Night's Walk [Open]

As Cassima made her lunge, she'd be met with Mirai's blade striking the foible of Cassima's weapon, and successfully deflecting the blade and pointing it downward.

"Game over," she said. "Or it would be. See, when things go fast in battle, sometimes dodging can be tricky. When dodging is out of the option or if you want to open an opponent's position for an attack, you try to deflect their weapon. What I did here is a parry. What you want to do when someone lunges is to deflect their blade by attacking their tip or 'foible' with the lower part of your own blade near your bell guard. Not only does it stop them from attacking you, but it helps you make your next move which can be to move away or attack them."

As she said the last part she'd demonstrate by once pushing Cassima's blade out of the way and thrusting close to her.

"Now, let's try and practice that. I'll lunge, and you parry and then thrust," she said. She'd make a lunge towards Cassima which she expected her to respond to with a parry. "Parry, thrust. Parry, thrust."

Cassima's blade almost went out of her hand when Mirai strike as she lunged forward. The girl gasped as the blade touched the ground and Mirai declared that games were over.

"N-No, the game is not over, at least not yet." Cassima shook her head in denial.

She remained quiet as Mirai began to explain about parrying and thrusting.

Now it was Cassima's turn to do that, she nodded and prepared for Mirai to strike and for her to parry.

When Mirai tried to hit her, Cassima responded by a parry. "Parry." She spoke to herself, before thrusting herself forward, intending to hit Mirai.

"Thrust!"

Mirai smiled in approval at Cassima's ability to quickly follow instructions.

"Alright, we can do this a bit more, and I'll move onto the other subject matters."

***

As the night progressed, Mirai would teach Cassima about footwork ("Head and toe land together!", "Going backward, back foot goes first!"), what direction to strike should the sword come at her ("Go parallel the strike to block"), how to dodge and dock, and eventually the two would have a rhthym going. As they started finished a second routine, Mirai would stop.

"Alright, Addington," she said, dropping the formal honorific. "I've taught you a few basics. Let's see if you remember them. Let's do a small duel! I won't hesitate to hit you this time, of course, hmm~?"

Mirai would stand a distance from Cassima with her parasol sword thinning down so much it almost looked like a thin blade.

"Alright, feel free to make the first move," Mirai said still standing perfectly still.

Cassima nodded, after a long night of training, she was ready to fight Mirai again with the moves that she had learned. She had braced herself. Ready to make the first move as Mirai told her to begin. "Right!" She called out as she charged forward.

Remembering everything that Mirai had told her, she started to use them as she tried to strike at Mirai's parasol. Attempting to whack it off of her hands so she can leave her defenceless. She was also ready to dodge should Mirai fight back.

Cassima's strike would be met with resistance. Mirai smirked as she pressed her blade hard against Cassima's. However, instead of knocking it aside, Cassima would find the blade of Mirai's parasol sliding up her blade to push it aside, and therefore diverting Cassima's body slightly sideways. Once Mirai had fully slid her parasol out of the blade's resistance, she would try to strike Cassima from above on the head with the blunt side of the blade.

Cassima struggled to keep her grip as her sword moved upwards along with Mirai's parasol. She noticed that she was being pushed sideways and tried to go back to her original spot. But she couldn't. "Woah!" Cassima slightly yelped as she looked back up again.

And saw that Mirai was about to strike her from above.

"Oh no you don't!" Cassima cried out as she tried to move herself from the side to avoid the swing and so she can strike Mirai from behind. Now that her blade was off Mirai's parasol, she tried to slide now to the side.

At Cassima's quick dodge, she smirked.

[color:f7ba= gold]"A good evasion," she said before turning to try and strike Cassima again, this time swiping her sword from the side with the aim of hitting at Cassima's torso. [color:f7ba= gold]"But if you ever want the advantage, you're going to have to keep moving!"


Mirai would stride to draw the distance between her and Cassima shorter as she attempted to her strike.

Cassima listened to Mirai well, she had to keep moving if she wanted to win this battle against her. She was impressed that she was doing well in this lesson but she knows she will do even better if she succeeds in this fight and defeats Mirai.

She kept moving, she tried to jump past the next two strikes that Mirai was attempting to give her. The first was by her torso and another near her now that she was close to Mirai. "Not today." Cassima tried to jump back before attempting to jump at the side again.

This time in an attempt to strike Mirai at the side.

Despite her not saying it, Mirai was pleased to see that she hadn't been able to strike Cassima just yet. At least it meant the girl was learning fast and possibly had intuitive reflexes. In fact, Mirai supposed that came with the package. People in Eisleyn always had to be on their feet whatwith the fickle nature of their princess.

Once again, Cassima would try to strike, this time aiming for Mirai's side. At this, Mirai shifted her blade's position perpendicular to Cassima's. Once the blades hit, however, Mirai would move, rushing to Cassima's side and trying to thrust her blade forward and jab at her.

Meanwhile, in the distance, Cassima would see the smallest shimmer of something in the distance. It was as if for a moment, a portion of the scenery of the background seemed to turn wavy like a dysfunctional mirror.

Cassima growled when her blade clashed with Mirai's parasol once more as she struggled to hold her footing. Looks like she might have to dial back and perhaps jump away from Mirai. "You can't keep this up forever, one of us must win this practice fight!" Cassima taunted Mirai.

But then she saw something from a far.

"Huh?" Cassima saw the weary scenery, which somewhat made her dizzy and caused her to lower her guard as she became distracted of the odd weary scenery. "What is that?" Cassima spoke out loud.