The Dragon's Clause

Chapter 10: Delicious

"You're much faster than I expected, Lady Lulusia." He admits.

"You're a little slower than I expected, my lord." You reply with a devious grin.

Sabo's smile twitches a bit. "It wouldn't do to disappoint you," he says, a soft growl prowling at the corners of his tone as he seems to wake up before your eyes. His completely defensive actions shift and he begins to test for openings in your moves to push you back.

"I wouldn't be disappointed," you clarify, focusing more of your movements on trying to keep him off-balance at least a little. The wooden swords are well-crafted, but you didn't want to test if the Duke's strength was enough to break one when you needed it to block a strike. "Though I could offer to instruct you-."

You clip the tip of his sword, knocking it away by snapping the upward arc of your follow through to break his momentum, and then using the tip of your sword to keep his pushed wide as you stepped in close. Almost nose to nose you watch as blues eyes, wide with shock, look away from his sword into your smiling eyes. Instead of landing a blow you stepped away as quickly as you'd stepped in, putting space between the two of you as he brought his sword back in. "-alongside your guards?"

Sabo steps back from you, putting a more comfortable space between the two of you. His eyes flick from the tip of his sword to you, keeping you in sight while trying to discern how you knocked his weapon so wide.

"How'd you do that?" He questions, body tense and more on guard than he was a moment ago.

"Leverage." You answer casually, stepping lightly and shifting your lead foot before stepping in again. You double stepped again just before crossing swords, putting your dominate foot ahead again to cross the blow from Sabo.

You shifted lower and slid your blade against his, repeating the move from earlier, but instead of knocking his sword wide, he twisted it and broke the connection between the two. You moved through the release, not letting it put you off-balance, and brought your arm up into his elbow as you moved under his shoulder.

Ducked down as you were you let yourself tumble forward, somersaulting against the ground before coming back up to your feet. It gave you enough space to avoid being struck in the back as you cleared the reach of his weapon before turning back to face him.

"So this is how that style works." He muses, pivoting to face you again. "The precision of the strikes must make it difficult to master."

You nod. "Most of the people my father taught knew at least one other style. He always said any sword was good enough if it could fell a beast and protect a knight."

"Why such a difficult style then?"

"Two reasons, but -." You dash in again and aren't surprised to see Sabo's handling your strikes much better now that he's seen them. "I can't demonstrate the main reason."

Sabo manages to adjust to the angle of your strikes, and the swords lock for a second before he moves to shove you back. Once you feel him lean in you drop your stance again, using your lower center of gravity to bring him forward. His foot shifts ahead of him and you feel the wood of his sword press against your back as yours presses into his chest.

"I'll have to practice more." You say, trying to ignore just how close the young Duke is right now. The two of you part slowly, the shape of his amused smile lingering in the back of your head.

"The primary reason is that causes a kind of magical feedback, right?" Sabo questions and you nod. "Secondary to that it seems like a style that is meant to give better odds to a singular fighter versus multiple enemies. I imagine when coupled with magic it's quite terrifying."