Sword & Spear - A Sushang Fanfic

1: The Shape of Friendship

"Hey, did you hear the news? I heard the Yaoqing just dispatched a bunch of Cloud Knights here for training."

"I heard so too, said they'd be arriving in a few days time."

Each Cloud Knight's barracks held four Cloud Knights each, and this night the other three that were roomed with me were rather rowdy that night, with talks of a new batch of soldiers being sent from the Yaoqing to be trained on the Luofu and the upcoming spar session we would have to pair us up with the coming transfers with the reasoning being allowing the transfer soldiers to integrate themselves smoothly into the Luofu's forces.

One of the cloud knights wrapped an arm around my neck. "So, surely you've heard the news too right? About how new soldiers are coming from the Yaoqing right? I've even heard there's a girl in the batch that's to come! Wonder if I have a chance with her." A creepy giggle escaping his mouth.

"They're just rumors. And I'd suggest you get your head out of the gutter. We have quite the big sparring session tomorrow, supposedly to match us with our training partner from the Yaoqing, and unless you want another one of Lieutenant Yanqing beatdowns we'd better get a good night's rest." I brushed my fellow cloud knight off with a sigh and headed for bed.

"But a girl, huh." I muttered to myself.

"Good morning, Cloud Knights. As you all have probably heard, we have soldiers from the Yaoqing to train with us while carrying out regular patrols alongside you."

The voice addressing the Cloud Knights belonged to none other than the Luofu's general - Jing Yuan. "We'll start things off by having a sparring session with your fellow Cloud Knights from the Yaoqing. I hope you all get along and train well."

"YES GENERAL!" We responded in turn.

"As clouds that cover the heavens, will the Cloud Knights protect the Xianzhou. But now if you'll excuse me, I have a meeting the Master Diviner." Jing Yuan said as he bid farewell to us, gesturing for the officers to take charge.

"Well, what are you all standing around here for? I want to see all of you in the training hall in three minutes. If any of you are late all of you are going to do two hundred sets of spear exercises!"

For how technologically advanced the Xianzhou were, the training room was a relatively simple one. It was a big room, measuring easily almost a 30 meter by 50 meter room, training dummies on one side of the room, covered in spear stabs and other signs that they were well used. The back of the room was purposes for more personal training, where various training equipment was provided, and nearer to the side where the training dummies were was where Mara-struck attack simulations were carried out. Further to the front of the room was an open space where it was free activity, mostly sparring, was carried out.

We waited for a few minutes before the transferred Cloud Knights from the Yaoqing entered the room. It seemed that the rumors were indeed, true. Among the soldiers from the Yaoqing there was one that immediately stood out from the rest, for the soldier was a girl.

The girl had brown eyes and hair, with her hair being tied into two ponytails with yellow ribbons. She was a pretty girl, her face was youthful, perhaps around seventeen years old - although looks were a very inaccurate way of ascertaining one's age among us Xianzhou natives. Her white dress contrasted with a black corset of sorts that wrapped nicely around her breasts and waist, complimenting her figure. Many eyes were drawn to her, but she did not seem affected, instead she seemed to be deep in thought, somewhat frustrated about something.

My train of thought was interrupted by the Cloud Knight officer. "Alright, we'll start off with some introductions. We'll do some basic drills, then we'll move on to sparring. After which the superiors will decide your pairings."

The introductions were made, mostly rather generic names, until it was finally the girl's turn to introduce herself. It appeared that everyone else, not just me, paid some extra attention to the girl for various reasons.

"The name's Li Sushang. Pleased to meet you."

The first thing that caught my eye while preparing for the sparring rounds was that instead of being trained in the spear which most Cloud Knights are traditionally trained in, it seemed that Sushang was instead trained in the sword, a greatsword, in fact. The blade looked more like an ancient relic than a blade. It looked so fragile and yet seeing her swing it while she was warming up made it look like it could cut through almost anything.

"Alright, let's get sparring." The officer said as he began to pair the soldiers up. "You, take the girl." The officer gestured for me to pair up with Sushang, and suddenly I felt more killing intent than facing off against the mara-struck being directed towards me as a chill went down my spine.

Sushang took up her fighting stance and to my surprise, and although it took more than a little effort, she managed to lift that heavy looking sword. However, from training as a Cloud Knight for the last fifty years, even a novice could see that the weight of the greatsword causing her stance to be a little unstable.

"And begin!" The officer said as he rang a bell.

Sushang moved faster than I had expected to with that greatsword of hers, almost catching me by surprise. But my training in the Cloud Knights had paid off, and reflexes managed to block the strike with my spear, but although the block was successful, the weight of the sword's impact caused me to lose my balance and made me back up a few steps.

Sushang was not to be messed around with. This much I knew with that one strike. Fortunately for me, it seemed the inertia of the swing had also caused her to lose her balance a little, preventing her from following up with that strike. If she managed to get another attack in right after that swing, the spar would've ended right then and there.

The short interval allowed both of us to regain our footing. And so our spar continued, I would attack, she would defend, and vice versa. Perhaps both of us were lost in the heat of battle, but what seemed like a few seconds of battle was instead almost half an hour of us trading and blocking blows, until the officer rang the bell once more which snapped both of us out of it, signaling the end of the spar. Both of us were panting and sweaty, and yet, when our eyes met, it felt like we understood each other more than anyone else.

After the day of sparring had gone by, the pairings were announced. Be it planned or luck, my partner from the Yaoqing was Sushang. She walked up and held out a hand, which I shook firmly.

"Well, it seems like we're partners for the time I'll be here. Pleased to meet you, partner!" She flashed a million dollar smile at me.

And for a moment, I could swear I felt my heart skip a beat.