Vision Voyage by Edmund Hughes

Author:Edmund Hughes [Hughes, Edmund]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy
Published: 2019-02-05T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 32

There was plenty of time left over even after they’d finished setting up the tents and assembled enough wood for their campfire. Leyehl had heard from Rin about Kerys’ desire to develop her combat training, and she’d set aside several straight branches of sufficient length to serve as training swords.

“Let me get in on this,” said Ari, remembering how challenging of an opponent Leyehl had been in the wrestling ring. “I’ve only trained my swordsmanship with Eva. I’d love to sow my seeds elsewhere, uh, so to speak.”

Eva shot him an odd look, and Leyehl, limited to following along through tone and body language, furrowed a brow and hesitantly passed him a branch. She used Ari to demonstrate her movements, mainly showing them a variety of ways to strip a weapon from an opponent’s hand.

“Can I try?” asked Kerys.

Leyehl seemed to pick up on her meaning, and positioned her across from Ari. She gave a nod, and Ari initiated the slow, telegraphed overhand chop that would have been easy to block or dodge out of the way of.

Kerys tried to attack his grip on the sword, fumbled and fell off balance, and received a small tap on the head as Ari’s stick hit its inevitable target.

“Ow!” She scrunched her face up and rubbed at her scalp. “That hurt!”

“It would have hurt a lot more coming from a real sword,” said Ari. “But at least you tried.”

He leaned over and kissed the spot on her head he’d hit, which he suspected might develop a small lump, given her frail disposition. Leyehl showed Kerys the movement several more times before having her try again on a slower attack, finding success.

They learned a few more moves, mainly more disarming attacks interspersed with a couple of trips. Leyehl eventually let Ari spar against her in a mock duel. He was a little surprised when she chose a longer piece of driftwood, using it as a spear rather than a sword.

His own stick was only an inch or two shorter than Eva in her sword form, and it felt comfortable enough in his hands. Despite that, Leyehl was clearly more than his match as his opponent. It reminded him of fighting the purple mesmer back in Deepwater Spire, which reminded him of other things that he didn’t care to think about at the moment.

Even as they fought, Leyehl’s gaze only remained on Ari for the bare minimum required to take his measure. She kept glancing over at Eva to an extent that was borderline excessive. Ari couldn’t help but wonder if she’d believed the answer she’d been given earlier about whether Eva was who she said she was.

He attempted to catch Leyehl off guard with a reverse slash during one of her distracted moments and ended up cutting thin air as Leyehl rolled across the sand under his blow. She seized him by the shoulders as she rolled, twisted him over her leg, and tripped him with what seemed like minimal effort.

Leyehl was openly staring at Eva when Ari pulled himself back to his feet, and Eva had finally noticed.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.