Grounding Lesson

"You're here again, young Leo," a stocky man greeted when he was lifting some weights when he noticed Leo entering. The lumbering weights would make anyone look in amazement of his strength. He slowly left the weights down, the firm ripples of his arms tensed and let out a large breath to relax.

"Hello, Edward," Leo greeted back. He went to the lockers and sorted his belongings from his bag. Edward, the one working in Arthur's office is also the owner of this gym. He often worked out after work and to interact with his patrons.

"You have been coming here quite often lately. What brings this new dedication inside of you?" Edward asked as he was wiping the sweat off his face.

"Uh, well.... There's the sports festival coming soon and I'm competing in the sword event so I need to train," he replied. He had started to train even before the festival. He left out the part of the incident with Damian and Dexter. He felt so powerless to help his friends, he needs to change himself after being negligent and skipping practice for so long.

"I see. You can use one of the private rooms towards the back. Here, the keys," Edward flung the key to Leo which he caught easily.

"Oh right, I forgot to ask. I have been stuck in a bottleneck for some time now. I was wondering if you could give me some guidance." Leo learned sword fighting from Arthur but with his strange disappearance, he did not have anyone to teach him.

"Uh... I'm sorry, young Leo. I don't think I could give you any guidance. Swords are not my strong suit you see, perhaps at most my understanding is still at an amateurish level. I think I could try to ask some of the other patrons if they knew any."

The country still practiced some traditional ancient practices that dates a few hundred years ago. It was the norm and pride of some families with their past lineage of knights or nobility to practice some form of a fighting style. Over the years when feudalism died out and the country became a republic, such traditions such as sword fighting usually reserved to the upper class or the military spread to the populace as a popular form of sport.

Suddenly Edward hammered his fist on his palm as he remembered something. "Now when you mention it, I remember someone else who does sword fighting at quite a decent level that comes once in a while. I could ask her if she comes one of these days."

As he finished his words, someone entered. "Can I have one of the usual rooms?"

"Oh yes. Of course," Edward bellowed to the new customer. "Oh, there she is. Perfect timing."

He went out to the entrance for a few minutes to meet the person he talked about. Leo could hear some murmurs but can't really capture their conversations.

"So, yes. I hope you can guide him on your experiences and knowledge," he guided the person inside. Soon, the person came into view.

"Eh, Sylvia?" Leo recognised the person. She tied her hair back into a ponytail and wore a tracksuit. She carried something long wrapped in a white cloth slung on her shoulder.

"Oh it's you," Sylvia replied. She did not seem surprised at all. She could roughly guess since the gym was in close proximity to the place where they lived. Even sword fighting was starting to grow in popularity, the number of people participated in it is still small in numbers.

"Ah, both of you knew each other. Excellent. We do not have to do any introductions now, don't we?"

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The room was roughly ten metres by ten metres, the floor covered in soft padding. Originally part of a larger hall, it was segmented by removable screens into smaller private rooms. When necessary, the screens can be removed to enable activities that require larger spaces.

"Well, let's test what you know first," Sylvia unwrapped the white cloth and brought out a wooden sword. It looked ordinary without any ornamentations but it certainly held significant value to her. There were plenty of chipped and bumped parts which proved the countless hours of practice she had with it.

Leo took one of the two-handed swords from the rack after a brief contemplation. They warmed up by doing some stretches and light exercises before entering the room. They also wore padded armour to protect themselves from injuries in case any accidents happen.

Sylvia raised her sword with her right hand in a relaxed manner. "Come at me."

Leo approached cautiously before unleashing a side slash but she countered with the same slash at him. The force of her strike smashed into his blade, pushing it until it almost reached his neck. After barely managing to stop the strike, he retreated backwards away from her attack range.

He looked into his hands, still shaking from the weight of her counter attack. She overpowered him easily even though he was using a two-handed sword.

'That was close,' he thought. He was glad to be cautious in facing her and used some restraints. However, a part of him held back too because he did not want to hurt her.

"What's the problem? I feel some doubt in your strike," Sylvia asked while swinging her sword in a few circular motions. "In battle, there is no room for doubt. You fight with all your being in it. Put your convictions behind your attacks."

"Come at me again," she commanded.

Leo obliged, raised his sword over his head and did a quick but heavy overcut. She skillfully deflected it by sliding her sword through his. Without a moment to rest, she closed the gap before turning for a counter attack using her more agile single handed sword.

Leo had foreseen this and pushed even closer, forcing both of them to lock swords and into the defensive.

Sylvia grinned and commended him. "Not bad, a nice quick move."

Out of the blue, she pushed forward causing Leo to move a few steps backwards to regain his footing but he felt something blocking his leg. He looked down briefly to see what happened.

'She blocked my foot with her leg! Wait, oh no!' He soon realised that he was distracted, a major mistake.

"I don't think you have the liberty to avert your gaze from me," she whispered. By the time he looked back up, she had already shoved him back. With his unstable footing, he crashed onto the padded flooring.

"Bravo, an excellent spar," Edward praised from the sidelines. He had been watching the entire display in youthful enthusiasm.

"Ow." Leo groaned. Despite the dampened fall, it still hurt a little.

"Still continuing?" She asked, extending her hand to help him up.

Leo smiled and took her hand. He had found someone to teach him.

"Of course!"