CLACK!
CLACK!
Syla continuously swung her sword in every directions, only to be blocked by the wooden sword her dad was holding over and over again, she tried to increase her speed, swinging her swords with much force than before and making more unpredictable moves, but it was still not enough.
After a barrage of attacks for her, Syla then prepares a final move, she swung in a horizontal angle towards her dad's left waist, and as expected, her dad blocked the attack, but it wasn't the end of it. Syla knew her dad would easily parry an ordinary attack, so she came up with a secret. After her sword blade made contact with her dad's sword, she quickly spun the sword using the backwards momentum that the sword generated from hitting her dad's blade, then she positioned her sword's hilt to the front, aiming for her dad's stomach as she planned to hit him before he could realize.
'Now!' Syla said to herself, once the perfect time has come up, she lunged the sword's hilt forward, thinking that it'll atleast hit her dad's skin, even if he managed to step back to avoid it.
However, she forgot about one thing, and that is the fact that her dad has two functional arms.
THUD!
Syla's dad moved his left hand in a rapid motion and pushed her hand sideways, it felt like a slap, and Syla who was taken off guard didn't had enough time to counter it, her lunge missed her dad's stomach and she instead stabbed the air with her sword's hilt.
After avoiding Syla's final attack, her dad then took a couple step back, and he smirked at her, seemingly praising her ability to create an opportunity using everything she had.
"That surprised me, using the sword's hilt to attack? That's a risky move you know, unless you have enough strength to push your enemy back, that kind of attack would only create a large openings for your opponent." Her dad said.
"Atleast i almost hit you!" Syla argued as she furrowed her eyebrows.
"That's true, keep doing that, never lose your focus." Her dad then goes back to his stance. "This time, try to block my attack."
"Huh?" Syla didn't quite hear what her dad was saying, and because of that, she was shocked when she saw her dad dashing forward.
Swoosh!
'KEUKK!—
Syla instantly raised her sword to block her face, her dad swung his sword in a horizontal angle from her left, just as she thought she was going to block the attack, her dad opened his hand and let the sword escaped from his grasp. In a split of a second after the sword was freed and spun in an angle, her dad grabbed it again and reached for her neck, he was about to stab her when the tip of his sword stopped just before it touches with her skin.
"You fail, try again." Her dad said, taking a step back and increasing the distance between them.
Syla was stunned with her dad's motion, it was way too skilled, she barely had any chance to see it coming, when her dad was about to stab her neck, Syla had already thought of blocking it, but her hands couldn't follow her mind, it was delayed by a fraction of a second, causing her dad's sword to slip through her defense.
'Damnit.. Fuck— That scared me, huff.. huff... Focus, maintain my focus, just like when i was absorbing mana— But this time, i need to constantly move along with it, and ignore every part of my body to move through instinct.' Syla said in her mind.
"Tell me when you are ready to give up!" Her dad said, he smiled as if he was enjoying the moment, watching Syla struggle against his attack.
"Okay!" Syla responded, her eyes completely locked onto her dad's wooden sword.
SWOOSH!
'UGH!– FROM THE RIGHT!' Syla shouted, alarming his conciousness to move her hands.
She saw her dad aiming for her right ribs and raised her leg to take a step back, she then swung her sword to the side to intercept with her dad's sword trajectory, as their wooden sword was about to collide, Syla's eyes noticed something with her dad's hand.
'He's— Holding the end of the hilt?'
CLACK!
Both Syla and her dad's sword collided, sending them on the opposite direction, while Syla's hand was being pushed the sword's force, her dad suddenly regained control of his sword, thanks to him holding the end of the hilt so that when the sword was flying backwards, he can transfer those forces into a powerful stab.
Once again, Syla's defense was tricked by her dad, and he quickly lunged his sword to her chest, stopping right before it hits her like before.
"Haha, did that surprised you? You failed again." Her dad said as he retracted the sword to his waist again.
"WHAT WAS THAT!?" Syla screamed, not understand what just happened.
"That's one of my unique attack, how is it? Isn't that cool? If you're fast enough, your enemy won't have any chance to block it because their swords are still carrying force from the collision." He explained.
Syla fell into silence for a few seconds, her face was blank and her dad wasn't sure if she was happy or mad about it.
"So cool.." She whispered. "DO YOU THINK I CAN LEARN THAT!?"
"Hm? Ah.. Ahahahaa!! Well, i don't know about that, its not something that can be easily learned, you'll need to train for years to be able to master it." Her dad laughed, amused by Syla's enthusiasm.
"I'll do it!! I will train hard!! And i will be like you one day!!" She said happily with a smile, looking at her dad with sparkling eyes and wagging her tail.
"Yeah yeah, you will become like your dad one day, that's for sure." Her dad said. "Let's continue, the sun's still bright, and im sure you also think that wasn't enough right?"
Syla stared at her dad for a second, admiring his figure from the distance, she never thought that her dad was this skilled at combat, that explains why he almost never coming back from hunting injured.
'Huff.. huff.. This is still the beginning isn't it, there's still more than decade left until my adventure, i've taken many steps ahead of others that are around my age, and i will keep taking those steps further as far as i can– Right now, all i need to do is improving.'
Syla and her dad went on to train for an hour, at the end of the day, she had learned many techniques and swordmanship skill than she could've expected, at night, Syla felt her muscle contracting, probably because of the exhaustion from today.
As she closed her eyes, she dreamed of earth, her first home. In there, she was standing in the middle of a crosswalk as Syla, the same body she had reincarnated in, countless people are walking pass by her, seemingly ignored her presence as if she was never there.
After a few seconds of staring into the nothingness infront of her, Syla saw a colossal dragon emerging from the distance, it roared at the people on the crosswalk before flapping its massive wings, sending strong winds that shatters every glass and buildings.
The colossal dragon moved its eyes in a different direction, until it locked itself at Syla. As it looked at Syla with its burning yellow pupil, she felt her body growing taller, at the end, she was standing at around 172cm tall, her hair had gotten longer and her chest had also grown.
Before she could understand what the meaning of that dream was, Syla woke up in her bed, the night had already passed and the sun was rising.
'Strange.' She thought.