The distance closed faster than they thought yet both were prepared to attack each other. Aermith let out a small grunt while jabbing his weapon forward. Avina ducked low, seemingly before her Father made his move. She was learning, adapting to his movement patterns. In order for her to even come close to winning this fight, she’d need to be faster than he even was. The thin sheet of ice below the coat of snow allowed Avina to propel well past her Father. To avoid herself from sliding any further, the sword was stabbed into the ice. While the wooden swords were for practice alone, both weapons had jagged edges that emulated the real thing. All of her momentum came to a halt which meant it was time for a counterattack. Avina stood upright before turning to face Aermith. Almost immediately, Avina’s face was met with the back of Aermith’s hand. Blood shot from her mouth as her head snapped into another direction which was then followed by her body. Everything in her vision blurred for a moment, the last few seconds failed to register in her head. Avina was certainly prepared for his backhand… but it angered her that it came so soon. At this point in time, the girl was off balance with her back facing the floor.

  “Show me that ambition you say… fine! Take it! Take all of it!” The blurred vision became focused again, pinpoint in fact. This was exactly how everything was supposed to happen. Whether she had gotten hit by his backhand by it or not, it wasn’t called a counterattack for nothing. Aermith felt a sudden force being driven into the side of his face. It came so quick and unexpectedly that even he wasn’t able to react to what just happened. Now matter how hard she may have hit him, he wasn’t allowing himself to end up on his backside. Aermith stumbled back while holding his jaw. ‘Her foot! It had to have been her foot. There was no other way she could have reached me in that short amount of time with any other body part.’ Avina on the other hand recovered faster than usual by rolling across the snow as soon as she was thrown off balance by the backhand. While her Father took his time trying to understand what happened, his Daughter was already on the offensive. She charged at him while staying low to the ground, the sword in her hand trailed behind her.

  She thrived off of some sort of sick determination. It was shown all over her face. A mixture of emotions that fueled her very being, A high she achieved for the first time. It was her first time feeling such a feeling and yet it became so addicting. Is this what a fraction of battle was? She could only hope to imagine what the real thing was. Avina strafed side to side while approaching Aermith. It was a maneuver to throw her pattern off while also keeping her Father in view. He watched her closely while backing away slowly. Aermith constantly created distance to give himself time to analyze Avina’s pattern. Despite her current height, it didn’t help Aermith that she was nimble. Avina gently hopped from side to side on the balls of her feet before breaking out into a full on sprint.

  “There you go! Come on!” Aermith encouraged his Daughter to attack. He stopped backing away and prepared himself for what was to come. Once again the distance was closed, yet Avina strafed to the side of Aermith at the last moment. A flurry of attacks was sent his way in seconds. Aermith spun on the heel of his foot so he could face his daughter. Each attack had speed behind it but lacked both precision and power. Even the way she held the hilt was unusual. Two hands were meant to occupy the hilt of a broadsword, not one. Aermith was skeptical on if Avina even really took his teachings that serious. Most, if not all of Avina’s attacks were blocked with ease. Through the midst of her flurry, he threw in a jab of his own. It was a mere warning shot, a strike to humble her. If she was not taking this seriously, there would be consequences. Unbeknownst to him, Avina was using this as an opportunity to experiment. Not only was it a test to see how far she could get with her own way of fighting, but it was to bait Aermith into attacking.

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  Aermith’s warning shot slipped through her own attacks. There was no time to parry, instead, she relied on her reaction speed to evade the attack. Avina weaved the sword by a hair which brought her low to the ground once more. Her flurries from earlier was a simple method to get off as many attacks as possible in a short period of time. It wasn’t anything meant to be taken seriously. Her free hand reached over to grab a part of the hilt. Having both hands on the hilt was traditional. Aermith explained a numerous amount of times that placing both hands on the hilt would improve what she currently lacked, precision and power.

  “Now!-”

  Even while everything seemed like it lined up perfectly, Avina was just one step slower than her Father. Before she could let off her attack, Aermith’s knee mashed into Avina’s face. Her body was tossed back a few feet, even tumbled a few times before coming to a complete stop. Aermith stood where he was with his knee still raised in the air. The cold breath left him while he panted. Slowly but shortly, he’d lower his leg, gently placing his foot back onto the snow. Was the match over? Did he overdo it? Avina didn’t move a muscle as she lay sprawled out on the snow. As far as overdoing it goes, that thought was shaken off. There were men far larger and stronger than he is that Avina will encounter. Taking it easy on her just because she’s a girl is a thought that will never cross their mind. Whoever stood in their way, man, woman, or child, they were going to be slaughtered. It’s a cruel world they lived in and those that were considered weak would have to either adapt or succumb to those that are stronger than them.

  This is what Avina had chosen for herself. She chose to embrace the real world rather than sheltering herself from it. If it was one thing Aermith admired about his Daughter, it was her bravery and resilience. As far as the match being over? No, it wasn’t. The body of his daughter twitched a bit before tightening her grip around the hilt. She’d pull in her arms close to her chest before pushing herself off the ground. Both arms did most of the work as her legs barely supported her during this hard time. Blood trickled down her nose again… and to think she just got it to stop bleeding recently, oh how foolish she was. The girl stood up to her feet with the wooden sword being used as a crutch to support her weight. Avina weakly laughed,

  “Why’d… Why’d you stop? D-Don’t tell me you’ve gone soft on me now..” droplets of blood from her nose ran down at a quicker pace now.

  “I wasn’t sure if you were going to get up or not.” Aermith slightly smiled, “Your confidence is going to get you killed one day, Avina.”

  “We stop when I tell you to stop. And I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.” She raised her sword and aimed it at Aermith.

  “Alright I take it back… your pride will be the death of you. Let’s finish this.” Aermith now flashed his teeth when smiling while raising his sword to aim it at her.