Falling Love

Chapter 18

^Joann's POV^

The sound of swords clashing grew louder and louder as we got closer to the sparring grounds. I could hear a man yelp and the sound of someone hitting the ground with a thud as we made our way around the corner and stop to see what was happening. What I saw wasn't that much surprising, Alexander was standing in front of a man on the ground, his sword pointing towards him and scowling.

"I thought I've already told you, you need to work on keeping proper form. Legs need to be shoulder width apart, leading leg bent, back leg straightened. This way it's easier to shift and move, keeping your weight balanced when trying to block or attack an enemy.", Alexander says as he shields his sword back into its scabbard. I watch as he then takes a step forward and reaches a hand out to help the fallen man. Once he helped the man up, I nodded to Lucifer for us to start walking again.

"Hey Alex! Been a while since I've got some training!" I call out as Lucifer and I make our way toward him. I watch as Alexander says something to the soldier to which he nods and walks off. Alex then turns to me and raises an eyebrow and shakes his head, sighing in the process.

"Haven't I told you not to call me Alex. And if I remember correctly, the last time I trained you, you complained to me saying that you wanted to focus more on your archery." He says, which I chuckle in response.

"Well I didn't mean to stop sword training all together. I just needed a break from it for a bit. Now I'm ready to get back to it. Plus out of all your pupils, you can't deny I am one of your best." I say which only makes Alexander laugh. It was always a rarity, but seeing Alex laugh was always a nice thing to see. We may not be related, but I've always seen him as an older brother. Seeing him happy is always nice since he rarely ever smiles.

"I don't know about the best, but definitely a good student. I'm guessing since you brought your friend here you're wanting to do some sparring? If that's the case, why not do a quick match with me first just to see you haven't forgotten what I've taught you? You won't beat me, but you at least are more of a challenge than half my men at least." Alex says to which I nod my head in excitement. I look to Lucifer to see if he is okay with it and he just smiles and waves his hand.

"Go on ahead, I haven't seen you with a sword, so might as well see you fight before I go against you." Lucy says, which I smile and say thanks as I make my way to the sword rack and pick one up off it.

Once I have a sword in hand, I turn to Alexander and walk to him analyzing his movements. I know I won't find any openings, but maybe since I haven't got to spar with him in a while, he'll have his guard down a bit. Doubt it, but I refuse to lose to him easily at least. I think to myself.

"Ready?" He asks to which I nod my head. Alex nods his head and takes a small step back for a moment and then lunges forward quickly. Any normal person would be caught off guard by this, but after having years of him training me, I knew he was one to initiate the first move. He would say it was best to make the first move before the enemy could even think about what was happening. I parry his attack and then swing my sword towards him, trying to hit him as he recovers. No surprise, he reacts quickly, parrying my move and then tries to sweep my leg from under me.

I jump back, out of reach from where his leg swung and fixed my stance. We circle each other for a second, before I decide to move forward and lunge my sword to him. This time I caught him by slight surprise since I wasn't one to make the first move. I can understand the factor or making the first move helps to catch your enemy off guard, but a fault of it is if you don't know your enemies strengths and weaknesses. I am usually in that stance where I want to see my enemy attack first to see where they focus the most in for guarding and see if I find a flaw in their movements.