Chapter 12.1

Pertrellan's voice rang through the room. "This is neither a spar nor a battle to the death. Use your abilities, but make sure not to kill anyone. If you aim for head, neck, or heart, and feel like you're about to hit, hold back on your abilities. Such a blow counts even if you don't actually kill your opponent. That goes for both sides."

Eirwen had already sensed not all had prepared their blades the way they had before. The speech quickly rectified that. She put that thought aside and focused on her opponent. His goal would be to either take out everyone, or break through to get to her. And given his secret order to her, she would bet everything on him going for the second.

The knights' formation was about two-thirds of a circle around him. Suddenly he launched himself towards her, then his right, no, feint. She stabbed forwards to where he would break through the line. He succeeded, his sword slashing- "HALT!" Everyone froze at Pertrellan's shout. Eirwen saw her sword was barely sticking in his side, and it wasn't the only sword that touched him. Then she felt something trickle down her neck.

Her eyes opened wide as she carefully observed his sword with her senses and sight, making sure not to turn her neck. The blade had been Verglassed and had cut through the top of her shield, but now the top half of it had withdrawn the blue edge. As a result, only the blade itself had cut her skin. As for him, five swords had reached him, but both his skin and clothing glowed red-brown. His personal version of the Carraig defence, and he had used it to catch their swords. Even Verglassed, they had barely managed to pierce his skin. Her hit was the cleanest, yet it was but a narrow flesh wound.

He slowly moved his sword away from Eirwen, while the rest withdrew their swords from him. It was obvious who had won this bout. Bethan rushed up to her, but she shook her head, then gestured at two of the knights he had broken through. Broken ribs on one, a shattered shoulder on the other. The healer and her apprentice both muttered curses as they went at treating the two. Those injuries would take time to heal.

As for him, she looked at the bloody cuts while he moved away. The blood had already ceased welling up from his injuries, even where she had stabbed him. She could tell he was employing healing abilities, yet another thing he had managed to make an imperfect copy of. She focused on perceiving how he did it, then gently applied the same manipulation to the cut on her neck.

He walked back to his central position before turning towards her again. But it was the knights he addressed. "The techniques I used are wasteful ones. In a real fight, I would have run dry soon after. I would have been able to disable or kill some of you, but not all, and I would have died myself. On the battlefield, I wouldn't have made it far enough to begin with. And of course this being training might have dulled your responses."

His eyes narrowed as he frowned at them. "None of that matters. Because the truth is that you failed to protect your Duchess. And while only the blood still illustrates the already-healed cut on her neck, in an actual fight, Eirwen's head would have rolled like my father's did." Knuckles clenched all around, but none dared refute his claim. Eirwen knew that she had barely scratched him, yet she had been at his mercy. Three days ago, she had been less prepared.

"Now this specific trick likely wouldn't work again, now that you have seen it. But there's still plenty of other tricks I could use, never mind other possible adversaries. For now I would like to focus on smaller groups, so I can show you what I want you to train on. Again, I'll be using mental orders for starting positions. First up, Arian, Llywelyn, Ieuan."

The three lined up, while everyone else stepped back. As for him, he grabbed a shield off the ground, matching their gear. Without a word, he launched himself at them, excellent footwork letting him make feints in-between his real attacks. Even from a proper distance, Eirwen had a hard time telling the feints apart. The three had a harder time and only a few counts later, Llywelyn and Ieuan collided.

It was but a small opening, but it was all he needed to plant a knee in Llywelyn's face, smashing the man's nose as his sword tapped Ieuan's throat. Arian went for his side, but his shield easily fended off that attack. He made a move towards her, then stepped back, ending the bout. Bethan growled at him as she moved towards Caerbychan, setting his nose by hand before she applied her healing.

"Alright, first main lesson. Normally, we cannot properly stab people in armour, especially not when they're in full plate. The Verglas technique resolves that by allowing its wielder to cut through anyway. It requires only a small amount of mana to use, which means it works well even when ambient mana is exhausted. This is what made it the perfect counter against the Flamehearts."

He offered his hand to Caerbychan, pulling the man up as a form of apology. "However, it is a technique that requires significant focus. Which is why normally it is focused purely on the tip of a blade. There are two problems with that. First, as I showed before, the weapon can still get stuck. Second, the focus on thrusting makes you more predictable. Feint the right way and creating an opening becomes rather easy."

His arm gestured widely at the large group of onlookers. "Of course, when it comes to a combat line, slashing already is more complicated. But in a smaller group, focusing on stabs leaves openings to exploit. So while these three need to work on their ambidexterity, all of you need to add variety to your Verglas techniques. A sharp slash at the right time can decide a fight."

Another group, four this time, were called forth. This time, he danced around them, weaving away from their attacks. The very instant that they got in each other's way, he started whittling away at them. Soon after, he declared his victory with just one opponent left. Eirwen made a note that he hadn't needed to use the Carraig defence in either fight.

"Of course, in a smaller group, it becomes even more important that you can depend on the people next to you. At the same time, you need to be ready to respond if they falter. Finding that balance is crucial. Too little focus means you'll go down alongside them, but excessive focus on them means you might become the weakest link instead. There is no other solution than practice for this problem."

He continued to call forth small groups, engaging them with various combat styles to address both their individual problems and overall techniques. Eirwen noticed quick mental messages fly from him, likely pointing out personal flaws without publicly embarrassing anyone specifically. Though they were already being embarrassed enough by the ease at which he kept taking them on.

A few times, he took weapons off the walls, using the variety to catch people off guard. After he had engaged all the knights still able to fight, they switched things up to small engagements involving mana abilities. It was honestly frightful for Eirwen to see how many different techniques he knew nowadays. She made a silent pledge to study them all and use whichever she could.

At one point, he took four spears off the wall while facing three knights from a distance. Rather than move towards them, he suddenly threw one, its tip Verglassed. One of the knights barely managed to block it with his shield, though the spear easily went through. The knight had paid attention earlier, though, moving his shield to hinder it. Then a second spear flew, which he blocked, but the weight of the caught spears pulled the shield down. A third spear, not Verglassed this time as to not cause a critical injury, hit his shoulder with enough force to break his collar bone.

Without a second thought, Eirwen snatched up a shield and flew forwards into the opening, smashing the fourth spear aside with a twist on the Carraig defence applied to the shield. She saw a proud smile on her opponent's face, before he launched himself at her and engaged them all up close. A few exchanges later and both froze their blades, hers already beginning to cut into his arm, his held back just as it touched her throat from the front, ready to pierce through. A better result than before, but still he was victorious.