Limitless Path

Baelvyr picked up a tablet-looking device from a table by the TV and walked back over to the mid-point of the stage. He pressed a button on the device once he was standing beside Blood again. As soon as he did so, the dummy raised its shield and advanced on Beth, walking toward her while keeping its mostly faceless…face?….fixed on her. She readied the large sword she had chosen, holding the hilt in both hands as she assumed a guard stance, feet shoulder-width apart and slightly spread forward-and-back. The dummy approached within range before slashing at her with a quick, horizontal cut.

Beth swung her sword to parry, but immediately realized her mistake as the dummy took a step forward and slammed its shield into her chest, lifting her off her feet and sending her sailing back half a dozen feet through the air. She kept her feet under her as she flew and managed to land upright, but before she could even stabilize herself, the dummy was in front of her and swinging for her head. Beth slid her left foot back further and held her sword up with her left hand, letting go of it with her right. As the dummy's sword impacted her blade, she stepped forward and punched at its head, forcing it to raise its shield.

Beth put her right hand back on the hilt of her sword and took a step forward with her right leg, swinging her blade in a low sweep from her left to right, trying to hit the dummy on the sword side to get around the shield. The dummy simply stepped back, its speed more than enough to keep up with her inexpert slashes. She reversed the blade after the swing and stepped forward with her left leg now, swinging the blade back up and across. The dummy was clearly not impressed, something she could tell even with its lack of face, as it slammed its shield into the flat of her blade, knocking it up and away. As Beth staggered from this deflection, the dummy took a quick step forward and stabbed her in the chest, her training armor only mostly stopping the thrust.

Beth hissed at the pain of having the opponent's sword sunk an inch deep into the flesh of her left breast, but didn't flinch. She grabbed the blade of the dummy with her left gauntlet and twisted it to the right hard, ripping the sword out of the left side of her chest and crossing up the dummy. The movement put pressure on the wrist of her opponent, as well as pushing the blade against the thumb, a weak point of a one-handed grip. It wasn't enough for the dummy to drop the weapon, but the pain and awkwardness of the angle did briefly put its blade out of position.

Beth let go of the sword as she swung hers with her right arm and smashed it into the dummy, her blade slamming into its shield. She didn't stop there, quickly stepping in as soon as the impact had happened and punching the dummy in the right side of its head with her left hand. It had been a little slow in moving its shield after the heavy blow of Beth's sword, and it hadn't been able to recover its blade into position in time. It swung at her after the punch, but Beth slammed her sword into its, knocking the blade aside. The dummy attempted another shield bash, but Beth responded by stepping forward and to the right while slamming a solid left straight into the shield.

The dummy absorbed the blow, but was forced to take a step back to deal with the force of the strike. As it recovered Beth swung her sword one-handed again, the dummy bringing the shield up to block. As the blade slammed into the shield, Beth stepped in and punched the inside of the dummy's sword arm with her left hand, continuing the punch up the inside of the arm and into the dummy's head. Unfortunately, it appeared the dummy was not programmed with a low amount of END, as it just shrugged her blow off and crushed her face in with a shield bash.

"Enough!" barked Baelvyr, shaking his head as the dummy froze. Beth straightened up, panting slightly. She could feel that her wounds were gone, her chest totally fine and her nose now unbroken. She turned to look at her new mentor with a little bit of a sheepish gaze. "That was 'bout the most piss poor first fight I've ever seen. What in all the Nine Blood's name were ya doin' just beatin' on that bastard's shield like that? Ya think it makes a pleasant sound or somethin'?" he started berating her, his left hand holding the tablet while his right rested on the top of his prodigious gut.

"Hey man, I don't know what I'm doing. I'd never even seen a sword in-person before a week ago, and now I'm trying to fight a sparring dummy with what I used to consider superhuman stats with one. Maybe you could, like, I don't know, mentor me?" she huffed, glaring at Baelvyr with a frown.

"I'm hearing a lotta excuses here, girlie. Ya gotta think about what you're doin'. Don't just flail away at the enemy, watch its patterns and look for openings to exploit. Think about your strikes, how the blade moves through the air, where its gonna impact the opponent, the angle the blade is at when it strikes, whether it's gonna be a clean hit or bounce off.

“Fightin' a shield can be tough if ya've never done it before, so think about its positioning. It was good that ya found two openings to hit the head, that was well done, but as ya noticed, the strikes were too weak. This is part of what ya need to learn to be truly powerful, precise timing and control over yer body and skills, even in the middle of fightin'.

"Think about it like this; ya need to attack the moment ya see an openin', and right when that moment arrives is when ya should use that Crush skill ya have. Even better, pump the limb you're gonna hit 'em with just a split second before yer strike lands. Makes it harder to react to and is a more precise way o' fightin'," Baelvyr had actually, to her surprise, given her a dose of quite reasonable advice after he had gotten the badgering out of his system.

"If I wait to activate my skill, won't it be a lot weaker though?" she asked as she was digesting what he had explained so far.

"Bah, amateur stuff. Yeah, you're gonna get that a little now, but that's a hurdle ya gotta overcome. Also, as ya level and rebirth, your mana increases throughout your body, which makes that kinda activation easier. Least 'til ya make a Mana Physique, then ya worry a lot more about precision, controlling the amount and movement of the mana down to a really exacting level."

"Alright, so tell me, how do I get around his shield? I have a lot of STR, at least, a good amount for my level, but I barely moved him," she asked, concerned about her biggest current roadblock.

"Yeah, that's kinda the point, kid. Ya need enough STR to totally overwhelm yer opponent, which ya don't have. So, unfortunately for the both of us, ya gotta win with skill," he replied, shaking his head. "One of the first things ya need to work on is dodgin' his strikes. That's always a critical component of combat, avoidin' damage outright, and ya need to practice. A lot."

"OK, don't block the sword, dodge it. Got it. Let's go again," Beth nodded, looking back to the reset training dummy.

Baelvyr hit the same button, and the dummy approached Beth in the same way. She watched it this time, waiting for it to get close and strike. When it did, it performed the same textbook slash as before, swinging from its right to left. Beth waited a fraction of a second for the blade to really start moving before she stepped back and to the right, remembering to move at an angle. The sword missed her, and she returned a swing in response, slashing from her left to right, trying to hit the dummy in the sword arm as it recovered. The dummy swung its sword in a reverse slash, hitting her blade before bringing its shield in the way and fully deflecting her strike.

Beth had learned from the last time though, not stepping in close when she made this strike, giving her time to recover as the dummy stepped toward her, readying another strike. She traded another two blows like this, stepping back several times as the dummy stepped into her with its swings. On the fourth exchange, Beth tried something different, having observed the last three trades closely.

Once the initial attack of the dummy had missed her, she stepped forward slightly and swung the same way at the dummy's right side. As the dummy moved to parry with its sword and align its shield Beth twisted her wrists slightly and put a little more force in her arms. She caused the blade to curve up during her swing, causing the dummy to miss its parry and catch her sword at an awkward angle on its shield. This in turn caused the dummy to take a step back to recover, during which Beth stepped forward and swung at its legs.

The dummy jumped over her sword as it recovered its stance, but Beth surprised both it and Baelvyr. She flexed her knees as she was partway through the strike and leapt forward into the dummy, flinging her right shoulder into its center of mass. The dummy blocked with its shield, but couldn't really properly redistribute the force, being in mid-air at the time.

The dummy went tumbling back, hitting the ground half a dozen feet away and rolling back. Beth pursued it, timing a kick perfectly as it got back up, charging her left leg with Crush as it hurtled towards the dummy's head. The execution certainly wasn't perfect, but the empowered blow crashed across the side of the dummy's head, laying it out fully, the pretend opponent spasming before it started climbing to its feet.

Beth didn't give it the chance, dashing forward two steps and swinging the sword in a massive arc. The dummy attempted to block the blow, but it was programmed to react like a real person at around Beth's level and skill, though it was slightly more skilled than her. The bottom of her blade just ground against the top of the dummy's shield before slamming into the side of its head with a dull thud, buried up to half its width in the dummy's skull.

Sword Apprentice[2] acquired.

Beth raised her eyebrows a little seeing the message before turning to Baelvyr. He was patting the top of his massive gut with his right hand as he looked at her speculatively, seeming lost in thought for a moment. He snapped out of it rather quickly though with a grumble, saying, "Not as bad as I first thought, kid. But don't get too happy; I'm gonna work ya to the bone. Hope ya weren't plannin' on doin' anything else for a while."

"Well, I might have to head back home tonight, but Blood and I can make the trip pretty quickly. My family worries about me and, like, I don't want them to freak out," Beth replied, leaning against her sword as they talked.

"Huh, yeah, I ain't really got anything like that myself, but I get ya. Gotta keep the folks happy and all that stuff. Ya gotta try to convince 'em to let you stay here; a lot more convenient. Anyway, let's get back to it," Baelvyr waved the annoyance off and reset the dummy.

"Also, before ya start the next round, let me point out you're supposed to learn from the dummy, not copy the dummy, like some people try. There's a reason they're called dummies. Jumping over an attack like that was dumb, and not something you should do without much higher stats, skill levels, and other abilities. Now, knock it down again."

Beth went back to it, copying the last session, stepping back and to the side to avoid swings while looking for an opening. She still had trouble with the timings, and when she stepped forward with a heavy swing, the dummy simply deflected it with a deft shield movement. It stepped forward as it finished parrying the blow, slicing into her left arm as it did so. Beth kicked it, slamming the heel of her right foot into its shield with a quick front snap kick. This was enough to make her opponent stagger half a step back, giving her room to step back slightly while returning to guard stance.

The two went back and forth like this for almost three minutes, Beth starting to really sweat, feeling the effort of swinging the heavy sword so hard for so long. "Use yer reach against it. Thrust and strike from out of his shorter range, wait for 'em to make a mistake or look for gaps in 'is patterns," Baelvyr instructed, watching her movements closely as she dodged and swung.

Beth did as instructed, keeping a further distance to try to capitalize on the extra foot or so of length her sword had over her opponent's weapon. She noticed the training dummy was too eager in its parries, move its shield early and even when unnecessary, always attempting to swat away her sword. She took advantage of this weak point with a thrust towards the shield side of her opponent. When it moved early to block, she twisted the blade and slammed it into the inside of the shield, pushing it slightly out of position. This was enough for her to step forward and punch the tip of her blade into its armored shirt, slightly penetrating the torso and pushing it back.

"Enough!" Baelvyr called, resetting the stage. "Not terrible, kid. Get something to drink from the corner there and we'll talk," he indicated a unit embedded in the wall in the corner opposite the door.

Beth walked over and saw it was basically a refrigerator filled with bottles of water and what she assumed were sport drinks, as well things that looked like protein bars or some such, judging by the packaging. She grabbed a large bottle of water and took note that the top seemed to just slide out, greedily gulping a huge amount as she walked back over to the ogre.

"Alright, here's what I saw there. Ya need to work on controlling the power of yer swings. Some should be hard, some should be soft, some should be feints, some should be light and rapid. Apart from that, ya need to work on your footwork and movement. The placement and movement of yer feet and legs is critical in all kinds of combat; ya need to practice footwork an awful lot more 'til it becomes ingrained.

"I'm gonna run ya through some drills now. We'll save the sparring more for later, 'til ya have a better handle on footwork and how to handle that big blade. When ya finish that bottle, hop up on the stage and stand in the circle," he finished, pushing a few buttons, causing the dummy to disappear and a circle to appear near the center of the stage.