LIV
Kaz would be lying if he wasn’t nervous as he made his way down towards the training grounds of the Guild. He woke up way before his alarm spell went off, wondering why he was so anxious about this first training session. If anything, he should be excited to be able to finally learn how to wield his glaive properly, but deep down, he knew that this week would basically show him if he was able to actually use the glaive long term, or if he needed to think about abandoning that idea.
With a deep breath, he stepped into the training area, which was already filling up with the early risers. He held his glaive close to his chest, and navigated, looking for his mentor. He didn’t know how she looked like, but it wasn’t long before a middle aged Human lady dressed in simple loose clothing with short ginger hair approached him, curtly asking, “You Kaz?”
He dipped his chin, taken aback by her blunt approach, replying, “Yes, ma’am. My name is Kaz and it’s an honor—”
She abruptly raised her hand, cutting him off, “Name’s Wylana. Cute weapon, but you won’t need it, go put it away. Meet me near the wooden weapon rack,” and without waiting for a response, she strode away.
Kaz scratched his head, wondering what was in store for him this week. He wasn’t necessarily offended by her demeanor, but it wouldn’t hurt to be a bit nicer, especially when first meeting someone. He dropped off his glaive, and also ditched his robes, as they would only hinder him in his first training day.
He made his way to the wooden spears, and she handed him a wooden spear that almost the same size of his glaive, albeit quite a bit lighter. She also grabbed another spear, which was taller than her, and motioned for him to join her in an empty area of the yard. She got into a stance, and simply commanded him, “Attack me.”
With a slight moment of hesitation, he stepped forward, using most of his strength to swipe his wooden spear in a wide arc, his usual move that did the most damage to his enemies. Before he even realized what happened, his spear connected with the shaft of her spear, and he felt her jab his chest with her spear. Maybe she did it with the end of the staff, but he had no clue, and before he knew it, the wooden spear’s edge was next to his neck.
She pointed out to him, “Your move is not bad necessarily, but it leaves you exposed due to the lack of your foundations. The sweeping arc is not a move you should ever open up with, unless your opponent is already near defeat.”
Wylana approached him, and stood behind him, and she guided him, explaining, “The advantage of a spear is the length of it. Your weapon is slightly different from a spear, it is a glaive or polearm of sorts,” to which he nodded in confirmation, and she continued, “but the foundation and fighting style is quite similar on a base level.”
She angled him slightly sideways, moving his left leg forward, while pressing on his shoulders, causing him to slightly hunch over. She then angled his right foot outwards away from his body. He felt very stable in this stance, it was slightly different from his previous stance, where he would keep his feet pointed forward and lean back slightly.
Walking back in front of him, she got into a similar stance, and then she instructed him, “The move you should always resort to in the beginning of the fight, is poking.” She moved forward slowly to demonstrate and thrust her spear towards his chest. He backed up, avoiding the wooden tip.
She explained, “This is the best move to open with, it keeps the distance between the two of you and is a great way to take control of the battle, especially those with shorter range weapons. Against weaker monsters, or opponents, you might get lucky by piercing them, causing some damage and bleeding. Once you are comfortable, you can go for more strength, called a jab, in order to deal significant damage.”
Getting back into her stance, she motioned for him to do the same, and then told him to attack her. He stepped forward, and using his back foot, he braced himself as he thrust his spear forward. He ended up staggering forward slightly, losing balance. She commented, “Do not put all of your strength into thrusting forward. Put half of your strength into it, so that you are not overextending yourself, which would leave you exposed to a counterattack. Your goal to control the fight, not end it.”
She motioned for him to try again, and this time he lunged forward with less strength, and although she easily avoided his poke, she nodded approvingly. She stated, “And once you poke, always make sure to take a step back, but never more than where you were before.” She demonstrated by taking five steps in her lunge and then moved back three.
“This allows you to retreat slightly, to not only prevent them from counterattacking you, but to observe what kind of weakness they might have, be it footwork or reach.” Throughout the first day, she only focused on his stance, poking and jabbing. She made him focus on his balance and speed most of the time. Making sure he was always in motion.
When he asked why, she bluntly told him, “For your size, you will not be able to overpower anyone. It is best for you to wear down your opponent with small bursts of damage, instead of going for heavy hits like you used to do.” He nodded, understanding that what he did in the past was not wrong, but inefficient. If he were to guess, he only managed to be adequate with the glaive because none of the monsters or enemies were particularly skilled. He realized whenever he did win with the glaive, it was more of luck, his glaive being long, and the use of his [ Mana Shield ] whenever he was in danger.
With the first day behind, he was happy to see that he went from Rank 15 to Rank 20 in [ Glaive Novice ], which was a huge jump, especially considering he only did poking and jabbing today. The next day, he woke up extremely sore, wincing as he approached the training yard.
With an evil grin, she made him run around, and do some stretches that made him nauseous, claiming this was to warm him up. Admittedly, it did help him get rid of most of his soreness, but he was exhausted already.
He grabbed his wooden spear, and she then instructed him to get into the same stance he was in yesterday, claiming, “This the stance you should always be in. Never rest on the heel of your foot but always bounce on the balls of your feet. You should only plant your feet firmly when you make a move to attack or defend.”
Kaz got into the stance with ease, the constant repetition from yesterday already ingrained into his mind and body. She nodded in approval, and then explained, “Today we will work on the upwards slash. Similar to the poke, we will focus on only light slashes for now to get the form down.”
Wylana proceeded by showing him how to achieve this upwards slash, which was similar to what he has done in the past. The only difference was that with her slash, the spearhead ended around the middle of the body, more of a complete vertical motion. The tip began from slightly below her right knee, and she swiped it upwards, twisting her back slightly along with her legs.
Once she was done with her demonstration, Kaz asked, “I was doing something similar, but instead my blade would go across the body, instead of upwards.”
She nodded her head slightly, explaining, “That is fine, but with this motion, it is easier to build on top of it, by adding multiple slashes in quick succession. When you extend yourself to cross the shaft and blade across your body, you lose all of your momentum. I would reserve the cross body slash for a finishing move, not an opener.”
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Kaz acknowledged that and began the upwards slashing motion that she demonstrated for him. He found it was a lot easier for him to do this motion, especially when she fixed his form a few times by making him twist his back and bend his knees to help drive the weapon upwards. Kaz found himself less tired in his arms once she made these corrections for him, recognizing that his body was doing most of the work, not his arms like he thought.
That’s how the whole day went, similar to his first day. He made hundreds, if not over a thousand of repetitions of slashing upwards, from both his right and left side. What was also another spark of knowledge from his training today, was that his grip and stance varied based on what side he was swinging from. He was glad to learn this knowledge, and now it was so much easier for him to keep his balance, and he now understood after the long practice what Wylana meant by momentum. With proper form, strength, and timing, he was able to continuously repeat upward slashes without tiring quickly.
Settling into his bath after a long day, he checked his [ Glaive Novice ], and he saw that he jumped seven Ranks, now sitting at Rank 27. He was amazed at his quick progress, but it was most likely due to his now three-star Calling enhancement. He couldn’t wait to learn more, to see how far he will go with his Ranks by the end of the week.
The next day, he went through a much needed warm up, and this time, Wylana explained to him, “This is more catered to your weapon, but after you complete an upwards slash, you should go for a sweeping arc, similar to one you attempted one your first day. The difference now is, use your body to complete the sweep, not your arms.” He felt his cheeks warm when he remembered that embarrassing moment, but thankfully, she was already walking towards a wooden dummy.
She didn’t even demonstrate for him this time, and motioned to the wooden training dummy. He took a deep breath, and decided to treat this like a monster. He opened up with a few probing pokes, and then followed up with an upwards slash from his right hip. Without really thinking about it, his body immediately shifted to the other stance for his left side as he brought down the tip of his spear, and crouched slightly while swinging his spear in a wide arc, slightly twisting his body but not too much to lose his balance.
With a satisfying clunk, his wooden spearhead hit the training dummies midsection. Wylana gave a nod, a small smile on her lips. That expression and feeling of confirmation meant more than a thousand words. She motioned to continue on, so he continued on for hours.
When he took a small water break, she showed him a few variations to try, calling them combos. It featured the same moves that he had practiced, but in various orders, while also adding some flares here and there. For example, she would spin around before a sweeping arc, which she claimed would add more power at the cost of precision, and also twirling her spear between upward slashes, claiming this would throw off the opponent.
On the fourth day, they did something entirely different. Wylana gave him his spear, and plainly said, “Defend.”
Before, he could register what she meant, she thrust her spear into his exposed stomach, poking him roughly. She gave him a second, before going again, but this time, Kaz managed to step backwards, making sure to avoid losing his balance. He could feel [ Evasive Step ] kicking in, which most likely the reason he didn’t trip over his feet. She was slightly puzzled at his dodge, but commanded him, “Do not dodge, use your spear to deflect my poke.”
He tried to deflect her poke, but it was hard to move the tip of his spear in time to hit her spear. She shook her head, instead telling him, “Poke me, but go slowly. Observe what I do.”
With a nod, he slowly poked her. He watched as she angled her spear upwards, and used the staff between her hands to essentially push his spear away. She then motioned for him to defend, and he replicated her move. She was going slowly, and after multiple successful attempts, she would speed up.
When he felt his [ Evasive Step ] activate when he misjudged the timing of the deflection, Wylana huffed in frustration. She curtly said, “I am assuming you have a Passive Ability that helps with your dodging, and while that is nice, try to ignore it, as it is hindering your progress with learning how to correctly defend yourself from a weapon. There will be times that your opponent will have a Skill Ability that doesn’t allow for your Passive to activate, so you have to get used to relying on your physical reaction and mental readings.”
He weakly nodded, understanding what she meant, but he couldn’t help his natural reactions to listen to his [ Evasive Step ]. They continued their light sparring, and after the day was done, he was comfortable with defending with the shaft of the spear. He was glad Gruss made those improvements to his shaft, and he fully understood the importance of it. Another day, another six Ranks.
The next day, Wylana asked him to retrieve his glaive, and with a pep in his step, he retrieved it from his room. She instructed him to run through the different combos and motions she taught him, but now with his glaive. Thankfully, the glaive wasn’t majorly different to the wooden spear, only being slightly heavier and more top heavy as the blade was larger than the spear head.
A few hours later, once he was comfortable, Wylana called him over, and with her wooden spear, she told him that they would be sparring for the whole day. He was uncomfortable with this, given that he was using his glaive and she was only using her wooden spear. He has seen how easily his glaive cut into monsters and the Kobolds, and that was before Gruss sharpened the edges.
She noticed his hesitation, and waved it off, claiming, “You will not be able to hurt me. Go all out, but don’t expect me to stand there like those wooden dummies.”
Kaz and Wylana dueled for hours, and she was right, he was not able to hurt her. He got close a few times, but whenever he did get close, it seemed like she sped up, instantly adjusting her body and weapon to deflect or dodge out of the way. He huffed in annoyance, wondering why it was fine for her to use her Abilities but not him. In spite, he started utilizing his own [ Evasive Step ], but she only grinned whenever he let the Ability take over.
It was a mistake to try to spite Wylana, as that only increased her speed and strength, which resulted in him getting covered in bruises. But near the end of the day, he caught her with a small feint, and managed to slightly nick her arm, instantly drawing a small stream of blood. He fell to his knees in relief and panted, enjoying the look of slight shock on her face. She quickly got over it and grinned at him, offering a hand up.
She praised him, “That was a good one, you have improved massively over the days. Tomorrow, bring your glaive, and I will be teaching you how to fight against various types of weapons.”
True to her words, the next day they spent it sparring, but this time she used swords, axes, daggers, and maces. Each weapon had its benefits, but it was safe to say that they were easier to manage than another spear once he understood how to overcome their strengths. He also managed to parry her attacks, which she explained was when you deflect at the perfect time and throw the opponent off balance, exposing them for a quick attack like a jab. Thankfully, he wasn’t able to physically hurt her, as she activated her Abilities when he got close.
On their final day of training, Wylana brought a normal spear, and she said they would continue light sparring, but she would give him a few moves that would help in closer battles. She showed him how to use the butt of his staff to bash someone when they got too close, using the staff to shove the opponent off balance, and using his feet to trip or disrupt the opponent’s stance.
When they were halfway through, he made a small request. “Wylana, would you be willing to fully attack me, while I use my Skill Ability, [ Mana Shield ]? I haven’t used it this week, but I would like to practice incorporating it with my glaive.”
She nodded, her eyebrows raising slightly in interest. Getting into their stances, she lunged forward, and instead of him using the staff of his glaive, he extended out his left forearm, and replicated the movement of deflecting the spear, although with the help of [ Mana Shield ]. He felt the Ability go off, and to his relief, he saw her spear bounce off, without any pain caused. Kaz quickly checked his [ Status ], and to his surprise, no damage was done to his Health Points.
With a wide grin, he faced Wylana, and she reciprocated. His eyes glowed with excitement, his Mana Core waking up. Wylana began her assault, easily at a higher level that he hasn’t experienced yet. But with the help of [ Mana Shield ], [ Evasive Step ], and [ Glaive Novice ], he was able to somewhat keep up.
Their duels were intense, and to his delight, he could feel himself improving with each thrust, each slash, and each deflection. He could also see that Wylana was enjoying herself, as she had a never-ending grin on her face, along with crazed looking eyes. She wasn’t the only one. He noticed various people in the training yard taking breaks to watch them duel nonstop, some even cheering whenever Kaz landed a small hit on Wylana. Once the sun fell behind the walls of the building, they finally finished, each covered in sweat and blood, but satisfied with the day’s result.
Kaz conveyed his gratitude, as he couldn’t thank Wylana enough. She reciprocated, praising him, “If Laelara didn’t tell me you were a Mage, I would’ve believed you were a Fighter with a bright future ahead of you. Now, I am scared to know that this was not even a part of your Calling, leading me to wonder how effective you are with your Mage side. If you would ever need a sparring partner, or more lessons, let me know.”
