. Learning and applying swordsmanship in a real battle was what set aside true warriors from show-boats who just flashed their sword around willy-nilly.
As a result, the evidence was displayed clearly for Reika to see. All it took was a simple trip of the legs and grabbing of the wrist to make her monstrous talent crumble in front of someone who was deemed as completely talentless.
"That…"
Reika bit her lips in bitter resentment and spat out venomously,
"That was not swordsmanship!"
"But you're dead."
Asher spoke as if it already had happened with a smile. It was clear she would have been if Asher attacked her with the intent to kill her.
Just because reality was cruel, didn't mean that Reika enjoyed it. It was a result that was hard to accept. She didn't want to believe that practicing swordsmanship styles and successfully applying them in battle were a completely different matter altogether.
But… if she didn't want to die in the future being stubborn, she had to accept this and learn from it.
Asher, seeing her change in attitude smiled once more and then kicked her leg slightly. Immediately Reika responded and raised her sword in a hurry and tried to catch him off guard.
The two swords clashed once more.
"You are strong Reika. Skilled even. But, between practice and application, you have a long way to go."
While saying this, Asher slightly twisted his wrist to redirect the sword to slide off of Reika's intended trajectory and smacked her forearm.
"AH!" (T/N : This just sounds like torture, not practice lmao)
Immediately after feeling the searing pain, Reika grit her teeth and pulled back immediately. However, this time she didn't let go of the sword.
She was growing in real-time.
She had the skill, Asher was just straightening out her mindset. And it seemed like it was effective. Now all that was left… was growth.
"What you need is practicality and flexibility. Simply put, do not let your emotions dictate the way your sword moves."
What was the probability that an incredibly talented person survived their first life and death duel? Asher had seen many talents die early on the minute they were placed in a real life-or-death scenario.
Those talents let their instinct and emotions take over their actions when their lives were on the line. But that was what dug them deeper into their impending doom. True talents would adapt, and learn to control their emotions letting them become less predictable.
A good and experienced warrior, would always be able to exploit someone who relied on their emotions in battle.
The sounds of the wooden swords colliding as Reika tried to keep up and parry Asher's heavy blows, rang out in the surroundings. However, they became too heavy for Reika to handle and she was becoming light-headed from all the blows shaking her very body every single time she tried to parry them.
Asher saw a gap as Reika was becoming less and less stable from the flurries of blows, and he rushed in with his shoulders leaning forwards.
"Kak!"
"It's better to abandon the habit of blindly trusting a swordsmanship style when the real battle is in front of you. That alone, will never help you survive on the battlefield."
Reika was an absolute mess as she heard Asher's words. She turned her gaze back to see Asher standing about 3 feet away from her. His hands and clothes were completely dirty and stained. His face was scratched up and his hands became calloused. She once liked him like that.
But now, she was filled with eyes of hostility and doubt.
"You…"
"You… Who are you?", she stuttered while maintaining a fierce gaze locked onto him.
"Well-"
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