“Gale!” Vivian called out excitedly when she saw him.

  The girl rushed inside her house before coming back out with a wooden sword in both hands. And when Gale was close enough, she hurled one of the long pieces of wood at him, and he caught it by the handle.

  “Come on!” She challenged the boy by pointing the tip of her sword towards him, seemingly having forgotten about her earlier challenge to Robert.

  “Start slow. Don’t injure yourself now.”

  “Right! Come on, Gale! Guard up!” Vivian said before immediately rushing in, absolutely ignoring Robert’s warning.

  Her attack came swiftly. The moment her opponent was within reach of her blade, she brought it down in a vertical swing. But before her blade could hit Gale in the shoulder, he parried it and pushed it to the side.

  The two kept on trading feints and blows, pushing, and retreating to hold the strong whenever possible. That is, to have their sword in the inside, closer to both themself and their opponent, and their opponent’s sword outside.

  At times, when one of the two felt a clear disadvantage, they quickly stepped back, went out of reach, and took a quick breath to reset the bind. They would circle around, eyeing each other for openings, until suddenly, one of them leaned back, and lunged forward while thrusting their sword.

  With Vivian’s blade threatening to skewer him, Gale took his opponent’s blade, but it was as if he saw an illusion, intricately crafted by Vivian’s subtle movements, and he missed by a hair’s breadth.

  Vivian didn’t let go of the opportunity she made, and once again lunged forward. But her opponent was fast to recover. He took a step back, brought his sword around over his head, and met her blade to push it away.

  Now that they’re back in a bind, Gale quickly tried to move in and create some space for him to work with, but the difference in their strength was too much for technique to make up for.

  Vivian pushed his sword into him, and reached out with her off hand to grab his sword arm. As she brought her own sword up for a slash, Gale’s only hope was to catch her hand and get them grappling each other’s sword hand.

  Unfortunately, once Vivian started swinging down on him, it was too late to stop her momentum, and the best he could do was catch the blade with his forearm.

  Had it been a real sword, it would have lobbed his arm halfway down his forearm. Death won’t be immediate, but a fatal wound nonetheless.

  But as this was just training with wooden swords, the hit just left a bruise that would leave his skin discolored for a couple days, but victory is Vivian’s nonetheless.

  “Yes! That’s my win!” She exclaimed cheerily before she let go of Gale’s hand, and took a step back. “You still have much to learn, Gale! I’ll teach you all you need to be an amazing swordsman!” she said while slashing her sword around to emphasize her own skill.

  “Right right. Don’t forget you’ve studied for 3 years while Gale has only gone for half a year.” Robert said before lightly tapping the flat of his wooden sword on Vivian’s head.

  “That’s why I’ll teach him! He’ll become my vice captain when I become a War Goddess!”

  “Hahaha. Gale is learning quite fast, but let’s not get ahead of yourself.”

  On the sideline of this banter, Gale began to inspect his now darkening forearm.

  For a training bout, injuries were pretty much inevitable and it had been more than just a few times that his arm was bruised after getting hit by Vivian.

  When she noticed this, Vivian quickly snapped back out of her victory high, and started getting flustered. “Right, need to get a salve.” She said before heading inside her house to look for medicine.

  After watching the girl leave, Robert turned his attention to Gale, and approached him.

  “You’ve gotten better with the sword, huh?” Robert asked.

  Gale didn’t say anything in response, but Robert was now used to it. The boy hadn’t really talked much in the six months he’s been coming to his house. Instead, he just looked at the wooden sword in his hand until Robert suddenly grabbed the tip, and angled it so that Gale was in a guard stance.

  “Your techniques are improving quickly. And your body is moving much better than most adults I’ve seen. But you still lack any sort of strength.”

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Gale craned his head slightly to move his sight from his blade to his mentor.

  “Nothing you can do about it, you’re still young. But if you want to walk this path, you keep on doing the basics, okay? No matter how good your technique, no matter how quickly your body can react, it doesn’t matter if you give only the wrong answers. So beat the correct answers to your body while it develops itself. And one day, when you stand shoulder to shoulder with Vivian, you take care of her for me, will you?”

  There was no doubt in Robert’s mind that the boy before him would grow up to be a fine swords man. In a few years time when his muscles firmed up, it will start catching up to his animal-like reflex, and thirst for technique to shape him into an unstoppable force. And he can’t help but let out a smile at the thought.

  “Hey, dumbass! You doing good?” An approaching man suddenly called out, breaking Robert out of his thoughts.

  “I ain’t dumb, fool!” He said back before even turning back to face his guest.

  “Hahaha. Good to see you again, Robert.”

  “Good to see you, Rowan.”

  “Just got here?” Robert asked as he handed his wooden sword to Gale.

  “Yeah, and brought a whole caravan with me down at the square.”

  “Don’t rip my people off now, I’ll smack you in, you hear?”

  “Man’s gotta make money!”

  The two laughed at each other.

  “So? Is that what I asked for?”

  “You bet,” Rowan said as he brought what he had in his hand to the man. “Made it light for the girl, just like you asked,” He continued while passing the item to Robert.

  It was a longsword. From the base of the pommel all the way to the tip of the blade, it was on the shorter end for one, and made so lightweight that it just about matched a wooden sword.

  “Can you grab the scabbard?”

  When his old friend grabbed the scabbard, he pulled the sword out of its sheath.

  The brand new forged steel glistened under the sun, and he can see his own face reflected on the flat of it.

  Robert then turned around and swung the steel a few times to get a feel of it, and a smile played on his face.

  “So? Where’s the little girl?”

  Robert opened his mouth to answer, but before the words could leave his lips, a scream was heard from inside Robert’s house.

  “Mom! Where’re the salves?!”

  The two men looked at each other, and chuckled.

  “There she is.”

  Some time later, Vivian came out of the house to look for Robert, her mother close behind her. “Robert! Where’re the salves?!”

  “They’re inside the chest by the table no?”

  “I looked! They weren’t there!”

  “Ah. must have used the last of em.”

  “Did you?” Kristine asked as she approached Gale. Even from a distance, she could easily make out the discoloration on his arm and quickly pointed it out. “Poor boy got bruised and his teacher won't even give him some salve?”

  “Ah, come on. I didn’t notice we were out,” Robert said in a sorry tone. “Say, you don’t happen to have some salve?” He then asked Rowan.

  The other men pouted his lips and shook his head.

  “Well, can't help it. Could you go get some from the herbalist?” He turned to ask Vivian.

  She replied with a pout, and brought both her hands to her hip to show her discontent. “It’s not my fault you used them all!”

  “Come on. It’s just to the forest and back. I have to go to the square to help with Rowan’s caravan.”

  “My–what a man to leave his job to a young girl and play at the market.”

  “Hmph!” Vivian pouted to back her mother whilst she teased the man.

  “Come on! It's my job to help the caravan! Here, I’ll give you this if you go,” He said while he brought the sword in his hand up.

  Vivian could see her own face on the steel presented to her, and she could see her eyes lit up in excitement. “A sword?!” she exclaimed, flabbergasted. “You never let me hold anything other than wood!”

  Robert turned around to face Rowan again and sheathe the sword back into its scabbard. Grabbing both, he then faced Vivian and handed it to her. “You’ve earned it. You’re turning ten this year, no? I trust you with this. But you have to promise me, young lady. Only draw it when you need to.”

  “Alright!” Vivian said as she grabbed her gift, jumping around cheerily.

  “Now now, don’t forget about the boy,” Kristine then called out to remind everyone of Gale’s bruise that needed tending.

  “Right!” She exclaimed cheerily as she grabbed Gale’s arm. “We’re going!” She then said as they made her way towards the forest.

  “You forgot to take some money!” Kristine called out to her daughter before she got too far.

  “Right, money.” Vivian said before turning back, still dragging Gale along.

  Her mother made her way inside their house and she followed her to the door.

  “Do you still remember the way to the herbalist’s place?” Robert asked her.

  “Yeah! Through the river and just follow the dirt path.”

  “Don’t get lost with the boy now, young lady.” Rowan chimed in.

  “I won’t! It’s just a straight path!”

  “Careful in the forest, yeah?” Kristine said as she handed her daughter a pouch full of coins.

  “Don’t worry, I have this!” Vivian exclaimed as she raised her sword up into the air.

  “Rowan brought that here for you. Don’t forget to thank him now.”

  “Thank you, mister!”

  “You’re welcome, young lady.”

  Now with a pouch of gold in her hand, Vivian restarted her journey towards the forest with Gale behind her.