A Montage Would Hurt Less

"So, how does this work?" John asked. "Is it going to be one of those things where you beat the snot out of me over and over again until I have some moment of insight and figure out how to perfectly counter your signature attack?"

"I think you watch too many movies," Adelle sighed.

"Anime, mostly, thank you very much," John corrected with a smirk.

"What is ani-"

"Chatting later, training now," Erica cut through the talk with a thump of her axe's head on the packed earth. "And no, this is not about me beating you senseless, this is about teaching you how to hold a weapon and plant your feet so you don't get a two-for-one deal on limb removal the second something angrier than a raccoon looks your way."

"Dame Carpenter, I'm sorry, but practicing the fundamentals is not why I am here," Adelle protested. "I can't improve this way. Is there not enough time for individual lessons?

"Maybe." Erica frowned. "But if you still think you have nothing to gain from practicing the basics, then we are going to spend the next week doing exactly that."

"But Erica, I've been training my swordsmanship for years!" Adelle was stunned, almost insulted. "I've drilled myself on the fundamental stances and strikes so many times I can perform them in my sleep. What possible benefit is there to wasting an entire week like this?"

John remained silent during the exchange, for once not because he felt pressed into silence, but because he had no idea what to do or say. He fidgeted, suddenly and acutely aware of the fact that he didn't even know how to hold his posture. And yet, for all his anxiety, the situation was almost comforting. It was familiar, a feeling he had felt a thousand times and more, a mundane experience amidst a storm of frightening witches, overbearing knights, manipulative demons, and horny lizards. It wasn't pleasant, not even a little, but it was grounding.

"Okay then, prove it." Erica leaned on her axe and tilted her head, smug. To John's surprise, she remained remarkably casual. If Moira had been the recipient of that kind of outburst, her rebuke would have driven Adelle into the ground. "What's the first rule of combat?"

"Never let your guard down." Adelle snapped to attention.

"Close." Erica shifted her attention to her other student. "What about you, John?"

"Uh, kill the other guy before he kills you?" John shrugged.

"Not a bad rule, but not the first. You're both missing the big picture." Erica shook her head. "Guess that's on me, Dell. I'm sorry, I should’ve hammered this into your head sooner. I could've gotten you killed."

"I… appreciate your concern, truly," Adelle's eyebrows furrowed. "But I have never once felt like you have put me in any real danger."

Erica closed her eyes and took a deep breath. For all the wild and untamed nature her appearance suggested, there was a surprisingly somber aura about her, one tinged faintly with regret. The courtyard seemed to fall completely silent when her eyes opened again, clear and sharp as crystal.

"See? That's just what I mean," she said. "I want you to listen very closely, because this is the most important lesson I've ever learned. You have to promise me that you'll take this seriously, okay? I'm not kidding, this is the real deal."

Erica took it in turns to make eye contact with both of her students as they nodded their assent. John felt a knot form in his stomach as he did, but tried to shove the thought away and focus. There was something about how Erica spoke, direct and honest in a way that no one in the Abyss had shown him so far. Even knowing her for only a few minutes, he felt not just that he could trust Erica, but that he should.

"Alright, here it is," she began. "Every fight is a fight for survival. Every. Fight. No matter how small the battle, no matter how weak you think your opponent is, you're putting your life on the line every single time. No amount of training or practice can really teach you what that feels like, but once you know it, hang on to it. If you ever forget it, even for a second, you'll have given your enemy the biggest advantage they can get, and they will use it."

John made certain to etch every word into his memory, driven by their gravity. Erica's words brought him back to the tent where he fought Lazakall, to the moment he realized that he was going to die. Just reliving that moment sent the tingle of adrenaline through his fingertips. Something about it must have drawn Erica's attention, because her eyes snapped to his.

"He gets it," Erica said. She stepped closer to John, looking him over with a mixture of surprise and concern. "You know what I'm talking about, don't you?"

"I… think I do."

"Moira told me you're as green as they get," Erica said, concern evident on her face. "This isn't the kinda stuff ordinary folk should be seeing. You've had it pretty rough, huh?"

A tangled web of painful memories fell over John, of flying fists and arm locks from a half dozen different schoolyard tormentors.

"Not really, no," he lied. "I just made a Barrier yesterday and kinda sorta went into it underequipped. I forgot a few essentials, like... everything."

Although his school life wasn't pleasant, being the lowest rung on the social totem pole didn't compare to paralyzing terror of facing his own mortality. After yesterday, it felt wrong to call his life 'rough' in front of two trained warriors.

"A Way-Opener, huh?" Erica's eyebrows rose. "I'm impressed."

"A Way-what now?" John's lips pulled tight as he searched his memory for any use of the term.

"She means someone who can open Barriers," Adelle leaned in, whispering less than subtly. "Erica sometimes uses strange Norse terms for things. It confused me at first too."

"Sue me for respecting tradition." Erica rolled her eyes, flippant but amused. "Whatever you want to call it, it's surprising."

"You must have a, ah…" Adelle trailed off as she searched for the proper English word, "-knack for Barrier creation. It takes most mages weeks to make even a simple one. You're very lucky."

"I guess I'm just a fast learner?" John shrugged and offered a sheepish grin.

Or I just sucked a book into my brain, but no one needs to know that.

"It's true, not just anyone can make one, myself included," Erica admitted without the slightest loss of confidence. "But jerking ourselves off aside…"

-2 hp

"Ow!" John recoiled as the butt end of Erica's axe bounced off his skull. He backed up and shielded his head from further **** with his arms.

"Don't do that again, dumbass!" Erica lifted her axe again, as if to strike him again. "I'm glad you got out fine, but that might've been the dumbest thing I've ever heard a new mage do, and I’ve known a lot of stupid people."

"Yeah, I get that now, thanks for the tip," John complained. He lowered his guard when Erica withdrew her weapon. "I made do with the stuff I found inside. Next time I'll be more prepared, I promise."

"Cool." Erica nodded. "And it's good to know you're not a combat virgin. What kind of weapons did you scrounge up? We can start there."

"Uh, a spear and some knives," John said, "nothing fancy. I broke the spear, actually. It was kind of crap."

"That's fine, you're not going to train with live steel anyway," Erica said, tapping her axe. "We use wooden replicas now. It's really cut down on all the accidental homicides."

"They're enchanted," Adelle cut in. "The training weapons won't pierce skin, break bones, or pop your insides, but they hurt as much as the real thing."

"So you guys were just stabbing each other to **** until recently?" John gulped. Erica flashed a smile in response.

"It was a joke, dude, keep up!" she said as she turned and headed the circle's perimeter. Erica stepped on what had seemed to be an errant stone and a large weapon rack rose from the ground without disturbing any of the soil around it. She ran her fingertips along the shafts of all manner of weapons, casually browsing until she found what she was looking for. She grabbed it with both hands and tossed it to John, sideways. "Here, catch."

John made an attempt to catch the wooden pole Erica had thrown his way, he really did. It was not a good attempt, but it was an attempt all the same, and something John felt should be taken into consideration as he fumbled it in the useless foam noodles he called arms.

"Wow, we've got a real Gunnar on our hands here," Erica sighed.

"For the record," John said as he knelt to pick up the spear and the scraps of his pride, "I have no idea who or what that is."

"He is a folk hero," Adelle clarified, "like Siegfried."

"Siegfried? From Soul Calibur?"

"Soul-what?"

"Just pick up the weapon and show me your best impression of a combat stance." Erica rubbed her forehead. "Dell, remind me to teach you about the wonders of modern entertainment sometime."

Adelle blushed at that, but simply nodded her head in response. John, meanwhile, adopted what he believed to be passable positioning. It occurred to him that his usage of the weapon was always panicked and improvised, only ever successful when paired with surprise tactics, so he did his best to copy the way the Kobolds had held their spears while on guard.

"Okay, not bad for a rookie," Erica said. "Not great, but not bad either. It's a good weapon for you. You're tall, straighten your spine and use that. If you're quick enough, you should be able to keep your enemies out of range."

"Yeah, okay. That makes sense," John agreed. His thoughts went back to Soul Calibur, and fighting games in general. He wasn't a pro, but he was familiar enough with 'zoning' to recognize that what Erica was talking about matched the concept. If he could do it in a game, and his life was a game now, it followed that he could do it in real life.

Right?

John listened to a few more pointers while Erica manually adjusted his posture into something that felt steadier but less comfortable, with the tip of his weapon pointed down. He also did his best not to focus on how close she was or how much skin she showed, and mostly succeeded. He had never before been so casually touched by a girl- one who didn't want to use him for sex, that was. It was pleasant and frustrating at once, tinged with the disgrace of knowing how little appeal he must have to be 18 and blushing at the mere touch of a woman. Erica made no response; she either didn't notice or didn't care.

"Alright, good." She stood back and admired her handiwork. "Dell?"

"Yes, Dame Carpenter?" she asked, attentive and eager.

"Get 'em."

"Wait, wha-"

-2 hp

John hadn't been paying any attention to Adelle and it was too late to start. She rushed in with a wooden longsword in hand and was past the tip of his weapon before he could react. He felt her blade impact his inner thigh in the very next instant. The pain and the **** of the blow was enough to take his leg out from under him, rather than off entirely if the sword were real, and he dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Adelle smiled, clearly pleased with herself, and Erica was laughing as she bent down to lend John a hand up.

"Gotta do a little better than that, dude," she said, pulling him to his feet with surprising ease. "Get your head together, 'cause I'm gonna send her at you again."

"Super," John groaned. He shook his head clear and fell back into position.

"Dell, thrust from Pflug."

Adelle adopted a two-handed combat stance with one foot forward and the grip of her longsword close to her waist. The tip of her weapon remained pointed squarely at John's head even as she edged closer to test his guard. He had the advantage of knowing she was going to thrust, but felt exposed with the business end of his weapon held so low. His attempt to raise it in anticipation for Adelle's strike was exactly the cue she was looking for, however. She ignored the polearm entirely, lunging with snakelike quickness and flawless conservation of motion. Not a muscle in Adelle's body twitched for anything but to drive the point of her practice blade into John's chest and send hm reeling backwards.

-2 hp

"At least you tried." Erica shrugged. "Remember, keep her away. You were doomed as soon as you let her get so close."

"To be honest, I think he was doomed the moment he picked up the spear," Adelle added with remarkably dry bluntness.

"Play nice, Dell," was all Erica offered by way of reprimand, smirking. She exchanged nods with John to ensure he was ready before calling out, "Again!"

John wasn't sure what stung more, the bruise on his sternum or the fact that his training partner was already making fun of him. Why did Moira match him with someone who apparently had real experience? Was it some way to convince him that the Abyss was too much to handle? If she suspected that to work, she was dead wrong, but then again, she didn't know that John was the type to throw himself at a boss a thousand times, a thousand ways before giving up. Speaking of, he had a real life Mini-Boss approaching with weapon in hand and intent to strike.

This time, John tried to keep Erica's advice in mind and retreated from Adelle's advance while he thought of what to do. Simply changing his stance didn't help last time, but what if he pressed the attack while he did? A rising thrust at her unguarded leg would **** her to respond, either to retreat or parry. He'd have to deal with whatever came next, but he would at least be on a level playing field. He resolved his will and struck. In response, Adelle kicked her leg back and pivoted on her toes with a dancer's grace, twirling one full rotation counter-clockwise and out of the path of John's spear. Her sword rose in time with her movements, passing behind her so that it remained between her and John at all times. By the time John even realized what was happening, Adelle was firmly inside his guard with her sword held high and back, poised for a deadly chop that he was helpless to avoid.

-3 hp

The attempts continued with varying levels of failure until John was sore all over and short of breath. He had come close a few times, but not once did he succeed in landing a blow on Adelle. Schoolyard shame had started to seep through the walls of John's mind and clouded his judgement. The last thing he wanted was to lose his cool and do something stupid in front of the girls.

"Erica," he panted, "can we swap? Have me attack her? I know I haven't actually blocked yet, but I feel like I'm hitting a wall and I need to do something different."

"Yeah, sure, why not?" she answered, unperturbed in the slightest by John's constant failure. Coach Conroy would have dismissed John as a lost cause and sent him to run laps half an hour ago, but Erica remained as cavalier as ever. "Dell, defend in Alber. Give her your best shot, dude."

Adelle had remained mostly silent through their training and she remained so as she took on the new guard. Her sword was low and pointed down, with her arms mostly straight and torso leaned slightly forward. As far as John could tell, the stance completely exposed Adelle's torso to attack, there was no way she could lift the tip of her blade fast enough to parry his thrust. Erica had given John a gift in ordering her into that stance and he was not too proud to accept it. He lunged, aiming for his opponent's heart.

As John predicted, Adelle did not try to angle her weapon higher. Unfortunately for him, it was because she did not have to. Instead, her back foot came forward and she raised the sword's hilt, so that the base of the blade met the shaft of John's spear. She barely resisted him, flowing like water and crossing the other foot behind the first to twist her torso out of harm's way. His weapon missed by a hair's breadth, and the utter lack of impact had John helpless to his own momentum. The pommel of Adelle's sword clocked him on the back of the head as she spun to correct her footing, driving John to stumble and fall. His vision cleared as he struggled to right himself, only to meet the tip of Adelle's blade held to his throat and the selfsure smile on her face.

-2 hp

"Alber is also known as the 'Fool's Guard,'" she explained, looking down on John in more ways than one. "It goads your opponent into believing you have left yourself open and invites them to attack how you want them to." She withdrew her sword and offered John a hand up. He ruefully accepted it. "You fell for it, but you had no way of knowing not to."

"And that's an important lesson: not everything is as it seems." John nearly fell again as Erica dumped her weight on his shoulder with one arm, alarmingly close. "Don't forget it."

"Cool," John sighed. "Any other tricks you wanna pull on me? I think you might still be able to drive how shit I am at this a couple more inches into my skull before my brain deflates."

"Dozens." Erica grinned. "But you're not useless, dude, you're new. You'll learn, trust me."

"If you say so," John replied. If he was being honest with himself, he wanted to be sullen and pessimistic, but Erica's belief in him wouldn't allow him to be. She had a strange way of raising his spirits. "I did learn one thing, at least."

"What's that?"

"Fuck this thing." John tossed his spear to the side like yesterday's trash. "Get me a sword."

---

John's efforts with a sword felt more rewarding than with the spear. He was still getting his ass pounded into the dirt, but he actually felt like he was learning something. The size and weight felt better to him, more maneuverable and adaptable. Better still was the fact that he had actually scored a solid hit on Adelle. Tragically, she had hit him at the same time. Erica deemed it a failure on the grounds that, while his opponent was dead, so was he, and dying was not succeeding. Either way, weapons training had become exhilarating in a way that no other form of exercise ever was.

"At this rate, I think I might be able to win an exchange sometime this month!" John shouted after another brief bout. "Maybe in a year I can even kill a Kobold in a straight fight without screaming in terror!"

"Erica, I believe John has begun to succumb to some sort of head injury," Adelle said, faking concern. "He seems to be enjoying being beaten."

"Kinky," Erica said with an unabashedly suggestive smirk.

"That is not what I meant!" Adelle dropped her posture to hold her hand over her mouth, cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

"Relax," John chimed in. "I think I've just gotten to the point where I've lost so many times that I've accepted that this is my life now, and I have to earn satisfaction from almost winning instead of actually winning."

"That… does not make sense."

John rolled his eyes. If he had learned anything about Adelle through all this, it was that she had a sorely underdeveloped sense of humor.

"Just attack me again, would ya?"

Bewildered, Adelle looked to Erica for instruction. The Berserker flicked her wrist as a dismissive 'Go ahead' and crossed her arms, content to observe. Her student followed orders, raised her guard, and advanced.

To John's credit, he was no longer going down after one blow. He successfully diverted a few would-be lethal strikes, but for the most part relied on evading them, as he had quickly learned that Adelle was stronger than him. The problem was that, despite his ability to defend, John was never able to turn the momentum of the fight around once she had gotten the upper hand on him. The current bout was no exception.

"Hey, Adelle?" John said between clashes. He was currently backpedalling from a series of attacks as Adelle transitioned from guard to guard, offering him no opportunity to counter. "You don't think you could maybe just let me win one, huh?"

She replied with her sword; it swung down from on high with brutal ****. Already off balance, John had **** but to brace his blade with his off-hand and hold it over his head, crossed with to hers. It worked, Adelle's sword bounced off his, but she brought it down again in the exact spot with even greater fervor, dead center between John's hands. It drove him to one knee, but he held long enough to endure a third and final blow. A sharp CRACK rang through the courtyard as Adelle's weapon broke John's clean in half and continued on to his forehead.

-4 hp

"Jesus FUCK, OW!" John dropped the broken pieces of his practice sword and clutched his head- as if it would help the pain any. His vision was all stars and glitter, pulsing with the throbbing pain radiating from the point of impact. He wasn't even sure if he was still kneeling or on the ground.

"Don't see that everyday," Erica remarked. She approached to kneel beside John.

"I'm sorry!" Adelle's worry came through with her words. "Is he okay?"

"Dunno." Erica supported John's head with one hand and waved the other in front of his eyes. "You good, dude?"

"Peachy," he replied in a daze. He didn't sound great, but Gamer's Body was already working to bring him back to normal clarity. "You shoulda warned me that the real world had unblockable attacks."

"He's fine." Erica laughed and helped drag the befuddled gamer up to his feet. "But I think we're done for today. Good work, guys."

"Hang on." John shook the lingering effects of the blow off and pulled himself away from Erica. "I want one more go."

She shot him an incredulous look.

"Dude, your sword's broke."

"No," he said, kneeling to retrieve the broken halves. He remembered how Lazakall had jammed the broken spear into his calf yesterday, and it gave him an idea. "My sword is knives."

"John." Adelle looked him over, still obviously concerned for his well being. "I do not think that was a proper English sentence. It makes even less sense than what you said before."

"Not to you, maybe, but it does to me," John said. He flexed his wrists and hopped from one foot to the other to show he was still in fighting form. "C'mon, coach, put me in. Give me one last shot."

"I wouldn't recommend it…" Erica replied, hesitant. She eyed John and his improvised weapons with a furrowed brow. "You sure about this?"

"Totally." He nodded. "What's the worst that can happen?"

John's sudden confidence had to have gotten to Erica, because her consternation gave way to intrigue. She backed off to give her students some space.

"Alright, you win," she said. "One more fight. Dell, I want to see you defend in True Cross."

The two young ladies nodded in silent understanding, and Adelle fell back into the calm she had shown during all their previous matches. She took up her assigned guard as John figured out his. He wasn't able to translate anything he had learned so far directly, none of the stances suited the use of two individual weapons, so he did his best to implement the basics. He bent his knees, offset his feet, and reduced his profile as much as he could. After a moment, he decided to hold his faux knives as opposite from each other as he could; the left was forward, low, and aimed across his body while the right was high, back, and pointed towards Adelle. He nodded and began a slow approach.

The first thing he noticed was how odd Adelle's form was, she had never used anything like it up until this point. She was slightly hunched and turned almost entirely away from John, staring at him from over her right shoulder. Her sword, likewise, was nowhere near at the ready, held almost like a samurai would a katana before drawing it, even including the hand holding it about halfway down its length. It perplexed John enough to halt his advance. The brief moment of hesitation was enough for him to realize…

...This is like Alber. Erica isn't trying to make Adelle go easy on me, she's checking to see if I learned anything. If I just run in, Adelle will pull some fancy move and drop me in a second. So, how do I get close without provoking a preemptive counter?

Adelle tensed as John got closer, but he was still out of her range, let alone anywhere near close enough to stab her. Without warning, John let out a shout and swung his right leg forward in a long step. Simultaneously, he flung the chunk of wood in his right hand directly at the German girl's face. Unsurprisingly, she pivoted her foreleg back and began to bring her blade to bear, but the flying weapon caught her by surprise and the sudden twist to avoid it threw off her footing. John was lunging with his other foot even as the weapon sailed past her eyes, using his height advantage to sneak into range and jab his remaining knife into Adelle's gut.

"Scheiße!"

"YES!"

John was elated, his plan had actually worked! He only needed to remember what yesterday had taught him: fight dirty.

"No, that cannot count. He cheated!"

Erica was beaming as she walked over, even though she was shaking her head at Adelle.

"There's no cheating in combat, Dell. There's only surviving." She turned to John and planted a firm hand on his back. "Nice work, dude."

John blushed. He wasn't ashamed or flustered, he simply didn't know how else to respond to earnest praise.

"Thanks."