Chương 92: Book 2 Chapter 44 - Outgrowing The Teacher

Excitement bubbled up in Kiara's chest as she donned the collar. It had been a while since she had faced off against an opponent that truly challenged her. They started slow, getting a feel for each other now that Kiara had progressed so much since their last spar. After a few exchanges they fell into a rhythm, and before long Kiara found herself back in that flow state she was so eagerly chasing lately.

Handel was not someone she could beat through technical mastery alone, and she found herself hyper focused on each engagement. With her mind firing on all cylinders, she held her own against Handel for the first time in her life. It soon became obvious that he wasn't taking it easy on her either, as he had done so many times in the past. Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, mirroring her own. She noticed openings in his defense, something she had never been able to see before.

More accurately, something she had never been able to pressure him into revealing before. Although he wasn't taking it easy on her, he was still the better swordsman, but the gap was smaller now, within reach. That added to Kiara's elation as they moved around the arena, parrying back and forth. Eventually, he caught her arm with the tip of his sword, and they broke apart, both breathing heavily. They had been going non-stop for a few minutes straight.

As they pulled apart, Handel smiled, then broke out into a laugh.

"Holy smokes, Shian, you are something else." He shook his arms, releasing the tension from the sparring session. Kiara couldn't help but smile again, incredibly pleased with her own performance. He sheathed his sword and walked towards her.

"It's only been what? A month or two since we last sparred?" She nodded. She couldn't remember exactly how long it had been, but that sounded about right.

"Well," he said, "your rate of progress is astounding." He studied her for a moment.

"You were one of the top two students this semester." She nodded.

"I was."

"That means you've earned a spot in my advanced class." She nodded again.

"I'm looking forward to it." He removed the dueling collar and began fiddling with it.

"Honestly, I don't think you should attend." She started, surprised.

"Wait, what!? Why not? I earned a spot, didn't I?" He locked eyes with her.

"You can come if you want, I'm not going to stop you."

"But?" she prompted.

"But I don't think you'll get anything out of it," he finished, studying her for a reaction. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. He took a deep breath then sighed.

"Alright, look. Most of the students that graduate from my intermediate class have mastered all nine sword forms, and reached a decent level of mastery. You remember Henry from last semester?" She nodded.

"He's a perfect example," he continued.

"A solid understanding of all nine sword forms, mastery to the point that he can pick apart anyone else's defense that isn't on the same level as he is." That perfectly summed up her experience sparring with Henry a few months ago.

"Okay," she replied, "I'm following you."

"What they don't usually have a good handle on yet is everything else that you've mastered. My beginner's class is to teach the basics, introduce the sword forms, and help people learn their way around a sword. Those who are truly interested in mastering the sword usually spend a year or more in the beginner's class, until they reach a point where I feel comfortable inviting them to the intermediate class.

"The intermediate class is a place to continue progressing without the distractions that are so prevalent in the beginner's class. Students work to master all nine sword forms. Once their mastery is strong enough and they place high enough in the class rankings, I invite them to my advanced class. Most students spend multiple years in the intermediate class before they can work their way to the top of the class and advance.

"The advanced class is one that I teach myself. It involves private tutoring with each student, along with consistent sparring sessions with your peers. I guide them, point them towards what they should work on next. Students in the advanced class work on deepening their understanding of the forms, until they learn to see them as part of a larger whole. They eventually learn to modify each form, making situational adjustments.

They begin learning to use their non-dominant hand, and eventually work on dual-wielding." If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Is any of this sounding familiar?" Kiara pursed her lips.

"You're saying I'm too advanced for the advanced class?" Handel shrugged.

"I'm saying that there's nothing left for me to teach you. Your path through sword mastery was very different than most, in that you picked up on a lot of these principles on your own, much earlier than normal. Your rate of progression is insane." He laughed.

"You know, when you first got to the intermediate class, you reminded me of a younger me. I saw your dedication and drive, and was excited to watch you learn and grow over the next year or so until you were ready for the advanced class. Now, having seen the speed of your development, I realize it was foolish to compare myself to you.

"Because you learned so many things in tandem, once you had the sword forms mastered your progress in the other areas was unprecedented. At this point, I think I only have one more thing to offer you."

"Oh? What is that?" she asked, curiosity welling up in her mind. He held up the dueling collar.

"A worthy sparring partner, and a few words of advice."

"Advice?" He nodded.

"There's something else that you have that most of my students don't have, beyond natural talent and the practice regiment of a no-lifer."

"Which is?" she asked, ignoring his jab. He pursed his lips.

"Real life experience." Silence hung in the air for a moment, then he continued, "You've been in more life or death fights than the majority of my students combined. More than most of them will ever see." She wasn't sure if he was guessing, or if he somehow knew about the fights she had been in. Her involvement at Lord Grivalt's estate was public knowledge, but not the other fights she had been in.

"So my advice," he continued, "is to study other weapons and their fighting styles." She raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"You don't need to master them," he continued, "but learning the basics will prepare you for fighting against them, and give you valuable knowledge for how best to counter them with your swords."

"Mmm," she said, nodding.

"Thanks! That's actually a really good idea."

"As far as sparring goes," he said, putting his dueling collar back on, "How about instead of attending my advanced class, you meet me here every day at noon for an hour of sparring, say… for the next two weeks?" She nodded eagerly.

"That sounds great! I do have a question though." He quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Shoot."

"I'm having trouble getting into a focused mindset where I can intuit the situation. Once I'm in that mindset, I seem to know instinctively what moves my opponent will make, and how best to react. Sometimes I can even see beforehand how a sequence of moves will play out, where if my opponent doesn't react a certain way, I'll land a critical hit on them, and if they do react properly, then I know how to follow it up to continue pressuring them." Handel nodded.

"You certainly seemed to be in that mindset a few minutes ago when we were sparring, weren't you?"

"Yeah," she agreed, "but I can't always get there when I want to. If my opponent is too weak, I fall back on the mechanical approach, beating them through pure technical prowess." Handel shrugged.

"There's nothing wrong with that. Your brain is avoiding doing unnecessary work. It's a form of being lazy. If you really want to get into that mindset, there's no secret sauce to help you get there. You just have to put in the mental effort. Do the work beforehand, meditate momentarily before the spar begins. If your mind tries to wander, wrestle it back under control, think only about what's in front of you.

You are the master of your own mind, but it takes practice to consistently enter a deeply focused state like that." Kiara took a deep breath, internalizing what he had said. Was she just being lazy? She hadn't considered it from that angle before. Maybe there would be times where she was simply too tired or overwhelmed to put in that mental effort, but most of the time when she wanted to be in that deep focused state, she wasn't tired or overwhelmed.

She had simply been hoping that the mindset would come about on its own, without trying to overcome the mental inertia herself. She steeled her resolve, nodding. This was something she could work on. She closed her eyes for a moment, remembering the spar they had finished a few minutes earlier. She imagined the movements again: her foot placement and positioning, the attacks she had parried.

Her mind wanted to wander, wanted to jump into the next spar without doing the analysis, but she forced herself to stay on task. She envisioned what some new movements might look like: attacking from a new angle, or from closer or further away, or how she might transition to a new form at a different moment than she had before. She envisioned both sides of the fight, thinking through how Handel would react to each hypothetical change in her strategy, and where that might lead.

She was able to quickly rule out a few of the approaches, as the ensuing positions weren't favorable for her, but a few of the others seemed promising. She was excited to try them out, and opened her eyes. Handel was waiting patiently, and nodded when her eyes opened.

"Ready?" he asked. She nodded, and they both stepped forward to engage. She found herself already in that flow state as the spar began. Her mental preparation and visualization had helped preload the right state of mind before she even needed it. They continued sparring for another half hour, pausing in between each round. Kiara tried out a few new attack patterns each time, the outcomes naturally reinforcing which ones worked well and which ones didn't.

She could tell that Handel was doing some visualization of his own, and trying out new things as well. They didn't keep an official score, but Kiara kept track in her head. She only hit him once, but that was one of the sweetest moments of her life. Handel won all seven of the other rounds of the spar, but she walked away feeling like the true victor. She had landed a strike!

The culmination of almost a year of training, day in and day out, had allowed her to go toe-to-toe with Handel himself, someone who she had initially thought was untouchable in the arena. He noticed her smug smile and chuckled.

"Feeling pretty proud of yourself?" She blushed, but didn't try to deny it.

"Yeah, it feels good." He nodded, still smiling.

"There's nothing like it in the whole world. Same time again tomorrow?" She nodded, and he turned to leave, waving once without looking back.