Swordsmanship

Two days later.

"Haa!"

Noises of metal colliding were heard in the waterfall of Black Bear Forest. Looking at the source of the noises, a red haired girl was fighting a floating sword that had a eye like gem embedded in it's hilt. The girl was holding a cheap looking sword.

The one who was attacking was mainly the floating sword, the girl was focused in blocking in it's attacks. Unfortunately, she didn't succeed a single time, and the floating blade always stopped right before stabbing her.

"Honedge, let's take a quick break." Blake sighed and sat at a rock. They had been doing this for some time, Honedge was trying to teach Blake a sword move. Honedge was great at swordsmanship even though it was just born, since it was a pokemon.

Some pokemon were great at fighting since they were born, a good example is Riolu, who could fight a match with a martial arts master with pure technique. Honedge, as a living sword, is also obviously better than a human at it. It also gets better and better as it evolves.

Blake technically wasn't a novice since she got used to fighting monsters with a sword in the last weeks, but she never had a fight with another person. There was no technique involved in her swordsmanship.

"Let's start again." Blake got up from the rock.

"Honedge!" Honedge nodded.

Blake got into a basic stance, which Honedge taught her. Honedge floated and pointed at her like he was wielded by a invisible person. Riolu was watching everything in the side, probably worried about Blake getting harmed by accident. She didn't feel like there was any need to be worried, since Honedge control was big. After all, he wasn't wielding a sword, he was the sword.

"Haa!"

With a shout, Blake hacked at Honedge from upwards. Honedge blocked it like how a person would, and in the exact same second he spun and attacked from the opposite side he used to block, while Blake was still processing what happened. He stopped just right before Blake neck. Both got into stances again after that.

The sword move Honedge was trying to teach him, though Blake doesn't know, was part of German swordsmanship. Pokemon was a alternate version of Earth, and while Germany doesn't exist there, it probably had it's own alternate version of Germany.

The move was called Zwerchhau, and it consisted of two actions. The first was to parry your opponent, and the second to immediately counter attack from the opposite direction you blocked him.

This move was very fast and required a lot of agility. You had to counter attack the exact same instant your opponent hits your sword, so he has no time to lift it back to block your strike.

It also needed a good amount of strength control, because if you put too much strength when blocking, you won't be able to counter attack fast enough, and if you put too little, your opponent will be able to go through it.

It was now Honedge turn to attack, and Blake was going to try and imitate it. They were doing this for two days, and Blake was not successful a single time.

Honedge hacked from upwards like he was being wielded by a human, he wasn't going all out but his strikes weren't weak. As Blake stared at Honedge strike, she suddenly had a sensation that she could feel where would he hit!

She blocked his strike like she could see the future, and immediately counter attacked in a manner similar to Honedge earlier. She hit the air below Honedge. Honedge stopped his attacks and Blake had a smile on her face.

"Finally, after two days of failures..." Blake was genuinely happy.

"Riolu!" Riolu punched the air upwards with a smile.

"Honedge." Honedge nodded, if he had a face it probably would have a slight smile in it.

"Was that earlier my Aura sense...?" Blake was sure she could feel where Honedge would strike, that was obviously Aura.

"Well let's stop training for today." Blake was tired. Her body had slightly improved from absorbing Spirit Qi, but it was only a slight improvement. She had been obviously cultivating these two days.

This led her do discover that she had something like a capacity of Qi. She could not store anymore Qi in her Dantian than that, and since she doesn't know what could happen, she didn't try to forcefully put more Qi into her Dantian.

"Honedge, come here a little bit." Honedge stood in front of Blake, staring at her. She felt like it was time to test that.

"Don't be alarmed, I will try something." Blake slowly approached Honedge hilt with her hand. When she grabbed it, the blue cloth on his hilt immediately wrapped around her arm.

Knowing this would happen, Blake was redirecting Qi to her arm. If this failed, she would immediately put Honedge back in his pokeball.

To her surprise, she could actually feel small amounts of Qi being absorbed by the blue cloth!

"Haha." She waved Honedge around like he was a real sword, but then remembered he could feel it.

"Honedge, is this okay? Does it hurt you?" Blake was worried Honedge absorbing Qi would have any side effect.

"Hon,Honedge." Answered Honedge, shame Blake couldn't understand pokemons. She felt someone pull her clothes.

"Riolu." Riolu shook his head instead of Honedge, and transmitted his emotions to Blake.

"So he isn't feeling uncomfortable or hurt, that's a relief." That was what she could understand by the emotions passed to her.

"Honedge, can you release me?" The blue cloth unwrapped from Blake arm, and Honedge got out of her hand.

'So he can still think even when I holding him... So why he still tries to suck the life force of people?' Blake didn't understand. She suddenly thought about something.

"Honedge, can you control the blue cloth on you?" Honedge shook his head. By the look of things, it had a mind of it's own or something like that.

She sighed.

"Well being able to use you as a sword with Qi is good enough already...." She muttered, but then realized this might be offensive to Honedge...

"Honedge!" Honedge nodded. He looked somewhat happy....?

"Well, let's go back to inn." Blake and her crew left the forest to the new inn they were living now, she had enough money to not care about the inn prices anymore, since the space rings had a lot of good things.

She will be busy the next days with training swordsmanship and cultivation.