"I'll begin by teaching you some feints, you seem to be an insanely quick learner, so copy them as soon as you see one."

He showed me a variety of movements, from the jolt of his leg to the swift bending and retraction of his elbow. It was extremely effective.

I practised a few times and got the hang of them almost instantly, I associated this talent with my past life in relation to soccer. Some of my skills were likely carried over.

"You're honestly incredible, to be able to learn them so quickly, now try them on me."

I practised some of my feints on Laiex. He seemed to be able to read most of them at first, easily deflecting my shots. The more times I practised however, it was obvious that he was struggling more and more to be able to see where they were coming from. Eventually, I was able to confuse him enough with my movements to be able to land several blows on him.

"That was pretty amazing, you'll only get better with more practice, but now let's try to hone your reactions. Deflect my attacks as best you can."

The roles were reversed now. His movement wasn't insanely fast unlike some of the other opponents I had fought, however, he was able to masterfully confuse the eye with the use of feints and micro-movements. I struggled to read his movement for a long time. He landed blow after blow on my body, eventually wearing down my stamina.

"Look specifically at the elbows, shoulders and knees, those are the parts that will trick you when they're going to feint."

I tried concentrating on those specific body parts, eventually getting more and more used to the specific movements when the opponent would feint and when the opponent would commit to an attack. I still struggled significantly to react to his attacks, however. The order of his movements would always distort my vision, causing me to second-guess myself. Eventually, after almost an hour of being beaten down, I was starting to commit to my senses and blocked several of his attacks.

We continued on, I read his movements as best I could. From the movement of his fingers, his head, his shoulder, his elbow, his stomach, his legs, his knees, each body part movement was a crucial part of reading his attack. I could feel myself getting better at this, or was it that I was merely getting closer to what I had previously achieved...?

As his right elbow turned and the wooden blade came bolting towards my side, I pushed down on the hilt of my sword like a lever, with my other hand in support and raised it up, smacking his sword directly upwards, just barely missing my shoulder. Now it was time to counterattack, the position wasn't optimal for attacking however his position was even worse for defending. With his sword completely out of place, his body was open to attack.

I swung around my sword as fast as I could. He was pulling back his sword from an inconvenient position, requiring lots of time. In the opening, I jerked my right arm forwards, launching the tip of my blade straight towards his stomach. He had nowhere near enough time to block it and it slammed into his abs, causing a little wince."That was honestly incredible. Now that you've got the basics of swordplay, we should integrate them into a proper fight."

"Is it going to be that different?"

"In a real battle, you will have to adapt to your opponent, there is a good chance you will know nothing about them, so you have to be able to make quick, split-second decisions."

I waited as he made his way into one of the other training rooms.

A few moments later, he returned with an elf boy beside him.

"William, meet Earnest, he'll be your sparring partner."

"Nice to meet you," I said.

The boy was silent, not even responding to me.

The cold type...

We both raised our weapons as Laiex stepped back.

"Go all out, but don't do anything that will significantly harm each other."

With that, he raised his arm and initiated the fight.

Earnest quickly moved towards me, however, his footwork was like nothing I had ever seen before. The way his body moved, I couldn't tell what his actions were going to be. I couldn't read him at all, it was all too unique.

He swung the sword at me. I barely dodged by ducking my head but then he raised his leg. I quickly moved back to create some room, however, he instantly lunged in at me.

Crap, what are these movements... I can't predict what he's going to do at all.

I tried to block his attack with my sword but it seemed that he was delaying his strike. As I stood in an awkward posture, he waited until I lost my balance. Immediately, he swung his sword, smashing me in the rib. It stung a little but it didn't hurt too much since it was only a wooden training sword.

Ow.

"Alright, stop for a moment please," Laiex called.

He made his way over to me.

"You couldn't read his movements at all, right?"

"Yeah."

"Try focussing on the flow of his movements instead of the precise adjustments of his posture. A skilled opponent will always be able to fake even the most minuscule of movements, you'll never be able to effectively read them during a fight."

"But, how am I meant to see the flow?"

"The best way is to try to deduce what the goal of his general movements is. Is he trying to break your positioning? Is he trying to get a cheap shot in?"

"I see."

Earnest and I got back into to position in preparation for another round of sparring. I focussed on the advice that Laiex gave me, although it still seemed a little too theoretical and abstract. I planted my feet on the ground and loosened my concentration a little so that I wasn't too intent on watching every one of his movements.

Both of us raised our swords as Laiex raised his arm.

"Alright, you may begin."