Vol 5 Chapter 1 (2/2)

Ariane sighed a bit as she sleepily patted down her hair before she answered

“I see…… I don’t want to work up too ht? Come on, Arc”

Ariane walked out of the dining rooestured for me to follow

I gave Glenys a slight nod and she sentsmile and a small wave

After a bit ofAriane with a wooden sword in hand

As a warrior from Maple, Ariane’s swordsmanshi+p was obviously on a different level than my own

Not tofor all her life, while I’ve only just begun to developstyle

While I wasn’t yet at the stage where I could learn anything fro with Ariane should hter

Since I wasn’t wearing the 『Holy Arht

I tightened my hold on my wooden sword and quickly launched an attack at Ariane

I’d thought withouted to sidestep my attack at the last second and proceeded to launch a counterattack

“Whoa!”

I jerked roup before attacking Ariane again

However, she didn’t overlook such an opening

With ed to launch an unexpected thrust at me

“Ah!?”

I reflexively leaped back when I noticed her inco attack

I didn’t intend to put so much power into the leap, but I realized that I was at least three meters away from Ariane

In fact, when I looked back at Ariane I saw the dissatisfaction on her face as she stared at me with her sword lowered

“Hey, wasn’t that dodge a little bit exaggerated?”

“Uh, sorry It’s just……”

I was still confused by ized anyway

Moving back towards Ariane, I resu stance

This tied to block the attack withtoward the left side ofmy sword around to block

“Ahh!?”

“Normally you block attacks like this withyourself so much?”

Ariane looked confused as she reviewedperformance so far

I wasn’t trying to act any differently than I usually did, but her than normal

After that, ent through the saain, but it was only after the effects of the spring water had worn off did my movements improved

“It see with your true body, want to stop for today?”

Shakingher sword over her shoulder:

“Please, one more bout, Ariane-dono”

“Alright”

I thought back to all our previous bouts as she readied herself

While there wasn’t a major difference from our other bouts, I was more confident this time

My gaze focused on the wooden sword in my skeletal hand

“Here I come!”

With a spirited cry, I launched a diagonal slash

Ariane ed to block the attack with the side of her sword and e and counter-attacked

With a single swing, I ed to calmly block two of her attacks However, while I had been dealing with those, shethat she could easily counterattack from

Instead of falling into that trap, I tried to break the engagement and put some distance between us, but he anticipated thatat me

Ariane had a s on her face as we locked swords with one another

“See, you can do it correctly”

“Haa”

It was Glenys shouting froh spirits

“Breakfast is ready”

“Oka~y”

With that coht our spar to an end

“Whew, I’ht now”

While Ariane was saying that and walking back to themy sword around

I was going over everything I’d learned from Ariane

“There’s no doubt about it……”

I sighed a bit as I said that

When I regainedattacked were regained as well

Whenever I was attacked, the sense of fear and dread that surged up stifled my reactions and made me overextend myself in my defense

Rather obvious, if you think about it

While I was a skeleton, my emotions were heavily repressed and I could calether with my flesh-and-blood body, it was impossible to ily because I had no experience controlling my emotions in stressful situations

As a skeleton I was always prepared for battle, no row as a fighter if I relied on that alone

If I wanted to live with a body made of flesh and blood, then I would need to repeat the earlier part of the sparring session again and again until I learned to be calm under pressure

“This is gonna be harder than I thought……”

With that bit of grue tree as the wind rustled the branches above