Damon breathed out a pained breath as he completed the course.

William was already meditating on the dueling platform, and Lucy, who ran a shorter distance than the two of them, had already left for her morning classes.

Damon sat down heavily and circulated his mana while dissolving some of his mana threads to quicken his recovery.

The run had pushed him close to his limit, especially as he had forced himself to run at near his usual pace despite the discomfort.

He was still catching his breath when Umbra strolled out onto the field.

She stopped by one of the weapon racks on her way over, picking out a spear and tossing it at William.

"William, catch!" She called as she threw it.

William was still meditating when she called out, causing him to flinch and open his eyes. Her warning allowed him to catch the spear.

"Practice the basic spear moves with that today; your spar later will be based on the spear. I don't want to see any sloppy movements." She said.

Umbra's training was quite holistic. She focused on the sword first and foremost, but she also drilled the basics of every other weapon into William.

Though he was not a true spearman by any stretch of the imagination, he had a good enough grasp of basic spearmanship that he could fight fairly well with a spear.

"This is another benefit of the Royal Sword," said Umbra, addressing Damon.

"The sword stances and foot techniques can be applied to almost any one- or two-handed melee weapon with very few modifications. Once you master them, it will give you a foundation for using any melee weapon." Continued Umbra.

"Will we go over those modifications?" asked Damon.

"Eventually, but you still have a long way to go. For now, let's review what you learned yesterday." Said Umbra, chuckling at his enthusiasm.

Damon nodded his head, though he sighed internally. Thankfully, circulating his mana had helped him recover to a degree, and the pain in his muscles had dulled noticeably.

"Alright, I'll call out a stance, and you assume it. I'll then give you thirty seconds to get into the stance and adjust yourself until it feels right." Said Umbra.

Damon nodded his head, breathing in and out slowly.

"I'm ready." He said.

"Central." Said Umbra.

Damon sank into the Central stance, letting the familiarity that the previous night had embedded in him direct his movement.

Once he got into the stance, he felt slightly off balance, so he spent a few seconds adjusting himself.

Umbra was silent as she watched him take the stance.

After a few seconds, she called out "Eastern."

Damon moved into the Eastern stance.

Now that he was aware of the changes that Umbra had made as compared to the pure version, he adjusted himself, leaning into her changes.

He felt noticeably lighter on his feet as he did so, and yet his balance was not compromised.

Umbra watched him for a few more seconds, her eyebrows scrunching as she looked at him.

"Northern." She said.

Damon took on the Northern stance, this time purely following the movements as per the textbook performance.

Compared to Umbra's version, he felt more rigid but also more stable.

Overmind was far from perfect, so even though he had grown more comfortable with the stances, it still took him a few seconds to work out the kinks in his foot placement and weight balance before he felt perfectly aligned.

This time, Umbra did not say anything for a long time.

Damon looked up at her and saw that she was staring at him with a face full of disbelief.

"Damon." She said.

"Yes,teacher?" asked Damon.

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"Have you been taught the stances before?" she asked.

"No," he said.

She paused, thinking for a few seconds, then followed up.

"What made you perform the Northern stance in that way?" she asked.

Damon pondered the question for a minute, coming up with a suitable reason.

"I've seen Mister Norman do it while he was teaching William, and you taught me it in detail. The books you gave me last night also explained exactly what it's for and why the placement of my feet and the alignment of my body are important to generate power." Said Damon.

He shrugged.

"So I just moved based on what I saw, what I read, and what felt right." He said.

Umbra was silent for a few seconds, then her face broke out into a very wide smile.

"I see." She said.

"Success!" thought Damon.

Solidifying his learning through Overmind had been painful, but the results were well worth the pain. He had left a strong impression on Umbra.

Umbra then took him through the various stances, and once she was happy that he could perform all of them to a satisfactory extent, she clapped her hands.

"Alright," she said, smiling.

"To be honest, I was not expecting you to progress as fast as you have. There is no point in delaying considering your progress, so we will move onto the next lesson—movement." Said Umbra.

"Based on the stance you take, some movements are effective and conducive to the purpose of the stance, while others are detrimental and weaken the stance. As such, there are basic ways of moving forward, backwards, and sideways while in each stance." Continued Umbra.

She assumed a Central stance.

"For example, for the Central stance, which is balanced, movement is neither too slow nor too fast, and both stamina and momentum are conserved with each type of step. Most importantly, the movements ensure you maintain good balance." Said Umbra, demonstrating the steps.

She shifted to the Northern stance.

"The Northern stance, on the other hand, is very aggressive. Movements are bold and decisive and focus on building and maintaining momentum." As she spoke, Umbra showed Damon the movements associated with the Northern stance.

"For today, I will show you the steps associated with each stance. I don't expect you to memorize them all today; it is enough to simply feel their purpose as you move." Said Umbra.

She then demonstrated the movements of the steps associated with each stance.

This took most of the rest of their training session, as Umbra was careful to explain to Damon the purpose of each, how they were effective in battle, and their strengths and drawbacks.

She allowed him time to practice each one that he observed, giving a few pointers for each.

Damon used Overmind as she demonstrated each movement, doing his best to record her movements to the fullest of his ability.

Once they were done with this training, he sat by the side of the dueling platform, grateful to catch his breath as he watched Umbra and William prepare to spar.

Umbra stood on the platform with a dagger in each hand and wore bracers on her forearms.

William stood opposite her, with a spear in one hand and a shield in another.

Despite his love of complaining about sparring with Umbra, Damon could see the gleam in his eyes as he stood opposite Umbra.

William was a true battle fanatic.

"Damon, this battle will be useful for you. I'll be using the Eastern Royal stance, while William will be using the Southern Royal stance." Said Umbra.

She assumed the Eastern stance as she spoke, and William sank into the Southern stance.

"Try to focus on our movements and get a feel for how to flexibly move and respond to real battle situations while maintaining an effective stance." She said.

"Getting knocked out, leaving the ring, or breaking your stance all count as a loss." Finished Umbra.

William nodded.

Umbra charged forward, not bothering with any testing blows.

She shifted her body to the side to avoid William's spear, and once she breached his reach advantage, she brought a dagger up towards his throat.

William did not panic; he brought his shield up to block the dagger while swinging the body of his spear towards Umbra's side.

Even though she wore restrictive braces, which limited her stats to the same level as William's, Umbra's experience shone through.

Almost at the same time as William lifted his shield, she took a step forward and changed the angle of her charge while rotating the dagger so it was in reverse grip.

Instead of moving forward towards him, she thrust her body upwards with her step, launching herself into the air.

With the dagger now in her enclosed fist and out of the way of the shield, she brought her hand down, using the dagger as a claw to hook onto the top of the shield and boost herself up further.

With this momentum built from using William's shield, Umbra flipped over William.

William pivoted around as soon as he felt Umbra flip over him and bring his spear around, not diminishing the power of his initial spear swing.

This proved to be good judgment, as Umbra had lashed out with a dagger while she was in mid-air.

William caught the dagger with the body of his spear, channeling aura through the weapon and using Weapon Fortification to avoid it being cleaved in half.

Umbra was sent flying further than she had initially attempted but landed with no issues.

William sank back into his defensive stance.

Umbra flashed a toothy grin as she flipped both her daggers into reverse grip and charged forward once more.

William adjusted the tip of the spear towards Umbra as she charged, but she shifted once more, using one of her daggers to block him as she charged forward.

To her surprise, however, the tension of the spear gave way, and she stumbled to the side.

William had initially struck with an aura-fortified spear but cancelled the fortification and moved the spear aside as soon as Umbra clashed with it.

The spear giving way put her off balance, and William stepped forward into Umbra, aiming to bash her with his shield.

Unfortunately for William, this movement of his shield gave Umbra an opening.

While her agility was limited to match William's, experience allowed her to react almost as soon as William had acted.

Placing a foot on the ground whilst stumbling, she leaned into the side stumble, darting past William's side.

With his spear out to the side and his shield pressing forward, Umbra threw one of her daggers as she passed him, wrapping it in aura.

The dagger shot forward, curving past the shield and hitting William on the side of his neck.

The mana formation on the duel platform shone, and a small blue hexagon glowed into existence at the point of impact, blunting the blow.

William collapsed, choking in pain. Although the blow had not been deadly thanks to the formation, it still felt like getting hit in the neck with a blunt dagger.

Umbra landed with her arms folded and turned back towards William.

"Round one to me." She said while smiling.

She walked over and picked her thrown dagger off the floor by the groaning William.

"One day, you're going to have to actually try to win one of these." She said.