25 1vs3

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20+ chapter ahead. -----------------------------------------------

I followed the human boy out to the fighting area. I squinted at Drallig. After all, this Chabit was two years older than me. Or maybe he's just bigger. But either way, I'd have to be prepared to get my ass kicked in the face. Not necessarily, of course, but it's very possible.

Standing opposite each other and waiting for my mentor's command, we activated our sword handles.

My opponent's first strike was a classic straight overhead shot from Shi-cho, which wasn't bad. I was afraid that the guy had had time to learn other forms of techniques as well, for his age. What am I talking about, though, this is just the beginning. I was able to hit him back with the same classic block that I did, and then I hit him back. I almost took a punch or two to the body, after a few quick and sharp lunges. From the same Shi-cho. Okay, after all, what am I afraid of, pain? It doesn't really hurt to get hit in the neck with a sword. Tested. Unpleasant, though, of course. Anyway, that's enough completing, Lekha, you're cool, and this is just a kid. Remember what Shi-cho is. It's determination. You're so fucking cautious, you're so fucking cautious.

The next attack was two powerful, as far as I could go, side kicks with the sole purpose of seeing how he would rebound, and therefore how he would attack after that. Well, knowing what kind of blow would follow after these particular blocks, it's easy to calculate what places this Chabit would have open.

Parry. And, just as I thought, the boy's right side and right leg are open to my two lunges. Strike, strike. The enemy is stunned. Knock down an awkward block. Two more blows. Step aside with a parried jab, and a sharp swing of the blade, stopping him at the very neck. Heh, he wasn't so tough after all.

- Half a minute's rest," the tutor's voice sounded. - Talir, get ready. You're paired with Chabit.

Huh? Two against one? That's kind of... all right. If that blue-skinned twink can wield a sword as well as Chabit, I can handle it. If it's better... I don't know. We'll see. Talir, by the way, is about the same age as Chabit, rubbing his leg now. And not even frowning, by the way. I mean, he just got beaten by a younger kid, and he doesn't give a shit. I respect that.

But half a minute passed, and we're in position.

- Ready," Drallig said. - Stop. Bisau, circle.

А? What the...

- Isn't it too much, Master Drallig? - I asked.

- I want to see what you can do.

- Do you think I have time to show you something?

- I think... - the man grinned, "that the workload can be reduced. If there's anything.

That's fine.

- What are the terms?

- Standard," said the master-mentor. - Four touches or a fatal wound. And no power attacks, of course.

- I see," I twirled the sword in my hand. The boys' faces didn't express anything, and Chabit stood with his eyes closed, preparing for the fight. No one was going to give me any favors. - Well, I'm ready.

- Well... Let's go," he signaled, and the boys took off.

Chabit was fast, Bisau was strong, but Tweeelk Talir showed none of this in the first seconds of the bout. He didn't really attack much, but he was very supportive of the first two, distracting and giving safety to his partners. He pissed me off more and more by the second.

Block, distraction, block. A step to the side so that Chabit blocked Bissau's view, and as if out of nowhere Talir appeared, did a roll and, without rising, delivered several blows to his legs. I almost missed the attack, first by Chabit and then by Bisau, who jumped up.

And so it was for three minutes. As soon as I'd made a good maneuver, Talir would show up and not let me follow it up. It's really unnerving. I wouldn't have lasted this long if it hadn't been for BP.

At the end of the third minute of the fight I realized that my attempts to attack, to go on the offensive, to take the initiative in their hands, sooner or later would lead to trouble. And once I did, I took a wait-and-see attitude, attacking less and less frequently. After a while they were almost sure of victory, making more and more uncritical mistakes, which I did not take advantage of. Simply because I could not beat them on points, I needed a "death" blow. Toward the end it got to the point where Talir stopped supporting me and started attacking at the same level as the others.

The end of the fight was, in principle, logical. I was too young and inexperienced to defeat them, but I gave them a shot. I seized the moment and passed between Chabit and Bissau, striking upward on Talir's leg and finishing him off with an overhead kick to the neck. He arched and let Bisau's blade pass over him, stabbing him in the heart at the same time. And I froze, feeling the blade of Chabit at my neck. Not bad, all in all. Took out two of the three of them. Took out two of them, and, best of all, I gave that Twi'lek a good slap on the neck. Took my breath away.

- Stop," the instructor called the end of the fight. - Get in line. - And then he turned to me: "Well, youngling, it was very educational ..... Now stand in line.

Crouched on the edge of what is called a formation here, but in Russia a mess, I began to listen to my new fencing instructor parading past us.

- Today, younglings, we're going to talk about movement....

After the lesson, Drallig took me aside and warned me to finish my business an hour before lights out and come up here. He said I was now in his personal group, and that my fencing lessons would be increased. Also specified that I could not come, but then I could continue to study with my old mentor, along with the main group. He's a tough guy, but that's fine with me, but I can reduce my sword training after lights out. He only taught Shi-cho to me, by the way, showing and telling the others different things, and he pulled me up as the youngest in the first Form. And yes, I was the youngest. Before me, it was the trio of eight-year-olds I sparred with who were the youngest. That's what I found out after class. I learned it from them when they came over to congratulate me on joining the study group of the best master fencing instructor in the whole Order. They also complimented me on the fact that I could get two of them.

Well, that's how it went from there. I used the first free hour for meditations and manipulations with the Force, the second hour I spent in the Archives, or on what I had managed to find out earlier, and the third hour I spent in the company of Drallig and his other students. And the classes were not one hour, but two. Plus the time of official fencing lessons. And the usual physical training moved into the fencing room, and Drallig taught me hand-to-hand combat, too, already on the second lesson, knocking me down, putting me against a nine-year-old, studying with him for a year. I was out of hand-to-hand combat in about five minutes, and that was only because I was twisting around my opponent. The sword fight lasted a little longer, but I wasn't in the lead the whole time. Then it was explained to me that my opponent was using Makashi, the second form of lightsaber combat, and so as not to offend me, the second bout was conducted by the same guy, using only Shi-cho. Here I was bluntly crushed by force. Simple physical.... Okay, I'll be honest with myself - technically I lost, too. The only thing that made me feel better at the time was the three years difference.

I didn't give up night training either, but I focused mostly on controlling the Force, achieving what I think were considerable results. Sixty-four grains of sand. And, if the Guardian was not lying, sooner or later there would have to be a breakthrough, during which not only my consciousness but also my subconscious would realize that size did not matter. After all, you can't train understanding, you either understand or you don't. And that's when my subconscious will understand.... But that's only if my way of training is correct. I found an analogue in the Archive, only there they train with small balls, so in principle I'm going in the right direction, only bothers me that everyone trains that way, and the results of Starkiller, who brought down the Imperial Star Destroyer to earth, somehow not too many people achieve. Maybe we should combine small objects, like the same grains of sand, and large objects? Or even increase the variety of sizes as much as possible? Where else would one learn about this? It's really hard to find anything specific in the Archives. You can, I'm sure of it, but you'd have to dig through so much stuff...

I hadn't forgotten about the technical floor, either. Going there instead of the first or second hour. And sometimes instead of both. After about a couple of months I began my first, purely my own, droid assembly. I decided to assemble a training droid, but not those flying balls, a real dueling machine. And since my knowledge was modest, it would take me a long time to assemble it. Well, no hurry there. In fact, I could buy a ready-made training model, but besides the high price, there was another reason, the main one. I didn't need a sparring partner, I needed to learn. And the hardest part of that learning had to be creating the control matrix. And in general, the droid's brain. So, yes, it wouldn't take me long to assemble my duelist.

Derosch wasn't out of a job, either. In addition to helping Dzik directly, I put him in charge of tracking down any mentions of his home planet on the holonet. I haven't given up the idea of at least sending a letter to my parents yet. I just need to catch some ship that will pass near Pzob, or even go directly there. Or from there. After this thought, Derosch's task also included the command to keep track of the names of the ships I remembered from my life back home. After all, why not? Don't they visit Corrusant? Surely they do. The main thing is to catch them when they get here.