Sparring (2)
Bagan and Selena stood facing each other, locked in a standoff. Reading your opponent's flow was the most important thing in a spar. Who would take the initiative? How would you create an opening for a counterattack? Whether to pull back or push forward. The true charm of sparring lay in these fierce battles of wits that unfolded constantly.
Real combat wasn't all that different. It was simply more heated, more desperate. In that sense, Bagan was carefully observing Selena's breathing and movements. He held his wooden sword slightly lowered to navel height, waiting for her to attack first. In a way, he was yielding the first move. But he wasn't doing so without a plan. He was looking for an opportunity to counter depending on how she came at him.
"Looks like you really hate losing. You aren't giving me a single opening."
Selena observed Bagan's stance and felt as if she were facing an impenetrable fortress. Though he seemed to be positioning himself for a counter by keeping his center of gravity back, his sword never strayed from navel height. Even though she wielded a real blade while he held only a wooden sword, she couldn't summon the courage to exploit any gap and win. His posture was simply that perfect.
But they couldn't just stand there staring at each other forever. In a spar, someone had to win and someone had to lose. In the end, Selena kicked hard off the ground and charged straight at Bagan.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
She struck the ground forcefully with each step, yet the sound came out perfectly even. It meant her footwork was impeccably aligned. This was her own unique style, a fusion of the Empire's one-handed swordsmanship and the Anilova school's footwork, transformed into something distinctly hers.
She didn't put her full weight on her feet, instead creating a slight moment of hang time with each step. The advantage this created was that she could insert other continuous movements within her even footwork. In other words, even if an attack missed, she could immediately follow up with the next one. This was the hallmark of Selena-style swordsmanship: never giving your opponent a chance.
Whoosh!
Bagan easily dodged the first downward slash aimed straight at his chest. As a right-hander, she executed a crescent-shaped cut from inside to outside. Thanks to that, Bagan—who had positioned his sword at navel height—had been completely exposed to her crescent slash. However, having fully read her attack, he simply pulled his left foot back and shifted to the right. Her strike narrowly missed his left ribs and sliced through empty air.
'Hup!'
But she didn't stop there. In a seamless follow-up, she bent her waist sharply and spun in a full circle. Since the force had been directed to the right, there was no need to attack to the left again. She used that momentum to execute another spinning slash from inside to outside. This time, the attack came crashing down from above, aimed at Bagan's neck.
Her strangely twisted upper body had already claimed the space, followed by her lower body—a display of her unique flexibility that made such an attack possible. Moreover, by preserving the original force while adding the distinctive spinning point of the Anilova style, it became a terrifying strike.
'Fierce.'
Of course, that thought referred to the intensity of her momentum.
'But!'
Bagan decided to deflect this attack by stepping his left foot back in. Slide! Selena's spinning strike was fast and powerful. Unfortunately, it had one flaw. No matter how quickly she spun, there was a moment when her back was turned and she couldn't see her opponent. That was the gap Bagan had been waiting for.
'Now!'
He stepped his left foot forward while simultaneously advancing his right foot. This sudden intrusion left her no choice but to panic. When Selena turned back to check on Bagan, her eyes inevitably widened. In that instant, he used his wooden sword to push her scimitar aside.
Clack!
He met the flat of her descending scimitar with his wooden blade and applied just enough force. As a result, Selena lost her balance for a moment. The rotational force scattered, and her sword harmlessly struck the training ground floor.
Crunch!
All her scimitar cut was the sand of the training arena. And it was right in front of Bagan's feet. A long gash was carved into that spot.
"How does it feel? Fighting someone who knows your weaknesses?"
"Humiliating."
In truth, she had charged at him with everything she had in order to win, but the reality was little different from being toyed with.
"Still, I understand now. What I need to do."
There was no helping the humiliation, but having focused on the spar, she began formulating a plan to land a valid hit on Bagan. Mindlessly charging in had proven impossible after just those few exchanges.
"Good. That fighting spirit of yours fans the flames and makes the fire burn brighter."
Bagan liked challenges. Hadn't he overcome countless ones so far? Of course, he'd had multiple opportunities, but since this wasn't a fight to the death, he could take on the challenge anytime. So Bagan focused, mentally organizing the next moves or techniques Selena might show him. Though his standing posture and expression looked extremely relaxed, inside he was tense, wary of being hit by some unexpected method.
At that moment, Selena seemed to have finished organizing her thoughts. She moved quickly, charging toward Bagan once more. This time, it wasn't the straightforward footwork of the Empire's one-handed sword style. Nor was it the Anilova school's. It was the footwork of the Western Anonymous Sword style, created specifically to trouble opponents. And she had slightly modified it in her own way. The way she approached in zigzagging patterns like a snake proved it.
The hallmark of the Western Anonymous Sword was that you couldn't predict which direction or what kind of attack would come. When combined with the precision of the Empire's one-handed swordsmanship, it became a deadly feint.
'How should I handle this?'
Bagan immediately understood what she was thinking with this approach. Since it was all within the scenarios in his head, countermeasures had already occurred to him. However, they didn't fit the current situation. If the weapon in Bagan's hand had been a mana sword instead of a wooden one, he could have easily blocked it. But since this was a spar, they had to fight under similar conditions. And since Selena couldn't imbue her blade with mana, it wouldn't be appropriate for him to strengthen his wooden sword with mana to prevent it from being cut.
In other words, the only options left were to watch her attacks and either dodge or disrupt their flow.
As she approached with irregular zigzag footwork, Bagan prepared himself fully.
'From now on, I have no choice but to trust my instincts.'
The moment that thought crossed his mind, her attack came down from above his head. He'd expected attacks from the left or right, so a frontal assault caught him off guard more than he'd anticipated. That alone told him how much effort she'd put into this strike. But that lasted only a moment. As long as he could see the attack, reacting wasn't difficult. Bagan quickly pulled his body back, escaping the attack range.
This time, he didn't just pull one foot back. That had only been to keep a supporting foot in place for a counterattack opportunity. He needed bigger movements and more distance now. Since his goal was simply avoiding the attack, he moved his feet quickly to get out of range.
Her scimitar, which had come down low, was quickly recovered and chased after Bagan's body. Because it was one-handed swordsmanship, she could follow up so swiftly. The next attack came toward Bagan's right shoulder.
But Bagan wasn't looking at her scimitar. His gaze was fixed solely on her feet.
'If she keeps following the direction I'm dodging, there will definitely come a moment when her steps get tangled.'
Exactly. Because Bagan knew her footwork, he was aiming for one specific thing again. To her eyes, he probably looked like someone desperately trying to dodge, but in reality, he was subtly guiding her in one direction to secretly tangle up her lower body.
And as she continued chasing him and delivering slashes, her stride gradually narrowed until it became narrower than the allowable range of her footwork. To plant her feet properly required a certain range of motion, but in trying to pursue Bagan, she had reached a point where she had to twist her body severely.
Yet because it seemed like just a little faster attack would reach him, she ignored the range of motion and launched her strike anyway. She probably never dreamed that this too had been part of Bagan's plan.
To attack Bagan, who had been positioned at her right shoulder, she twisted her waist and turned her upper body at the same time. The leg that followed was her left, but because her stance was so narrow, her ankle had no choice but to twist excessively. Recovery was impossible, and her legs crossed like an X.
For Selena to regain her balance, she would need to quickly move her right foot as well. And in that gap, naturally, there was no power in her scimitar. With her center of gravity disrupted, she had to spread her right foot excessively wide.
Grind!
The sound of her grinding her teeth could be heard as her movements became visible. Just as Bagan had predicted, after regaining her balance, she spread her right foot excessively wide in order to land a valid hit on him.
But that action became her fatal mistake.
Swish!
The moment Bagan deflected the attack and rotated, he moved behind her as she was recovering her stance and pointed his wooden sword at the space between her left shoulder and neck. If this had been a real battlefield, Selena would have been as good as dead.
"Ugh."
She couldn't shake the feeling of having been completely helpless. Moreover, Selena's current posture was utterly disgraceful. Her right leg was spread excessively wide, her left arm was raised in a forced attempt to balance, and her right hand's scimitar simply hung in the air. Since Bagan was standing behind her, he couldn't see her expression, but he could see her cheeks gradually turning bright red. He guessed she must be feeling extremely embarrassed.
In that situation, Bagan delivered the finishing blow.
"Whew~ That was close. Want to keep going?"
"You jerk."
"Huh?"
"Never mind!!"
Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!
Without even looking at Bagan, Selena stormed off with her shoulders shaking, grabbed her things, and headed into the building. Watching her, Bagan was completely bewildered. He had no idea what he'd done wrong. Losing a spar wasn't something to be that ashamed about.
There was someone else watching Bagan with a sigh. It was Sally, who had been observing from behind.
Arien has finished analyzing Selena's final expression and tone of voice.
"Haaa~"
And as if that wasn't enough, Arien's sharp remark followed.
"After analyzing Lady Selena's expression and voice in the final movement, it can be determined that her favorability toward Master Bagan has dropped significantly."
"What? You can tell something like that?"
"Even without Arien, anyone could make that guess!!"
Sally reacted to Bagan's words as if to say she couldn't believe how clueless he was.
"Why is everyone acting like this?"
Even so, Bagan still had no idea what the problem was.
After finishing the spar with Selena, training for the day came to an end. It was only that evening, when news arrived that Razetta and Cyron had returned, that Bagan made his way to Razetta's study.
Perhaps because he visited every day, the guards smiled pleasantly and let him pass, treating him like he belonged there. Their smiles couldn't possibly inspire anything in Bagan, but since they were smiling brightly, he saw no reason to pick a fight.
Standing in front of Razetta's study within De Marinda Castle, Bagan knocked on the door.
Knock knock!
"It's Bagan."
By now, Bagan no longer asked for permission. Since they all knew everything there was to know about each other, there was no point in such formalities. Knocking on the door was the bare minimum of courtesy.
When he opened the door and entered, he saw Selena—who had arrived earlier—sitting at the study desk with Razetta, and Cyron standing silently behind her.
"Welcome back. Nothing much happened while I was gone, right?"
"Well, yeah. I watched Selena's training and did some sightseeing around the city, and somehow a whole week just flew by."
From the moment Bagan entered, Selena had turned her head away as if something displeased her. But Bagan really wanted to hear those exact words from her.
"Ahem. Doesn't our dear disciple even greet her master when he arrives?"
He might have been teasing her even more because of that. Selena glared at him with an irritated look. Still, she seemed to have recovered somewhat compared to earlier—her cheeks didn't turn red this time. He gave her a look that said, "What are you doing?"
Razetta and Cyron watched with curious eyes, wondering what was going on. Feeling even more pressured, Selena finally realized she had no choice and spoke up.
"U-um... welcome back, Master."
It was an ambiguous greeting that was neither fully casual nor fully polite.
"Mm, it's nice to receive my disciple's greeting."
That was enough. Bagan had no intention of making things any more difficult for her.
"What are you two doing?"
Even so, the sudden situation left Razetta demanding an answer with the pure eyes of a curious child.
"We made a bet during morning sparring. If I won, she would call me Master."
"So Selena lost to you?"
Bagan nodded proudly, his shoulders rising considerably at having beaten her. He thought he heard a sigh from behind, but these things were all necessary for Selena. Only by learning to feel embarrassment could she create a foundation for further growth. Of course, that wasn't his only purpose.
But Razetta seemed to think differently.
"Oh my, aren't you impressive. Does it feel good to make a woman cry?"
Cry. She cried. What was that supposed to mean? Bagan repeated those words to himself over and over.
"No wonder the moment we arrived, Selena was crying and throwing a fit. So this was the reason. You rotten bastard."
Bagan let out a silent scream in his mind. Only then did he realize what he'd done wrong.
'It was all part of training...'
Bagan felt a pang of guilt for being too harsh. As a teacher, this could only be considered a failure. With that thought, he looked at Selena. He had wondered why she seemed different earlier—her eyes were swollen. It was from crying so much. The only word Bagan could say right then was:
"I'm sorry. I was too thoughtless."
At that, her eyes reddened again as if she might burst into tears at any moment.
"If you're sorry... then let's say you lost instead."
At Selena's words, Bagan nodded with an expression that seemed to ask if that would really be okay.
"Yeah. Sounds good, Selena."