A Dragon's Curiosity

Nisha seized up the Legionar in front of her.

True to her words, Knife Leader Tanya did not exaggerate when she described the man as a rare talent in the army.

Despite not saying a word and only taking a stance with the wooden training sword, the elf picked up a hint of danger from him despite only being at the late second stage.

The city guards at the gate sported a similar level of cultivation, yet Nisha failed to pick up the same threat from them.

Hence, the dragon did not dare to underestimate the man despite him being below her own aura level.

She carefully raised her word and prepared to switch between [Slash] and [Block], either style allowing her to react in any case.

Beside the two combatants, Tanya was very happy to see that the elf did not lose her wariness and admired her natural capacity as a warrior.

More than one Legionnaire had lost his life while they sweeped areas with low level monsters and did not exhibit his full strength due to laziness or similar reasons.

Always fighting to the best of their capacity was one of the core tenets of the army.

Legionar Fabio correspondingly studied his opponent.

While it was unusual to teach an outsider the [Imperial Swordplay] and have them spar directly with the soldiers, it was not his place to consider political and strategic outcomes.

As he had gotten an order, Fabio would strive to fulfill it to the best of his ability.

Knife Leader Tanya raised her hand and gave the signal.

“Start the duel!”

Either in her capacity as an officer - albeit a low ranked one - or out of personal interest, Tanya was really looking forward to the outcome of this fight.

Legionar Fabio lost no time and took three fast steps forward, displaying the straightforward nature of [Advance] to its fullest.

As a result of his fast paced attack, Nisha shifted the sword in her hands in the path of her opponent's sword, switching to the [Block] stance.

While the dragon did not think she was at a disadvantage, she was not below leveraging her superior strength against her opponent - he was not going to be stronger than a beast at a higher rank after all.

Nevertheless, Nisha planned to clash with him first and then look for a chance to polish her styles.

And as expected, their training swords clashed in a cross, the elf had no problems to show a steady [Block] in response to Fabio’s [Slash].

Having greater strength turned out to be a great advantage right now, otherwise the girl would have had to use [Parry] instead, males generally had higher strength than their female counterparts in humanoid races.

Nisha planned to retreat and initiate a new exchange, comparing her own styles against the usage of the Legionar in front of her.

That way, the dragon would have a chance to learn some of the small tricks and techniques that long term practice yielded without having to go through countless hours of blind stumbling around.

Unfortunately, Fabio had no plans to let off the girl lightly.

In the same tempo that Nisha used [Advance] to retreat by reversing the direction, he kept the pace and moved forward at the same speed.

The crossed swords kept pressing against each other, but the Legionar raised his sword wielding hand and pressed forward with his weapon, turning the [Slash] into a [Stab].

When Nisha finished her step back, the wooden sword of her opponent already pressed against her shoulder, ending the first round with only two moves.

She was dumbfounded that she had lost so fast and failed to come up with an appropriate response.

Fortunately, Knife Leader Tanya acted as the referee.

“Winner, Legionar Fabio! Back to your positions.”

From Tanya’s point of view, it was not really strange to have an experienced soldier handle a young noble lady within a few moves, he would have wasted his time spent on training otherwise.

Not to mention a particularly gifted soldier that was about to get promoted to a minor officer position.

Naturally, the dragon did not think the same at all. Her pride flared up and she gripped the hilt of her wooden sword even tighter, returning to her starting position for another round.

She hated losing a lot.

The referee checked that both sides were ready and raised her hand again as a start signal.

“Begin!”

Rather than allowing the soldier to set the pace of the duel again, Nisha initiated a strike this time around instead of waiting to set her stance.

Funneling the shame and anger from losing the first exchange, a strong [Cleave] came down from the top, aiming at Fabio’s shoulder.

The dragon wanted to return the defeat to the same place, making them even.

In contrast to the explosive emotions in the strike coming at him, Legionar Fabio nary made an expression of either kind.

He maintained a stone cold calmness and responded to the attack coming at him in the most methodical manner he knew.

Rather than shrinking back and trying to defend, the man stepped forward and used the tip of his sword to collide with the training weapon aiming at his body.

He twisted his wrist and borrowed the [Twist] style to turn an apparent [Parry] into a [Redirect].

Before Nisha had time to adapt from her failed strike, the soldier widened the distance through a [Sidestep] without bothering to take back his sword from the lowered position next to him, a result of borrowing force to push away her blow.

Right as the elf felt that things were going to break down again, Fabio borrowed the flow from twisting his wrist and the great force pushing against his hand through the weapon to complete half of a [Turn] behind her.

Suddenly, it was only Nisha that was out of her stance and had trouble recovering her wooden sword, while the Legionar behind her had his wielded weapon recovered from the momentum and only had to raise the sword again for a strike.

Without mercy, Fabio brought the handle right above the point of the blade and performed a light slashing motion, adjusting the angle as the elf tried to dodge.

Nevertheless, wood gently connected to the back of her knee, her spine and finally her upper arm.

Hitting three sensitive locations at once would destroy her mobility, her sword wielding arm and perhaps her life if the wooden weapon was made of metal instead.

In addition to the rage and shame of another defeat, Nisha also felt a tad hopeless at this moment.

Going by their discrepancy in cultivation level, it should be the dragon’s turn to bully her opponent, yet she was still easily toyed with by the soldier.

“Winner, Legionar Fabio! Back to your positions.”

Knife Leader Tanya repeated her previous judgement word for word and refrained from giving encouraging words or an analysis of the situation to the young lady.

Sometimes, experiencing something with your body was far more effective than ten thousand words.

Nisha sulked but complied.

Although she did not want to admit it after suffering two losses in a row, she had to admit that there were plenty of points that the elf could glean insights from by observing the opponent.

His stances did not rigidly adhere to the positions in the [Imperial Swordplay] and he applied them so fast that his combination of a [Twist] and [Slash] into a [Stab] ran as smooth as water.

As the two adversaries settled into their starting positions for the third time, the elf only wished to exchange some more moves with Fabio to retain a shred of dignity as a worthy opponent.

Sadly, even such a small wish turned into nothing as the duel commenced.

“Begin!”

With practiced ease, Knife Leader Tanya gave the signal to start the third round.

Nisha saw that Legionar Fabio made no attempt to attack or prepare a defensive stance.

She felt a lump form in her stomach from a simple realization: her offense and defense did not even meet the lowest threshold to incite caution in the man.

Her sword technique was too weak to threaten him or take her seriously.

The dragon forced herself to push down her shame, anger and dread, neither of those would help her right now.

Taking a deep breath to clear her mind, the dragon did not rush to attack in a hurry.

By now, it was clear that the third duel was not going to end in her favor either.

Yet she also had to try her hardest, at least making the soldier treat her as a serious opponent would count as a small win.

The Legionar was not in a hurry either, his assignment would even be considered as fulfilled in case he lost.

Furthermore, he already evaluated the proficiency of the young elf with the [Imperial Swordplay] and showed off skills a notch above her.

Privately, Fabio wondered whether the elf was related to an important personage from the Terus empire or whether the empire and the kingdom made a deal for nurturing some elites for each other, but again, it was not his job to care about it.

He was content to simply carry out his order and continue on with his training afterwards.

His placid eyes usually would irritate the dragon for underestimating her, but right now she needed to focus on bringing out all of her abilities.

Several breaths passed with neither of the opponents moving.

Nisha finally made the first move after giving up on finding a good opening.

Her sword carried a lot of strength as the blade aimed beneath the man’s rips with a [Slash].

The elf controlled the width of the swing to prepare herself for the follow up from her opponent, depending on his reprise.

Fabio brought up his blade and put his free hand against it, turning in the same direction as the [Slash] coming at him.

With a [Side Step] and [Turn] backwards, he neutralized most of the force when the wooden weapons met and [Redirected] the remaining energy to the side.

She wished to capitalize on the forward position, but her sword already spent its driving force and the Legionar had a good defensive posture at the moment.

Actually, Fabio might have had a chance to end the third round this time as well, a fast [Cleave] might break through and hit the elf.

Nevertheless, he steadied his stance and prepared to block again, giving Nisha time to retreat with a reverse [Advance].

Dissatisfied with her easily blocked offensive, Nisha followed up with several [Cleaves] and [Slashes], putting her full strength behind each blow.

Although Legionar Fabio gave way each time and restricted himself to blocking and warding off her advances, it made the dragon not happy either since there was no progress in finding a hole in his defense.

Normally, the elf would have been very surprised about the way the soldier warded off her attacks and cleverly distributed the energy behind her swings, but right now she only wanted to hit him at least once.

She might have learned a lot of these tricks with careful observation, yet Nisha only wanted to get faster and stronger to reach her goal.

With big momentum, her latest [Slash] carried her forward toward Fabio, who kept backing away.

As Nisha pressed forward, her instincts kicked in and she wanted to stop, but the impulse was too strong for that and the dragon did not manage to stop in time.

Looking down, the Legionar’s training weapon connected with her shoulder again.

Whilst Fabio was retreating this time, he lowered his posture on purpose and extended his sword arm while keeping the weapon entirely aligned from point to pommel, giving the girl the illusion that the sword did not move as it really moved toward his opponent - Nisha - who ran into the weapon.

From the side, Knife Leader Tanya’s unfeeling voice rang out.

“Winner, Legionar Fabio!”