The defensive stance focuses on balance, with both feet planted on the ground, steady and unmoving. A true knight can switch stances during heated combat, quickly going from attack stance to defense stances in an instant.
Then there's the lounge stance—a special attack form used for sudden bursts of speed. It allows a knight to close the gap between an enemy in an extremely powerful leap.
It is also a fine line between defense and attack stances that allows the user to seamlessly flow into the attack stance or fall back on defense.
Zach panted; his hand bled around the hook blade. The dummy's stance was incredible as it parried Zach's previous attacks.
Now there was a clear difference. First of all—weaponry. Zach's hook blades gave him an edge; they could latch onto an opponent's weapon, creating openings and limiting their counters.
The greatest strength of this weapon lies in versatility; with their trapping and defensive design, Zach could block almost any attack and adapt in situations.
Much like his skill. But there were disadvantages.
The sudden burst of speed caught Zach off guard, and the wooden blade struck him in the face. "Arrggh!" Zach dropped his weapon, holding his bleeding nose.
Everyone had gotten back to work, and Richard watched Zach from the sidelines. "What's gotten into him?" Richard pondered.
"If... I can see the blade, I can dodge it." Zach stood back up with the hook blade in his hands.
The dummy lunged, striking Zach's arms.
The dummy thrusts it's wooden blade at Zach's forehead.
The training hall stopped; Zach got up again and again.
"So this is what he meant by training perception..." Zach panted, grabbing the weapon one more time.
If he wanted to go back to his world, he had to complete the trial, and to do that, he had to get stronger.
Zach was beaten by the dummy multiple times; his attack failed to graze the dummy before taking a strike to the fingers.
Night slowly approached; Zach knelt, bleeding profusely as the dummy stood over him.
This would have been so much better if he had a training instructor.
"The first two levels were just the warm-up stages; now the dummy fights for real..."
His vision blurred.
"What.."
The loss of blood made him collapse on the spot
****
Zach soon woke up in the infirmary, wrapped up in bandages. "After all that?... I still couldn't see it?" There must be something wrong with him...
"Oh, I know... lack of talent..." The ability to think two times faster is useless in training.
If he couldn't see the opponent's blade, he couldn't think fast enough to dodge it. Also, his reflexes were delayed.
Zach knew these were not skills one could pick up overnight, but still, he had to at least have seen some progress.
"My body is too weak." A week passed, and Zach was fully healed; the nurses there were exceptionally nice people, telling him to take his rest.
He was carried there by Richard, who saw Zach unconscious, bleeding by the pavement.
Zach strolled into the courtyard, hands in his pocket. "Hey, Zach!" Richard yanked him from behind playfully.
"What...?" Zach groaned. Richard flashed a cheeky smile. "Look over there." He twisted Zach's head.
Walking in the distance was a beautiful female trainee with long black hair and bright blue eyes, walking away with a sword on her side.
"You rarely get the chance to talk to her... go now." Richard whispered.
Oh... Zach was internally disappointed. The girl's name was Beatrice, and the former owner of this body basically worshipped the ground she walked on, confessing his 'feelings' so many times but getting brutally rejected over and over.
So, not only was Zach a former weakling, he was also an ass-kissing moron.
Zach sighed. "I see her..." he replied.
"Wait, you don't wanna talk to her...?" Richard asked, surprised. "What's there to talk about? She's not interested in me, so why waste time?" Zach shrugged.
"Waaa..." Richard's eye shined. "This new version of you is kinda weird." He folded his arms.
"But in a good way."
The academy has three ranks of students that determine your status, the kind of missions you take, and what more you could learn.
There were bronze badge, silver badge, gold badge, and platinum students. Zach was currently at the bronze level: basic training drills, wooden dummies, practice repetition, and discipline.
Once you enter the Earth rank, you'll be given the silver badge; this comes with a lot of benefits, like access to the central library, taking on missions with better pay and quality.
Then there's the gold; these guys are the prodigies and the sacred treasures in the academy. They get access to private instructors, secluded training, and all sorts of valuable information.
That was what Zach was aiming for. And the platinum rank were already deemed knights by the kingdom, but haven't spent 4 years in the academy.
In the next two weeks, signaling the start of a new month, the academy will be having its reevaluation program—a series of tests that will determine its students' current rank.
Zach had to reach the gold rank as soon as possible to get those ranks. But to get stronger, he would need to consume bloodstones.
And missions to hunt monsters were exclusive only for gold rank and above. Zach, the previous owner of this body, being the bronze rank, was only sent to patrol the borders, where he met with an unfortunate circumstance.
Zach strolled to the training area to train with the dummies.
...Under the night sky, Zach swung the blade at the dummy, who dodged his attacks yet again. "Why can't I get a direct hit...?" Zach was getting frustrated.
The perception training was failing miserably too; no matter how much Zach tried, he still couldn't see the blade.
Three days had passed with rigorous training, and still no results. The only noticeable change was Zach could move and sense danger, but that was all.
In the middle of a grass field was an elevated platform, and on top of that elevated platform was another dummy stand. Zach sat on the rim, frustrated.
"You're doing it all wrong, you know..."
"Huh..." Zach heard a voice. Startled, he turned to the side to see a beautiful blue-eyed girl with black hair.
Zach blinked. Beatrice was a current gold badge student, training under a master swordsman who was renowned throughout the academy.
She stared at him with a blank expression.
"Umm, what are you doing here?"
"You're in my spot..." she pointed at the dummy.
Usually, Zach trained inside the halls, but that place was too dark now, and nighttime made it harder to see where the dummy's blade was.
"Really...? And what do you suppose I'm doing wrong?" Zach asked.
Beatrice simply pointed to her eyes.
"You're trying to see the blade," she said. "That's your mistake."
Zach raised a brow. "Isn't that the point?" He chimed.
"If I can't see it, I can't dodge it, right?"
Beatrice shook her head. "Perception isn't about the blade; it's about everything else."
"If you try to predict a blade's path by the movement of the blade itself, then a fainted attack is all it takes to kill you."
"You should rely on things like the stance of your opponent, the twitch in their muscle, the intent in their eyes—all can be used for predicting the blade's path."
Rely on things like movements, huh...?
Strangely, it made sense. If he wanted to predict a blade's path by focusing on the blade, then a fainted attack could catch him off guard.
"Thanks for the lesson." Zach bowed and walked away. Beatrice watched his back for a few seconds.
"Strange.."
She was half-expecting Zach to come suck up to her like usual, but fortunately, that wasn't the case.