Chapter 20.2- The Seadragon's Roar

“Yes, Ser Borros?” I finally addressed him when it became clear that hen was perfectly fine standing at the entryway and not saying anything.

“Let’s spar” the man offered after a few seconds of silence.

“I am no longer your squire, I do believe that Mother clarified it and obtained your consent for my discharge.” I asked, looking from him back to my drawings.

“Then we spar as equals. Lords in our own rights.” He said.

“I’m a lord and you’re a Knight, remember? But sure, let’s spar. Not like I had much better doing” I said with a sigh, standing up and putting the drawings away. That would be fun to build but the crew of carpenters and laborers I’d recruited from the surrender pirates was unlikely to be able to cough up the required competence for something like that.

I stepped out of the tent and Borros handed me a blunted sword and shield. He took aa hold of his own training hammer. There was no referee, we weren’t even in a proper sparring field, neither of us were wearing padding. This was extremely dangerous and stupid. Yet, I felt my heart beat reach a crescendo as time itself seemed to slow down before my eyes. Like I expected, Borros did not announce the beginning of the spar. He just swung. His hammer moved straight for my head. I leaned backwards. The shield remained in my grip, but kloered. I’d learned my lesson early enough that if I wanted to last against this man, then blocking should be a last resort.

He swung again when I did not press the attack. This time, I ducked underneath it, keeping my stance. He thrusted forward with the hammer. I spin out of the way, allowing it to miss me by some margin as I brought my blade around for his head. There was a sharp clang as somehow he brought his hammer around to block and my sword clattered away from the much denser weapon. I kept moving— staying still while fighting Borros Baratheon was another mistake I had learned not to make very early on.

I slid my sword along the handle of his hammer as I spun around him again. He pushed off with the shaft when I got close to his fingers. I kept my momentum going and smashed my shield into is side. Rather, into his child because somehow he’d seen through me again and had a block prepared right in time. I felt my arm shake as my very stoppable force hit the immovable object that was Borros Baratheon.

He moved his hammer to hit me again, and I shuffled backwards.

“What exactly is this spar supposed to achieve” I asked as I danced away from another attack.

“I was a bad knight to you” he said. That actually was enough to bring me to a halt and I was barely bleeding to raise my shield in time to prevent my head ringing. I dropped to the floor and rolled away to prevent him trapping me beneath the shield with his follow up attack.

“You trained me well enough’ I said, and it was true. I might not have noticed it at the time, but sparring with Borros had made grow as a fighter by leaps and bounds.

“I don’t just mean fighting. I was cruel. Not because I hated you. I never hated you. But because it is how I was taught and it’s all I know how to be.”