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He was faster than I thought, but still within reasonable limits.

I had left some distance in case he had some ranged Skills, but he was coming close right away, with his saber still in his scabbard.

When he was around five meters from me, I saw a change in how he landed on one of his feet, his body bending more than before.

I sidestepped to the right as a leap suddenly propelled him forward, a Skill that reminded me of the Orc’s leap, unsheathing his sword so fast that I could barely see it, swinging to the space I just vacated.

I swung my sword trying to take advantage of his exposed flank, but another Skill already propelled him back a step right after he swung, and I had to stop and dodge again as he shot forward while an empowered downward swing passed by me.

The kick I aimed at his leg was dodged by another Skill that moved him to the left. I was about to move back a step to dodge a side swing when I noticed something different and ducked just in time for an almost transparent blade that extended from his sword to pass over my head.

How many goddamn Skills does he have? I thought as I started to take it more seriously.

He was starting to take another downward swing, but I just aimed my sword at the place his hands were about to pass by, prompting him to stop and sidestep.

Anticipating the movement I was already swinging there as soon as he activated the skill, forcing him to parry my sword he used his back step skill again, but I was already leaping forward with a stab following him a bit slower but forcing him to parry again and use another dodging Skill.

I kept pressing until the strain of the Skills forced him to stop using them.

Then we had a regular swordfight.

I pushed him as much as I could, trying not to end the fight too soon. Sometimes, to see his reaction, I swung so close to his face that he would have felt the wind brush against his skin. He didn’t bat an eye and kept fighting, sometimes mixing in a Skill when he could. I didn't expect such composure from one who lamented about injuries before the fight.

Still, he was good, but he needed a few more years of training before he could pose a serious threat to me. Or a few more levels in his case, since he seemed to be leveling quite fast.

Also, the more we fought, the more I learned how he moved, and the easier the fight became for me.

When I saw him panting and losing his focus, I decided I saw enough, I tripped him and held a sword at his throat after he fell down.

“I concede,” he said, heaving, after a few seconds.

I took back my sword, my breath just slightly faster than when I started. I noticed an increase in mana consumed by my Attributes as the fight progressed. I wasn’t sure if the need to breathe was influenced by those two or not.

“You’re good,” I said, sheathing my sword. I meant it.

He didn’t answer, keeping his eyes closed as he kept breathing heavily.

I’ll wait for a while before talking to him; I don’t think he’s in the mood to hear comments about the fight now.

“Well, I’ll go take a bath before breakfast,” I didn’t wash before going to sleep, and I was stinking.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

I took off my clothes and started washing while paying mind to anything that could be lurking in the water, then went back to find that Freya was up and was sitting right out of the tent.

“Hey, morning,” I said as I got closer.

“Good morning,” she said quietly, without moving.

I sighed.

“Look, Freya,” I said, a bit exasperated. “I won’t talk about your responses for now, we can take our time to work on them, but could you at least start to, you know, move around? Do something without me telling you to? ’Cause it’s really starting to bother me.”

Her face was starting to show an uneasy expression, so I continued.

“And talking about responses right now would be a perfect moment to throw out a comeback! Come on! Do your best, lass!” I said, encouraging.

She hesitated for a moment. Probably thinking of an appropriate comeback.

“I’m sitting here… because I want to?” she asked tentatively.

Duh…

“Ok, let’s call it an improvement. But it shouldn’t have come out as a question! You have to put your voice into it! Come on! Out with that voice!” I was starting to get into it.

She gulped and after a pause she said, more decisively, “I’m sitting here because I want to.”

We’ll work on the wording another time.

“Good! Still too quiet but better! You should also work on your expression. Like, give me a scowl, come on, no, scrunch up those brows more, now the lips, look at me, like this, ok, yes, you got that, a bit more…”

“What, by the gods, are you doing?” I heard Zeph say when he came back from babying his pride.

“I’m teaching her etiquette,” I answered, as I turned to look at him.

He made a strange face and shook his head, then decided to mind his own business and started preparing his breakfast.

“Well, girl, you should work more on your voice. Either shout loudly or make it colder. Mm, I dunno. Maybe it will be hard for you to get the cold feeling right. Well, we'll see,” I continued, “Now though, you smell like a sweaty sock that’s fermented for a week. Do something about it.”

She scowled at me.

“Yes! That’s the face!” I had a talent for teaching. “Now go washing. I shouldn’t be the one telling you to do it.”

I turned around to go have my own breakfast. A few seconds later, I saw her going towards the river.

“Hey Zeph,” I said after a while, “How long do we have until you expect problems, not your very deadly problems, but the common ones on the road.”

I wanted to know how much time I had before I had to stop my training.

He thought about it for a few moments.

“I’m not sure how to answer you,” he said in the end. “I only deduced the possible dangerous spots based on the distance from large cities, type of terrain, our group, and various news I heard about the territory.”

“For example, look around you.” He used his hand to indicate the grassland. “What kind of dangers do you expect here?”

“… Rats and snakes?” That seemed the most immediate danger to me, looking at the grass.

“… Wild animals are a problem too, but they’re not too difficult to deal with unless they come in large packs. I was talking about monsters or bandits.” He shook his head. “Not that we’ll find any monster around here.”

“Monsters?” I asked curious.

He hesitated for a moment.

“Just think of them as more powerful beasts, with some strange abilities. It’s not something you’ll need to worry about around here,” he said, dismissing it.

“Anyway, bandits are our main problem on the road, but here in the grassland would you find some?” he asked again.

“No?” I asked back.

“Wrong,” he said right away.

Can’t he just explain instead of asking questions? I thought annoyed.

I didn’t speak again and waited for him to keep explaining.

"… The answer is yes, but it’s not a problem we'll have unless we’re unlucky," he continued after he saw that I wouldn’t.

“The bandits we could encounter here should be mostly big organized bands that attack merchant caravans, not the small bandit group that attacks three poor travelers,” he finally explained.

"Small groups tend to work around towns, or small cities, where there is sufficient flow of people but where the soldiers can’t patrol all territory effectively. They tend to target small groups of people or single people and prefer to stay in places with good amounts of hiding places, like mountains and forests.

"The most we could expect here are a few impoverished farmers that followed us from the previous village. You should look scary enough for them to feel intimidated, and they wouldn’t be a problem even if they came.

“Therefore, to answer your original question, I guess that we won’t have problems until we reach the next town in around a month,” he concluded.

I nodded.

“Ok, nice explanation. Just a correction. I don’t look scary, I look intimidating. There’s a difference.” I felt like I should make that clear.

“By the way, shouldn’t we have a guard or something at night, even if the risk is small?”

He waved his hand dismissively. “I put an alarm down when you went to sleep. Should reach far enough to warn us in time.”

Mister Rich has his ways.

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