"C-Rank? Is that good?" Syla asked before lifting her feets up.
"Hmm, i won't say it's good, but it's not bad either, i've had my fair share of encounters with adventurers in the past and i noticed that most of them usually stayed within the C and D-Ranks, but you're different. While most C-Rank adventurer's were in their 20's or 30's, you achieved the same level of strength at just 14. If you keep training and increase the challenges as you grow, you will undoubtely be in one of the top." Raywen explained as he stroked Syla's head.
He then walked pass her, turning back towards her direction once he was far enough, his sword raised from his waist and he let out a smirk onto Syla.
"Come on, we aren't done yet." He said.
When Syla saw Raywen's mockery face, she got fired up and smiled back, she raised her sword to be at the same level with him before dashing forward.
CLACK!
.
.
An hour later—
A loud thudding sound was heard from the training room, Syla fell to the ground as she gasped for air, her face was covered in sweats and her clothes were all wrinkly.
"That's it for today spar." Raywen said before he placed his wooden sword on the side of the room, leaning against the wall.
Both Syla and Raywen had been fighting for over an hour, throughout the dozens of matches, Syla was unable to win in any of it, her skill were still a bit below Raywen, despite their equal speed, Syla was lacking in experience, after all she only recently battled against a real opponent, and not just swinging her swords in the air.
"Huff.. Huff.. I almost hit you!" She said whilst breathing heavily.
"You're right, but you're still not quite there yet." Raywen replied as he chugged a bowl of water, he used a bowl instead of a cup solely because it's his preference.
Syla remembered the last spar, before she collapsed on the floor, she was blocking all of Raywen's attack and held out longer than usual, her eyes were locked in and she channeled all of her senses into her sight, when Raywen tried to trick Syla again into thinking he'll use his fist to punch her, Syla saw through the trick, as soon as his fist moved, Syla noticed that its power were lacking, her mind calculated the end result of the punch if it were to hit her, and in less than a second, Syla concluded that the fist was a fake and kept focusing on Raywen's sword.
She managed to keep her focus and not fall for the trick, as she blocked the next slash with her sword, Syla suddenly let go of her body control and moved purely by instinct, her eyes saw a small opening in Raywen's chest while his hands was swinging the sword, using that opportunity, Syla passed the wooden sword from her rivht hand to her left hand.
She then spun her body, avoiding the vertical slash from Raywen's sword by a strand of hair, and she swung her sword that was in her left hand and aimed at Raywen's chest.
The entire thing happened so fast that Syla couldn't tell if she succeeded or not, when she thought that the attack should've hit Raywen, she instead was met with disappointment as her sword barely missed his ribs, Raywen turned his body to the left, since he was facing towards Syla, she saw him sliding to the right.
Raywen took a step backwards and once the wooden sword passed by him, he then lunged forward for an attack, Syla was unable to dodge or block in time because her sword was in her left, which isn't her dominant hand. In the end she was bested yet again by Raywen who stopped his sword at her neck, if he hadn't stopped, the sword tip would've stabbed Syla right through.
"Huff.. huff.. Uncle Raywen, where did you learn your swordmanship?" Syla curiously asked out of nowhere.
"Hm?" Raywen was startled to hear her question, that he almost choked on his water. "Well, how do say this– Umm, this might sound hard to believe, but– I was taught by a dragon."
"Dragon!?" Syla was shocked to hear his answer, her eyes wide opened and her ears perked up. "You met a dragon before!? And you were taught swordmanship by that dragon!?"
"Haha, that's basically it— It happened when i was 15, a year older than you. Back then, i still lived in a different village, in a different part of the world, along with my parents—
"At that time, i was foraging, searching for an edible mushrooms and plants so that my family could eat.. In the middle of my journey back home, i smelled a fire burning near me, and i got curious, i mean if there's a fire in the forest, then it'll spread to other trees very quickly, i'll have to warn the village if that happened—
"But what i didn't expect, was to find a human in there, mind you– I lived pretty deep in the forest back then, and there's many monsters and dangerous animals roaming around, a human usually won't go that far, because it's easy to get lost—
"Wait, where's the dragon?" Syla abruptly stopped Raywen's words.
"Let me talk first! Okay, so– The human i saw was wearing leather armor and steel pauldron, so i immediately knew that he was an adventurer, the question is– What is he doing there right? At first i tried to spy on him and see his actions—
"But before i could even hide properly, his head suddenly turned towards me, he said 'Who are you?' to me, and it got me scared, i tried to run away, but then he said another thing, 'Im not here to hurt you'—
"Now, that could've been a trap, but i was a bit dumb back then, and i approached him, revealing myself, it turns out, that human wasn't a human at all, he was a dragon taking a human form, he asked me to help him find a certain flower, or fruit?.. I kind of forgot—
"And if i remember correctly, back then i coincidentally had the flower or fruit that he was looking for in my foraging basket, he thanked me and asked me if there's anything i need, now– I was about to reject his offer, but then he suddenly suggested that i learn swordmanship—
"To be honest, i don't know why he thought that i wanted to learn swordmanship, maybe his dragon eyes saw something in me or he was just feeling like doing it that day.. Since he was a dragon, i basically had no way to refuse, i mean it's a dragon! He could've killed me if he wanted to—
"He told me to meet him in that place everyday, so i agreed, i went foraging everyday and then spared my time to meet him, i was led to a cave near the place we first met, the dragon told me that he wasn't as strong as i thought he was, i remembered he said something about him being expelled from his family because he was too weak, but i can't be sure—
"The dragon trained me, he gave me an instructions to basic combat and guided me for more than 3 years.. In the end, I was able to mimic his fighting style, and he left shortly after congratulating me, he said that i was his first student.. Strange story isn't it?" Raywen ended his story with a chuckle, saying that his story was strange and weird.
However, to Syla who heard all of it, the story was nothing but fascinating for her, she listened to Raywen and thought that the dragon was most likely searching for someone that will inherit its technique, that's when he found Raywen.
"No! that was an interesting story! So that's why your fighting style looked like it was made for someone with insane flexibility, it was originally a style meant for dragons.." Syla said, her tail wags aggressively behind her.
"Hahaha! im glad you like it." Raywen smiled upon seeing Syla's expression.
They both talked for a few more minutes, then when it was time for the next training, Syla was left with a feeling of satisfaction.
"Let's go train your magic now." Raywen said as he walked towards the wooden dummy at the other side of the room.