Chapter 83 - 84
Alistar wasn’t sure about the reason, but over the past three months his master had become a lot more involved in his training. On all mornings save for Sundays, he spent around four hours with his crabby teacher in the spacious yard out front of his home, practicing new techniques and reiterating old ones in a very in-depth and technical manner. Whereas Tramon used to spend a couple of hours sparring with him each morning—beating him, really, since he’d never landed so much as a single hit—and otherwise leaving him to self-study after heeding the call of his bottles, he now presided over Alistar’s training for the duration of the his lessons. Tramon had been watching him very closely, criticizing even the smallest mistakes when it came to postures, breathing patterns, and execution. Not only that but the man looked healthier overall, with less prominent bags under his eyes and more colour to his slightly wrinkled face.
Today was a bit different, as it seemed that the sword master had woken early and treated himself to a happy helping of spirits. Even so, this didn’t detract from his attentive teachings.
Facing one another in the yard out front of Tramon’s house, the broad-shouldered man gave his cane a provocative slash to signal the beginning of the next bout of sparring. He didn’t adopt any of the defensive stances that he’d taught Alistar thus far, an attempt to get his apprentice to lower his guard.
You think you can keep tricking me?
Taking up the basic offensive stance of a first-tier apprentice, Alistar relied on practiced footwork—the basic footwork that constituted one of the third-tier techniques—to dash in close to his teacher so as to reduce the advantage that the man had in regards to his reach. This instigated a rapid, close-quarters exchange.
Alistar’s slash from left to right was blocked by a basic, vertical guard, as was the follow up from right to left. Diagonal strikes from several directions were also deflected with ease, as were the sneaky lunges and side-swipes that he directed at the man’s knees. Every single one of the standard strikes—the basic offensive techniques from the apprentice stratum’s first tier—were blocked in a similar fashion, leaving Alistar with no choice but to move on to the second tier’s skillsets. While these were more complex than the basic ones, they were simply more creative ways of carrying out the standard strikes, including practiced combinations of any of the various attacks. These moves also required him to put more focus into his footwork and to raise his awareness of the general area around them.
"Ah," cried Alistar, who abruptly dropped his wooden sword. "I thought you were just defending!"
"Now I’m attacking. Pick up your weapon and ready your defences."
Alistar gave his stinging fingers a quick shake and then retrieved his fallen sword, gripping the handle with both hands. Growing slightly annoyed, he directed his swordsman’s aura to cover his hands so that it wouldn’t hurt as badly if they were struck again. He had only just begun learning how to spread this energy to different parts of his body in order to properly reinforce them, so it took him a few moments. As expected, Tramon was quick to initiate an attack that he wasn’t entirely ready for.
"You think your enemies will wait for you to get nice and cozy?" barked the sword master, who smacked both of Alistar’s knees so quickly that it felt as if it happened at the same time.
He stopped himself from buckling to the ground through sheer power of will, throwing up any defence that he could as his master unleashed a flurry of strong, accurate strikes.