“Elise? Sweetie, wake up, you’re gonna be late for work.”
Elise’s groggy eyes inched open to find her father gently tapping her shoulder. She looked past him to see light streaming in from their windows, and realized that it was well past the crack of dawn.
“What time is it?” Elise asked, slightly panicked. She’d never once been late to work, and even though she could stop working as an instructor and make all her income as a skill broker, she didn’t plan on it. The only thing more important than figuring out the secrets of Skill Transfer was getting to work on time.
“You’ve still got half an hour before your class,” William said. Elise sat up and looked around, her body protesting her every movement. The soreness from yesterday was no closer to fading, if anything it had only gotten worse. Standing up she found her legs to be in much more pain than she would like, but it was manageable. She’d make sure to add ‘buy soreness potion’ to her mental todo list.
“You alright, sweetie?” William asked, after seeing Elise’s face twist in discomfort from standing up. “When your mother and I got home, you were passed out on the couch. She thought for a second that you’d died.”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Took my first quest yesterday, and it was more tiring than I thought it would be.”
“You took—”
“Don’t worry, it was a simple quest to the east,” Elise said before her father could get concerned. “It didn’t even require combat.” This was technically true, as Elise could have completed the quest just by finding the location of a goblin den and reporting it back to the guild. She decided to exclude the fact that she had ended up fighting a horde of goblins, which would have only made her father worry unnecessarily.
“Okay, but be careful,” William said. “I know how much you’ve always wanted to be an adventurer and how good you are with a sword, but.... Just be safe, okay?” He didn’t explicitly mention that Elise needed to be careful due to her lack of defensive skills that could protect her, but she got the implication.
“I will,” Elise responded, before latching on to something William had mentioned before. “Wait, you came home with mom? Did you tell her about my skill?”
William shook his head. “I figured you’d want to tell her yourself. I thought you’d wake up in the morning before she left, but I guess not. There’s always tonight.”
Elise smiled. “Thanks for that. I really want to be able to tell her myself.” Despite the disappointing aspects of her skill, it was still hers, so she wanted to break the news herself. “Could you not tell anyone about Skill Transfer though? I don’t want too many people to know I have it, especially once I start working as a skill broker.”
“You got it sweetie,” William replied. He leaned over to give his daughter a kiss on the forehead, before heading for the door. “I’m heading off now, I’ll see you tonight.”
“Yep, see you,” Elise said as her father walked outside and shut the door. The door re-opened a second later, with William peeping his head through the crack to give one last parting remark.
“Oh, and get a fresh set of clothes. You smell like a goblin.”
~~~
Elise ended up making it to the training grounds a minute before her class started. She would have arrived earlier, but her father’s words had made it clear that she desperately needed to bathe before interacting with society again. She was fairly certain that most skill enhanced clothing for adventurers also had some enchantments that dealt with hygiene and smell, which only increased the priority of her getting new gear. Maybe she’d do that today, but first, she had to get through teaching her class.
Elise stood in the center of the training ground, her legs still sore from the day before. Standing off to the side were her students, a collection of twenty or so mostly aspiring adventurers who wanted to gain proficiency with the sword. Despite teaching a class that forbade the use of skills, most of her students weren’t beginners. Usually, around half the class was made up of long term students, people who’d been coming to her lessons for months now. The other half were either fresh faces or had only shown up a handful of times before, but they all had their own reasons for attending. Some of them had weapon based skills but still saw the value in honing one’s natural talent instead of over relying on the skill interface. Others were adventurers who’d take a different specialization with their skills, speccing for archery or magecraft, but who still wanted to know how to defend themselves at close range. Lastly, there were those who just enjoyed swordplay, and took the class as a hobby. Regardless, everyone in the class was taking it as more than just a passing interest, meaning Elise had to make sure her lessons were high quality.
She sighed. High quality teaching meant she couldn’t just phone it in and say ‘go spar for an hour’ or something. Elise usually started every session with a demonstration, but she couldn’t figure out what she’d be able to show without it looking sloppy. Instead, she did the next best thing: stalling for time.
“Can anyone tell me what the three main stances are?” Elise asked. A number of hands went up among her students, and she picked one at random.
“Hollister, Lautaro, and Decamp,” the student answered. Elise nodded, unsheathing her sword and entering the Hollister stance. She held her sword in two hands, with the grip by her waist and the tip pointing outwards and up. Her stance was wide, with her lead foot facing forward and her back foot facing out to the side. Perfect, Elise thought. If I just spend the demonstration time going over stances, I can get it over with quickly and give my legs a rest. Still, just showing the stances didn’t quite count as teaching, especially since her students were well acquainted with the basics.
“What is the Hollister stance best used for?” Elise asked, and the same student as before answered.
“Fighting a single enemy of equal or less strength.”
“Correct,” Elise said. The Hollister was more or less the go-to stance; it had no clear weaknesses that an opponent could exploit, and let the user both attack and defend with relative ease. “Now, what about the Lautaro stance?” As she asked the question, Elise shuffled her feet and changed her grip on the sword. Now, instead of facing the tip forwards and up, she let it rest on the ground off to the side.
“It’s good against cyclops and flying monsters,” the same student answered. Elise nodded, before asking a follow up.
“Can anyone tell me why?” This time, noone in her crowd of students volunteered an answer, so Elise explained the reasoning herself. “In the case of cyclops, having a single eye means their depth perception is poor, so when you keep your sword up, they’ll try to attack from a range instead of risking stepping too close. When you keep your sword low and off to the side, it creates a clear gap in your defense that they’ll try to exploit, and you’ll be perfectly positioned to counter. It’s a similar case for flying monsters: keep your sword up and they won't approach, so you need to create a fake weakness for them to exploit.” Elise studied the faces of her students as she spoke, trying to gauge if they were satisfied with her demonstration and if she could move on. Unfortunately, she was interrupted before she could continue.
“This is bullshit,” said a student from the back of the crowd. “What’s the point of any of this? You can’t kill a cyclops without skills, they’d bash your skull in.”
Elise sighed. Every once in a while, a new student would show up who was skeptical about the idea of sword fighting without skills. At this point, she had a pre-rehearsed speech for such troublemakers, but she doubted she’d be able to get through the whole thing before she was interrupted again.
“Skills aren’t everything. There’s a limited amount of times you can use any given skill in a fight, so you need to be prepared for when either you or your opponent run out. Additionally, someone with a basic understanding of the fundamentals—”
“Bull. Shit.” The rowdy student interrupted Elise halfway through her sentence, as expected. He looked around at the rest of the class with disgust. “Unbelievable. You lot really think you can fight without skills? Absolutely delusional.”
Now that Elise got a better chance to look at the student and hear him speak, she understood what sort of person she was dealing with. He looked to be young, probably no more than 18, and his attire was much more flamboyant than it had any reason to be. He wore a blue coat with golden tassels hanging from the shoulders, and an insignia she didn’t recognize embroidered by his breast pocket. A noble’s kid, who probably just got an A rank skill as a birthday present. Before, Elise had wondered why obnoxious noble brat would pop up every now and again with some skill far too powerful for their age. Now with her knowledge of Skill Transfer, it made sense. It also made her want to beat some sense into the kid.
“If you’re so confident in skill superiority, how about a spar?” Elise offered. “You can use whatever skills you’d like, and I won’t be using any.” Under normal circumstances, and against a competent opponent, Elise knew she’d lose more times than not. However, these weren’t normal circumstances, and she was willing to bet that she wouldn’t be up against a competent opponent. Already expecting him to accept the challenge, Elise headed for a crate placed off to the side, filled with wooden swords and leather armor. She sat her actual sword off to the side, leaving it lying against the crate, and strode back to the center of the grounds with training gear in hand.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
The young noble snickered. “Fine. Don’t be surprised when you end up on your ass.” He confidently strode to the center of the training grounds to meet Elise, and she tossed him a sword and armor. Despite the gears’ unassuming look, they were both technically pieces of skill-tech, though they were only useful in a training setting. The sword was made to dampen the effects of skills, and the armor was enchanted to be able to withstand any blow that came from the training swords. Additionally, if a would-be lethal blow was intercepted, the armor would send a message to the skill interface of both combatants. The boy seemed a bit peeved that they wouldn't be using real swords to fight, but he picked up the training gear without another complaint.
“Last chance to back out, lady,” the boy said. He swung the sword through the air a couple times, in a manner that he probably thought looked intimidating. Elise wasn’t phased in the slightest.
“I could say the same to you,” she replied, before looking towards her crowd of students. “This will be a good demonstration for you all. Make sure to pay attention to my form, and how I switch between the stances during the fight. I doubt it will take me long to win, but I do hope you’re all able to learn something from this short spar” While Elise did have her pride as a teacher, her statements were mainly to provoke the boy. She’d tried to sound as dismissively confident as possible, and judging by the murderous look on the boy’s face, she’d done a fantastic job.
“Oh, you’re dead. Do you even know who I am?”
“I’ve got no idea,” Elise responded. “Enlighten me.”
“I’m Howard Yeltal, third son of the Yeltal family. I’m sure you know how strong my father is.”
Elise nodded. She was indeed aware of the Yeltal family head, just as she was aware of all prominent members of noble families. What didn’t mention was that, among the noble families of Fioria, the Yeltal family was undoubtedly one of the weakest. At first, Elise had some reservations about potentially angering a powerful family head before she was ready, but if it was just the Yeltals? She could go all out against Howard, and not worry about the repercussions.
“Well Howard, it’s a displeasure to meet you. Ready your sword.” Howards face twisted at Elise’s greeting, but he got into his fighting stance regardless. His stance wasn’t the worst, and his grip on the sword was that of someone who had at least taken some sword fighting lessons in the past. Still, at least in Elise’s eyes, he stood like an amateur.
“Ryan!” Elise called out to her crowd of students, her eyes still locked with Howards. “Officiate for us, would you?”
“Sure thing!” Ryan hurried over to the two fighters, stopping once he was a few feet away. “So, sparring session, best of one, fighting ends when one party gives up, leaves the arena, or when the interface logs a lethal blow. Right?” Both Elise and Howard nodded, so Ryan continued. “Right. Anyway, good luck to both of you, start on my count. Three!”
Ryan took a few steps back.
“Two!”
Howard shuffled his front foot forward an inch.
“One!”
Elise took a breath.
“Begin!”
Howard made the first move, lunging at Elise with a wide slash. She had two choices here: block, or dodge. She chose the latter option, hopping backwards out of range, and immediately regretted her decision. Her sore legs screamed at her to stop moving, but it was too late. She’d forgotten about her physical state when she suggested the fight. Just another handicap to worry about.
Elise landed on her back foot, and Howard went to press again, this time going for an overhead swing. Elise brought her sword up to block, and the resulting impact nearly knocked her off balance.
He’s not actually that strong, Elise thought. Must be a strength boosting skill, probably around rank C. I’ll have to be careful about blocking his attacks. Howard continued his assault, lunging forwards and thrusting his sword at Elise’s head. She backpedaled out of range again, not bothering with trying to parry.
“Running away, huh?” Howard taunted. “What, you're too scared to fight back?” He went for a non-committal swipe at Elise’s feet, and she took another step back. A few more exchanges and she’d be out of bounds, but she doubted she’d have to worry about that. Howard didn’t seem like the time to slowly press a small advantage. He wanted a big, flashy finish. Elise didn’t respond to his provocations, keeping her sword up and her eyes locked on her opponent.
“Fine then. Hope you’re ready for this.” Howard prepared another overhead swing, this time with a faint white glow emanating from his training sword. Elise could tell in a moment that if she tried to block or parry the oncoming attack, the fight would be over. She took a big leap to the side, trying to gather as much distance between herself and Howard before he brought his sword down. Her hop had given her a gap of a few feet, but even that didn’t seem to be enough as Howard’s sword sliced through the air at supersonic speed, creating a sonic boom that knocked Elise to the ground.
“How do you like that?” Howard said. “Super Sonic Slash, rank A. You never had a chance.” He readied another slash, his sword glowing yet again, forcing Elise to dive roll to safety. She still got caught in the shockwave, falling to the ground with a message appearing on her skill interface.
Damage Registered: 40%
None of the blasts had been lethal, but the training armor still needed some way to quantify damage taken from attacks, and the fight would end once her damage reached 100%. Even with the gap between her and Howard’s sword, she’d still lost a fifth of her health from each swing. She’d lose after three more, and given it was a rank A skill she was facing, she doubted he was anywhere near running out of uses.
“Impressive skill you’ve got there.” Elise said, hoping to stall for time. “I can see why you’re so confident.”
“You haven’t even seen the rest of my skills,” Howard responded. He pointed his sword at Elise and it began glowing again, this time a purple light coalescing at the tip. Elise recognized the glow as the tell-tale sign of a ranged attack, one that was likely too fast for her to dodge. She put her sword up to intercept, hoping that she’d be lucky enough to guess where Howard was aiming. Her efforts were rewarded, as a beam of light shot out from Howard’s sword, heading for Elise’s head before fizzling harmlessly against her sword. Howard’s smug expression shifted to one of shock, and Elise didn’t waste her chance to strike back. She lunged, forcing Howard to quickly regroup and block her attack.
His block was successful but sloppy, leaving him off balance and exposed on his left side. Elise aimed for the unprotected area and the tip of her sword grazed against his leather armor. She couldn’t tell how much damage she’d done, but Howard was clearly upset, glaring at his interface with disgust.
“You little-” he started, but Elise was on him again before he could organize his thoughts. Now that she was pressing her advantage, Elise became a calm flurry of blows, brutally analyzing Howard’s lazy swordsmanship and targeting his weak points. If it wasn’t for his strength buff, he’d have already lost the fight, but even with the buff he was struggling to defend. At this point, only thought was on how she could most effectively chain attacks together to keep Howard occupied. She had to make sure he didn’t have a chance to pull out another skill.
Left shoulder. He blocked, now aim for his knee. Lunge for his chest, and he’ll try to parry. Pull back before making contact, then go for an overhead swing. Turn it into another feint, kick his shin.
Elise wasn’t limited to just sword attacks, which Howard was likely not thrilled to discover. While the leather armor was enchanted to remove pain and injury that came from attacks from the training swords, it had no means of protecting against regular physical attacks. As such, when Elise kicked Howard in the shin, he let out a yelp of pain, causing Elise to hesitate for a second before following up. Howard then made the best tactical decision he’d made since the fight began, taking the short reprieve Elise had given him to begin charging another Super Sonic Slash.
Shit, Elise thought, I waited too long. As a teacher, Elise had been through hundreds of sparring sessions, and was so used to stopping when someone got hurt that it had become second nature to her. If it had been a serious fight with real danger, she was sure she wouldn’t have been so careless, but that's besides the point. Now, she had to go back on the defensive, preparing herself for the imminent shockwave.
When Howard’s sword came down, Elise braced, planting her feet soundly and trying her best to mitigate the damage of the shockwave. This time, she wasn’t knocked to the ground, but checking her interface showed that her countermeasures had been ineffective.
Damage Registered: 60%
Elise looked up, trying to see if there was some opening she could exploit after Howard used the skill. Unfortunately, his sword was already glowing again as he dashed toward Elise again, trying to hit her directly with the slash to end the fight. She jumped out of the way, but again the resulting shockwave took her health down another twenty percent.
Damage Registered: 80%
“Is that all you’ve got?” Elise asked. “A stupid shockwave and some weak laser?” If Howard used Super Sonic Slash one more time, Elise would lose the fight, but he didn’t know that. Right now, only Elise’s interface let her know how much damage she’d taken. So long as she could goad him into going with a different attack, she’d win. She didn’t know how much damage Howard had taken either, but if she had to guess, she’d done enough where a single good blow now would end the fight.
Howard laughed. “I haven’t even used my trump card yet.” He got into a low stance, holding his sword low and letting the tip drag on the ground behind him. This time, however, his sword wasn’t glowing.
Seeing he wasn’t going with the same attacks as before, Elise’s gears began churning, trying to predict her opponent's next move. It’s not a sword skill, or a ranged attack. Based on that stance, he’s about to use a movement skill to close the gap and score a killing blow, but what skill? It must be something high rank, and something that I wouldn’t be able to react to in time. Elise’s head was spinning with possibilities of skills that she remembered from her years of studying the skill compendium. Double Step was great at repositioning but wasn’t fast enough where she couldn’t react in time. Lighting Slash was a sword skill combined with a movement skill, and Howard’s sword wasn’t glowing. Skills kept flashing through her mind until she suddenly recalled one that fit the bill. It would be a risky gamble, and if her guess was wrong she’d lose, but it was a risk she’d have to take.
“Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s see your trump card.” Elise stared intently at Howard, preparing to act the second he moved. Even if she knew what skill he was about to unleash, she had to get the timing right. After a couple seconds of silence, Howard dashed forwards, preparing an uppercut slash. Elise positioned her sword to block, without any intention of actually doing so.
C’mon, a bit closer. As soon as Howard was in range to attack, his arms began to move, swinging the sword at Elise’s jaw. She held steady, staring at Howard’s sword as it arced towards her face. She was waiting for the right moments to drop her guard. Waiting, waiting, until...
There! The image of Howard’s sword became blurry for a second, looking like a mirage. As soon as Elise noticed the visual imperfection, she dropped her guard and spun around, swinging her sword at the once empty space behind her. That empty space was now occupied by a shocked Howard, whose head was directly in the path of Elise's sword. He went tumbling to the ground, and a message popped up on Elise’s interface.
Lethal Blow Delivered.