Chapter 20 - Basic Weapon Mastery

I lunged at my father with half my power and speed. Even though I was quite weak due to my small figure, I cannot say the same about my speed. Due to my small figure, I can move at speeds even an adult male is unable to move at. This usually isn't the case due to the fact a child normally does not develop their muscles enough to become fast enough to match an adult. However, that's the normal children who have no concept of building muscle or increasing their lunge speed and distance.

Usually for most mammals, the longer your legs stay on the ground, the higher speed the person or animal can move. This is usually seen throughout all types of animals and it logically makes sense. The more legs you have though, the faster you will be able to move due to your contact with the ground being more frequent, therefore allowing you to add momentum while running. The reason humans don't use such tactics is that it's simply impractical.

While animals have their fangs and claws, humans don't have any of those weapons so they make their own using their intelligence. How does this link to this fight you may be asking? Well, if I'm correct about everything above, this means that due to my short legs I'll be a lot slower than the average person, and the fact that it's impractical to move like a beast rather than a human takes that out of the picture.

The way to overcome the gap in speed due to how we humans are built is to just with enough power and as close to the ground as possible. This will not only allow you to move faster than just trying to move my legs as fast as possible, but the closeness to the ground also reduces the surface area that will push me back and at the same time since I am so close to the ground I will be able to use my hands or feet to stop or change the trajectory of the momentum I have built up. This is a lot better to use at the start of the fight the instant it starts rather than wait to both take your opponent by surprise and also give you a chance to react to any oncoming attack.

A pushed the hand with the long sword forwards, as if I was holding a trident from its ends, and thrust the sword forward when I was in reach of my father. What I hadn't taken into account was that my father was a veteran in battles between swordsmen which allowed him to act quickly to parry the attack upwards and to the side.

I reacted just as fast to both shift the momentum I had been using to lunge forwards and the momentum from the parry to twist and turn my foot, ankle, leg, lower body, and upper body while using the same momentum to throw my sword around in a 360-degree turn before hitting my father in the liver.

Yet, I was simply not fast enough. During the turn, I had let my opponent see my back which was a fatal mistake on my part. This allowed my father to strike my back as if I had given him a free hit, which I kind of did.

"Never show the enemy your back! Your move their was clever but stupid. One mistake like that on the battlefield and you're a goner!"

I got up as fast as I had dropped to attack my father again and again without a stop for two hours straight. None of us were tired but it was almost night and I had to act at least a bit tired after all those beatings I had taken, not to mention my clothes were drenched in sweat to the point every single piece of cloth on my body was clinging onto me with dear life.

When we got in Aroura scolded me for a bit before taking me to shower while dad got scolded by my mother for a bit for letting me stay out so late.

Honestly, though, this was the most fun I had in ages, and the fact that I was able to bond with my father a little more now that I had finally trusted him made me feel warm and tingly on the inside. It was a very weird nauseating kind of feeling but it somehow felt nice at the same time.

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It's been almost 2 seasons since the first time I had sparred with my father. The fact that winter came kind of ruined our sparring sessions because they would be reduced to an hour rather than the 2 or 3 we would have after my father got back from work.

I would spend most weekdays with the tutor in the morning for about 4-5 hours a day and then when my father would get home we would train till a little after sunset before getting home.

This would usually leave me the night to practice magic and the day to train my body and skill with weapons.

Miss Whitlock, my tutor hadn't taught me anything worthwhile, just ways to act in front of certain types of people ranging from nice nobles to greedy nobles to even cocky nobles. They were all nobles in the end which I found annoying. Like, I'm not going to be spending the rest of my life with nobles all the god damn time, am I!

Well anyway, she wouldn't come on Aroura's days off while I would only train for an hour on these days too.

Since I had started training with my father, he had taught me to use many weapons like spears, short swords, daggers, Bastard blades, Large hammers, rapiers, and a little more. Some of them I used for around a day or two while others I took a whole week or two to learn how to use them properly.

When granny came back home near autumn and the first thing she saw was my dad beating the shit out of me with a hammer made out of wood, she almost killed him on the spot. Thankfully, she saw me with a wooden hammer the size of my entire arm slam him on the head with it and then his legs. A few seconds later we started trading blows one after the other until I acted like I had gotten too tired.

I might have not been tired but I was hungry as hell

Granny went on to scold me, my dad, and my mom for allowing me to spar against dad. We told her about the deal and the etiquette class until she unwillingly allowed us to carry on.

When it had finally reached winter season the sparring sessions were reduced to the point it was only 30 minutes per day of sparring and nothing on weekends. The Etiquette classes started to become longer while the woman who taught me everything within the class started to annoy me further and further due to her noble attitude which was almost mocking half the time.

Her "ways to become a good noble", a book she made herself was filled to the brim about bullsh*t like where you're supposed to stare, how to flirt as both women and a man, and finally, how to dress or do your makeup

'…'

I'M BARLEY 5 YEARS OLD GOD DAMNIT, JUST LET ME BE!

Anyway, I'm going to be 5 years old in around 2 seasons since winter is about to leave and the warm breeze of the spring is about to arrive. I asked my parents for 4 weeks off being taught by the noblewomen and by my father to 'rest'.

After a bit of bickering we had agreed on 4 weeks off but nothing more or less.. I said I would rest but I'm going to try and learn how to use magic.