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Eve swung her sword with one hand from the right side and leaned her shoulder into the swing. Avan knew at that moment that if he was hit, he would have at least one broken shoulder.
Damn, she's fast... I've got to get within range somehow!
The wooden greatsword gave the warrior a clear advantage over an unarmed fighter like him, which she shamelessly exploited.
Avan tried to duck to the right under the blow and shifted his weight to the right ball of his foot to get the most momentum out of the movement. With a groan, the practice sword bounced off his upper shoulder, and even that was enough to elicit a short cry of pain and knock him briefly off balance.
Eve, who had apparently been expecting something similar, spun the angle of her hand and the sword around in one swipe, taking advantage of the momentum to cut a swath through the air and send the sword whizzing in a semicircle at his right knee. Without letting him escape another time, she took a large step forward and struck him in the pit of the stomach with her left fist, just as Avan was about to leap backward to avoid the sword strike on his knees.
A loud roar and partial cheers rang out from the spectators' benches.
With a moan and a groan, he went backwards to his knees and held the pit of his stomach, which felt like the site of the impact was on fire.
"Ouch, THAT hurt!" He cried out, slightly tearful, and immediately subconsciously sent his healing magic into his shoulder and stomach.
The Bladewalker stood directly in front of him, shaking her head. "That was much much easier than I expected. Avan, do you have ANY experience fighting people who are armed, tell me?" She asked him seriously, looking at him with narrowed eyebrows. "I'm not a beginner, and fighting me isn't supposed to be easy, but your evasive maneuvers are more than just lousy..."
He had meanwhile regained his composure and was still holding his aching stomach, but was now sitting on his butt on the sandy ground and looking up at her.
"And one more thing. Why don't you use this... dances, movements or postures that we all saw you do earlier? It looked to me like the fighting postures of various monk orders that specialize in unarmed combat. And THEY fight with it! I honestly thought there would be more to it now." she spoke to him, slightly disappointed and with a slight shake of her head, while he saw the first coins changing hands in the background.
Even the guild master? Oh wow... He was surprised and disillusioned when the guild master took money from Yue and another beastman, who must have lost their bet. As if he had sensed the glance, the older man suddenly looked up, grinned at him cheekily and with a mischievous look in his eyes, and happily gave him a thumbs-up.
Shaking his head at this bet on his downfall, Avan propped himself up on his knees and stood up again, almost fully recovered from his pain.
"Here's to a new one, Eve..." He said to her, humiliated but honest, and scratched the back of his head with his left hand, slightly ashamed. "I'll try. This... exercises earlier, I did for the first time today..."
When Eve heard this, she looked at him slightly disturbed and incredulous with a look that could not quite believe what he was saying. "Are you kidding me? That looked perfect. And like you had been rehearsing that for years or even LONGER! Please what?" She asked him with her left palm to her ear, as if she needed to listen more closely.
"You're trying to tell me you just made that up off the top of your head today, right? Pah!" She exclaimed, slightly annoyed. "Oh, so be it. If you mean. In any case, I want to see these movements now!"
With that said, she swung her greatsword again in the same motion as before towards his shoulder and took a backward step with her left leg to put the weight and pivot point on her right knee.
Avan let out a short cry of disbelief and almost fell on his backside again in his hasty evasive maneuver.
This time he knew the range and could instinctively judge it better, which spared him another grazing blow as before. Now standing on the right and with a distance of almost two meters, he concentrated on the feeling and the movements, which he had interwoven earlier. The fighting postures of the healing order and the movements of the martial arts of his home world flowed into each other and formed a harmony again, as he had felt it only shortly before for the first time.
With a much calmer breath, he literally flowed to the left and effortlessly dodged the following sword stroke, only to redirect the fist blow with his right arm from below and let the force of the blow dissipate into nothing.
With an appreciative nod from his opponent, who had paused briefly and wore a satisfied grin on her face, Eve suddenly switched the sword to her left hand and executed a quick slash and arc from below.
Avan, as if in a trance beforehand, turned his body sideways with a step of his left foot and dodged the blow hurtling up from below with a few centimeters of distance.
A little more confident, he stomped his right foot heavily on the ground to ensure a firm footing, and moved his left elbow forward to push the large wooden sword away from him with a jerk. Swinging his left shoulder forward, he stomped his left foot where Eve's sword had just sliced upward through the air, assuming an almost typical boxer's stance. With his left shoulder facing his opponent and his left fist clenched forward in defense, Avan took a short lunge and thrust forward abruptly with his right fist, aiming to strike Eve's left forearm.
Eve, however, had long since interpreted his punch and stance correctly and lowered her left arm briefly to press it against his jab in a smooth upward motion from the outside.
Avan, with his fist thrust deflected toward Eve's chest, could do nothing more as Eve leaned back slightly and suddenly responded with a powerful chinlock of her right arm.
With a crack that only Avan could hear in his head, he staggered back, dazed, trying to determine what had just happened.
Without giving him a moment's pause, Eve followed up by slashing her practice sword from the left with full force above his waist, eliciting another cry of pain from the already stunned Avan and sending him to the ground once again.
Before he could get his bearings, he felt something scratchy and solid against his throat. With great effort, he looked down and recognized the tip of the sword, which Eve held to his throat with a victorious grin.
"And again! Two to nothing for me." She laughed into his still giddy face, while hooting and complaining voices were heard again in the background as more coins changed hands.
Eve held her right hand out to him, while still effortlessly holding the sword loosely in her left.
Avan grasped the hand carefully and with its help heaved himself into a standing, but slightly staggering, position and grabbed his aching chin with his left hand, while his right hand moved down to his hip and rubbed the aching and already itching spot where the sword had hit him.
The rest of the morning was mostly the same and Avan got a lot of bruises, which fortunately for him faded quickly thanks to his healing abilities minutes later.
By noon, with only a small crowd of spectators drinking tea and other beverages, he finally got a better handle on these new fighting forms and was able to switch almost seamlessly from one stance to the next without getting knocked on his ass.
He had never once managed to defeat Eve, but here and there his new fighting stance had allowed him a lucky punch, and more than often avoided blows from her.
Avan was better at dodging, blocking, and cushioning blows with his fluid movements than landing hits himself. He hoped that this would change with time and experience.
As he dodged another blow that came at him at an angle from the lower right, he wondered what to call these new forms.
Neither is it a form as I know it from Earth, nor are they the same fighting postures that the Order of Akkalon had shown on the wall paintings... But at the same time it is very similar to both...
Thinking about it, he suddenly stood too close to Eve, who immediately paid him back for his mistake and pulled his feet out from under him with hers, so that he plopped down on the ground and got the tip of the sword pressed against his chest for the umpteenth time.
"Aaanand again! Hah! How many times is that now since this morning?" She laughed happily with a gleam in her eye.
"Whereby one can really credit you that this was the longest fight so far that you have fought and endured with me." She congratulated him, however, immediately afterwards with an outstretched hand, which he gratefully took.
Also, thanks to the constant healing, his abilities had improved slightly. Especially, to his amazement, even his first aid skill, which had quietly made a few levels after the fight the day before against the monsters, when he had cared for the injured unnoticed.
*Chime*
You have gained another level in First Aid!
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First Aid: 7
Quietly leveled up from level one. Sneaky little skill you... He grinned inwardly to himself.
A few of his other skills had also benefited from the training so far and had gained a little.
*Chime*
You have gained another level in Meditation!
Meditation: [Bronze] 9
*Chime*
You have gained another level in Pain Expert!
Pain Expert: 9
*Chime*
You have gained another level in Pain Resistance!
Pain Resistance: [Bronze] 7
*Chime*
You have gained another level in Steady!
Steady: [Bronze] 8
While tapping the sand off his linen pants with both hands, he repeatedly stared at his abilities, which had grown slightly in some cases and greatly in others.
Steady has grown by far the most... Could this have something to do with the new fighting posture and the different movements? At least, I really felt safer on my feet and for defending it was more than optimal...
Passive Skill: Steady
When staggered, you have a high chance to stay steady on your feet instead of succumbing. This skill can help you cast magic without being interrupted or shooting while standing on the back of a horse or even a dragon.
[Bronze] You are now noticeably more secure on your feet and begin to perceive slight vibrations in the ground at your feet, which help you to stand even more securely or, if necessary, to better handle the coming situation.
The skills on Aorus are already something fine, hahaha... I wish I had always had something like that, especially with inline skating I would have been bombastically good and could have mastered the skate ramps like a champ! He thought to himself amused and chuckled softly, which brought him a funny sideways glance from Eve.
Especially funny is that the trance-like state in the fighting stance is probably considered meditation, and my already high skill has advanced another level. Hehe.
Some of Avan's skills were on the verge of advancement, while others, especially those with bronze rank, were leveling up more slowly. Still, he was as happy as a three-year-old at Christmas with all this progress.
Apparently his inner joy had shown more outwardly than he had anticipated, as Eve looked at him skeptically and as if he were slightly insane. "Everything okay, Avan? I mean, I can call you some guild healers if you've had one too many blows to the head..."
"Ahhh... Um, no, yeah. Sorry. I was just looking at the level progress of my skills and got a little too excited?" He explained to her hesitantly, scratching the tip of his nose with his right hand.
Visibly satisfied with the answer and with an understanding smile, she answered him. "Doing one or two levels in training, especially in the beginning, is always something nice. I remember how it was in the beginning, whereas now with my bronze rank it takes me so much longer..."
"Um, yeah. Exactly. That feels really good!" He nodded to her placatingly and a little faster than would be normal. Luckily for him, though, Eve just perceived it as joy, and didn't read more into it.
How, where, what? I'd better not say anything about the fact that in Steady alone I jumped in ten ranks to the end of the bronze range... He conjured to himself inwardly, when he had processed her answer.
"Yep, mega awesome! I'm always super happy there. It just feels progressive and so rewarding, you know?" He topped it off and smiled at her in relief as he continued to scratch his nose slightly nervously.
With that, she nodded at him again and looked over at the now sparsely occupied spectator seats.
"How about we have some lunch and drinks first, and then we'll go from there?" She asked him with a glance over her left shoulder, and marched off without comment. The guild master had already left an hour or two ago, and most of the other guild members were also going about their daily routines. Especially after it became clear that this had become a one-sided spectacle, with only Avan getting spanked.
As he walked behind the Bladewalker, he noticed that Yue and Eve's team were still present, who now looked up from their conversations and activities and waved and nodded at them.
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After a hearty lunch and a good chat with Yue, the training continued into the evening hours.
He had learned from the fox girl that Helio had offered her a position next to Elisa, since the bureaucracy and simply every help with the books and writings was eagerly needed. Yue herself had not yet been able to give an answer, because she had promised Avan that she would follow him, and only after talking to him now seemed to have a calm conscience.
She would accept the position and work closely with Elisa in the guild, sorting and maintaining the various libraries full of different knowledge, and helping out the guild master where needed on a daily basis.
Avan also felt much more comfortable with this, as he had gladly rescued her from the goblin's clutches, but would not want to claim guilt for life, as this simply did not correspond to his nature.
Inwardly satisfied with the situation, he concentrated again on his training with Eve, which still took place without any active skills, in order to sharpen and steel his instincts and fighting postures.
Avan swore by what he had often heard in his home world, that people who relied too much on their skills would eventually end up in a hopeless situation where their skills would be useless. She had listed various possibilities, such as mana-poor regions, or mana-suppressing mechanisms, runes, or even handcuffs, which would completely cut off the use of his active skills from mana. That's when, she had told him several times, his trained experience and reflexes would be needed.
The subject of magic handcuffs had sent an icy shiver down his spine and raised the question in his mind of whether he would also be cut off from his ambient mana or whether, thanks to his uniqueness as a dungeon, he could continue to activate his skills outside his body and away from his own mana.
A thought for another day that I hope I may never have to finish.... He prayed silently, as the thought more than creeped him out.
As the sun slowly set, and Avan sat sweating on a wooden stool, drinking water, a disheveled Elisa suddenly burst through the back door of the guild, slamming into the wall of the house with a metallic sound.
She looked around frantically and first saw Yue and Eve's companions, who stared at her in shock, then let her gaze glide across the courtyard and linger on his face.
With quick steps, almost flying, she came rushing up to him and enthusiastically grabbed his shoulders with both hands.
"AVAN!" She almost screamed his ear off. "Akkalon! I know now how I remembered that name, except that there was this old healing order named after him!" She tried to shake his shoulders even more enthusiastically than before, which didn't quite work given the difference in height and musculature.
Eve, who also just returned from her team mates with a drink in her hand, also noticed immediately and laughed amusedly.
Not to be thrown off balance, or not even more by external influences, Elisa continued, looking upwards into his eyes, spellbound.
"Akkalon, Avan!" She told him, all fire and flame. "Is one of the old gods!"
"And you have found not only the probable origin of the Order of Healers, but also HIS own and very first dungeon!"
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