Fighting with a shield was much more difficult than I had anticipated.
First off, the damn thing got heavy after a few minutes. Althidon explained that the training shield was slightly heavier than a real one to help build strength. I didn't have the time to build much strength.
Second, that left me with only my right hand on the spear. So while I could still thrust, the amount of strength I could put into parries and other moves was greatly diminished. For that matter, so was my range.
However, when one of Althidon's students managed to slip by my poor spear thrust, I blocked his attack with my shield, then jabbed him in the shoulder with my practice spear. So it was a trade-off. Granted, that was my only successful block out of a dozen, but still. The potential was there.
"We might need to go back to just the spear," Althidon said after an hour of training. "You're horrible with the shield."
