Chapter 30: On and On and On and...

"Damn! Forgot to turn on sparring." Acting like the spin counter he just performed was nothing, Godspeed distressed over missing another important step in his training regiment.

"Here, accept this request."

[Godspeed has sent you a sparring request.]

[Do you accept? {Yes or No}]

"Uh... yeah."

'Is he really going to skip over what he just did?'

Once the spar was accepted, Godspeed's name returned to white.

"Okay. Now, as I was saying," he continued. "Those three moves were enough for me to gauge your skill. In Satisfy, we call this 'Control.' Control is how well you perform in all aspects of battle, whether it being skill deployment, resource management, offense and defense, and most importantly---in my opinion, anyways--- prediction.

Now the first thing that I've noticed about you in battle is your attacks."

'No shit. That's all I did.' She couldn't help but state the obvious.

"Your wind up is too big, and so is radius. You swing your weapon from one side of your body all the way to the other. This is a waste for multiple reasons. #1, is that it's predictable when your start winding your sword back--- you don't want to be predictable when you're fighting, unless you want to die.

#2: You're wasting your energy. I heard you muttering earlier about how your stamina was depleted..."

'Ah.' He wasn't supposed to hear that.

"... and that can be directly correlated to fighting as well. If you don't control your movements, then you'll waste yourself a way in a battle that lasts longer than 10 minutes, which, believe me: It's going to happen a lot from here on out.

3rd. You're allowing your enemy to move about. When fighting, you should be restricting your opponent, keeping them from having a variety of choices. When we were fighting, I was able to get away because of the telegraphed signs and the wide sweeps. If someone really wanted, they could defeat you with just one move to be honest.

You have to press on your opponent when fighting, to be frank. And to do that, you have to clean up your movements, and swing and strike only at the most efficient distances and times. You can't just go berserk. You have to keep your attacks short, but efficient: So you can follow them up quickly, or to defend yourself quickly. But with the control you have now, that seems impossible.

To increase your control, we will be starting from the basics. You are going to be sparring with me for the whole day with your sword, and if I see an imperfect movement, I will strike. Do not blame me if you die.

Staying alive throughout all of today will be a plus for you. If you can't do that, then we have a lo~ng journey ahead of us. We need to increase your strength, and this is..."

The rambling went on and on and on, constantly belittling Moonshine of her caveman-like movements. Clearly tired of the flood of information entering one ear and leaving the other, Moonshine finally opened her mouth to respond.

"Alright, alright! I get it! I'm elementary when it comes to fighting, and I have to learn this 'Control' thing to become a knight. Now stop insulting!"

At those last words, Moon couldn't help but have her voice rise to a high pitch. Only noticing it afterwards, she blushed slightly, although that wasn't visible through her long bangs.

All God gave as an acknowledgement of the voice crack was an eyebrow raise. "Alright then. You get five minutes to pray to your God. I wish you Godspeed in these next coming moments."

"Since when did you get all preachy n' shit..."

______________________

Chk!

"Ack!"

[You have dealt 920 damage to the target.]

"Again."

It's been 3 hours since they've been training. They'd take 3 quick spars, and then rest for five minutes. Each spar itself never lasted past 2 minutes. The skill level between a rookie and a High Ranker was completely see-through.

'If I'm being honest, than I've been holding back about half of my strength,, and it still looks bad.'

Godspeed had been acting with minimal movements, letting Moonshine attack again and again and again, and miss again and again, and again. Anytime he saw a frustrated move, he would move to attack, leaving Moon sprawled on the ground bleeding.

After a couple of seconds, she would get back up and they would reset, the duel starting again. After every three duels, they would take a five minute break, or well, MOON would take a five minute recuperation for her wounds. Every time, she would come out of the fight with 10% of her health left, forcing her to use all of her potions. She was even borrowing some from God, much to his dismay.

'Damn this guy. He better pay me back after this whole quest is over. This crap ain't coming free, so he better start showing improvement soon!'

Although he was complaining, reality was showing something rather different. Moon was improving, and at a remarkable rate as well.

'Which is only deserved, seeing as I'm his teacher.' Ignoring the ridiculous narcissism, he was right. With the skill gap between them being so wide, it shouldn't be a surprise that she was catching on.

"But even then... he catches on quick. I've gotta say, I think he has an aptitude for fighting," God silently commented.

With nothing blocking Moon's--- or Sophia's, more like it--- desires, she was able to learn and adapt to things very quickly. Even when she was young, she would learn anything that she was taught quickly. But, due to her being cautious in all aspects of her life, she tried to stay on the safe side and focus on only the direct things that would benefit her; mostly to appease her parents.

She wasn't scared of them, per se. It was just that they put an incredible pressure on her since she was young, and they didn't even know. They wanted her to be successful, and not fall down in front of adversity, just as they did. They wanted her to be as safe as possible in everything, which was why they restricted her in everything she did as she grew up.

It eve affected her as an adult, seeing as sparing herself some personal time for Satisfy was her first endeavor in doing something risky. Of course, God didn't know this. And even if he did, he wouldn't understand in the first place.

He never experienced something like that.

Parental pressure was nonexistent for him.

As were his parents.