Chapter 19: Sword Practice

I toiled around the bed waiting for something to happen. Unsurprisingly, nothing really happened.

I went out of the dorm room once more, to explore the place, but mainly just to kill time.

As I mentioned before, this place was massive, and knowing your way around this labyrinth might be kinda useful.

I followed the path out of the dormitories, away from the cafeteria. I opened the rooms there.

They seemed to be empty training rooms. There was clearly an abundance of training rooms here for some reason. There were 6 of the same kind of training room at the end of this one area alone. It was at moments like these where I wondered where this place got the funds from, and how they procured so much space in the middle of the forest.

Wait was this even a training room? I went into the room and immediately noticed the metal floor was much softer than before, kind of like a judo mat.

How the-? At this point why was I even surprised?

There was a drinking fountain, in the corner, but that was about it. The floor clearly indicated that this was for hand-to-hand combat training.

This place was extremely detailed. 'Why was there so much stuff here, but no entertainment…?', I asked myself, still thinking about my endless boredom.

I went out of the room. I noticed one of the training rooms was open. I went over and took a peek inside to see what was happening.

Inside I saw a boy and a girl, both about my age, talking to each other. They were clearly a couple. They seemed to be resting after doing a workout or sparring.

"Oh yeah, did you hear?", the girl said, sitting on the bench and having a sip of water.

"What?", the boyfriend said, lying down on the soft metal floor. This really was just an indoor training area.

"Maria came, alive somehow.", she said. I could sense some spite in her voice.

Maria… what the hell did you do for this girl to wish death upon you?

"Oh yeah, I heard that. She also came with a girl who could barely use nihilism. I even heard they got trapped in a nihilist realm.", he said, sitting up. His voice indicated that he didn't care if Maria lived or died.

"How could that b*tch survive that? Her talent is worse than mine too!", she said, sounding like as if she was pouting.

"… Eh don't worry too much, you will always be stronger and better than her in my eyes…!", he said, getting up and hugging her.

"Aww!", she said, hugging him back.

I started to walk away. She clearly hated Maria. It was also pretty clear that she felt either jealousy towards Maria or felt inferior to her.

I went over to another training room, which was closed similar to the one with the couples in it. I looked inside to see a boy swinging a wooden sword.

He turned around and spotted me peeking through the door.

"Who are you?", he said. "Come in! I don't think I have ever seen you here before. Are you new?", he said, cheerfully.

"Uh…", I said, awkwardly, opening the door a bit wider. "I am Cecilia, and I joined a few days ago, but I was out on a mission with Maria."

"Oh, you are the one with Maria? I see. I heard you got injured pretty badly. Are you feeling better now?", he asked.

"Yeah, I am.", I replied. "Is that kendo you are practicing?", I asked. I felt slightly uncomfortable when all the attention was directed at me.

"Oh, this…? I guess you could call it kendo. But really it is just sword practice, if that's what you want to call it."

"Can I have a wooden sword?", I asked. It had been a while since I had practiced kendo. I left doing kendo a few months ago, and seeing as how I might have to use swords in the future, it wouldn't hurt to hone my kendo skills a little more.

"Sure! They are right at the corner there. Want to have a little spar?", he said.

"I don't see why not.", I replied, almost smirking.

I took up a wooden sword and took my position. I was about 5 feet away from him.

"No rules, the first one to hit the other wins.", he shouted.

"Got it.", I shouted back.

Both of us just stood there, with our swords tightly gripped. There was no protective equipment, so the chance of getting hurt badly was a very real possibility.

I inched closer to him, slowly yet steadily. He did the same.

Both of us were now in range of each other. The one who swung the fastest would win.

I was pretty confident in my swinging speed, but I didn't know anything about the guy.

Then he swung his sword. I parried then went in for a strike to the abdomen. He immediately backed away.

Now was my chance. I charged at him, going in for a stab. He backed away further, and tried hitting the sword out of my hand, but I drew back my sword after my attack clearly failed.

This guy's reaction speed was otherworldly. He was the worst opponent you could have in a kendo tournament.

This was one of the few times I had used a stab in a fight. I had barely practiced it, and if he was even a centimeter away, he could have easily hit the sword out of my hand.

I had gotten really quite rusty. But now wasn't the time to think about that. It was my turn to be on the offensive.

I did a side slash aimed towards his liver. Was it scummy? Yup. But this was a spar with no equipment. Of course, I was going to take advantage of that fact.

He parried it really well. He went in for an overhead strike. I quickly sidestepped to dodge that, and went in for what looked like an easy hit, but he turned the trajectory of his sword and hit my shoulder.

Checkmate.

"Ha.", I said, beyond frustrated. I was pretty close to hitting him. "Again.", I said, raising my sword.

"Sure.", he said, containing his excitement.

He was good. Like extremely good. Worse still was the fact that he slowly adapted to my moves as the fight went on. For instance, he figured out that I mainly used side slashes, and he was always ready to parry a side slash.

I, on the other hand, wasn't able to adapt to a single one of his moves. They were unpredictable, and landed quite often. The gap in our skills was apparent.

About five spars later, I was exhausted, and had lost every single fight so far. Meanwhile, he looked like as if he could run another marathon.

'I will beat him even if it's the last thing I do.', I thought to myself, getting up.

"Another?", he asked.

"Yup.", I replied.

The biggest problem with fighting him was the fact that he often used one hand in gripping the sword, instead of two, which made his other hand a wild card. He could punch, he could grab, he could do virtually anything with that, as long as he wasn't blocking with it.

He stood in a single handled sword stance. The place I learned kendo from was extremely rigid in its rules, and basically forbade the use of a single hand when fighting.

Long story short, this was my first time-fighting someone using a single-handed sword.

He went for a fencing opening move, extending his hand and basically going in for a stab, just much better than the one I tried during our first bout.

I sidestepped, and was about to go for another swing, when I thought to myself. 'If I keep on doing this, I am guaranteed to lose. I have to do something different.'

In a panic, I kicked his calf. He didn't expect that at all. He stumbled, before retreating.

I didn't realize at the time, but I had kicked his calf pretty badly, although I didn't intend to do so in the first place. It became evident when he put most of his weight on the other leg, leaning towards the left.

He stood in a two-handed sword stance once more.

He underestimated me and paid for it. I now had the upper hand.

I had to take advantage of this right now. I charged at him, going in for a side slash, out of habit. That was my biggest mistake.

He had adapted well to my side slashes, and was able to turn the tides almost immediately.

In a matter of seconds, he tripped me and I was on the floor, with the sword about 10 centimeters away from my face.

'GOD DAMNIT I WAS THIS CLOSE TO WINNING!!', I thought to myself, after saying, "Good fight."

"Yeah it really was a good fight, let's spar some other time again. It was pretty fun, wish I could spar for longer. But I have to go now.", he said, sounding proud of himself.

"Alright then, see you later.", I said. "By the way I didn't quite catch your name."

"Oh right… my name is Gabriel. You are Cecilia, right?"

"Yup, nice to meet you too.", I said, still lying on the floor, frustrated.

I watched as he put his sword back on the rack, and went towards the door, limping slightly.

'Ha. Imagine getting hurt that badly.', I said to myself, as I got up.

I had gotten rusty, and by the looks of things, I would definitely need those sword skills. Might as well hone them up. I picked up my sword, to practice a bit.

I dropped it almost immediately. The adrenaline I had in me was draining. I now felt a throbbing pain in my shoulder. So much for laughing at him for getting hurt.

Nevertheless, I start swinging the sword, with one hand this time.