64 Ash 110
Ever since he had been taught his sword maneuvers all those weeks ago, the young and hopeful Chisuo had been practicing them faithfully and tirelessly that even he could see he had made a marked improvement although he would not confidently claim such a thing until after he had been evaluated by his teacher and his teacher's next visit? It should be soon. Very soon. Shuai not the least bit worried that his teacher would miss his appointment as the good and bad thing about the man, he noticed, was he always kept his word and expected everyone else around him to do the same. This amount of discipline in the man meant that if he had told his young student his next visit to the Chisuo estate would be a little after Earth's Rest, Shuai did not even need to know the exact date of the man's expected arrival to prepare himself to meet his master every single day. It was a good thing that he did too as for some reason this time his teacher seemed to be in a little of a rush and wasted no time in beginning the day's lessons. He had first mentioned he wanted to give another lecture to Shuai as it was important but to the boy, it was nothing but had because having to listen to something that lengthy this early in the day? He had not fully woken up yet!Instead he suggested for it to be done a little bit later. And why was it important for the lecture to be done later instead of right there and then? Uhhh... uhhh... uhhhh.... the boy did not have a good reason for it, not being fully awake was not a good reason and there was no telling what his teacher would do, would think, if he found out Shuai was not at his top condition for the days lesson when his teacher had come all the way to the Chisuo estate for it. With no good reason to give, and no excuse prepared either, Shuai could only answer with the first thing which came into his mind. "Its still early! Its the best time for us to have a little exercise. Get the mind sharp for the lesson. Then we can have breakfast. Or brunch. We can have breakfast or brunch. Even lunch if you like. What about the lecture? Uhhhh. you can give it while we eat yeah? By the time you are done, all the food should be in and you can teach me more practical things. This way we won't waste time waiting until we are ready to do... things..." Did that make sense? Shuai hoped that made sense and fortunately his teacher agreed that it was a good idea. A little workout to start the day, lunch, the lecture and new lessons for the boy which the teacher was sure his young student was looking forward to. It would keep the boy's interest up for the whole day if he saved the best for last.
So Shuai was going to get what he wanted, although he probably was not going to enjoy it. His teacher started him off with drills and had his young student show all the moves he had practiced. Starting with the first two he had ever learned, an overhead slash with an axe and a sword, the boy was glad to hear he had done it so well that his teacher was convinced the practice of all those months have borne fruit and it was enough for Shuai. The young boy could spend his time focusing on refining his other moves and revisit the overhead slashes once in a while, whenever he felt like he needed to. After watching Shuai with the other drills the man was even more convinced this was the right way forward because even after weeks of practicing, it looked as though his young student had barely even improved. He was all over the place. Had he even been practicing properly? But he had, the boy assured the man. He had been doing everything exactly like he was told and taught to do! If that was really true than what was with all the flows the man had seen in his student? Was Shuai training behind the man's back again? "No, no I didn't. I learnt my lesson- I learnt your lessons. Your lessons were the only things i've been following. I swear!" Indeed it was quite obvious the boy had learned his lesson and did not want to go through the tiresome punishments again.
And with no proof his student had messed it up somehow, the teacher just resigned to this really unfortunate incident. This was going to set back their efforts for another few weeks but it was lucky he found out about it early. If it had taken as long as going into Frost, things would have gotten really bad. As a result the early workout which was only to last a short while was going to have to continue for a little longer as Shuai's had to take the painstaking effort to teach his students all the sword moves from scratch. As Shuai showed every move he learned a few weeks back from his teacher, the stabbing, the slashing, the sweeping, the blocking, the other man pointed out all the flaws he found as they happened and guided Shuai into fixing them through more drills until they were all passable. And then the last move which because it required something special, a gauntlet and his master's supervision because of how hard it was, was the thing his teacher wanted to see. Because of the difficulties of Shuai being able to practice it on his own which means he would not have practiced it at all, maybe it would not be as screwed up as all those other moves he had just put on display.
Shuai tried to remember, how did this work again? The hilt was supposed to be the attack, to pierce strong and hard into, whatever. To do that the boy was going to have to use the gauntlets to protect his hands as he held on hard to the blade of the sword. "Yeah I can do it, watch" he said as he held fast, lifted his hands up and smashed that sucker right to the front. His teacher saw the boy doing it properly as he should. Whatever ruined him had not affected this move he could not practice by himself at home. What could it be? Regardless even if his young student did it right, there was something still off about it. He got Shuai to do it again. And again. And again. "What's wrong? Tell me?" The boy had been repeating this for a while now but there was no corrections from his teacher and he started to get worried. Finally his teacher realized why it was off. It was weak. Maybe a little bit of room for improvement? Have Shuai jump while he was doing it so he had the benefit of his body weight? Or maybe he would just have to wait until he had become an adult. The young boy would never be strong enough to pierce any armor, no matter how much he trained.
And then they have their lunch, a late lunch, but not late enough for a lecture! Arrgh, why did he have to suggest this schedule? The lecture was both good and bad. Good because it informed Shuai of all the cons to relying on the sword as a weapon and bad because it shattered his worldview as his own father dueled with a sword and he had spent so seasons wanting to learn how to use one and then weeks practicing how to use it. If he thought about it just like the other nobles there was a really good reason for why his father dueled with a sword and chief among them is that the nobles of Kalzasi had deluded themselves into believing the sword was the noblest of weapons. Think about it. It fit into a sheathe and was not as cumbersome like a lot of other weapon to bring around but it still could not be hidden away like certain deplorable the sneaks would use. It had become a symbol to carry around. Also a sign of two equal opponents if they fought against one another with that weapon which had spread far and wide. Then there were the cheeky duelists because it was easier to use with one hand to flourish and show off in their fights. Those were the reasons the swords were used a lot even though other weapons were heavier, longer, concealable, or whatever that one characteristic set them apart from the boring sword.
Error. Error. Hearing all that was enough for the poor impressionable young boy to freeze up which his teacher then took the opportunity to retrieve another weapon. Shuai had learned the sword to better know how to fight against it. Not to rely on it as his own weapon in a fight. If he wanted to win fights and defeat his opponents, this was going to be the weapon he had to learn how to use. A polearm. A lot of nobles looked down on it because it was more commonly used by grunts in the military and it was ugly to their aesthetics tastes but that perception could be used to a polearm fighter's advantage. This left the question of whether Shuai wanted to stick with a sword or if he wanted to begin his journey with the polearm.
"I can try."
His drills with the polearm was quite similar with the sword but also very different. He had to control the weapon with two hands now and this was the first time he had both hands occupied in a fight. It made his early movements really awkward for him as having to keep both his hands on the weapon all the time was interfering with him too much. There was no need to say anything about it's interference when he wanted to make an attack, it was making it hard for him to move and get anywhere too! His teacher tried to give him some much needed guidance such as telling the boy to have one hand leading the weapon and the other hand supporting the weapon but being difficult for the young boy to understand what the man meant, he could only let his young student by practice over and over until his body was able to perform it without interfering too much and allow Shuai to realize it on his own. Advice and words of encouragement could only go so far with the young and sometimes it many even have the opposite effect on them instead and the teacher wished to avoid what had happened to his former students where his lessons did not work out very well with young Shuai.
A few more days and after he was sure his young student could maneuver with his new weapon without being too much a danger to himself and to others, Shuai's teacher decided to get him started on drills for real. Just treat it like a sword for now he told the boy and had him perform the movements. The stab, the slash, the swipe and the block. His teacher helped him with his hand placements as well as the movements of both his hands as he did hits maneuvers with a more hands on which although made the process a lot slower also seemed to be a method much more easy for the boy to understand and put into practice. And then just as his teacher hoped, Shuai after repeatedly performing the moves came to the realization that the polearm's advantage over the sword, it was its reach. And then his teacher started to explain just what advantage he was supposed to be going for as he did each move. To stab, it was to out hit the opponent. Hit them before they can hit you or keep them away from you since your very long stick is always going to be between you and them. The slash? That was the same thing only with the benefit of being a lot easier to reach the head. The swipe, actually, sweep? Although not very practical because of how long it took to do, it was the perfect way to control the ground around him. Was he forgetting anything else? Oh right the block. His teacher said if Shuai was dumb enough to allow someone to get that close to him, just hold it across. If he was lucky he might actually be able to block them off.
And that was all for the polearm for now, the obviously superior weapon to that which the nobles of Kalzasi preferred to use.