Chapter 22 - Significant Improvement

"Say… Wanna have a spar with me?"

I gave her a crazy look and say jokingly, "Spar? With you? I'm not in any condition to have a spar with anyone, let alone you who is quite experienced with a sword."

She smiled knowing how I misunderstood her, "No, I didn't mean a real spar. That would be too much for you… now."

"But seeing you train, I thought of giving a semi-realistic fight experience."

"Still," I see the sword hanging from her waist, "I am not proficient with a sword."

"Then use what you can."

"…I have never fought before." I say somewhat embarrassed. "I don't know how to use a weapon."

"Hmm… is that so?" Samantha thought for a moment and smiled, "Then that's even better."

"What?"

She came closer to me as she unsheathed her sword, "Well then I have a new idea."

'I get the feeling whatever she is going to do next will be problematic.'

"Now that I know you don't know how to use a sword." She said throwing her sword at me. "I am going to teach you how to use one."

Because of the usage of my eyes, I swiftly catch the sword, "You're going to teach me swordsmanship?"

She nodded, "Correct"

'Okay, this is going way too quickly to a new lane. What does she get out of this?' Not getting any idea, I ask her straight.

"I appreciate the gesture but why?... why go through the trouble of teaching someone as hopeless as me?"

"Well I have a lot of time on my hands so why not spend it helping you train and about you being hopeless…" She said giving me a new look, one I couldn't understand, "I believe that one could learn anything if they give their heart to it."

Was that genuine belief? Can't say, never saw anyone give me a look like that before.

"So what do you say?" Her words brought me down to reality.

"When you're so optimistic, I feel entitled to say yes to you."

"Good," She said and walked a few steps back, "Now come at me."

My brows go up in confusion, "Aren't you going to use a sword?"

"Don't worry about me. I don't need one."

Ouch! That hurt my large ego, but she was right. At my current level, she could defeat me barehanded.

"First, come at me however you like."

"You sure?"

"Yes"

Well, don't say I didn't warn you later.

I plant my legs firmly on the ground before running at her and pulling the sword up and striking down below. She quickly dodged past and went behind me and before I could strike, a warm hand touched my belly.

"And you're dead."

She said and stepped back as I stopped.

"Tell me what went wrong over there?"

"...I was too slow and… gave you too much space?" I said not knowing whether they were correct or not.

"Yes, you are mostly right." She nodded before pointing at the sword, "Your biggest mistake was striking from above."

"If you used that move on someone who doesn't know how to fight then it might work most of the time but when you use that on someone who is experienced in fighting, it becomes a dead move."

"Dead move?"

"Yes, when you lifted the sword above your head, I already had more than enough space to strike you fatally. Moves that are unnecessary and gives a lot of space to attack like that are called Dead Move." I nodded as I felt she genuinely wanted to help me and it was working.

"Alright then, let's continue shall we?"

...

...

( Two weeks later )

Behind the house at the hill in the same place as before were three figures.

One was Anna who was standing far away and watching intently. The other two were me and Samantha who were sparring.

This past two week had been more than good for me. It was amazing.

Samantha was great in training me, it was much better to train with someone experienced than just training alone.

She taught me much about the use of a sword. Now my moves weren't as sluggish as they were before, they were much faster and I knew how to use moves effectively.

But using a normal sword didn't feel good in my hands. They were just smaller and their attack range weren't big.

My strength increased in great levels this past two weeks. I could punch a large tree with my hands and even though I wouldn't be able to root it out but I can definitely give it a big patch.

Somehow I knew that with the combination of my brute strength I needed something bigger… something heavier as a weapon.

My thoughts quickly came to close as I blocked the attack coming from the side.

Samantha seeing another one of her attack being blocked didn't push for dominance, knowing I had the advantage in that place. She jumped back a step as my attack missed her chest.

Again, my strength was so much that even if I could hit a sword much faster, it felt too light for control.

My progress of fighting with Samantha always came to defeat at first, but now I could actually end it in draws. I know that wasn't much better but she is a very good fighter and I had only recently started my training.

My weight was lower too… by only 5 kg. No matter how much I tried, I couldn't stop myself from eating too much. Whenever I tried it, I felt that I was going to die out of starvation.

Still the weight didn't stop my power from rapidly increasing.

I stop all thoughts and concentrate on Samantha running towards me. Suddenly her figure slows down and my eyes search for the precise moment.

'Not yet… not yet… THERE!'

A spot in her defense opens up as I suddenly burst forth with speed and strike at that place. But Samantha's main specialty was speed, so even though it was quite late for her to dodge, she blocked the attack with her sword.

But even with that, she couldn't stop the pure force behind my attack and flew back a few steps and fell on the ground. I was about to give chase until I heard her say…

"I… hah… give up."