9

Chapter 9: Ch-8 Success Part 1

Chapter Text

"Move your legs!" Ser Rodrik shouted.

Jon nimbly ducked under an overhand slash while skipping back to make some space. But Jory, Jon's opponent didn't leave him a chance and immediately sent a flurry of quick strikes while advancing.

Jon kept Jory's body posture as well as leg placement in his field of vision at all times and timely parried two strikes from the right easily, as long as he knew what was coming, he could respond with ample time, but Jory's sword suddenly reversed back after passing him by and the hit was too fast for Jon to respond so he was only able to bring his sword about halfway up and immediately paid for it.

*Wham*

The wooden sword hit the pad on his shoulder and he immediately went down like a pile of loose sand, while losing the grip on his wooden sword.

"Stop!" Ser Rodrik said firmly to Jon when he started to reach toward the fallen sword and moved toward his fallen form.

Jon left the sword and stood up groaning while massaging the new bruise on his body. Ser Rodrik stood looming over him, evaluating his condition, "Do you know your mistake,"

"My footwork," Jon said while taking a deep breath and exhaling all his frustration.

"And what do I always tell you?" Rodrik asked while pressing over the area and making sure that nothing was damaged beyond reason.

"To move my legs," Jon exhaled while looking down, Rodrik had shouted that particular sentence enough times that those words ring inside Jon's head for a long while even after leaving the practice yard.

And it wasn't like Jon didn't want to follow this advice. It's just that he was using all of his concentration to analyze his opponent's posture and using it to predict their next attack.

He was putting all of his brain power into making that calculation an instinct, but that had made it very easy for him to lose focus and, forget the most basic lesson of the yard: Keep Moving.

The only solution to this problem he could see was that he stop doing his Analyze skill, which he wasn't prepared to do as that would make him lose all his progress. So he understood that all he could do about it was persist in it until his mind had gotten used to multitasking and his footwork had become an instinct.

"Exactly Move Your Legs!" Ser Rodrik said sternly before he finished checking Jon, "Alright, you're fine," he gruffly said while gently patting him, "Now get back in there,"

Jon moved to pick up his fallen sword from beside the smug Jory while going over his recent bout inside his head. "And Jon," he turned back toward Ser Rodrick, "Switch your Sword hands,"

Jon nodded silently and took the sword into his left hand before doing a few empty swings to get his mind and body used to the new posture. After warming up, he slowly advanced toward Jory who had moved back to his starting position.

The reason Jon was training with the much older Jory and not with the other young recruits his age where Robb was training was that he already had a very stable foundation in most of the basic forms in which they were training.

And another reason was that whenever he had been placed against them he would easily win, which was not very good for learning. It also didn't help with their confidence or his complacency, or so Lord Stark said.

The most important reason was that there was no one who knew how to duel wield in Winterfell. It was a very rare skill and very few people could ever train in it until they are good enough to use it in battle and survive. So there was no fixed format on how to go about learning it like for the other weapons skills.

The only way Ser Rodrik and Eddard had been able to come up with was for Jon to duel with alternate hands against an opponent until he gets proficient enough to actually dual-wield. And then when he does, they would have him spar against different people and different weapons so that he could come up with a style of his own.

Jon had been quite confident that utilizing both his hands for chores since birth would have made sure that he would have an easy time learning to dual-wield. But unfortunately, he had found out during early lessons that while the strength of both his arms was relatively equal, he still subconsciously considered his right arm to be dominant which made him a weaker opponent while fighting with his left hand.

"Ready to bite dust one more time, Jon," Jory teased good-naturedly.

"I was thinking, maybe it's time for you to taste the ground, it's actually quite delicious," Jon shot back with a grin while trying to keep Jory's whole body in his field of vision.

The second Jon entered Jory's range of motion, he immediately started using his longer reach and faster speed to overwhelm Jon's defense.

It was all Jon could do to dodge and parry, he was still a bit uncomfortable using his left hand to do the maneuvers he was thinking in his mind, so he was having a very hard time defending himself.

The only reason he could last this long was that he moved before Jory most of the time, but Jory had slowly gotten used to Jon's fighting style over their daily spars and had found his weak points. He had started utilizing feints liberally which got Jon quite a few times before he started to recognize them.

Jon was so focused on ducking and trying to find a way to attack Jory instead of perpetually defending, that he forgot the only thing he was supposed to remember.

"Move JON! MOVE!" Rodrik shouted.

"Sorry!" Jon said flustered and immediately tried to move from an awkward position, which turned out to be a mistake as his legs got tangled together *Bam* and he fell very ungracefully.

Jon cursed in a low voice while removing his arms from under him while slowly untangling his legs when he heard a snort, and the second his mind recognized the voice, he groaned and grimaced even further.

When he finally managed to look up, he found Lord Stark standing at the edge of the field looking reproachingly at his side, where Jon's nemesis Lady Catelyn was standing, while hiding her mouth and looking at Jon with mirth in her eyes.

'That's great she's never going to let me live this one down,'