The next match in Wroth’s sparring round-robin was Yuma versus Tayen. Hunter and Inago sat a few paces away, catching their breath. Inago had assumed a relaxed meditation pose. Hunter had done the same.
He wasn’t really interested in the sparring match itself. He’d seen Yuma and Tayen train together before. It was like they were dancing rather than fighting, each exchange practiced to perfection, each clash of their weapons carrying no more or less weight than necessary. Still, it was a good opportunity for Hunter to study how each fought, maybe gain an edge he could use when he sparred with either of them himself.
“Begin,” said Wroth.
The two combatants circled each other as they’d done hundreds of times, neither too anxious to rush in. Yuma held his glaive with a steady grip, his stance wide and low, ready to lunge at any moment. He was the picture of aggressive readiness, the kind of fighter who believed that offense was the best defense.
Tayen, by contrast, held her glaive with a loose, almost casual grip. She looked deceptively detached, almost apathetic. Her body, though, poised to move at a moment’s notice. She was expecting Yuma to strike first, Hunter supposed.
Yuma’s first attack came quickly, a powerful thrust aimed at Tayen’s chest. It was a straightforward move, one meant to get a read on her, to test her reflexes. Tayen responded with a swift sidestep, the blade of her glaive sweeping down to deflect Yuma’s attack. The attack was a forceful one, but it hadn’t seemed to faze her. Most of the force of the impact was absorbed and redirected by her calculated movement.
There was an opening for Tayen to go on the offensive, and she wasn’t going to miss it. She used the momentum from the deflection to pivot around Yuma, her glaive arcing toward his side in a wide slash. Yuma was quick to react, bringing his weapon up to parry her strike.
The two weapons locked for a moment, the two Aspirants staring each other down as they pressed their weight into their weapons. Yuma’s strength was undeniable, and for a brief moment, it seemed like he might overpower Tayen.
But Tayen wasn’t there to match strength with strength. She was already moving before Yuma could fully capitalize on the clash, disengaging and spinning away to create distance. Her glaive flicked out in a rapid, probing strike aimed at Yuma’s legs - testing, teasing, looking for an opening.
“Nice!” Wroth called, watching the exchange closely, far more interested than he was in the previous sparring match.
Yuma, not one to be outdone, responded with his own chain of quick, aggressive attacks. He swept through the air with his glaive in powerful arcs, each swing aimed to force Tayen back, to keep her on the defensive. If she really tried, she could probably find an opening to retaliate, Hunter thought, watching from the sidelines. Yuma’s longer reach, however, made that a risky proposition.
Tayen thought so too, apparently. She weaved around his strikes with a level of agility that looked almost supernatural. Each move was deliberate and calculated, her feet barely touching the ground as she stayed just out of reach. From an outsider’s perspective, it might seem like she was retreating. She wasn’t, Hunter knew. She was merely conserving her energy, waiting for the right moment to strike.
And then that moment came.
Yuma, growing impatient, committed to a heavy overhead strike. He was aiming to break through Tayen’s defenses once and for all, to put an end to the sparring match by sheer brute force.
It was a strong, decisive move, but it left him open, if only for a split second. Tayen saw the opportunity and took it. As Yuma’s glaive came crashing down, she stepped inside his guard. Her glaive flashed upward as she launched a swift, controlled thrust aimed at his exposed ribs.
Still, she was off by just a fraction of a second.
Yuma barely managed to twist away, the tip of Tayen’s glaive grazing his side as he spun to face her again. For the first time in the match, Yuma’s eyes widened slightly in surprise. Tayen had been conservative in her aggression, and now she’d shown him just how formidable she could be when she decided to press the attack.
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But just as quickly as she’d struck, Tayen withdrew, her expression neutral, almost impassive. She resumed her defensive stance, ready for whatever Yuma would throw at her next.
“She’s holding back,” Inago whispered, his eyes fixed on Tayen. Hunter wondered why. Was it restraint? Good sportsmanship? Or was it something else?
Whatever it was, Wroth had sensed the subtle shift in Tayen’s approach too.
“Yuma! Next time, watch your flank!” he shouted, frowning. “And you, Tayen! Don’t be afraid to press on!”
“Yes, Elder,” the young woman said, her voice flat and her expression unreadable.
“Continue!”
The next exchange was a blur of motion, the two fighters moving with such speed and precision that it was difficult for Hunter to keep track of their movements. Yuma pressed the attack, his glaive a whirlwind of steel, but Tayen was always one step ahead, her evasions perfectly timed, her counters precise and measured. To him, they looked evenly matched.Yuma’s aggression was balanced by Tayen’s agility, his strength was countered by her finesse.
The match went on as Hunter had expected, with neither fighter claiming a clear victory. A few exchanges later, Wroth decided he’d seen enough.
“Alright, stop,” he called.
Yuma, breathing heavily, lowered his glaive and offered Tayen a nod. Tayen returned the gesture, her expression still calm, her breathing controlled.
“You show promise, both of you. You are worthy of the title of Aspirant of the Path of the White Cloud. I am pleased. Take a breather.”
The two of them took their places on the ground beside Hunter and Inago, also assuming a meditation pose. Hunter glanced at them from the corner of his eye. Yuma looked very satisfied with himself. Tayen, on the other hand, looked as aloof as ever.
Glaive-fighting skill aside, Wroth was obviously playing favorites. He didn’t even make an attempt to hide it. Hunter didn’t like that one bit - but on the other hand, being looked down on was nothing new to him. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, tried to empty his mind.
I control my response, he reminded himself. Not the world around me.
That was one of a handful of affirming, mantra-like phrases Mort had taught him as part of his role as the first line of advice and support for troubled late-night drinkers. Hunter had initially found them corny, but if they were to help him keep his nerves from going on the fritz, so be it. If it worked, it worked.
Wroth sat with the Aspirants and prompted them to meditate for a while before moving on to the next sparring match. Mantra or no mantra, however, Hunter was too excited to properly concentrate. A few minutes later, he gave up altogether - though he continued to pretend to meditate - and pulled up his notification log.
He’d gained three Skill increases - Close Combat, Polearm Mastery, and his newly gained Glaive Expertise. This confirmed a suspicion he’d held for the last few days. Practicing forms was a very slow way to actually increase his Skills and Abilities. It was a good way to lay foundations, but actual progression was much more likely to come from actual field experience, so to speak.
The other thing that drew his attention was that his Close Combat Skill had finally hit 20. That meant new Skills, and lo and behold, there they were.
Two choices, one aggressive, one defensive, both conditional. He read each description a couple of times, making sure he had a good grasp of what each Ability did.
The options before him confirmed another of his suspicions: the new Abilities that gradually became available as his Skills increased were tailored to the tactics he had already been using. They were designed to allow him to double down on his preferred strategies.
Normally, he’d be delighted to slam an Inspiration point into either of these Abilities right away. Both looked potentially amazing - potentially being the operating word.
And therein lay the problem.
What he felt he needed was a more straightforward boost to his overall power level, so to speak. Sparring with Inago had felt like a stat check in a role-playing game. Cunning tactics and finesse weren’t going to make the cut here - not when he lacked the pure power to back them up. Now matter how adaptive or how opportunistic he was, Yuma was still going to kick his ass before noon, and so was Tayen.
Not that he could learn either Opportunist or Adaptive Defense right now. His Inspiration currently sat a disheartening 0 - which meant he couldn’t learn any new Abilities until he found a way to gain some. Would he have made different choices, had he gained access to these Abilities a couple of days earlier? Probably not. The Conditioning and Glaive Expertise Abilities he’d gone for offered him a much more straightforward boost.
And in his current situation, straightforward was good. There was only so much one could do while constantly being on the back foot.