There are 2 weeks remaining until the tournament starts.
Ales and Norja are already training for one week.
The defeat that Ales experienced for the first time other than by my hand got him even more motivated while Norja on the other hand steadily followed his routine which is to build up his stamina. He's already showing results during the day he does his routine and during the afternoon Ales and him have their daily spar.
So far the record they hold is 6-1 with Norja winning all 6 battles all of it were overwhelming victories.
Who would've guessed that he will become so strong but he still has short comings in many aspects, yes he is strong but not skilled enough what he needs the most is real experience in this era which life could be easily taken with one swing would result to your death. He using using a shield but he ignores the strikes aimed at his blind spots instead of blocking or evading it.
That is a serious problem when a strike on the leg lands that could be fatal deciding factor on a fight.
Meanwhile Ales barely won even that 1 battle that he won was so close that It could be even called lucky but he is improving nonetheless since changing weapons but something feels off he is using the spear like it should be but it looks like he is not used to it and doesn't fit in with his style, sometimes even the smallest things changes the potential of the user of the weapon may it be for the worst or the best clearly this is the latter, he is showing no signs of improvent.
He's got a weird habit of stepping forward and swinging his spear like a sword which is what you want to avoid doing.
When using a spear you either stab using the length to your advantage skewering the opponents the long pole isn't suited being swung around since its a single pointed blade with a long pole if your opponent is at close range you could either swirl the pole around your body like a batton but you can't really do that easily unless you are fairly skilled or else the enemy would just stab you easily when showing a gap. The other thing you could do is step back but you can't retreat so easily that is the problem occuring for days, Ales losses every time Norja closes in.
This is the 8th day since they started as the one who is responsible for Ales changes I should ask him whats wrong with the spear since he is struggling with it.
Now the record of win is 7-1 still Norja's win in the end yet again he made the same mistake of not getting away from Norja's range, unlike before he could easily evade attacks now he could barely manage to react maybe the reason is the shield that covers his sight so he couldn't predict when or where will Norja swing his sword.
As he lost his 8 match with Norja he wasn't quite happy with the result even though I already told him many things on how to win I guess the problem lies within his compatibility with his weapon.
"Brother don't let it get to you, now I realize what's wrong its not because of you, the weapon I chose for you is wrong but before that could I ask you what is the hardest part when you use a spear against Norja?"
"Its really not fair I'm already training as hard as I can but no sign of winning at all the range advantage is nice and all the problem is I can't keep up with him unless I use a shield also but I doubt I could take many of Norja's strike but that would lessen the burden for me since I can't compete with him using a spear only, before I even block him I can't put my spear where I wanted it to and I can't even evade him because the shield is obstructing my sight."
"As I thought."
"Preferably I want to use a shorter spear. "
So the length is his problem huh -- true he can barely move the spear becuase its long.
Mmmm -- I remember! The weapon used by the European's the glaive it's a pole arm even shorter than a spear unlike spears which lengths 8-20 ft, glaives are only 6-7 ft and have a sword-like blade attached to it making it very flexible but I don't think they have it here.
There are many kinds of glaives all around the world though the chinese guandao and japanese naginata are one of the examples and many more of them exists just in different shapes and names.
Unlike here in the islands of the Philippines even on the history books and museums there is no such thing that come close to a glaive only one pointed spears.
Unlike swords there are so many different types of sword even weird shaped ones.
Then so what if there is none thats why I'm here! We just have to make our own version of glaives!
"Brother do you know who makes our swords here? "
"Yeah sorta -- I don't talk to her so much because its so troublesome when it comes to making swords she is so noisy and her father is also so annoying. "
"Can you take me to them?"
"Sure but why? Its kind of hard to deal with them specially Andy when you talk to her about swords she just wouldn't stop speaking."
"Are you close? "
"Uh - yeah you might say its somewhat like that. "
"Why do you keep avoiding him Ales come on when will you face Andy you can't always run away from her."
"Oh Norja good job earlier, you also know her?"
"Oh thanks to you, well ofcourse I know her she is our childhood friend after all but we haven't talked to each other for a while since you have fallen asleep and she's also busy helping her father make preparations for the tournament they're making swords non stop for months now."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah why do you ask?"
"I have a request for her to make Ales's new weapon."
"Oh I'm certain she'll much more welcome to make it since its for Ales Hahaha!"
"Is that so? What really is Ales's relation to that Andy?"
"Mmmm it's hard to explain its complicated but Andy loves your brother."
"...."