TRAINING

"Don't you need to wear proper gear before we begin the spa?" Sally said.

"Gears are for weaklings who fear pain. I am not one of them." Ragnar said.

I know it sounds too cheesy, but it is what he said, so let us stay on the story.

"What if you got seriously injured?" Sally said.

"Was what I saw last time the extent of your current level of swordsmanship?" Ragnar said.

"More or less," Sally replied.

"Then it isn't a matter of concern," Ragnar said.

"You." Sally was shaking due to anger.

"Stop speaking and come." Ragnar signalled her to attack.

The bout started, and a pair of swords clashed against each other with immense force. They fought, and the figures moved around the battlefield as if dancing in a rhythmic pattern. It was elegant, but one could point out the difference. While Ragnar was moving in a smooth manner, Sally, on the other hand, was extremely rough. It was like watching a dancer play with a clown.

"Straighten your back while moving backwards and hold your sword movement. Steel-Heart Sword Art is a body-intensive sword art that uses residual energy as its driving force for move switch."

Ragnar tapped the sword and hit Sally in the chest, pushing her back.

"Move with the sword so that when it is deflected, your body follows its movements and is bake to dodge any incoming reverse attack. You just need to concentrate on this matter, and it will be a success." Ragnar instructed.

Sally followed his instructions, but she was hit at a random position of her body every time. Once, she even got hit on her buttocks, which turned her face red. But Ragnar's words changed the mood as he began cursing her for not following his instruction correctly.

" Move your leg to the left and swing the sword harder." Ragnar said as he hit her in the chest before kicking her away.

"This is not going to work like this. You need to be better than this. Your footing is too bad and the power behind your moves is lacking. Also, from what I can see, you are definitely holding back while executing the swing at the very last moment. Why is that?" Ragnar looked at her in an irritated tone.

"I don't know. I must hav been doing the moves wrong." Sally said.

"No, this is something deeper than that. This is as if you are personally you are doing you best not to land the attack." Ragnar walked near Sally and crouched down. "Did you think at the level you are you could even hurt somebody. The pathetic weakness of your combined with your ego of being someone capable is truly something I wish to laugh at."

"What?" Sally didn't understand him.

"I have sen cases like you before. In general the cases are related to the person in question not being able to use a weapon at all. This is because they are mostly scared to use the weapon. The other category are someone who are not able.to use them properly, because they are not interested in using them in the first place."

"You are neither one of those. You use Steel-Hearts Sword and from your training I have inferred that you are not scared or uninterested in learning the way of sword. It could only mean one thing. You are one of third category. A victim of some kind of weird trauma. Tell me, did I guess right." Ragnar smiled at her.

Sally wa shocked to hear Ragnar's words and she was stumped to even give a reply.

"No need to answer. What ever that shitty trauma of your is, you need to overcome that to come and train with me. You need to overcome that ever improve your swordsmanship. If you can't do that, it is worthless of having any future sessions with you." Ragnar said in a irritated tone before turning around and starting to leave.

"How could I overcome it?" Sally said.

"You need to find the answer yourself. It is easy to do so. You just need to think about it deeply." Ragnar said.

"Help me get it." Sally said.

Ragnar looked at her sorry figure. She managed to stand back up with too much effort and look at Ragnar with needy eyes. He was disputes between two choices and he hated being force to mingle within childish matter like this.

"Very well. Grab your sword." Ragnar said.

Sally held it straight.

"You are only to attack with you sword. Anything else is not allowed. You can attack or defend, but not let go f the sword or use any other means. Do you understand?" Ragnar said.

Sally nodded.

Ragnar grabbed his sword and rushed at her. Just when she wa prepared to defend against his attack, he let go of his sword and pierced through her defense to hit her on the gut. She spit out saliva due to the impact. In that moment, he had grabbed the sword in the air, a waved it downwards to hit her head. A bulge appeared at the location where the impact happened.

"Use you sword to show resistance." Ragnar began to taunt Sally while hitting her way harder than before. He was abusing Herz kicking her , and even slapping her on the face and the buttocks.

Sally was angered embaressed and her body was riddled with scars and pain.

"Is that all you can do?" Ragnar asked while kicking her in the back once again. He was just abusing his skills now. While she was only allowed to use sword arts, he was overpowering her with his speed and versatile battle style. She didn't know what to do and the more she was hit, the more her anger began to rise.

It was enhanced even further due to Ragnar's comment about her capabilities and inability to even respond to his attacks. The way he mocks hurt her ego and at the end she could bear no longer and infused her attacks with energy and rushed at him. She screamed and attack Ragnar without stopping.

Wherever her sword went, it destroyed the nearby surroundings. But still wasn't able to touch Ragnar. Rather than stopping, he was taunting her even more and letting her attack him.

Eventually his sword and her met and she screamed while using a lot of power to break his sword and land a hit on him to send him flying.

A wave of satisfaction clouded her mind.

"There it is done." Ragnar's voice sounded. Blood was dripping from his mouths but his face looked excited. He would have loved to continue the fight, but anymore and he wouldn't be able to hold himself back. Besides, his body was weak when compares to Sally. He simply turned around and left.

Sally realized only now that she had been tricked into letting go her sanity and attack Ragnar without holding back. She even injured him, but deeper inside her, a lock seemed to have opend up.