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The two attacked repeatedly, and gradually over the course of a half hour, Luvi started to pick up on the flow of things. Luvi felt as though her muscles and mind were burning in tandem, one machine that was functioning as though its life depended on the movements, as if they were burning into her mind to never take a break.
"You already know what I'm going to do, Luvi! We can proceed after getting this out of the way because I can tell you're almost proficient with the technique.” Luvi nodded and slowly took her place. They circled each other slowly. Then Alfred moved suddenly and delivered a sharp jab to the chest! Luvi blocked, driving the blade clear. She retaliated by snaking around like, well, a snake and aimed her weapon at Alfred's right arm. Alfred countered by pushing out Luvi's arm and bringing the weapon to her neck. He then twisted his weapon and awkwardly blocked the strike.
She tried to discern her teacher’s movements, including Alfred's arm's twisted muscles as he clenched his teeth in preparation for the blow. "No!" As Luvi dipped backward and raised her weapon's staff end to block the blow. There was a loud smack of wood on wood as the weapons connected, but she wasn’t fast enough. Her teacher’s weapon whacked her and Luvi stumbled out of the way. Another strike came. Luvi pushed off Alfred's weapon and brought her own down to bear, causing the world to speed back up to normal.
Luvi delivered a decent blow, twisting the weapon sharply until she slammed it into Alfred's chest, causing him to stumble backward and lose his balance. Teacher or no, he was on the older side and Luvi had youthful energy. The teacher had let himself get hit to build Luvi’s confidence. Alfred smiled and quickly straightened up and launched another attack, but Luvi was there to block it as she brought the weapon in from the side. The sound of wood hitting wood reverberated throughout the room once more, and Luvi moved fluidly to knock the weapon aside and bring her own to Alfred's side. It was blocked, and then the teacher grabbed it.
“Outstanding effort!” He grinned and turned to face Luvi. "Maybe it's time for a break, huh? I'm going hungry." Luvi smiled, retracted her weapon from Alfred, and nodded in agreement with the suggestion.
Luvi and Alfred went back to the training area after having a quick lunch. Once they were back in the same room as before, Alfred turned to face Luvi and said, "I don't know about you, but I'd like to take some time to meditate. Today's got me rather riled up. Would you like to go with me?”
Luvi nodded and moved to kneel and rest in a similar manner next to the spot Alfred had taken on the ground. Luvi closed her eyes and took a close look at her own accomplishments over the past few days. She was ecstatic to be learning from a competent person in another weapon type, and she was sure that the lessons she would acquire here would be sufficient to build her up to be a better fighter. Every skill she acquired, every action she took, every significant discussion she had improved her, bettered her, almost sharpened her like a weapon, a weapon that she would one day use to achieve greatness.
Just as Luvi was starting to feel at ease and at peace with herself, she heard something that made her giggle uncontrollably. Alfred was snoring - quite loudly, at that. She opened her eyes and turned to face her teacher. Alfred had his head thrown back, his mouth hanging open, and he was hunched over a bit. Luvi grinned and gently jabbed Alfred in the chest, whispering, "Hey," as Alfred stirred.
With his eyes fluttering, Alfred woke up and exclaimed, "What? No, I wasn't sleeping. I was simply meditating.” He abruptly opened his eyes wide, realized where he was, turned to face Luvi, and remarked, "Haha, that's a terrible habit of mine; I always get so relaxed that I just get sleepy. Anyway, I guess it's best if we don't waste time taking naps.” He got to his feet quickly and stretched. "I guess you could use your training spear for this one, but you'll be practicing on a practice dummy. Mind you, I don't want to be misled while I'm half asleep.”
As he fully stood up, Luvi grabbed a training spear from a rack and pulled it in front of her. She was still in awe of the training spear's ability to do so much. It was just a stick with a sharp edge but it had such great reach and a nice grip. Alfred described the attack he wanted replicated as he walked.
"It's really quite simple, all you have to do is step low with your dominant foot and strike at the neck. Although it can be used as a utility strike to force an opponent to block, this attack really works best against opponents who are low to the ground.”
Luvi took a step and pulled back her spear before launching it into the dummy. "Not too bad, but you really don't get the point. To generate some actual force and momentum, release the dominant hand and thrust with just the bottom end of the staff rather than using both hands to hold on."
Luvi took a step back and launched herself into another lunge. She used the momentum of her body and feet to help deliver the blow as she pushed forward with her left hand. With increased force, the weapon plunged forward and stuck the dummy, forcing the spear tip through the dummy's neck and out the other side. Glancing at Alfred, Luvi said, "Like that?"
"That was even better, but there was one mistake on your part! You risk losing your weapon if you don't maintain your hold on it during a miss or block. The idea is to give up some precision in exchange for power, but losing too much could result in the loss of your weapon - something that no one can afford to happen by accident in a combat situation."
Luvi nodded and took up her position once more. Luvi stabbed forward with her lower hand, forcing the weapon through the dummy's neck with greater speed this time. However, as soon as she felt the spear tip coming to a stop, she suddenly pulled back and removed the weapon with her lower hand. This motion caused the dummy's head to suddenly fall off, having been repeatedly struck and sheared.
"Excellent work, I think you've got it," Alfred remarked, picking up his wooden training spear.
Luvi felt that the day was almost over, having recently picked up a few new skills. She was leaning against the wall with Alfred, and Luvi was mentally going over every tactic she had learned.
"Well, I'd like to call it a day, but I have one more technique for you to learn," Alfred said, turning to face Luvi. "It's pretty similar to one you already know, so it should be easy. The difference is that you have to learn how to fully avoid the stick before swerving to the side. This kind of movement allows for a swift slashing strike, which is the ideal retaliation against stumbling, insane people or even those with the cunning to close the distance and kill silently."
Alfred stood up and gave Luvi a different wooden training spear before pulling out a wooden sword. This one didn’t have a metal tip, and the tip it did have was very blunt with some cloth on it so they could practice on each other. "Okay, this is how we are going to accomplish this. I'll actually hit you with a strike, so you have to avoid the blow. I want to see you slash at my flanks and weave away from the strike like a side step afterward?" Luvi nodded and took the ready position.
Alfred hurriedly threw his weapon forward. Luvi was so taken aback by the mistake that she actually blocked the strike, looking foolishly at her teacher. "At least we know you have the reflexes for this move - just keep in mind that sometimes it's preferable to dodge rather than block. The strikes I employ are better avoided because, in most circumstances, the damage you can do with a counter slash is far more potent than a counter strike from trailing the blow."
Luvi took up her stance once more and prepared to strike. It struck abruptly, coming from the right side. Luvi ducked slightly, sidestepping the attack and poking at Alfred's ribs with the wooden spear in the process.
“Fantastic work, but now for the enjoyable part. Avoiding situations isn't always easy. Attacks can occur not only from the sides but also from above or below. Get ready.” Luvi took a low ready stance and started observing her opponent. This was actually getting fun!