The Lesson - Part 3

As she held her poleaxe and rubbed her arm, she watched as her new instructor just looked at her, as if she was waiting for her to do something.

"Does she think I'm going to just lash out because of what she did? Is this some sort of test?" She wondered. Granted, she was still annoyed by what she did, but that didn't mean she was going to just rage out and blindly swing her pole axe at her.

Recalling the event, Sylvia's actions suddenly popped into her head. She had a feeling as to why she shook her head at that time, but she had to be sure.

Making her way over to Sylvia, all the while keeping her eyes on Althea she managed to slither next to her and started her inquiries.

"You knew she was going to do that didn't you."

"Wha- why, why would you think that."

"I saw you shake your head when I handed my weapon over."

"Oh, because of that. Yeah…I knew. I've heard a few things about her from the other soldiers and knights. They always spoke about her teaching technique, a lot of it involving hitting people when they weren't looking or teaching them a lesson. One knight mentioned what just happened to you as what happened to him"

Octavia could only just stare at her.

"Well, thanks for telling me before it happened." She said as she shook her head.

"Sorry, but it's a good lesson to learn. Besides I don't want to get on her bad side by interrupting her teaching." Sylvia replied as she slowly rubbed Octavia's arm trying to ease the pain. Her action ended up helping drastically as all her brain could think about was her stroking her arm instead of the pain.

She did this for several strokes until a bright red blush formed on Sylvia's as if she had only just realised what she had been doing.

"I err, does it still hurt?" Sylvia asked in a quiet tone.

"No… it's not so bad now."

"G-good."

"Hey, are we going to continue your lesson or what?" Althea, who had just been standing there resting on her halberd shouted out to the two of them, with an annoyed look on her face.

"You best get back in there. Be careful. She's a very good fighter and a hard taskmaster, so I'm sure you will learn a lot. But because of how she is, everyone is too afraid to train with her."

"Ok, here I go," Octavia said as she slowly made her way back over to where she stood before.

"Well… at least you didn't let your anger take control of you. That's lesson two. No matter what is done to you, if you let your anger take over you stop thinking straight, which normally means either yourself or someone you care about ends up getting hurt."

It made sense to Octavia. While she had no combat experience, the many films she had seen did give her some insight into how things worked in a fight and letting the red mist descend, never ended well.

"Now I think it's about time we got onto sparing to see what you can do. But first, what were you talking to your lover about?"

"What- My wha- I." Embarrassment hit Octavia hard, turning her green face bright red as she quickly turned to look at Sylvia. She saw the same thing happen to her, as she just stared down at the ground while she turned into a tomato.

What didn't help with the embarrassment was the blow to her other arm from the blunt end of Althea's Halberd. While it didn't knock her down like the first time, the force of it did push her to the side slightly, sliding her tail across the dirt.

"Ahh"

"Oh this is just too easy. Lesson three. Never let anything distract you on the battlefield. Being distracted by something could mean the difference between life and death. Now, just calm down, would you? It was only a joke."

"Err, yes….A joke." Octavia was able to get out slowly, still burning up from the thought of it.

"Of course, it's a joke, I mean nothing has happened between us yet and why would it? I mean-", Octavia's thoughts rambled on as she tried to comprehend the idea of it.

This went on for a few seconds, but she ended up stopping herself, knowing that she couldn't let it affect her any longer, lest this evil woman uses her distractedness to hit her again. So, she stood tall, and only thought about how she would beat this woman.

While this was training for her and it was very likely that Althea outclassed her, she needed to beat her. She needed to wipe that smug smirk off her face somehow. Or at least try to anyway.

"Good, good. All better now yeah. Right, let's actually get to that sparing." Althea said as she moved over to the nearby weapons and armour rack. She very quickly took off her plate armour and switched it out for something a bit more flexible, wearing what Octavia assumed was armour scouts wore. It was mainly leather but had some metal across different regions of her body. It being mainly for flexibility and movement, she was no longer fully covered as the plate armour had. She also deposited her halberd before taking up just a wooden staff.

"Just to make sure I don't hurt you too badly. Wouldn't want the guest of honour to lose an arm now would we."

Octavia so wanted to retort and say, "who's to say it won't be you losing the arm", but she had a feeling Althea would manage to fire something back at her with ease.

Moving closer together, Althea just stood still near the centre of the training grounds, holding the wooden staff with one hand.

Octavia did not like the look of this. The confidence and the relaxed look she had, showed that she was not at all worried about this sparing match at all. While it did bruise Octavia's ego a little, she half expected this, but that didn't mean she wouldn't try her hardest.

Slithering over to her, she held her Poleaxe with both hands and took an opening swing.

*Thunk*

Which was very easily blocked by Althea's staff.

"I hope you can do more than that."

Her comment while annoying was quickly pushed to the side as she took lessons two and three to heart.

Pulling back, she turned it around and swung to Althea's right, but that too was blocked. She realised the only way to have a chance at beating her was to try and be smart about things.

Pulling back she then went to attack with an overhead strike, but as she expected Althea managed to get her block in place quickly, but this didn't deter Octavia. She pulled down with all her might, catching the pole and causing Althea's arms and the staff to drop slightly. While it did manage to move her a bit, the real aim was to use the spike at the bottom end of her pole axe and go for one of her feet as she pulled down.

*crunch*

But Althea managed to move her foot in time, causing the spike to just slide into the dirt.

She was annoyed but realised that now with Althea's block lowered and the head of her weapon on the other side of it, she could push forward, sending the spike at the head straight into the girl's face.

As this happened, Althea's facial expression did all of a sudden change to startled, but it returned to normal as quickly as it came. With just a quick tilt of her head, the head of her weapon went past, missing its target.

But this let her use the move she came up with when she first got her weapon.

*Scrape*

She pulled back with all her might, and while she didn't knock her out, it would seem Althea had not expected this attack and so did not move quickly enough. The side of her axe head ended up scraping against her skin as it slid past. It wasn't close enough to draw blood, but the ripped skin showed that she did touch her.

Althea put her hand to her face and all but nodded to Octavia.

"Nicely done. Not many ever manage to touch me at all. But don't think this means much. All I've been doing is defending from the same position this whole time. Now let's go again."

"…"

Octavia was worried after hearing that.

…

Going in for the next fight, she swung and swung to the best of her ability. She tried to use the same moves as before, even on different parts of her body, but she could not get another hit in like before. She even tried to use feints, but with only the knowledge from TV as her guide, these made no difference.

By this point, Althea had started to move around now. She was still just on the defensive, but actively moving around the area and using this as an opportunity to dodge attacks more so that block them.

Octavia was able to keep up with her, her slithering speed has improved greatly since she first arrived in this world, but that didn't help when your opponent moved like they were a gymnast. While she wasn't doing flips in the air or anything, Althea was able to duck and weave around her strikes with ease, jump over them and even roll right out of the way of them.

Octavia knew she had to bring out the big guns.

It wasn't that she had forgotten to use her tail, but that she saw this as an opportunity to learn how to use her pole axe. Bringing her tail into the mix just seemed like it would muddy the lesson. But there was only so much she could take and from all her knowledge, many films taught the lesson of using everything at your disposal when fighting for your life. Not that that was the case here though, but still.

She got to work trying to catch her out. Taking another swing, she watched as Althea dodged to the side, only having to dodge again as her tail came flying around and almost catching her across her chest.

"I was wondering when you would start to use that. But if that's the case, then I think we need to make this a proper sparing match.

*gulp*

…

Octavia really wished she hadn't started using her tail. It was clear Althea was by no means putting all her skill and effort into the fight. But now, Octavia was currently stuck on the defensive since she changed to actively attacking her.

She tried to get some swings in, but with Althea's skill, she was able to bat her weapon away and follow up with a hit somewhere on her body.

As they fought, each hit from Althea on Octavia was followed by an "Ooh" or an "Ahh", from both herself and from Sylvia as she could practically feel her pain as she watched the match. The hits were by no means done with a massive amount of force, they were more or less just taps on her body, but with the amount she had accumulated, it only increase the pain for every new one she received. She was going to be sore in the morning

As she was pushed back and back, even the use of her tail failed to improve things. She had tried to hit Althea with it many times, even trying to grab hold of her a few times, but by now, Althea knew every which way she would attack from and could defend against it with ease.

You would have thought that by now, Octavia should have been able to learn from Althea's strikes and anticipate them as well, but while she could block some, it seemed like every attack was different from all the previous ones.

Getting beaten and bruised, there wasn't much more she could take of this, as even her short cries of pain had become louder. As Octavia struggled to do anything against this woman, Althea decided to finish the fight and swung at Olivia much harder than she had done before, knocking her to the ground.

Octavia fell and landed in the dirt. She had no strength in her to even try and stand up. All she could do was watch as Althea strode over to her and stood by her head, and look down at her.

"Well, I must say you fought well. For someone with no combat experience, you did manage to land a hit on me, lucky it may be. I could see the ferocity in your eyes when you fought me, showing your need to beat me and I haven't seen that for quite some time. I knew you would be an interesting student. It was just a shame that quickly diminished when I went on the attack, but your loss was a forgone conclusion. Now, you stay there and try not to replay your crushing defeat in your head as you rest, ok."

Oh, Octavia was not having that. Obeying lesson two while in the fight was all well and good, but as she lay there battered and bruised, she let the anger take over and ended up using the last trick up her sleeve.

*bite*

"Ow. Did you just bite me?"

With her standing right over her, Althea's ankle was in plain view. While she did have her armour on, this was one of the spots that were open to the elements. So that was exactly where she aimed for. The gap between her boot and her leg armour.

"I know you are frustrated, but biting someone is just plain-"

"…"

"…"

*crash*

The sound of Althea's leather and metal armour hitting the ground was music to her ears, helping her to drift off and get that much-needed rest.