Chapter 32 Spar
Clarice: "Finally! My body was rotting from all those readings before."
Maria: "Calm down, Clarice; we just read for 2 hours. Some people read from the time the time they wake up to the time they sleep."
Nicholas: "clap clap Hey, let's start guys so we can finish before dinner."
He just arrived at the training ground and saw them talking when they were supposed to be warming up, so he decided to clap to gather their attention since he just wanted to eat dinner and rest afterwards. On the training grounds, they trained physically, first stretching their stiff bodies to warm them up, and then going through their current workout regimen for their main strength training. Of course, they weren't solely focused on strength training when doing this kind of activity. They also went for agility training, flexibility, and even reaction time. It was just timing that today was scheduled for strength training, sparring, and team play right at the very end of their after-physical training.
After warming up their bodies and sweating up a bit, the trio began their strength training in earnest for 45 minutes. The workout was composed of weightlifting, some core workouts, and static holds to strengthen their physique and increase their power.
Maria: "Huff huff huff. I am really not a fan of static holds. It felt like torture not giving in and just letting go of the weight."
Clarice: "What are you talking about, Maria? That's the best part—resisting the urge to give up and training your resilience."
Maria: "Well, I just don't like it okay. I like flexibility training and even weight lifting. But static holds are not just my thing. Ughh." She wiped off the sweat that accumulated on her neck and forehead with a towel.
They rested for a few minutes to cool down their heated bodies before proceeding to the next training agenda. Sparring.
Nicholas: "Clarice, wanna spar?" He called Clarice for a spar.
Clarice: "Sure, I just going to get some water first. I'm a bit thirsty." Feeling dehydrated and thirsty from losing a lot of sweat from the workout.
Nicholas: "Fine. Fetch some for me too while your at it," he said as a reply as he approached the sparring ring.
The sparring area has two parts: the ring itself and the wooden weapon station. The wooden weapon station as it is—the weapon stack on the wall you can use when sparring.
Nicholas approached the stack and picked up some weapons; after that, he climbed up to the ring, which is an elevated open area with about 10x15 meters, and warmed up a bit while he waited for Clarice, who went out to get a drink.
Clarice: "Hey, young master. I got you some water." She arrived back and asked Nicholas where to put his glass of water.
Nicholas: "Just put it on one of the benches nearby; I'll drink it after we spar."
Clarice put down the flask of water near the sparring area and went to the weapon stack to pick up a training weapon, and so did Nicholas.
She went up an arena or sparring ring located near the edge of the training ground. They both stepped on the ends of both sides of the arena, then began to prepare their stances and stared at each other. Naturally, when they were sparring with each other, it was strictly using only weapon mastery and knowledge without the use of elemental skills.
Nicholas: "Ready?"
Clarice: "On three?" she asked Nicholas.
Nicholas: "1," he said, replying
Clarice: "2"
Nicholas: "3!" yelled Nicholas to start the battle.
Nicholas suddenly dashed straight to Clarice's range; he had the disadvantage in range due to the difference in weapon type, him and his dagger to Clarice and her sword. So he had to keep Clarice in close contact to prevent her from gaining a significant distance from him to use her weapon properly.
Of course, Nicholas was restricting his strength and agility to only a little bit higher than Clarice's current stats in this spar, since if he didn't, it would definitely be over in a second. Both of them wouldn't improve and learn anything if that's the case.
Nicholas: haah
Nicholas targeted Maria's legs to hinder her mobility. This attack, if successful, would let Nicholas be able to prevent Clarice from gaining any range advantages; however, Clarice also knew that Nicholas would target her legs first since it was his win condition to defeat her.
So, to prevent that, she instinctively took a stance to protect her legs from his attacks, blocking Nicholas's attacks using his sword and bracers from connecting to her leg.
They traded blows for a minute after that surprise attack from Nicholas. He wasn't surprised by Clarice's response since they sparred a lot of time before and they already knew a lot of each other's weaknesses.
Nicholas realizes that breaking through to her defense by focusing on her legs wasn't an option since each time they spar he targets her legs first, and currently Nicholas attacks on her legs will not have any effect on Clarice unless he surpasses her in weapon knowledge or by overpowering her using brute force.
Nicholas found his attacks futile and will only waste his energy. He decided to step back far away from Clarice to say:
Nicholas: "You really have improved this couple of months; I can't even break through defenses, and your parries are impeccable."
Clarice: "Thanks, but that's not enough to defeat you," Clarice said to Nicholas.
It was true, Nicholas never lost to Clarice in spar ever. However, this didn't discourage Clarice; this pushed her to at least be at Nicholas's level in weapon mastery and knowledge. This mindset and Nicholas's help to Clarice in learning her strengths and weaknesses enabled her to constantly improve, and right now he is almost on par with Nicholas weapon mastery wise.
Nicholas: "Then let me show you something new…" he said with a slight smile, his face portraying he's planning something devious. Then suddenly he began his attack.
Nicholas kicked the dirt and some dust on the arena into Clarice's to slightly obscure her vision and distract her.
Clarice wasn't fazed; she dashed back farther into the edge of the ring to avoid Nicholas's tricks. However, as soon as she moved, a dagger flew straight into her direction at an astonishing speed.
She didn't see it clearly since the dagger was obscured by the dust in the arena; it was too late to dodge since the dagger was flying straight to her face; she had to resort to blocking it with her sword.
This gave Nicholas a temporary window to move freely since the sword of Clarice blocked her line of sight. He immediately dashed directly on the right side of Clarice; when he arrived, he picked up a handful of dirt from the ground again and threw it in Clarice's line of sight.
Clarice panicked as she saw the dirt flying in her direction; she had just blocked the dagger, and now there was dirt to follow that. She had no choice but to take a step back in panic to dodge the dirt, which caused her to lose some of her footing.
At the same time, after she lost her balance, she again saw a dagger that flew straight to her head. As a last-ditch effort, she blocked upwards, which made her completely lose her guard and stance.
Nicholas, taking advantage of this moment of weakness in Clarice's defense, decided to conclude the battle by landing a finishing attack on Clarice's neck.
Of course, he didn't follow through on it to avoid hurting Clarice.
Nicholas: "I won," he said to Clarice while looking at her with a slight smile.
Clarice: "Huh… I lost, but how?"
She was able to dodge and block the daggers and dirt; she calculated that even if she took some damage in the process, she would still be able to hold on since Nicholas already lost both of his daggers.
However, contrary to her expectation, Nicholas was still holding on to a third dagger in his hands.
Nicholas: "Ah, yeah… I took 3 daggers before sparring. Look at the weapon rack; a dagger is losing its pair." A smug grin came up to Nicholas face as he explained the scenario.
He pointed his finger at the weapon stack, trying to convey a message. So she looked at the stack of weapons on the wall, and she noticed something. A dagger on one of the columns has lost its pair.
Nicholas: "Yes, I took an extra dagger before hand since you got some water."
Clarice: "Still..."
Nicholas's real plan in this spar was distracting her attention by using dirt and daggers to obscure his plan on finishing the match with a third dagger when she least expected it. He purposefully set up a series of great moves to tunnel Clarice's mind into thinking of any other possibilities.
Nicholas: "So, remember to be more cautious in the future. Even if theoretically, you are at the same level of weapon mastery as your opponent. There are still some tactics and tricks to overcome such a gap."
"…" Clarice was silent. Nicholas was right and proved to her that it was possible.
She reflected on her current progress. "I thought I was near…" she mumbled silently before standing up on the ground.
Clarice: "Let's have another round," she said as she put up another stance, preparing for battle. This time making sure that her girlfriend doesn't use any slimy tricks against her.
Nicholas: "Sure." Nicholas threw the current dagger in his hands away. To pick up the wooden daggers on the ground.
Nicholas: "I'll cave it in your skull and make sure you admit defeat," he said playfully at Nicholas.
Clarice: "..." Just smiled at him and gestured for him to come fight her. So another bout of spar began again, this time a more heated fight than the last between Clarice and Nicholas was happening.