A Dragon's Curiosity

“That will be all, Legionar Fabio. You are dismissed.”

Knife Leader Tanya observed the silent elf, who had yet to move after her third defeat.

The soldier similarly did not care too much either way and returned his training sword to the rack, then picked up his basket full of stones and saluted the Knife Leader.

He gave the elf one last glance and considered saying some words of consolation, but the thought passed just as quick as it arose and he returned to the running track around the yard.

Tanya approached the silent girl and put her arm around her pulling her close.

Nisha did not answer though and bit her lips.

Way until the end, she did not manage to retaliate once and was thoroughly played by Legionar Fabio.

It had been a while since the dragon lost so utterly and wholly.

She had to choke back her tears and was not in the position to talk to the pretty soldier next to her right now.

Thankfully, Tanya guided her next to the wooden sword rack and sat down next to her, sharing a breath of silence while Nisha calmed down.

Truthfully, the officer was not prepared to see the girl take the defeat so hard.

In hindsight, the elf was very competitive and so young to boot, too.

Because she was embarrassed by her oversight, Tanya accompanied Nisha for quite a long time in silence, patting her shoulder and squeezing her arm around the girl to cheer her up.

After getting her bearing back and basking in the unexpected comforting presence of the older woman next to her, Nisha finally spoke to her.

“Why did I lose to him? My cultivation is higher, so I should be stronger, faster and … 

I really wanted to make it, but it was like he knew whatever I wanted to do!”

Venting her frustration and clenching her fists tightly, Nisha turned all the sadness and frustration into anger and motivation.

“Well, it’s not really a surprise that you did not triumph over Legionar Fabio, since you basically challenged him with your weakness against his strength.

He did, after all, practice the [Imperial Swordplay] for several turns already. Pretty much exclusively, to be honest.

Don’t be too sad, you can probably triumph over him in other areas, just not in this particular case.”

Knife Leader Tanya was as proud as anyone else to be part of the Terus Empire military.

The legionnaires practiced every day and drove each other to new heights with their competitiveness.

Wanting to beat them with just a few days or moons of practice was impossible even for geniuses and exceptionally talented prodigies.

And her original intent was not to crush the elf’s spirit, too.

Tanya tried to highlight the deficiencies in the girl’s swordsmanship by showing her a talented member of the army performing the styles.

Now that she was faced with a sniffling teen girl, she was at a loss what to do.

“Cheer up, okay?”

The pretty soldier was at the end of her rope and racked her brain for a method to turn the atmosphere around.

Right when Tanya was about to jump up and run away from helplessness, Nisha turned to her and asked a question.

“Why did I lose so badly? What did go wrong with my swordsmanship?”

True, the dragon was more than just sad about her three losses in a row.

She also failed to hit back even once, despite her best effort.

Nevertheless, it was not the first time that she had to struggle to turn bleak chances into a sure win.

Right after the four hatchlings had been born back in the Wilderness, they were hard pressed to take down even the weakest first rank monster to fill their starving bellies.

A small [Foliage Rat] was enough to fend off four starving newborn beasts, even though it survived by eating fallen leaves from the forest floor and running from anything stronger.

Little Flame had to risk limb and life back then to struggle to the end together with her siblings for a single meal back then.

No matter how big the setback, giving up was not an option for Nisha.

Just because she lost to a soldier, Nisha was still going to get back on her feet.

Now was the time to grasp any chance to improve her sword skill and then get even with Legionar Fabio.

One day, I will trample on him with nothing but the [Imperial Swordplay].

Tanya blinked several times. While she was about to run away and look for someone with experience with consoling children, the girl in question suddenly banished her sadness and turned it into motivation to improve herself.

Not quite sure what just had happened, the Knife Leader answered nonetheless.

“Um, yeah, as I was saying … I think I know why you experience an incongruence when you execute the styles of the [Imperial Swordplay].

What did you think about Legionar Fabio when you faced him in a duel?”

Instead of saying the reason straight away, Tanya wanted the elf to figure out the reasoning behind her words instead of just saying it out once.

“To be honest, I felt quite frustrated. Despite being stronger and faster, I could not find a hole in his defense.

And whenever he attacked me, I tried my best to ward him off, but he managed to hit me anyway.

It just makes no sense, it should have been the other way around.

Whenever I displayed a style, he used two of them, despite being slower.”

Nisha did not want to call Legionar Fabio by his name subconsciously, so she poured out her worries out on the pretty soldier next to her.

“You actually almost guessed it. It’s not that you are really slower than Legionar Fabio, but rather that he is much more familiar with the styles and almost reached the next level of proficiency in the [Imperial Swordplay].

He is no longer relying simply on the forms of the different styles, and is now working on merging several elements to find his own way.”

The Knife Leader never had the ability to properly explain concepts related to her own techniques and martial arts properly.

Her own breakthrough happened more or less accidentally while her unit was in a pinch back home on a mission near Mount Terus.

Tanya would still need a long period of digestion and stabilizing her foundation before there was even a remote possibility of her [Imperial Swordplay] advancing another level.

Feeling dissatisfied with her explanation, she looked for simpler words to point out the issue.

“It’s not that Legionar Fabio has a secret method to raise his speed and strength.

You competed with your understanding of the twelve styles, and he has trained daily for the past several turns with a focus on polishing his technique.

I can guarantee you that there are not many other legionnaires in our legion that can compete with him when it comes to technical skill, you can even call him a genius.

Cecilia, … I mean Lance Corporal Hale has hinted to me previously that he will become a Knife Leader this turn or the next one.

When you only compare the length of time that you both practice the [Imperial Swordplay], it’s plainly impossible for you to win.

You can, however, take this as an opportunity to study his movements and learn from him.

With higher cultivation, that will make your battle power all the higher once you fight with a sword.”

As the elf settled down and no longer appeared like she would start crying any moment now, Tanya calmed down as well and wove her explanation into a speech meant to cheer Nisha up.

She stumbled once when mentioning Lance Corporal Hale, yet she glossed over the mistake and diverted the attention.

Fortunately, the dragon was even more resilient than the Knife Leader imagined and banished other emotions except a drive to improve and the desire to beat Legionar Fabio in his own discipline.

She hung at Knife Leader Tanya’s lips and eagerly awaited all tips and tricks to master the [Imperial Swordplay].

“Then how can I improve? No matter what style I used, he always countered me and made my attacks futile.”

Looking into those eyes full of burning desire to win, Tanya had the notion that making the Legionar spar with the girl was the correct thing to do.

“To be honest, it’s not that your moves were futile or executed incorrectly.

Rather than that, it was Legionar Fabio’s clever use of the different styles that tricked your eyes and created the illusions that he overpowered you completely.”

Tucking a strand of hair beneath her ear, Tanya motioned with her hand to push back Nisha’s questions for later.

“It would have been a different issue altogether if you did not face him with a style that he knows like the back of his hand.

Whenever you moved in for an attack or prepared your defense, Legionar Fabio can already tell what your following actions are going to be based on the starting actions.

Since he already knows what you will do, he can move ahead of time and prepare his defense or offense based on your reactions.

Just based on this initial advantage, he is already one move ahead of you before you swords clash.”

Seeing that the elf had no intention of standing up at the moment, Tanya watched the rest of the practice yard together with her while she explained.

The Legionnaires either practiced with each other or performed exercises that worked out their muscles or ran around the compound to build up stamina.

After her defeat, Nisha paid more attention to details she had not noticed before.

While the majority did not exert their utmost during regular training, their execution of the different styles did not fall behind her own standard in any way.

Furthermore, more than just one of them showed great familiarity with the moves, beyond the scope that the elf was capable of performing.

To top it up, not a single man or woman slacked off while training. Combining it with the Knife Leader’s words, Nisha had to admit that these soldiers put in the effort, so it was not that unusual that they also got the corresponding reward and had a high level of technique.

It hurt to lose to Legionar Fabio - but it was no longer a mystery or a complete upset.

If the dragon wishes to triumph over him and others like him, there was no shortcut or magical technique.

Nisha had to put in even more effort and train even harder, her reward would eventually come then.

“That one step being ahead of you is not only the initiative to react to your moves, but also a buffer to prepare all the following steps.

Let’s say you attack Legionar Fabio with a [Slash].

From recognizing your intent, he will first picture the path of your sword and move in the opposite direction to take away some of the force behind your blow.

Then, he will assume the starting position of [Block] and clash with you.

Finally, when both sides are ending their moves, he can adjust the [Block] into a [Parry] or [Neutralize] depending on the remaining amount of force.

So in reality, your strike is not too weak or anything, but you face the response equal to three or four people at the same time.

That’s the disparity in the mastery over the twelve styles between Legionar Fabio and you.”

While it was not the only contributing factor, Tanya’s explanation cleared up a lot of Nisha’s doubts and showed her why she was unable to overcome the man’s defense in battle.

Of course, the exact course of events changed with each style and response, but the general flow more or less stayed the same each time.

“But why can he execute so many more moves than me in the same amount of time? It’s not like there’s a great difference in our speed, he should not be able to do that much with just a single step ahead.”

Now that she decided to work hard on her skills and polish her technique, the dragon was eager to learn as much as possible to diminish the amount of tricks she had to figure out on her own without guidance.

She had already fallen behind in time spent on practicing the [Imperial Swordplay], so it was in her best interest to take advantage of every single opportunity she could.

“You’re asking the right questions! I will tell you a little secret, it should answer your question.

Among the twelve styles of the [Imperial Swordplay], each move has a specific purpose, with the exception of one.”