While that wouldn't change his life, losing a spar to a kid who was the same age as him made Zaos tremble from head to toe due to the frustration. In the end, Zaos only relaxed a little bit when Lyra hugged him from behind and began to hum near his ear.
"Don't hate your father, Zaos," Lyra said. "His father also used harsh words with him to motivate him to follow his path when he suffered a defeat in spars or duels."
"Is that so…" Zaos said.
While his father was looking down on magic and probably already knew that he was training to learn some spells, his words didn't make Zaos that angry. Instead, he was more frustrated than anything due to the loss in the spar.
In the end, after healing his wounds, Zaos decided to train for a while longer. Maybe he didn't have the talent that Drannor had, but he was better, at least in terms of willpower. Next time the same attacks Drannor used won't work on him… Much to Zaos's surprise, he found his father waiting for him in the next morning's training grounds. While he was alone, it looked like things would change a little bit from that day onward.
"You already learned the basics of sword and shield fighting," Laiex said. "While that is no excuse for embarrassing yourself that much on the spar of yesterday, your lack of experience at dealing with and using other weapons is a problem. We will try to find the best style you are suited for. First, you will try the longsword."
Laiex passed to Zaos a long sword. It didn't seem like something a kid could actually use, but Zaos gladly accepted. Truth to be told, fighting with a shield and a one-handed sword was kind of boring. While it would take a while to master it, the longsword would help Zaos cause much more damage with a single strike.
"As usual, don't forget to practice every day what you already learned with your sword and shield, but you need to practice these stances for at least ten minutes as well in the morning and in the afternoon," Laiex said. "These are the stances you need to practice; this is when you need to run with your sword on your back, but in case you need to unsheathe it as fast as possible. This is when you need to protect yourself from long-ranged attacks, and in case you don't have a shield, and these are the three basic types of attacks. Practice them slowly until they feel natural to you. You won't have the chance to spar for a while, so there is no need to rush it."
Zaos had a hard time holding back a sigh. While he could train new things, it wasn't fun if he couldn't do them in practice. Regardless, when Zaos tried to hold the long sword with both hands, he noticed that perhaps sparring while his sense of balance was weird would be disastrous.
Before leaving, Laiex also gave Zaos a leatherback scabbard. Without one, Zaos wouldn't be able to keep the posture to draw the sword as fast as possible from his back for more than a few seconds. Despite the events of the previous day, Zaos's mood was improving since he was starting to feel like a real warrior.
When his father left, Zaos didn't waste time and began to practice the new things he just learned, and, in the end, he confirmed that the new training wouldn't be any easier. His sword arm will slowly become stronger thanks to that but running while keeping that posture to draw the sword from your back was really tough.
Your Swordsmanship has reached level 05
Health: 20/20
Mana: 60/60
Stamina: 50/60
Strength: 10
Magic: 30
Endurance:30
Resistance: 30
Focus: 01
Sorcery Lv 05, Swordsmanship Lv 05, Shield Mastery Lv 01
Lesser Heal, Heal,
"This is good, but… I need to train more with my shield and increase my health," Zaos nodded to himself. "Kids like Drannor who don't fight with shields probably don't have much of it, so my attacks will cause more damage in comparison."
The problem was: how would Zaos be able to do that? By learning new types of techniques that use shields? He didn't like that type of fighting style, but it looked like it would be necessary to at least train it. Finally, Zaos found a solution for that problem a few hours later. After he had his breakfast and prepared to practice his magic, a guard suddenly appeared.
"Young Master, you have a visitor," The guard said.
Zaos frowned since he didn't know many guards, and he didn't think many of them knew him. In any case, the big armored guy who wasn't showing a single inch of skin was probably one of the guards that patrols around the residence. Putting that aside, Zaos had no idea who would visit him. He didn't know many people, so Zaos and Lyra just looked at each other and frowned. After they headed to the living room, they saw a small blond figure waiting for them… it was Drannor.
"Good morning, my lady," Drannor said and then slightly bowed just like before. "Hello again, Zaos. Let's play."
Zaos stared at Drannor for a second, wondering about the meaning of his words… but he couldn't quite understand it. Play? He didn't mean play like kids doing pointless things, right?
"I have better things to do," Zaos said.
"Zaos!" Lyra raised her voice. "Don't be rude to your guests."
"But I just told the truth," Zaos said. "I don't want to play; I want to study and practice my swordsmanship."
"Why didn't I stop when I noticed that you would become such a serious child…" Lyra said and then sighed. "Anyway, a boy at your age should play more than study and practice swordsmanship. So, go with Drannor to the garden."
Zaos facepalmed when he heard that… he couldn't believe that his mother would force him to waste his time like that.