I awoke, in a bed, on a sunny day. I woke up in a panic, wondering where I was and why I was there, until I had remembered the previous day. Today was my first day training under Sir Efengarde, after he had graciously taken me under his wing. It was early in the morning, as the sun had barely begun to rise as I got ready for my intense training. I hurriedly got dressed, and ran down the bannered stairs, onto the bottom floor. In the dining room, Sir Efengarde awaited at the table, breakfast already prepared.
"Ave boy, ready for the already, aye?" Efengarde asked, taking a sip out of his gobletto soup, "That's good, I like when my trainee is up and ready early."
I smirked at the remark, and drank my breakfast soup before wiping my mouth and putting my wooden bowl onto the countertop, to be washed later.
"Ready to head out, Sirius? It'll be awhile before we eat again," Sir Efengarde stated, opening the door as he and I got ready to head out. I nodded yes to Sir Efengarde's statement, and exited out the door which he had opened for me.
The day was beautiful, with not a cloud in the sky. The ocean breeze drifted the salty smell of the sea landbound. Sir Efengarde and I took a mile long walk up to a fairly flat area, which was dotted with multiple training dummies, targets, and other training utensils.
"Listen to me closely, Sirius. This world is dangerous, and even more so is the sea. I want to make sure that when you eventually leave this island, you're prepared for what's to come," Master Efengarde said, a grim look spread across his face. It's obvious this was a very serious topic, and one that I should pay close attention to.
"Understand? Good. Let's start with the basics," Sir Efengarde commanded, getting up close to me, "First, we're going to work on your stance. Currently, your stance is unbalanced and you aren't well planted on the ground. Look at your feet, they're crooked, and your knees are bent inward." Sir Efengarde carefully moved my stance into something much more sturdy, in which my knees were bent forward and my feet were straight. All of a sudden, I felt significantly sturdier than before. I wasn't that strong, as far as I could tell, but I felt like I could withstand a hearty push in this stance, I felt balanced.
"Alright, well you seem to have gotten the hang of that fairly quickly… that's good! That means you're a natural, Haha!" Sir Efengarde chuckled heartily, before continuing, "Next, I'll teach you the basics of sword combat, the first of which is the simple slash. In this case, imagine you're using a katana, a weapon made for slashes. First, hold your sword straight in front of you, then raise your blade above your head, and strike downwards at an angle." Sir Efengarde took out a wooden practice blade, and repeated the actions he had told me to do.
Efengarde swung his sword downwards, and with the swift slash of a blade, cut straight into one of the dummies scattered around, grain spilling out of it.
"Oh dear, it seems I cut a little too hard, haha!" Sir Efengarde bellowed, as he handed the sword off to me. I grabbed the sword tightly, closed my eyes, and carefully raised the sword above my head, and swung downward with a powerful force!
…
"Bwahahaha! Boy, you hardly even scratched the old dummy, did you even have your eyes open?" Efengarde roared with laughter, and I felt embarrassed of my poor performance.
"Don't look so glum, boy, I was only joking with you, but please, keep your eyes open when you're swinging."
I smirked a little at Sir Efengarde's comment. I was happy that he was teaching someone who he had known for less than a day the basics of combat.
"Alright, well that was good enough for that, now let's move on to some more advanced moves: Blocking and Parrying. For this, we'll be facing one another, but not to worry, I'll go easy on you," Efengarde boasted, chuckling a bit at his own remark, "Alright, all I need you to do is hold your sword horizontally whenever I swing, alright?"
I nodded in response, as Efengarde brought down his blade from above, I moved my sword horizontally, holding the two ends with my hands. A loud thunk could be heard as the two practice swords collided with one another.
"Very good, Sirius. Now, this is the hard part, parrying. Parrying is a hard technique, so make sure you listen well. When you're enemy attacks, you'll want to hit their attack away with your sword, and then use that opportunity to strike back," Efengarde commanded, holding out his sword, "Here, I'll hold my sword out as if I'm striking you, and you parry it."
I held my sword tight, and knocked his sword away by using the blade of mine, and then struck forward, making sure not to hit my master.
"Hm, yes, very good Sirius, very good. Now then, it seems you've mastered all the easy techniques, however, I've purposely left out one key technique to this: Ether. Get ready, boy, because you're about to learn what true combat looks like."