Chapter 123 An Earnest Battle

He began moving toward me once again.

His movements were as awkward as always, being extremely hard to read. However, I felt a little bit more comfortable since I was only watching his general flow. I rotated my sword a little bit to prepare for a block.

He quickly closed the distance in an instant and swung at me. I managed to block his attack although it still knocked me off balance. He was very swift with his follow-up attack. The sword fell inches from my face and I barely managed to block it again.

I was once again on the defensive as I tried to create more distance between the two of us.

These elves were much better sword-wielders than the other humans I've fought.

I tried to step back in order to get out of his range. However, the speed that he was pursuing me was too overwhelming. He was constantly up in my face, breaking my concentration with feints before hitting me with a powerful blow. The sword hit my shoulder with a thump as I tried to recover my position.

I can't seem to get a break. His attacks are too unpredictable.

No matter how hard I tried to defend, he always managed to break through and land a hit on me. Eventually, Laiex stopped the fight again.

"You're focussing on his movements too much, try to confuse him with yours as well. At the moment, he can read you like a book."

With the new advice, I tried to think of a strategy. It was true, my attacks were too predictable, which was one of the biggest reasons why he was able to keep breaking past my defence. I would have to attack as well if I didn't want to just constantly get beat down.

"Ready, go."

During the beginning of our third round, I dashed in this time.

My strategy was to try to get an opening to attack.

I purposely delayed my attacks to see if he would make any mistakes.

It resulted in both of us just looking at each other as I waited for him to make a move.

However, he only retreated, not making a single move. After a little while, I decided to swing my sword and try to get a hit on him. However, as soon as I began my movement, he already knew where I was going to swing. He easily deflected my attack, leaving me in a vulnerable position once again.

Damn.

After feeling a sting on my stomach from his sword, I took a few steps back. As he approached me, I suddenly closed the distance between us. It managed to catch him slightly off-guard, although he was easily able to recover. I tried a few feints in an attempt to get an opening to get a clean strike but he didn't fall for them.

Running out of space, I decided to retreat a little bit and consider my options. However, without any time to think, he pushed in and swung his sword at my chest. I sidestepped and barely dodged the attack, however, I noticed a very slight pattern in his attacks.

In an attempt to predict his next move, I moved my sword into a defensive position, however, he seemed to have seen through this. His sword hit my head, causing a decent amount of pain.

Ow...

? I wasn't having any luck at the moment. However, I did feel as if I was improving.

"Are you alright?" Laiex asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine, let's keep going."

Again, Earnest and I raised our weapons as I prepared for the fourth round.

I tried to change my strategy again. Instead of pushing in, I waited for him to come. But I didn't step back this time, I decided to stand my ground and try to match his attacks. From what I had been observing, his strength and speed were inferior to mine, but it was mostly his technique that was absolutely overwhelming me.

If I could fight on equal ground, I would naturally have the advantage.

We traded several blows, and the loud clangs of the weapons echoed throughout the room. However, just by the way that he was attacking, I slowly lost my posture and began getting into a poor position. I tried to fix it up by taking a few steps back but I was once again overwhelmed by his technique.

Now, how was I going to do this?

I did a big hail-mary and tried to hit him but obviously, he easily evaded the attack. This gave me precious time to get into an attacking position though. With the extra space, I tried to catch him off-guard and land an attack. However, he managed to block all of my attacks again.

He was still reading my moves too easily.

I needed to use my feints more effectively. At the moment, I was simply using feints for the point of using feints. When he attacked, every single one of his movements seemed to direct me into a certain position, eventually allowing him to get a clean hit on my body.

I tried to replicate his movements in order to achieve a similar effect, however, it just simply wasn't as effective. As he blocked my attacks again, he went on the offensive, forcing me to step back and attempt to stop his onslaught. I prepared to read his attacks but this time he just barraged me with attacks. As I blocked them all, I noticed that he was raising his leg very subtly.

I realised it too late and before long, my body hit the floor.

I desperately swung my sword to try to catch his ankle but he saw it coming and stepped over my attacks.

Ah, I lost again.

"Good try, William, are you still alright?"

"Yeah," I pulled myself up as Earnest lowered his sword.

"Don't worry, I wasn't expecting you to win against him, but this is an example of what you might face in a real fight against an experienced swordsman."

It was a truly eye-opening experience. Compared to the inexperienced children that I'd been fighting, these guys were definitely a step up.

If I wanted to stand a chance against the overwhelming vampires, I'd need to polish my skills.