I lifted the long blade off my shoulder and rested the tip on the ground, feeling its intimidating weight in my hands.

‘I have to demonstrate the three stances with this?’

The first stance was facebreaker. I was supposed to raise my sword over my right shoulder with my left foot forward. The blade was supposed to be tilted back and ready to strike at an opponent's face with the hilt.

I wasn't sure if I could actually hold it properly, so I started with the explanation. “The stance was developed by a man who fought against human enemies, he was the hero of the first great war. The style is designed to handle smaller foes, with quick strikes from the sword's pommel to knock them off balance and broad slashes to make sure they can't dodge.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Show me.”

I hoisted it up into the air, but the blade was too heavy for me to hold with a tilt. Instead, I had to settle for holding it straight up

“Siya, tilt the sword back more.”

I gritted my teeth and tensed my whole body, tilting it as far back as I could.

“More,” she said again.

My arms began shaking.

“More.”

‘You know what's going to happen if I do that…’ I looked at her eyes and they glared at me coldly. my arms were unable to hold the weight of the sword and it crashed to the ground.

As the tip of the blade bounced off the stone tile it rattled and vibrated through the pommel hurting my hands and causing my arms to ache.

I grunted, squeezing the blade tighter, knowing if I let go it wouldn’t result in anything good. Still, I couldn't help but shake out my injured left arm. ‘I'm starting to think it's more than just a bruise…’

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I looked over to Lu who was holding an exaggerated version of the stance with the sword nearly parallel to the ground leaning forward, ready to strike. It seemed silly to me that you would ever want to hold a position in which the tip of your blade was as far away from your opponent as possible, but true to its name, the stance was designed to put you in position to bring the full weight of the blades hilt down onto someone's face, breaking their nose.

Regardless of how much sense it made, you had to admit, it was named well at least.

“Raise your sword.” Mara was still glaring at me, not even glancing at my sister. ‘If she's so perfect you don't even have to look at her, why is she even here…’

I lifted my sword into the air again, glancing at Lu who was still holding her stance perfectly. She was like a sculpture. I mimicked her, holding my sword as far back as I could, tightening every muscle in my body, managing to achieve it for a couple of seconds before the sword fell crashing to the ground again.

I expected her to let out a disappointed sigh, but instead, she just groaned, scrunching up her nose. “Mammoth stomp,” she growled. She had stopped looking me in the eyes though.

‘Pft, she can't even look at me now that there's a direct comparison between me and Lu.’ “Sorry to disappoint,” I mumbled.

I let out another sigh, resting my sword on the ground again. “Mammoth was developed by the second hero, who fought the monsters and trapped them within the labyrinth. It's defined by its powerful crushing stomps and kicks that generate momentum for the blade while rooting you to the ground.”

“Demonstrate.”

The stance itself was actually fairly easy to hold. The blade stuck out straight behind me while I held it close to my waist. The problem came with the ability to actually move from the stance.

“Use the first art form.”

‘I was afraid of that…’

I was supposed to lift my front leg, stomp the ground hard, and throw my whole body into a swing. Afterward, I needed to loop the sword around my head, following up with another strike from the same direction.

Even that wasn't the hard part though, in order to effectively execute the technique you were supposed to be able to stop all of the blade's momentum without it touching the ground and redirect it to block if you needed to.

‘If I start slowing down the blade early, maybe I can do it…’

I felt my muscles tighten as I brought the sword through with all my might, swinging it around and stepping into my second swing, but the moment almost threw me forward.

I lost my balance and the sword crashed into the ground. Just as it did Mara struck me in the ribs. My arms suddenly spiked with pain from the vibration of the blade striking the stone, and the strike to my gut sent me stumbling backward.

“You're slow.”

I struggled to breathe, but I managed to stay on my feet at least. ‘Yea I'm slow, you knew that already… Was hitting me that hard really necessary?’

She turned to Lu and nodded.

My sister executed the move perfectly, blocking the same strike that had just sent me stumbling.

When she was done, Mara turned back to me and uttered the three words I was beginning to hate more than anything. “Pick it up.”

‘Just one more…’

I walked forward and lifted my sword, immediately entering the final stance. I rested the sword across my shoulder and back, readying to brace for any attack, parry, and counterattack.

“Sovus, along with Ku-sovus, was created by the third hero of the sword. It's designed to fight opponents that are inhumanly strong, but still smaller than monsters. Sovus means sea, and Ku means inner. Together they symbolize how he flowed like water, flowing in tandem with his sword's weight instead of fighting against it.”

“Demonstrate.”

My jaw clenched. “Bring it on…”