Sarah's Story Chapter 030 - Demonstration

Nathan’s face turned red and his features twisted into a mask of rage. He ignored Sarah and stomped over towards nearly the center of the yard. Sarah followed and settled into a ready position ten yards away, while Nathan took a basic stance with his broadsword held in a two hand grip, pointed up and towards her. He was still flushed, and breathing heavily through his nose.

Mr. Tenns took up position off to the side with a staff in hand. But he waited, letting the young man calm down, and to his credit, Nathan did calm himself, readying himself for sparring. The hot anger and frustration were tamped down, and soon his breathing became even.

“Ready?” Mr. Tenns called.

“Ready.” Sarah responded.

Nathan waited a few more seconds, then also responded. “Ready.”

“Begin!”

With a mighty shout, Nathan ran forward, raising his sword high in an overhand strike. With two more levels in her Brawler class, he didn’t exactly seem like he was moving slower, just, Sarah felt like she had plenty of time to observe and then react. She recalled what Mr. Tenns wanted her to do: dodge his attacks, and disarm him when told.

The Swordsman stepped into striking range and his broadsword descended in a magnificent crescent, tearing through the air with an audible whoosh. But as Sarah skipped to the side, resisting the urge to trip and throw him, his eyes failed to track her, focused on looking at his sword.

Her father’s instruction echoed in her head for a moment before she refocused on the spar, and all the other observers around her. Now wasn’t the time to remember her first blindfolded training session.

Nathan’s broadsword slammed into the ground, kicking up a small amount of dirt and dust. There was just the slightest pause as he searched for her location, there, just to the side of his blade, and he heaved with his entire body, swinging the wooden sword up and diagonally at Sarah.

She skipped lightly just outside the reach of his sword, letting it pass harmlessly in front of her.

Another slash, a little slower and more controlled this time, which she also skipped back from, and then he pivoted into a full powered thrust. Sarah tumbled into a somersault slightly to the side, too close to Nathan for him to transition into another powerful slash, so they both passed each other. Sarah continuing behind where Nathan had been, and Nathan quickly stepping to follow his sword’s thrust, before turning with a blind counter slash where he assumed Sarah was going to strike.

But she merely stood there, some five yards away, in a ready position.

Mr. Tenns watched them like a hawk. Sarah was noticeably faster than she had been at her entrance exam. But for all that Nathan had a bad attitude, he could understand it. Most of Nathan’s spars ended before this point, when his partner could no longer keep up with Nathan’s endless stamina and aggressive strikes.

The older trainees were just barely able to fully keep track of every technique Nathan was using, and how he was stringing them together to keep up a chain of attacks.

The first step of Sword Arts.

Sarah, by contrast, looked almost boring. Other than that one tumble inside Nathan’s reach, she just dodged and weaved through his attacks as though she’d seen them all before, as though Nathan was telling her what he was going to do before he did it.

Ironically, it was the youngest trainees, those fresh from Choosing Day, who were the most impressed. “Wow, she’s really good at dodging.” One boy whispered to the girl next to him, both of whom had been doing practice swings.

“Yeah, and she doesn’t look much older than us, either,” the girl replied.

Sarah heard this, even as the air around her was filled with whooshes and fwips from the sword strikes all around her, thanks to her [Sensitive Hearing] skill. She was further distracted by an intrusive thought.

Brawler Class Skill [Dodge] has been acquired.

Sarah was already starting to get a little antsy, but now with even more leeway to dodge Nathan’s strikes, which were slowing down and becoming just a tad sloppy, she was starting to feel a little frustrated. She shot a glance towards Mr. Tenns, who met her eye.

A sheen of sweat glistened on his brow, despite not doing anything.

“Alright, Sarah, disarm him!” he called out.

“I’d like to see you try!” Nathan shouted, gripping his sword’s hilt even tighter. He shouted wordlessly and thrust at Sarah, expecting her to dodge to the side, and he was ready to hit her with the follow up swing.

He had entirely forgotten to hold back during the spar, and was using his full strength.

Sarah, instead, simply stepped forward, dodging his thrust by inches, and slammed her palm into his solar plexus.

Bam!

The sound echoed throughout the yard, and everyone froze. The silence was broken by Nathan’s reflexive cough as his diaphragm seized and suddenly, he couldn’t breathe.

Sarah’s arm slid back with the swiftness of a striking snake and her hands were there, on his sword’s hilt, just as his muscles spasmed due to her strike, and she twisted the sword out of his hands, flinging it to the side.

“Stop!”

Sarah froze, two steps in front of Nathan, who was still recoiling from the strike.

He found his footing and used the momentum from her strike to rear back and then lunge forward with an instinctual [Punch] towards the shorter girl’s jaw.

“I said stop!” Mr. Tenns shouted, lunging forward. But he wouldn’t make it in time. Nathan was fast. And he had lost track of his surroundings, completely focused on the young woman who dodged his every strike.

He put his full power into the punch, from the muscles in his feet, legs, hips, back, all of it in this punch. If it landed, the fight was his.

But she swayed like a stalk of wheat in the wind, and his fist sailed through empty air. His momentum carried him forward, and the girl grabbed him by his extended arm and heaved, pulling him further, up and over her shoulder.

BAM!

With a loud crash, his body was slammed into the ground, and Sarah skipped away, hands raised, as Mr. Tenns finally stormed in, staff at the ready.

He got between them and put his back to Sarah, staff up in a defensive stance, but Nathan was already out cold on the ground, mouth slack and hanging open.

“John, Mickey, drag him over to the side and keep an eye on him until he wakes up,” Mr. Tenns directed two of the older trainees who were gaping at what they’d just witnessed. “Kelly!” he turned and called to the girl who had been doing practice swings with a staff.

“Y-yes!” she squeaked in reply.

“Get some Healer training in, focusing on [Diagnosis] and [First Aid]. Don’t actually [Cure] the blockhead, and don’t do anything for his pain either. He needs to learn his lesson already.

“Okay!” she said, and jogged over holding the staff in both hands.

Mr. Tenns turned back to the older trainees. “Like I said, Sarah is rated Rank B in interpersonal combat. You can go harder with her in spars than I’ll let you with anyone else, but respect the rules of the spar! Nathan clearly kept fighting after stop was called.” He turned to the side and looked at Sarah. “You good for more, or do you need a break?”

Sarah rolled her shoulders. “No, I’m nice and warmed up. I’m ready for more.”

In the end, none of the other trainees were foolish enough to forget it was a spar and keep fighting after stop was called. Sarah got plenty of practice disarming various kinds of fighters, though Knife Wielders proved troublesome. It didn’t matter how many of their knives she knocked out of their hands, which itself wasn’t easy; within a second they had another knife in hand. It felt endless.

Around mid-morning Nathan came too, and due to a shoulder dislocation, he had to leave to visit the Temple for proper healing. When he came back he refused to meet Sarah’s eye, but he listened to Mr. Tenns and practiced sword swings with a focus on stopping one technique and shifting immediately to a defensive stance.

One of the other trainees, Mickey, was observing and giving him pointers.

Sarah still kept track of him in the back of her mind as she sparred with the others. He was significantly stronger than everyone else here, barring Mr. Tenns of course.

When the sun reached its peak in the sky, lower than it had been the day before, Mr. Tenns called an end to the sparring.

“Good job everyone, we made it through today with minimal injuries.” The only injuries had been Nathan’s, nobody else wanting to push their luck with the Brawler. “You’re all welcome back next week, and remember, safety first!”

“Brawler Sarah.”

Sarah turned towards Nathan, who she had been tracking as he walked towards her. But to her surprise, he bowed formally at her, hands at his side and bent at the waist far enough that his head was lower than hers.

“I apologize for losing my composure during the spar, and thank you for your guidance.” Still refusing to look her in the eye, but faintly red in the face, he stood up and walked quickly away from the practice yard, and soon disappeared around the corner.

Mr. Tenns chuckled. “Heh, he’s going to catch an earful from his mentor about this.” He looked down at Sarah next to him. “Thanks for your help today, Sarah.” He handed her a slip of paper, the job completion receipt, and four copper coins. Half a silver, less taxes and the Guild’s cut.

Sarah looked sadly down at the four small coins. After receiving more than seven silver this morning for last night’s brawl, it just didn’t feel like much. Still, the sparring was worth it just for the training she got, so she smiled up at Mr. Tenns.

“Thanks!”

“You brought your lunch today, right? Eat with me and we can talk about Scout training, now that your schedule’s free. There are a few different trainers, and my understanding is that you want to be a particular kind of Scout…”

Mr. Tenns continued talking as they put away the wooden practice weapons.