Knight | Celeste Academy Series BK #1

12th Chapter ♣ Recall

"No fight is ever over after it ends."

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CHAPTER TWELVE ♣ RECALL

Seraphina's eyes were trained to a scarecrow-like training dummy planted into the ground.

"Now listen closely to me Valeriana," she said. "Courtney's way of fighting is intense and relentless. She won't give you a room to breathe, so you've got to be very careful and never let your guard down. Just focus on the fight."

"Got it," she answered immediately.

"Fighting is simple," she said. "People make the fight complicated. Look at this." The lady knight turned towards the human and held up a polished sword in her right hand, and a stick in another. "What do you think is the difference between these two items?"

"Uh . . ." Valeriana's mind was blank. "They are both weapons?" The girl looked expectantly at Seraphina.

"I can see that."

Valeriana grinned at Seraphina humorlessly. "Sorry."

"This mere stick can be a weapon if one focuses all his power on it. This plain wood can be as firm as metal when one knows how to handle it properly. Observe closely."

Valeriana watched Seraphina as she temporarily plunged her bladed weapon to the ground and spun to look at the dummy she envisioned as her opponent. She lifted the stick into the air and brought it down speedily to the structure she put up.

She witnessed the training dummy fall down to the ground with a cut in the middle. The stick itself then broke apart right afterwards. This forced a gasp out of her.

"Whoa. That's amazing," she whispered before breaking in a girlish scream. "Exactly like what Doug Landers did! Oh my god! I have never seen anything like that except in movies and cartoons!"

Her mentor raised a brow at her. Valeriana stopped immediately when she saw the face she was making and flushed a deep red when she realized what she was doing.

"Oh," she mumbled, redirecting her gaze down to the ground and kicking the sand.

Seraphina sighed. "Look Valeriana, there's no difference between a wooden sword and a blade when the one who wields it has a firm conviction. It's really just that the stick has less durability." She pointed at the cut where the object struck and dropped the other half of the broken stick over the other. "Knowing this technique, you'll be able to cut a thick sword, or even a tree in half without fail. But you must remember, how sharp the sword is does not rely on how well it's polished, or how sharp its blade is. It's always about the one who holds the weapon with the weapon itself. Do you understand?"

"So are you telling me I should be one with my weapon or something?"

A smile curled on her lips. "You catch on easily. A true swordsman knows how to be one with his weapon. In a battle, a weapon and its user should always be the same entity. You do not treat the sword as a mere weapon. You should treat it as if it's a part of you."

"So I should just cut Courtney's sword into half, and it's over?"

"Preferably, but having you develop that skill overnight is close to impossible. It'll be a miracle if you did."

"Then what is the point of showing it to me?"

"Cutting off Courtney's sword is not the exact reason why I showed this to you."