4- Some Training

My parents are the most doting parents. Like all parents, they also wanted their sons to do better in life and even exceed them. The only thing limiting those wishes is our lack of financial strength to hire an instructor of us siblings to train in magic and swords. Even so, they tried their best with the limited knowledge they had to teach us.

When I was 6 years old, my father asked me to join the morning training together with my brother Alex. Father is teaching us basic swordsmanship, and exercises to strengthen our bodies.

The training routine is quite easy to follow, our father taught us the basics of mana circulation and how to start training in it as best he could. But, he also cautioned us never to train to our limit and just do it very slowly, like any major training in mana circulation before the awakening ceremony could damage our magic circuits.

Regular circulation of mana in our bodies helps in strengthening our muscles and bones and also organs in our bodies, which in the future will help in training and increasing mana capacity.

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Right now, my brother and I are holding the wooden sword we received from our father as a present when we turned 5 years old. We are in our backyard, while our father is standing on the sideline to instruct us when needed.

"When you go to the academy later you will be able to learn how to reinforce your weapon. But, before that, you at least have some basic understanding of how to use a weapon."

After saying that he seemed a little depressed, maybe because he couldn't teach us or he didn't learn it himself. It doesn't lower our respect for father though, because we know that for a commoner it's very hard to go to the academy.

"Not bad, you should always maintain a balance while holding your sword or it will fall from just a swing from your opponent. So, to maintain balance you need to place your feet firm and steady on the ground and also be conscious of your surroundings and terrain. Now maintain your stance for at least an hour."

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I tried my best to last at least 30 to 40 minutes, but couldn't unlike my brother. I had already the stance but when I passed the 10 minutes mark, my sword stance become weird and I started to feel uncomfortable all over my body and ended up breaking the weird stance around 20 minutes. The sword stance not just drained my stamina, it was also mentally draining.

After that our father let us swing our swords in those basic stances that he taught us earlier a hundred times each at first and increased the number slowly to build up strength and stamina in the long run. Father said without strong basics we couldn't learn proper swordsmanship or even other weapons for that matter.

We practice: [[left cuts, right cuts, slanting cuts, center cuts [horizonatl and vertical], continuous cuts, diagonal cuts, thrust, and block.]]

It became a daily routine for us brothers and slowly I also started to enjoy the training exercises.

After I was able to maintain my sword stance for more than an hour father taught us, maintaining a favorable distance from the opponent is very important. So, he taught us basic footwork or simply how to move our bodies during a fight without compromising our sword stance.

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After doing basic training for about three months, our father asked me and my brother to have a spar.

Holding our wooden swords, we are facing is other. Brother has been training much longer than me and also he has done light sparing with our father daily so, I am a little nervous about the spar.

"Brother, try breathing slowly to calm yourself down. You have to have a calm mind to be able to fight. And don't worry, we are just sparing." My brother Alex said with a little bit of concern witnessing my nervousness.

Our father chimes in, "In a real battle if you don't have a calm mind, you won't even know how you were defeated forget about fighting. But, don't worry just like your brother said it's just a spar, and also you just started learning so you have a lot of time to improve yourself."

"Okay." I squeezed out a bit of sound. But, I definitely become a lot more calmer now after listening to both of them.

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My brother swings his sword making an angle, his stance is perfect, and controls his balance with proper footwork. Earlier, I had already calm myself a bit but when I faced that swing I panic a bit and I frantically tried to move out of his reach. But, my brother continued with a horizontal slash, I used my sword to block the attack with great effort while I still retreated.

Next, my brother made a series of continuous cuts, which I parried with, desperately of course. But, after the initial nervousness sink down a bit my mind became calmer.

My brother is the one doing all the attacking, and I am trying my best not to get hit by defending myself as if my life depends on it.

When my brother made a combination of continuous left and right slashes paired with thrush in between my heart was pounding like a festival drum. I used my sword to block some and deflect some more but I couldn't block them all, finally, some found their marks in my body.

We continue our sparing for about 20 minutes or more like a was on the ground. It's not a real fight so I didn't receive any injuries but it if were a real fight I think I would have a lot of holes in my body.

Looking at the depressed me, my brother consoles me, "You did really well. It's your first spar and you just started learning, compared to me who have been practicing for the past three years."

"You both did very well, keep practicing daily and you will improve with time."And our father continues further,

"This spar will let you know where to improve further and also improve your decision-making during a fight. Even though I only taught you the basics, you have to find your own way if you want to continue the path of sword later on."

"When you go to the academy they will teach you how to strengthen your body and also enhance your sword by coating mana to increase its strength and attack power."

"That's it for today boys, go and wash before your mother started scolding all of us." our father said with a smile.

Our mother really doted us so, she would scold father for forcing us to do training exercises early in the morning and also because we are still very young. She is right and wrong at the same time because those children in the noble family are all training more intensely according to father. And also, we need to train early on because unlike those nobles we couldn't afford to hire tutors to train us properly. Moreover, if we are going to enter the academy without basic knowledge then we will be looked down upon and the instructors may not be very keen to teach us.