There is a lot about me you don't know -Tales of Arcadia ENG

12- Not a Pleasure

NDA: Small advertisement. Nemain is kinda nasty inside this chapter (or maybe she is not that nasty for you. Depends by who reads, I guess.)
Hope you enjoy anyway! And thank you, reader :)
-Killian

TRACK 12

I'm just a would've been, could've been,

Should've been, never was and never ever will be.

Well, sharpen your teeth.

Tell yourself that it's just business.

(And the snakes start to sing - Bring me the Horizon)

********

Steve wanted to be able to fight. Steve, however, despite the hint of coordination due to his good athletic physique, definitely was not an easy person to teach.

Partly perhaps because of his impatience, partly because he wanted to prove to himself that he was capable, and partly because his ramblings at times seemed to take away from his thinking skills -he actually had them? That was kind of surprising- leading him to throw himself on the attack screaming -wrong . It might have sounded cool in cartoons, a good way to throw off frustration and scare the opponent, but it was still very wrong- and waving the sword without any real study of the opponent's stance.

The previous day's beating had certainly brought him down a notch, but not enough to remove his vain instincts. Those would probably never go away, Jim thought, but he still had to quiet his overconfidence in fighting or he would underestimate his opponents.

Jim got quite frustrated when Steve went rogue, but on the other hand, when it happened, it was all too much fun to knock him out. That still didn't change the fact that he would have preferred that he managed to get some results instead of wasting time in such a manner.

Had it been fencing lessons for fun, he might have taken it a tad more easily, but those weren't just any spare time lessons. It was not just any hobby. Steve had to learn how to protect himself, too. Or it was going to end badly rather quickly, especially if there wasn't someone there to have his back.

Sure, he could help him out, but he could only do so much. In case he didn't get the chance, maybe there would have been someone else... But what if there was no one at all? That was going to be a problem.

If he compared Steve with his novice self, he could see what he had done better from the beginning... and what the blond boy did already by instinct, probably quite unconsciously, because in the second case, he would surely brag about it.

'Well, at least he is not an entirely lost cause.' Jim found himself thinking after beating him one more time, tearing up with a noise of frustration, an annoyed comment about the pain in his butt, and a grimace... but to which he nevertheless rose after a short while.

Jim raised an eyebrow. Another good point.

"You need to improve your guard, Steve," he found himself saying to him, giving him two taps on his upper limbs with the back of his sword. "Your arms need to be lower. Your weapon needs to be an extension of your arm, not something that just swings forward, I told you that yesterday."

"Yes, okay, I understand! I just have to adapt. Give me a break, man."

"...And don't scream," he added, chuckling.

"Don't yell. All right," Steve started nodding repeatedly. And then he threw himself back into the attack again, landing blows left and right, but always without really taking into account the study of his opponent.

In less than a dozen seconds, he found himself on the ground again.

"Oh, come on, really?!"

"Study how your enemy looks, Steve. You have to pay attention to other people's body language."