A Hand-Woven Universe 122 121. Training

Everything that occurred may have taken a while to describe, but in truth it all occurred nigh instantaneously. From Tobias's perspective, there was an eighty percent chance of an injury occurring. Thus he had begun preparing a healing miracle as soon as Sarah shifted her attention from him to Noone.

He watched intently, waiting to see what Noone would decide to do. Would he take the attack to finish his own? Or would he dodge out of the way at the risk of being put in a more compromising position.

Never in a hundred years did he expect for Noone to suddenly drop his weapons and stop hers, bare-handed, mid-strike.

They say that an individual's personality is reflected through their tendencies in battle. For example, a person who dodges a lot could be seen as sly, calculating, or cowardly.

A person who blocked every attack? Headstrong and secure.

It was important that every fighter had some of both.

But dropping your weapons to catch your opponent's? What was he supposed to make of that!?

"So." Sarah's voice was light and airy from physical exertion. "How'd I do?" She beamed a smile at Tobias and Noone who had been obviously testing her.

Noone gave a wry smile as he glanced at Tobias.
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"Oh! You fought superbly! But if you are asking for a grade, then you definitely failed." Tobias flashed his own smile back, soft with wisdom and age. Noone only nodded but said nothing.

"You see. Noone and I had a bet going."

Sarah listened intently, wondering how she could have possibly done better.

"He said that if we didn't use any of our abilities, and attacked you directly, that you wouldn't use any of yours." Tobias's smile slowly withered into a serious look, as if to say: do you understand what I mean? "Noone and I agreed that I wouldn't use any of my skills, and he couldn't use his divine sense during the entire exchange until you used any one of your miracles."

Sarah looked on dumbly. "But… neither of you…" Her mouth gradually screwed itself up as though she had bitten into the world's most sour lemon.

She understood.

The reason they had attacked suddenly without conversation wasn't just to test her reaction speed, but to see how resourcefully she would respond.

"I am sure I don't need to say this." Noone's voice was calm, he had managed to get control of his breathing rather quickly after sitting down. "But you're no longer a member of the Order of Life. From what I understand, you're going to need to get tough. And there's nothing tougher than reality... And the reality is when you start hunting at the behest of your G.o.d and your oath, you're going to want to use everything at your disposal as quickly as you can. Don't give even the slightest chance for others to fight back. Rush them with everything you have no matter how unfair it may be. You don't need to meet them on their terms."

His eyes were cold as his own thoughts drifted to unsavory memories, including their first encounter. The words he spoke weren't just his own thoughts. It was something he learned from the 'him' that had been possessed by his inner devil. His hand began to go towards the pendant which hung under his shirt before pausing and going back to where it was.

Sarah nodded, absorbing the words that he said. He was right. The way he spoke about such things caused her and Tobias to look at him oddly. They knew he had never killed to the extent that he should hold such cruel worldview. However… Tobias understood he wasn't wrong.

"Anyways. I expect you understand. From here on out we will hold actual training. No more tricks. Sometimes we will train just our physical battle strength, other times we will do both." Tobias said.

"You both did great. Noone, I am glad to see that you were able to work in tandem with me well. No doubt from our sparring till now, but still. It must have been hard for you to not use your 'divine sense' however I am going to ask you continue to refrain from using it during our trainings. It should be an aid to your battle prowess. Not a crutch to it." His eyebrows raised. "That being said… good job stopping her attack. But be careful about that in the future, yeah?"

Noone nodded, taking Tobias's words to heart. He quietly pondered where the thought had come from.

"Sarah. You did as well as could be asked for, if not better. You handled our constant attacks calmly and managed to pinpoint the perfect time to counterattack. You didn't let our rush distract you or overwhelm you. For that I must compliment your coolness of mind. That will serve you well in the future."

"Only because you didn't attack at the same time." Sarah spoke calmly, pointing out the truth of the matter. In reality, if they had wanted to truly harm her, they could have attacked her from either side simultaneously.

"Regardless." Tobias hand-waved her quip. "For what we did do, you handled it perfectly." He gave her a rea.s.suring smile. "Noone, what are your thoughts?"

Noone expressed a few opinions he had about their performances. He was used to this from having trained with Tobias before. Tobias believed that after every good spar, it was important to a.n.a.lyze the goods from the bads to help cement good habits.

"Her center of gravity and core strength needs work." Noone said, getting Sarah's attention. "You probably got it from Rae who uses a light spear and who is very quick to weave through battle. But you don't use a light spear, you use a heavy pole-mace. You will never be as mobile as she is, though with experience you can definitely close the gap. She also has the advantage of a lithe figure and long limbs." Noone thought about his words carefully as he spoke. "You need to work on making sure that no matter where or how you move or attack or defend or dodge, you are always stable. Like a wall. Or a pillar.

It was because of a stable center of gravity that I was able to stop your attack dead, and even then, it was risky."

Sarah's eyes widened at how decisive Noone's words were. Either training with Tobias had given him an eye for it, or he had incredible battle intuition.

"Oh, and Tobias." Noone pointed to Tobias's axe. "With the weight behind her attack, you could have easily brushed her lunge to the side by twisting your axe, throwing her off balance like you've tried to do to me plenty of times."

"Ah, you caught that huh?" Tobias chuckled, brushing his comment to the side.

As Sarah watched the two banter, she couldn't help but feel that they had gotten rather close, haven't they? Is it because they had been training together?

By the time they finished discussing plans for future training, an hour had pa.s.sed. They all set out to train in a program created by Tobias while the moon travelled slowly overhead.