The snow got us to the sword didn't it? I think we're doing rather well. We have valuable experience dodging and blocking, which is important as we are trying to learn how to fight with a sword. We're almost certainly not going to win any of the bouts today.
Alright fine, since we want to do more than just get beaten on: Stand up, commanding your body to recover, ready yourself and cast Witchsight to give you a better chance against Aethelwine's trained reflexes. When you first parry a blow from his sword try to break it.
Hmm. I don't think we could win this conventionally. We're clearly outclassed in terms of skill, both in swordplay and also magic, and I dont think spending some of our focus on looking at magic would be useful. Instead, I think we should just go all out.
Use the snow to create an opening, then start attacking him with everything we got, the sword, our limbs, be unpredictable and wild about it.
I think we should focus less on winning and more on imitating Aethelwine.
You grip your sword again and try to channel mana,
recovering from the damage... to no effect. Looks like you can't just instinctively do magic like that. Nevertheless, you sharpen your
witchsight as you stand, quietly grasping a handful of snow with your free hand.
You try to lower your stance like Aethelwine, whom you are starting to see overlaid by
a tracery of force. Your thighs hurt like buggery, and you notice yourself start to rise up. As far as you can tell, he doesn't seem to be using any magic. Frustratingly, rather than sharpening your conventional senses, the focus required to use your seventh sense seems to dull the rest; your sight and hearing are not so acute, and you worry this may impact your reflexes as well.
Aethelwine does not wait, but immediately springs into an attack, which you jump out of the way of before launching into your own frenzied assault, hurling the handful of snow at him before swinging your sword in erratic abandon. The skill with which he blocks and evades your blows is no less impressive for the apparent effortlessness with which he does so.
Watching somebody fight with witchsight is... interesting. Although he casts no spells that you can see,
mana courses rapidly up and down Aethelwine's form, forming bright concentrations around his head, spine and joints in a display of some sort of natural distribution of the force.
With an elegant movement, Aethelwine twists his sword around yours and simply takes it out of your grasp with his free hand, tossing it away. You try to attack him with your bare fists, but he smacks you across the arms, legs and finally temple, keeping you from drawing close and knocking you back with pain. He taps you gently beneath the sternum with the sword when you recoil.
"That's two. Are you really even trying?"
Author
Topic: Apprentice [TSG] (Read 10729 times)