‘I get the feeling that he doesn’t like me very much,’ Leon thought.

Silvermoor and Leon stared at each other for a while. He assumed he was older, but one could never be too sure. Silver hair definitely wasn’t normal, at least by Leon’s standards. ‘Do people dye their hair here? Wait, that’d be kind of stupid if he dyed his hair just to match his name.’

Leon was quickly becoming uncomfortable with the situation. Silvermoor just stood before him with an indifferent face, making no attempts at conversation. The only thing he’d gotten out of him was a ‘Tsk.’

“Bellendome,” Sir Garett shouted. The shuffling of feet began to calm as most partners had met up. With all of the duos formed, the instructor resumed his instructions.

“Find a place to practice, your partner will give you pointers as you spar. I will also go around and assist when I can.”

With his speech finished, Sir Garett repeated the instructions to his students in Leqan. Leon was happy to know that he understood most of the words that he repeated. His feeling of accomplishment was short-lived as his partner spoke to him in Leqan.

“Come,” Silvermoor said as he already started to walk off.

Soon enough, the two-faced each other in an open area. A few meters in every direction were free of another group, allowing for some breathing room. Brandishing his katana, Silvermoor glanced at Leon for acknowledgment.

‘Huh? We’re just going to start right now? No tips on how to hold it or… well, anything?!?!’ His concerns were unanswered. Leon’s panic was stricken across his face. He began frantically looking around. Sir Garett was already attending to a duo on the other side of the field and to Leon’s greater dismay, he noticed a large contrast between his partner and others. He couldn’t hear them, but the others seemed to be taking a more friendly approach to his classmates.

‘Nick looks like he’s having a blast,’ Leon enviously thought as he saw Nick being taught how to properly hold his lance by a kind-looking girl. Leon turned back to Silvermoor, immediately gawking at the intimidating aura that the man gave off. ‘I probably shouldn’t waste any more time.’ Silvermoor’s expressed a face of indifference, but Leon could tell that he wasn’t pleased with waiting… or being there for that matter.

The man’s eyes sharpened as his stance changed. ‘Did he just tighten his grip? Tell me he didn’t just tighten his grip.’ Beads of sweat dripped down Leon’s face and it wasn’t due to the sun. Silvermoor took a readied stance, gripping his blade with two hands. Leon could have sworn he heard the friction as his grip strengthened.

Resigning to his fate, Leon turned to completely face his partner. Unsheathing his blade, he quickly realized that he didn’t know where to place the blade’s scabbard. He went to toss it to the ground but felt a piercing gaze, resulting in him respectfully placing it on the ground beside him. Slowly standing up, he checked to see Silvermoor’s reaction. With no recent increase in anger, Leon let out a small breath of relief.

He wasn’t fond of this more action than talking approach, but Silvermoor didn’t leave him with many options. ‘I’m fairly certain he’ll cut my head off with no complaints if I ask for some basic explanations.’ Leon had never held a weapon in his life, if you don’t count the numerous cheap toy swords he’d play with as a kid.

Wiping the sweat from his brow, Leon attempted to mimic the posture of his partner. With the blade sitting awkwardly in his hands, he scrutinized his opponent one last time to make any small adjustments. The footing and grip felt very uncomfortable, but this was the best that he could come up with.

Mustering his courage, Leon faced Silvermoor with eyes of determination and attention. The two’s eyes focused on one another for a few moments. Leon had no intention of being the one to close the gap. ‘I’m fairly certain I’ll be knocked on my ass,’ he thought, attempting to preserve even the smallest amount of dignity.

Silvermoor refused to move as well. Leon assumed that he didn’t want to waste the energy or didn’t feel Leon was worth running toward. His eyes sharpened once more, indicating to Leon that he had to come to him.

Leon’s face displayed slivers of displeasure from the realization. In an effort to find a middle ground between their different wants on how to start the spar, Leon nudged his way slowly toward Silvermoor. With a cautious step forward every second, the gap diminished.

Two meters from his opponent, his eyes squinted at the blade’s shine. ‘Wait, he’s not actually going to slash at me, right?’

Leon’s body suddenly felt like it floated and the world had shifted. A dull thud was heard, accompanied by a bruising sensation that overwhelmed his legs. The shine of the blade became the sun burning his eye sockets. ‘Huh?’ Followed by a sudden impact against his back that made him wince. His eyes shut as he forced out the light and focused on the pain in his back. One moment, he was standing. The next he was lying on the ground.

Tilting his head to avoid the sun’s rays, his gaze reopened only to be greeted by an annoyed silver-haired boy resting his blade on his shoulder. A short word or phrase left his mouth that Leon couldn’t quite comprehend. Based on his ass being laid flat on the ground without even realizing that anything happened… Leon assumed they weren’t kind words.

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“Get up,” Silvermoor demanded.

The young man walked back to his original position. His posture was much more relaxed as the blade stayed resting against his shoulder. Leon propped himself up with his baby katana, feeling the dignity he tried to preserve leave his body. The man clearly lowered his expectations of Leon as he didn’t reenter a fighting stance.

Gripping his blade with both hands once more, Leon stared down at the handle. He attempted to regain focus and, more importantly, ignore any possible observers. He kept note of the metal’s reflective blinding as he approached once more.

His form was much more conservative as he closed the gap to Silvermoor. His arms hugged the sides of his torso and his legs walked evermore cautiously. Seeing the glimmer from the katana, Leon swiftly redirected his eyes to his opponents’ feet. The young man’s feet twisted and turned up dust as his legs squatted. Leon refused to look any higher than his lower body, resulting in him being unsure of how the man was holding his blade.

This time, Leon saw the process. With hardly any time to react, Silvermoor sprinted at him. He appeared by his left side in less than a second. Leon’s instinctual danger radar blew up as he tried to contort his stance to block to his left.

… He soon discovered that it was a poor decision and that he should have just taken the blow as he fell to the ground again, this time landing on his right hip. Leon clenched his teeth in pain as the bolt of agony traveled from his hip up the side of his body.

Footsteps echoed in his ear as Silvermoor reassumed his starting position once more.

His body almost relented as he forced himself up. Leon didn’t enjoy getting knocked down and beat up, but it beat the alternative. If he chose to give up, ‘short term – this guy kills me right now. Long term – this guy continues to beat me up… and I probably die outside the kingdom somewhere because I don’t know how to defend myself.’

Readying himself, Leon mentally prepared for the coming attack. Leon bent his knees a bit more as he approached. His stance was a bit looser than before in an attempt to not fall in such a painful way again.

Silvermoor’s body flew towards him. Leon’s body twisted preemptively as he knew he wasn’t fast enough to catch up normally. His grip strengthened as he swung his blade defensively to his rear position. Leon winced as a sharp pain reverberated in his wrists. Yet, his face held a subtle smile as the sound of metal clashed.

‘I did it!’ He internally proclaimed.

Leon’s eyes had hardly met with Silvermoor’s before a kick came through at his calf. His opponent’s face was now horizontal in Leon’s view. The instant felt like an eternity as he hovered in the air. He wished it was a true eternity because a painful thump was heard as he landed.

The world seemed to split in two as his vision blurred and multiplied his surroundings. His eyes and brain felt like they were bouncing around in his skull as he hit the ground. His shoulder experienced the brute of the impact just before his head had the pleasure of kissing the ground with the remaining momentum.

‘I really hate this.’ Leon didn’t even try to stand up. He was certain he couldn’t move anymore and as if to answer his assumptions, his status window appeared. Its clarity contrasted the blurred world.

Status

Name: Leon Knight

Race: Lesser Human (0)

Class: Support (0)

Profession: ---

Vitality: 42/70

Mana: 110/110

Stamina: 22/50

Stats

Strength: 4

Agility: 8 (1)

Endurance: 5

Constitution: 7 (1)

Perception: 8

Intelligence: 11 (2)

Wisdom: 7 (2)

Charisma: 1

Skills

[Adept Tongue (Rare)] [Mend (Inferior)] [Disarray (Inferior)] [Identify (Inferior)]

He took a moment to focus his thoughts. ‘Huh, I get knocked on my ass three times… and nearly lose half of my vitality.’ The last fall probably did the most damage as he struggled to make sense of the information. His stamina looked even worse. He mentally noted that taking a beating took a lot out of him. The bottom of his status screen held his attention for the longest. Leon decided at that moment that he was going to learn how to use his [Mend] skill, even if it killed him… unless this sparring killed him first.

The status window was then mentally closed as it vanished from his view. The world was still sideways as dirt greeted him on the left and a skyline to his right. His vision was beginning to stabilize and in the center of it was none other than Silvermoor.

He had his katana sheathed at his side. Another person was talking to him. He could discern their features, but Leon guessed it was a woman. It was hard for him to mistake Silvermoor for someone else with his unique hair color, but others were more difficult as they had more common features.

Leon managed to sit himself up just as the two finished discussing. He hadn’t been sitting upright for more than a few seconds before his sparring partner appeared before him with a slightly annoyed expression.

“Get up,” he demanded.

Leon hurried himself to his feet, the aching of his joints complimenting him on his accomplishment to stand. Silvermoor drew his blade once more, causing Leon to jump back a tad and grip his blade as well.

“Hold it like this.”

“Huh?” Leon audibly let out, puzzlement filling his face.

“Hold. It. Like. This.” The young man said once more, pushing the handle of his katana closer to Leon’s face.

His eyes darted all across Silvermoor’s hands, not daring to lean in closer or tilt his head. Mimicking once more, Leon copied his hand position. With his right hand close to the guard and his left beneath it, Leon looked to him for affirmation.

“Lower your left hand,” he stated as he shook his own hand in explanation.

He went on to say another thing, but Leon didn’t quite catch it. Silvermoor noticed his lack of change and sheathed his sword before approaching Leon. He grabbed his hand roughly and reached for one of his fingers before repeating the same Leqan word and pointing at it impatiently.

‘Oh, my thumb.’

Silvermoor placed Leon’s thumb where it needed to go before analyzing the rest of his grip. The new way of holding the wakizashi felt considerably more comfortable in the palms of his hands, albeit his wrists hurt from the weight as he held it.

Overall, Leon was in a great deal of pain but thanks to Silvermoor’s change of heart, he learned two things. How to hold his weapon and the name of every finger in Leqan.