After just a few days of training, Shara had a much better handle on the spear, but she was still far from being a good fighter. Still, at her rate of improvement, it wouldn’t take her that long to be good at it.
Ning stood by the side, with his cloak covering his whole body, watching her train.
Through his Life Sense, he saw a few people approaching him. They were just blobs of light to his senses, so he turned around to see who they were.
Two of them were men and one was a female. He noticed the sword on the black-haired man’s back, and the spear the bald man held in his hand. The woman had daggers by her waist.
Shara stopped and turned to look at the approaching individuals too.
“Hey friend,” the man with hair said. “What are you two doing here?”
“Just helping her learn to fight with a spear,” Ning said. “Can I help you guys with anything?”
“No, we were just curious what was happening here,” the woman said.
“Training Spear, huh?” the bald man said. “You can only improve if you train with a real human, you know? I’m bored, so if you want, I can help you.”
Shara paused for a moment, not sure if she should accept this offer or not.
“My sister only started 5 days ago. She hasn’t learned enough to fight with someone like you, brother. You must’ve learned for years now,” Ning said.
“I have learned for years,” the bald man said. “So I believe I am worthy of giving my juniors a few lessons, am I not?”
Ning nodded. “Of course. If you wish to, go ahead. Mona, go ahead and spar with this brother. This is just a spar, so try not to stab him seriously.”
“No, she will fight seriously,” the bald man said, walking ahead. “How else am I supposed to figure out what she is lacking if she doesn’t give it her all?”
“That… is true,” Ning said. He had been wanting them to just fight a simple bout and then walk away. He did not want Shara to have to fight seriously since she wasn’t trained after all.
The bald man went ahead and began fighting. He used his own spear to fight, moving around the dry land at a lower stance as he struck Shara’s spear aside while taunting her.
He was teaching her too, telling her what her flaws were, but to Ning, it appeared he was more interested in showing off than actually teaching her.
He wondered if these people had come to just show off how good they were.
The spear fight lasted a few minutes, during which time Shara got not a single hit in. She could never move past the man’s attacks, having to always be on the defensive.
Whenever she did find the opportunity to be on the offensive, the man would just parry her spear away, while saying things like “watch where the opponent is focusing to attack next” or “catch your opponent off guard while they are committing to an attack”.
After a few minutes of spar, the man finally stopped.
“Nope. You’re not good enough to be a fighter yet. You don’t even have that good a
foundation just yet, little sister. Are you sure you are learning the right things?”
Shara said nothing, simply trying to catch her breath after the rigorous battle. The bald man walked away from her and approached Ning.
“You are teaching her how to fight with a spear, right?” he asked.
“I am,” Ning said.
“You need to do a better job. She doesn’t know anything,” he said.
Ning nodded. “That is obvious. She hasn’t learned how to fight just yet,” he said. “I have only been teaching her how to handle a spear.”
“Excuses,” the bald man said, not bothering to listen to Ning’s explanation. “She is probably still bad because you’re not good at your job.”
Ning raised an eyebrow. “It sounds like you’re trying to challenge me to a spar, brother,” he said.
“You know what?” the bald man said. “Yes, let’s spar. I didn’t find the previous battle that fun. Let’s see if you are any better.”
Shara walked toward Ning. “You’re going to fight him?” she asked. “But your-”
“It’s alright,” Ning said, grabbing the spear from her hand. He walked away, the bald man following him.
He stopped and waited for the man to get ready.
“Don’t you want to get rid of your cloak?” he asked. “It will hinder your movements quite a bit.”
“That’s all right,” Ning said. “It’s just a simple spar after all.”
“If you say so,” the bald man said, readying his spear. He charged at once, without saying any other words.
Ning waited until the last moment and rotated to the side as the spear went past him while his spear landed on the man’s neck, just a hair’s breadth away from cutting it open.
The man could feel the sharp tip of the spear on his neck.
He swallowed his spit involuntarily and the movement alone caused his skin to prick on the
tip. He moved back quickly, feeling his spine grow cold at that moment.
“Are you okay, brother?” Ning asked, pulling his spear back. “I tried to stop in time. Were you hurt?”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
The man heaved quickly. “You… you tried to kill me,” he said.
“Clearly not,” Ning said. “I stopped, didn’t I?”
The man took a few deep breaths and nodded. He couldn’t give up now. “Again!” he said.
Ning shrugged and welcomed the challenge.
The man attacked first again, this time swinging his spear down at Ning, trying not to give him a chance to dodge like the last time.
Ning took a step closer, moving out of the way of the blade and into the shaft’s pathway. He placed his spear to the side and used its shaft to parry the man’s attack.
When he overextended with his spear, Ning simply pointed it directly at the man’s chest, doing nothing but saying everything with just that action.
If he wanted to, he could kill the man again.
