194 Inexperienced Part 2/2

'Doevm waited for something before he attacked.' He circled around one more time. Frey, fresh out of patience, stepped towards him. 'Maybe it's that,' Thomas thought as he ran in. Frey went deeper into his stance and hugged his shield tight. 'When Doevm attacked, he first feinted.' Thomas stabbed at Frey's shield, stopping just shy. Frey had gone deeper in a stance, expecting a hit that never arrived, so when Thomas halted and returned to his usual circling, he didn't turn as fast as before.

That was soon fixed. Frey ever so slightly changed his stance in order to follow his opponent. Thomas could almost see an hourglass above his head. When time was up, Frey would charge him down and kick him again. 'Maybe again?' Thomas feinted. For the briefest moment, Frey exposed an opening at his left side, but Thomas was too late to see it and backed away. 'It can't be that easy. Feints can't win me a battle. But maybe…' Thomas feinted a third time only for Frey to bat him across the face with his shield. Thomas flinched back and closed his eyes but no pain ever arrived. The only thing he felt besides a looming dread, was a slight breeze. When he opened his eyes, he was staring at his own reflection. It was the shield, which had stopped inches away from his face. Most importantly, it blocked his view of Frey.

'What happened?' Thomas thought. 'He wouldn't,' he thought as the shield retracted and Frey's fist crashed into Thomas's face. 'He feinted too. That's cheating!' He shambled back, holding his bleeding nose.

"Stay in your stance!" Elero yelled too late.

Frey followed the off-balance Thomas and knocked his weapon away with a single swipe. 'An opening.' While Frey was still recovering from the heavy strike, Thomas kicked his spear away. Metal slid against metal; Frey's other weapon leaving its sheath. Thomas dove for his spear and, as he got back to his feet, the back of Frey's heavy Kopis punched into his ribcage. He keeled over and coughed up some of his lunch.

"Don't give up!" Doevm's voice echoed through the chamber, bringing a little light to Thomas's darkening world. "Keep your head up." Thomas yanked his head upwards only to see Frey's Kopis raised in high the air, a black shadow blocking the light from above. Thomas rolled back, the slippery floor assisting in his hasty retreat. The Kopis descended, cracking part of the stone.

"Whoops."

"He's trying to kill me!" Thomas screeched.

"Sorry," Frey said as he picked up his spear. "I forgot to control my strength." Thomas cursed as he got back to his feet. Then, and idea formed in his mind. He tested the floor and found that most of it was slick with sweat.

Thomas glanced at the floor between every strike, eventually finding a dry spot near the center. 'Alright.' He stepped onto it and pushed off as hard as he could. He knew he had begun his attack outside of range. If it were any other situation, he would have stopped just short, as if he was feigning for Frey's shoulder. But this was on a slippery stage, where he could both execute his attack and slide forward at the same time. The spear descended on Frey's shoulder. "I did it!" He announced too soon, as Frey sidestepped. The spear whistled, cutting only a lock of brown hair. Thomas's world filled with more sparkles. He found himself on the ground, his burning lungs gulping down as much air as they could. However, he didn't feel himself getting any air. His world darkened.

"You still need to follow your attack up." Frey said. He released the chokehold and Thomas's vision flashed. He coughed several times and barfed up the rest of his lunch. "Alright now it's time to res…"

"Just one more." Thomas said in between his fit of coughing. He replayed the battle in his head. "I was just so close. Just a little adjustment and I would have had you. Let's go just one more round before we take a break." 'Something changed.' He spat the rest of the vomit over the side of the stage. When they both got into their stances again, Frey looked different. He hadn't changed physically. He seemed a little less gigantic, and his stance didn't look as impenetrable as before. Especially not with the little bead of blood dripping from his ear, from Doevm's cut. Slowly, Thomas saw invisible cracks in Frey's stance. As Thomas stepped forward however, his leg buckled under him. His spear fell from his shaking hands. "What…What's happening to me?"

Frey walked over and gave him some water: "You're done for the day. You went further than what your body could handle. That's good but too much would just harm you."

"No," Thomas shook his head which, now that he wasn't thinking about the fight, had a sobering pain throbbing on the inside of his skull. "I want another match." His throat closed up for a second, making him wheeze. His muscles screamed at him like they had never before. If usually they asked to stop with pain, now it was both an excruciating pain and an uncontrollable shaking. He tried to stand but a piercing sensation stabbed at the front part of the inside of his thighs. They relaxed against his will.

"There's tomorrow," Frey tried to comfort him. "Just relax. It's what you wanted in the first palce, right?"

"Just one win," Thomas blurted out the thought that had been forming ever since the start of their training.

"What do you mean just one win?" Frey pat Thomas on the shoulder. "You didn't win at all."

"Before we leave this cave," Thomas continued as he lay down. "I want one win. Just one." He didn't know where those words came from or where he dug up the determination to put meaning into them. His numbed fists clenched. He lay flat on the stone and slowly caught his breath while his muscles shook. His vision blurred and the warm sweat cooled to a disgusting level of cold. Before he knew it, he was imagining the next battle, what he would do.

"That was good," Elero said to Frey as he walked over to the rest of the group on the other side of the cave. "Sidestepping is great, but you almost got caught." She pointed to the severed lock of his hair lying on the stage.

"Got it," Frey said before passing out.

"And you Thomas," Elero called over. Thomas only moved his eyes to look at her. "Fight just like that. You have so much speed and some technique, but you need experience or you're simply a beginner."

"Picture it Thomas," Jameson had once told Thomas. "Don't just rely on your weapon. Don't just repeat what you have practiced in a fight. Learn more. Explore other things. Make a style. Try to win for once. Always grow. If you don't want to become stronger, why be a knight in the first place?"