Chapter 51 - Improvement

The spar continued, but after a while, Drannor noticed that he was failing at hitting the same spots he had hit before. That was weird, Zaos didn't get any faster, and Drannor wasn't tired either. After half an hour, Drannor, who had hit Zaos with relative ease, now was having a hard time surpassing his defense.

"Let's… take a break," Drannor said, covered in sweat and while breathing hard.

"Okay," Zaos said.

Zaos was also covered in sweat, but he didn't look as tired as Drannor. The difference in physical strength and stamina was evident. Still, Drannor wasn't foolish enough to think that only those two were the determining factors of that situation.

"Why am I not hitting you anymore?" Drannor asked.

"There are several reasons for that, the first is that I train more, so I can fight for longer periods of time if compared to you," Zaos replied. "As if that isn't enough, focusing on defense, I can conserve more physical strength. So, after a while, the difference in strength and stamina becomes more evident. Lastly, your attacks are fast and precise, but your patterns are too simple."

Zaos already concluded that he won't truly grow as a warrior if he only tries to defeat Drannor. In order for him to become better, Drannor, who was the best sparring partner, also has to keep improving day by day. That was why Zaos told him so easily that. Fortunately, the other kid already wanted to improve and solve his problem regarding stamina, so it was obvious that he would eventually become a fearsome sparring partner again.

Zaos healed his wounds and began to meditate while he recalled the time he got hit in the spar. Drannor did something similar and realized that his attacks were way too simple. Until now, he didn't notice that since they were highly effective, but he finally found someone who had gotten hit several times by his attacks and could read them and deflect them… at least after a while when Drannor's stamina began to run out.

Zaos imagined that Drannor would try to stop the spar there and ask his father for some attack patterns. The usual watch the foe and stab in an unprotected and then assume a defensive stance to watch the foe again wouldn't work anymore. At least not against Zaos, but much to his surprise, he didn't do that.

When the spar was resumed, Drannor assumed an unexpected stance. He was holding his spear with his left hand alone, while the right hand seemed like it was simulating a short spear. Zaos never saw that, but he assumed Drannor had found an answer or at least a way to hit Zaos again.

Drannor took a step forward and push his spear forward, and aimed at Zaos's left shoulder. Still, Zaos used his sword to protect himself… weirdly enough, the spear didn't even hit the sword or his shoulder. Drannor missed. However, he got Zaos off guard when he swung the spear diagonally and hit his ribs. The throbbing pain made Zaos clench his teeth, but before he could do anything, Drannor retreated and assumed that weird stance again.

"He already came up with a simple but new and effective attack pattern," Zaos concluded. "While I can block most of his attacks, I can only follow if they are done in a single motion. I guess I ended up relaxing after succeeding in the first strike."

Drannor charged again, and this time, instead of a stab, he swung his spear to the side while aiming at Zaos ribs, the same side he had hit before. Zaos moved his sword and blocked the attack, but Drannor's left hand hit him in the stomach.

"Hey… when did we start to use punches?" Zaos said after he lost some air in his lungs.

"Sorry… there was supposed to be a short spear here," Drannor forced a smile. "I will bring one tomorrow. Should we stop here?"

"Unless you want to punch me more, there is no other choice," Zaos said and then sighed. "So, to solve the problem of your simple patterns, are you going to use two spears? Did your father teach you that?"

"No, but that stance felt quite natural, so I will try it," Drannor replied.

Drannor really had an eye for combat… normal kids wouldn't find that kind of answer so fast and naturally. Still, Zaos could understand what he was aiming at. By using two spears, he would make his foes pay attention to two places at the same time, which would make their defensive stances less effective. Thus Drannor would have a psychological upper hand. 

When Drannor showed up with two spears the next day, Zaos immediately understood that things would be way more difficult than expected. The fact that Drannor was left-handed was already a problem since Zaos couldn't mirror some of his movements. Still, the worse was yet to come. When the spar started, Drannor charged and tried to hit Zaos several times with the short spear. While they didn't have much weight, Zaos had a hard time following the rain of thrusts. Then suddenly, when he saw one of the attacks coming, he prepared his sword to block, but the attack had been far heavier than expected… Zaos was pushed backward and almost fell.

"You already found another attack pattern…" Zaos said.

"Cool, right?" Drannor smiled. "I can be faster even with a single hand while using a short spear, while I prepare an even heavier attack with a single hand while using the long spear. I want to try new things, so get up."

Zaos sighed when he heard that. While he imagined Drannor would improve, he didn't imagine it would be all that much and in just a single day. Regardless, that was fine. Zaos already confirmed that what his father said was really the truth. When it comes to sparring, one can learn a lot more by losing and getting hit than by winning and hitting.