“I don’t know. I only unlocked the system three weeks ago, and I never thought that far,” Arthur said in response to Athena’s questions. There were just so many questions she had about his trait and talent that he didn’t think he would even know the answer to some of them even after ten years.
“I see. Then when you know, you tell me about them,” Athena shrugged in acceptance.
“Fine. I will let you know if I ever find out,” he agreed easily.
“Then let's start with basic swordsmanship, shall we?” Arthur tried to change the topic to something more productive.
“Ok,” she nodded.
The girl raised her sword, her hair flowing behind her, and her eyes glimmering under the sun. Despite her lack of a smile, Arthur was taken in by her sapphire blue eyes.
“In combat, there are two major sides: offense and defense,” she slashed the air a few times before blocking an invisible attack as a demonstration.
“When using a sword, there are three basic offenses. Slashing, thrusting, and chopping. Each of these moves has many variations.”
Athena held her sword with both hands before slashing multiple times from different angles. “When slashing, you drag your blade on the surface of your target while pushing the blade to make the cut deeper.”
“On the other hand, when chopping, you hit your target with the edge of your blade without dragging the blade,” she chopped a few times with her wooden sword.
“Thrusting is when you use the end of your sword and push it forward,” she demonstrated a few sword thrusts before looking at Arthur.
“Each sword has a different design and different strength. For example, the katana you used against Sergeant Hawkins. Katana are primarily slashing weapons, while they can still be used for thrusting and chopping, they are not as effective.”
“Then should I just use slashing attacks?” Arthur asked with a frown.
“Different circumstances require different solutions. Each of these moves has its advantages and disadvantages. Slashing is usually better for quick attacks; it allows you to recover faster and connect your attack with a follow-up. It's a great way to injure your opponent, as slashing causes lacerate wounds across the surface you hit.”
“On the other hand, chopping attacks are focused on strength. This is a great way to break hard objects like bones or weapons, and it can cause your enemy to stagger from the impact, but it might damage your blade in the process. This move also has a longer recovery if you use a lot of strength to deliver it.”
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
“As for thrusting, it has the longest reach and is fast to deliver, but it might cause you to overextend without a proper follow-up. Of course, I suggest you don't use your katana to thrust at a hard object; it might snap in two if you do.”
“I will show you the proper moves for each of them with some variation. Repeat them every day, so your body remembers how to move during a fight,” Athena said before showing Arthur the moves.
“Athena, can you do it one more time but slower?” he said sheepishly.
After a few repetitions and corrections from Athena, Arthur finally remembered the movements she showed him.
“You will also need to learn about footwork. If you don't have proper footing, you can't fight properly. I will show you a basic footwork. You can use it to move around while practicing,” she showed him the proper footwork.
“This is harder than expected.” Arthur tried to follow her example but almost stumbled a few times.
“Your Trait helps you with your hand movement, but it doesn't help with your footing, so you better put some work into it,” she advised.
“Alright, I will work on it. How about we continue on defense?” he nodded at her.
“For defense, there are also three basic moves: dodging, blocking, and parrying. Arthur, try to attack me with a horizontal slash,” she asked him to help her demonstrate.
“Dodging is when you move out of your opponent's attack,” She explained as she dodged his sword with a step back.
“Once more,” she told him to attack once again before blocking his attack, stopping it with her sword.
“Blocking is stopping the enemy's attack by putting an object in its path,” he explained before telling him to attack once more.
This time, Athena parried the sword strike, deflecting the blade aside, “Parrying is when you redirect an incoming attack, causing it to miss.”
“You can use these three to defend, but you need to choose the correct defensive response to every attack. Of course, it also depends on your fighting style, but sometimes one is way better than another.”
“Typically, you would want to dodge every attack coming your way, especially if the enemy is way bigger or physically stronger than you. There are good dodges and bad dodges. A good dodge is when you can counter after the dodge, or you can defend against the follow-up attack after you dodge. A bad dodge is when you are forced to keep dodging, or when you can’t even dodge any follow-up.”
“With good technique, you can avoid bad dodges, but you can't always dodge. Sometimes you just don't have enough time to make a good dodge. That's where the two other defenses come in.”
“Blocking is the safest option when you think you can handle the force coming at you. It's easier to block than to parry, but if your weapon can't endure the abuse, it might break.”
“On the other hand, parrying is riskier since it's harder and requires precision and timing to redirect an enemy's attack correctly, but it comes with a great advantage if it can be performed correctly. You can defend against stronger attacks that you could not block normally, and it also allows you to counterattack when your enemy's weapon gets thrown off its course.”
“I will show you the techniques for each, but you will need a partner to train them,” Athena finished her explanation.
“It's okay, I will have Riley help me with training. But if you don't mind, we can spar a few times each day?” Arthur smiled.
*squeak!*
Riley, who was listening to her explanation beside Arthur, responded as if saying she can help.
“Okay,” Athena said simply, which shocked Arthur. He did not expect the girl to agree to train with him every day. After Athena finished her explanations, she basically reverted back to her silent self, replying with one or two words each time Arthur talked to her.