Again!

"Again!"

Taking short, quick breaths of air, Ava glared at the middle-aged man in front of her and swung down with the sword in her left hand. To her dismay, for the nth time today, the sword was easily deflected with a quick parry by the middle-aged man in front of her, deflecting the force back towards her, forcing her to take a few steps back.

"Swap hands. Again!"

With a practiced motion, Ava swapped the sword into her right hand and stepped forward, and swung down again, to the same result.

The man in front of her was Kassidy Vhans. Wielding a ferocious large greatsword, he was a rather famous captain that had managed to make a name for himself in a few skirmishes against the bordering Sunvia Kingdom, but after an incident in which he had lost his right hand, he had been forced to retire in disgrace. Since then, his name has faded away, and it was hard to find many people who still recognized his name.

However, his moniker, Ghost Hand, was rather famous in the vicinity of Yarnold town. After leaving the military, Kassidy hadn't fallen into a slump. A warmonger and a natural fighter, he was unwilling to give up fighting after losing his right hand, much less leaving the military, and in the years after, he had been determined to regain his former glory. But how could it be so easy? Due to years of inadequate training alongside his more advanced age, he was never able to get his left hand as strong as his right hand, nor could he completely overcome the lack of balance and supporting strength he could obtain from having two hands and hence could never wield his greatsword in combat again.

But, unwilling to give up, he forged a bloody path through the slums and gray area of Yarnold Town, tempering himself on the edges of life and death and, in the process, having mastered an agile and unpredictable swordsmanship that was full of changes. Since that experience, his distinctive lack of a hand and the small unpredictable black shortsword he held in his left hand gained him the name Ghost Hand.

All this was to say that he was an individual of some repute in the local area and that by some means, the Madam had managed to convince him to train Ava, this runt of nine years old who was no more than four feet tall.

Seeing Ava's winded state, Kassidy shook his head and said, "We'll stop here." Then, without any further ado, he turned to leave the small training arena. But as soon as he turned his back, his calm expression shattered, and he quickly spun back while swinging the sword in his hand.

With a small spark of metal, the small dagger flying towards his back fell to the ground, deflected by the force of his swing.

Glaring at him, Ava lowered her raised left hand that was in a throwing position, and passed the sword from her right hand to her left. Lifting it up and swinging down, Ava grunted, "Again."

With an expressionless face, Kassidy deflected Ava's swing before mercilessly bashing the pommel of his sword into her face, knocking her to the ground. Taking two steps forward, Kassidy pointed the tip of his sword at Ava's neck, warning her not to move. "We'll stop here."

On the ground, Ava looked at the man in front of her and could only reluctantly nod in frustration.

Seeing Ava agree, Kassidy took the sword back and walked towards the exit, pausing as he was about to cross the threshold of the door. "We'll continue in an hour. Eat something."

Blinking, Ava stared at the doorway and couldn't help but let out a small smile before falling backward onto the floor and taking deep breaths of air.

The day before, she had met with the Madam, who had told her about some of the instructors she had contact with who might be willing to teach her. Ava had to admit she was somewhat disappointed with the overall quality. With the exception of archery, which she had no strong opinion about, with a glance, she could tell that the majority of the dagger instructors didn't know what they were doing based on their descriptions.

They were simply clowns preforming tricks. While it was true that they might have a foundation in dagger skills and had used it in a fight, Ava simply couldn't believe any of them had actually put their lives on the line with what they claimed their best skills were.

While it was true that the dagger could be used fancifully and with a flourish, that was for when you were using a dagger to cut an apple. Not when you were fighting. The dagger, like all other weapons, was designed to kill. Although it was possible to dance around the enemy and cut them down bit by bit, how many people were so stupid to give you the opportunity? With a short range and the blade of the dagger being so close to the hand against a halfway competent opponent with a longer-reach weapon, fighting extended battles was a joke.

While it was true, in theory, that she could move faster and safer when confronted with their lives, how many people would be unwilling to fight it out? If you went in for a shallow cut, if they leaned forward and embraced it in order to cut you back, who do you think would win?

If you managed to get past the range of someone who was using a spear or a sword, how many would be stubborn to the end and duel you with their weapon? Could they not simply punch you in the gut or even try to hug you? What would you do then?

In the end, with some reluctance, Ava simply chose an instructor who apparently had some skill in throwing knives. Although it wasn't quite what she was looking for when she asked to learn dagger skills, at the very least, it was better than the two other clowns who claimed to have fought in arenas or to have 'figured out an advanced skill.'

Thinking about it, Ava realized with some reluctance that anyone who had enough ability with a knife or dagger that they had lived to this day was probably also not someone who was willing to teach.

As for learning how to use a sword… Although it wasn't quite as bad as daggers, as swords were often a standard piece of equipment for soldiers, the majority of the instructors could still only be considered average. Although they might have been somewhat impressive at their peak, from what she could see, they had long since declined and could only show off the most barebone skeletons of sword usage. It made sense, after all, how many people were willing to teach how to use a weapon if they hadn't already retired? But at the same time, she was somewhat unwilling to waste her time.

But then the Madam had mentioned Ghost Hand, who happened to owe her a favor. Unfortunately, the favor couldn't be considered a large one, so the Madam had mentioned that if Ghost Hand was really unwilling to teach her, there was nothing she could really do about it.

Having met the man, Ava could only say that she thought he was worth learning from.

Taking a few more breaths, Ava pushed herself off of the ground and started walking around the training ground.

Although lying down felt nice, if she continued to lie down, it was possible she wouldn't be able to move by the end of the hour as her muscles tensed up. It was better to keep moving.