After breakfast the four of us went to the training building. Carl brought two wooden swords.
I and Carl stood a few feet away from each other, each holding a sword, as Talor spoke, "If you are gonna do this, you need to do it properly."
"The first to hit a vital area wins. Don't use excessive force, try not to hurt each other. And I can't always tell if one of you are hit at a vital area so just be honest."
I nod, stepping back with my left leg, holding the sword in the right hand pointed at Carl. Carl holds his sword with both hands, the sword pointed forward. Then he nod.
Talor looks at both side before shouting, "Start!"
Carl moves first, stepping forward, slashing down. I stop the swing, and push up, before twisting the blade to hit his palm. He steps back, pulling the sword back, maintaining the bind. He then twists his sword, slacking the bind and going for my head. I pull my sword back and swing up to stop his sword. Using the bind, I swing his sword down before thrusting forward. He steps back beyond my reach.
He immediately steps forward, pushing my sword to the left and aiming for my shoulder. I take a step to the right, rotating my sword to stop his.
I swing the sword to my right, while twisting my wrist aiming for his shoulder. He catches the blade and tries pushing the blade forward using leverage. I step away, and reposition my sword to gain some leverage and push his back. He steps back, coiling his blade back before steping forward with a stab to my abdomen.
As he'd pull back while I was pushing forward, I couldn't move my sword in the way fast enough. I take a step back out of reach. I then snap my sword at his, pushing it lower, before swinging the blade toward his body.
He steps back, letting my swing go past before moving in, swinging his blade to push mine further away. Before stepping even closer as he twists his blade around mine aiming for my underarm.
I step to the left while pulling my hand inward twisting my arm to put the blade in his way. It wasn't the most comfortable position to hold, but it was better than getting hit. Then I take a few step back, before pointing the blade back at him.
He also steadies his blade. This time I step forward first with a slash. He blocks it, I twist it around, he tries whacking it away. I step forward with my left foot, planting my right foot back, while puling my sword back, keeping it in almost still. Then stepping forward with my right foot, while pulling the sword into a forward thrust.
My blade slides along his as it hits him in the abdomen with a pop.
I step back, as he lets go of his sword, holding the point of contact briefly, before breathing out a puff of air and sitting down.
"Might have put a bit too much effort into that one." I say while offering a hand.
He huffs for a moment before taking the hand and standing back up, "No kidding."
"Well, that's that." Talor says before asking, "You two alright?"
I nodded and Carl gave a thumbs up.
Then Angel tugs at my sleve, she asks as I look over, "You are not... hurt?"
I smile. "Not at all. Though Carl deserves more of your concern." I say before pointing at Carl.
To my pleasant suprise she actually walked over to him. Stoping a few inches away before asking, "You... hurt?"
His face lit up at the gesture. He then smiled, before flexing his right arm and saying, "I'm all fine. Thank you for worrying."
Angle takes a sigh of relieve. Before she comes back to me and says, with a barely excited voice, "You were amazing with that sword. I couldn't even follow most of it!"
I smile, "Well, I was trained for this."
Then Carl asks, "Be honest, what did you think? Do you think I could have became a part of the military, if they allowed me."
I now look at Carl. His skills are decent, and his reflexes are also good. The main thing he is lacking are strength and the rigorous training of military, really. And he is pretty old too, he is probably 7 or more years older than me, so he is past his prime time, which means he was probably much stronger in the past. It might had been possible for him to survive the training, though, I can't be entirely sure, with his current strength it'd be almost impossible, and even at his prime, would he be strong enough? I just can't be sure.
I look him right in the eyes, "I can't say for certain, that you could. You are skill full, and for a normal person, you are definitely strong, and at your prime you were likely stronger, but I can't exactly no how much stronger you were, and strength is large factor in the military training specially if you start later than 9 years, it'd take a lot of strength to get through and survive the training. But if you could at least survive the training, I can see you being a decent or even above average soldier. You already have some decent skills even without military training"
Carl replies, "I see" he thinks for moment, before smiling, "Well even having you acknowledge my strength is enough for me. Even though I'm so old, I actually got a complement from you!"
"We should go back to the main building for now." Talor chimes in.
I and Carl both nod, I hold Angle's hand as we all head back. It was nice to see her talking to others for once. I wonder if she'd open up to the other to some more as time continues. I ponder on the thought, having a slight smile on my face as we headed back to the main building.