Max stood, sword in hand, facing off against the robot. They both held their training swords tightly and in front of their face. Both were fairly stumpy, considering Max was 2, and the robot had mimicked his appearance.

The robot, deciding to take the initiative, slowly moved forward, its hands moving up a small amount, giving away its next move. Max had watched his father for his entire life, so he knew a small amount of swordsmanship, such as the horse stance, and basic slashes.

He noticed the small movement, due to his keen sense of sight, and moved his sword up too.

'Hmm. Good foundation already, though it's only natural my son is good.'

The robot ran forward, executing an obvious downward slash, with many open points. But Max wasn't good enough to notice this and focused on blocking the sword, moving it up, and supporting it with his other hand.

"Pause!"

Leonhardt shouted, and the robot obeyed, stopping the initiative.

"Max, you have a good sense of sight and a great reaction time, both due to your affinities. Don't waste them. You, of all people, can see weaknesses, and pounce on them better than anyone else."

Leonhardt moved to the robot, which was still in the position of a downward slash. He moved it slightly until it was exactly the same as just before it attacked.

"What are the signs? Remember what it did, how would you know it would attack you like that?"

"Umm… It lifted its sword."

"So, Max, you don't have to block, you can dodge too. On a wide, and committal movement like that, you should use your speed, not strength. On smaller attacks, like horizontal slashes, block, or parry if possible. On stabs, parry or dodge, but plan out your movements. Swordsmanship is strategy, not just some movements."

Max nodded, and the duel started again, the same way as before.

The robot inched closer, though it didn't seem to have any obvious clues to what it was going to do. But then, its waist turned a bit to the left. Max noticed this and shifted the grip of his sword.

It swung, and Max attempted to parry, though it didn't work, and ended up in a mediocre block. The robot pulled back, and Max did a downward slash, and the robot dodged. Max was now in a prone position, watching helplessly as the slash went towards his neck. He clenched his eyes shut, but nothing happened.

Slowly opening his eyes, he found the sword right next to his neck.

'Oh… Safety mode, I forgot.'

Max sat panting on the ground, as the robot moved back to its original position.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"The fight has concluded, I have won. You lost because you committed too much posture, instead of waiting for an optimal moment to strike."

"Good try! Max, come here once you're done catching your breath, then I'll coach you a bit."

Max got up after this, scratching the spot where his neck would have been hit. He was young, and even in a pretend battle like this, being so close to being hurt was slightly traumatic. Either way, Max recovered quickly and walked over to his dad.

"Max, one thing I will say is that your intuition is incredible. Talent in strength or speed is good, but intuition is much more difficult to train. Your sight and slow perception of time really help, I can see you already planning a move ahead."

Max, somewhat proud of himself, nodded along.

"But, there is one problem. Max, I've noticed that since you were a baby, you've been impatient. In general, waiting seems like a bad thing right? And that translates over to swordsmanship."

Max looked at him oddly, prompting Leonhardt to explain what he meant.

"So, Max, when you lost, what did the robot say?"

Max took a second to remember.

"It said… I committed too much? I don't know what that means. And that I used too much posture."

"Alright, one by one. When it says you committed too much, it means you decided to use an attack that needs you to be one hundred percent in control of the fight, using slashes at that point is better. You could also use a lighter version of that attack, because, going on to the second point, you sacrificed your posture for an attack."

Max butted in, as he was still iffy about what he was hearing.

"Why is posture so important?"

"Your posture is where your feet are, and how stable your core is. If your posture is bad, attacks will push you back, and your attacks will be ineffective, and make you vulnerable. Good posture is different, as strong defense and strong offense come naturally with it. Let's go practice some swings, I'll show you how to make your footwork better, it's lacking."

Some nice father-son bonding time ensued, Max copying Leonhardt's movements, and Leonhardt being pleasantly surprised with his learning speed.

"Even though you don't have great aether quality, your massive pool of it somewhat makes up for that, making the effects similar to a good quality."

They moved from basic slashes, swings, and stabs, to some of Leonhardts favorite combos, and the situations they would be used in.

Then, after he had gone through some, he went to blocking and parrying, which required more than just swings, but Leonhardt quizzing Max, and teaching him what the general scenario to use a certain blocking style, or block was. After that, he moved on to parrying, which was comparable, but just harder.

At this point, Leonhardt enlisted the robot for small demonstrations, and to put Max in for one move, to give him actual experience on what to do.

Naturally, after parrying, he had to move onto ripostes, as they were intrinsically connected. Most parries had a few ripostes to choose from, though Leonhardt—due to his swordplay style—preferred the evasive ones.

Lunges were next, as Leonhardt found them to be difficult for beginners, as maintaining good posture throughout, and after was quite difficult. Max struggled on these, his footwork deteriorating afterward.

However, It was getting late now, and Leonhardt decided he could teach Max the rest tomorrow.

"What have you guys been doing? You've been in that training room for almost 6 sols!"

Althea looked at Max, who was sweaty, and then at Leonhardt.

"Did he fight the training bot? Did you at least teach him some stuff about swords?"

Althea already had an inkling of suspicion about what happened.

"He fought against the robot and lost. So I taught him."

Leonhardt said this, and Max nodded along. Althea, however, looked mad, which confused Max.

"You should've taught him first! You just let him fight it with no training?!"

Althea decided to clear Leonhardt out of the way and get to Max.

"Are you okay? Oh! Gods you need a bath!"

Althea scooped Max up and took him to the bath. Leonhardt was left standing, alone.

"But… I set it on safety mode."