Tale Of A Knight

"You need to rest your muscles after putting yourself under so much work, are you sure you did not overdo it? I asked you to cut down ten trees, not twenty, you know…" Mekros however was not aware that Bakit did just that. He only managed to cut down ten trees and even that could be considered to be done in a rather mediocre way. The way the wood has been cut into pieces would make one think that the lumberjack had never wielded an ax in his entire life. Of course, Bakit did not wield an ax before that much was true, but wielding it with only one hand was excruciatingly hard and exhausting.

But Bakit did not rest, instead he went toward the location of his other teacher, the Sword Lord, the greatest swordsman in the entire kingdom as it turns out. Bakit promised to come by any time he had the free time, but this time, this time it was an entirely another issue.

As he approached Sword Lord"s residence, Sword Lord casually greeted him while sitting on the front porch of the house, with his hat in his arms, his messy dark brown hair was clearly visible.

"h.e.l.lo there, my student. You haven"t been coming at all lately so I was starting to get worried that you quit on me or worse ended up being killed or eaten!" Master Zen said it in such a humorous way but Bakit couldn"t find it in himself the capacity to laugh at such a joke. "Why such a tense look? Don"t tell me you are quitting as well?"

"No. I am not quitting."

"Thank goodness."

"Instead it may be you, Master Zen, who will reject me as a pupil." Bakit answered with a regretful look on his face.

"And why would I want to do that?" Master Zen asked.

"Because of this." Bakit showed the Sword Lord his missing right hand. "I lost my dominant arm, now I am crippled. Teaching me anything more would be pointless. I wouldn"t be surprised if you wish to teach someone else…"

"So you thought just because you lost a hand that I would stop teaching you? Is that so?" Bakit nodded. "Then let me tell you this- I am not quitting being your teacher."

"Why not? Why would you agree to train a student who no longer can even wield a sword properly?"

"The path of the sword is for those who chose to take it, not those who can, but those who chose to. In order to learn the secrets of swordsmanship, what one needs is not talent or ability, but pure perseverance. Do you still want to learn swordsmanship?"

"Yes."

"Then I don"t see anything wrong with teaching you."

"But…"

"I would agree to teach anyone as long as one is persistent. If you are missing an arm, learn to use the other one, if you have no arms use your legs, if you have not either, use your teeth. The path of swordsmanship is open to anyone willing to learn it, as long as one is not held back by preconceived notions of limits. You are still my student, until the time you decide to stop learning, I shall teach you."

"Thank you, master Zen." Bakit bowed to him.

* * *

"While I am going to teach you swordsmanship, you will face lots of hardships, doubly so, considering you have to use your left hand in place of both your hands. And no, I am not going to go easy on you just because you are crippled."

"Master Zen, with all due respect, all you have done so far was to use air slashes in order to knock me away, giving me lots of damaging and bruises. How exactly is that going to help me?"

"In order to learn, you must experience the slash upon yourself, learn to minimize the damage it inflicts on you, predict its trajectory and avoid it. And if avoiding it is not possible, learn how to counter the air slashes. This is the fundamental part of your training. The air slashes I am using against you are one of my weakest attacks. I need you to learn how to counter them so that you can gradually grow. If I do not build you up like this, then I will not be able to teach you the more complex forms, your body simply will not be able to take it. Simply put, this is the training to make your body used to taking hits and develop an instinct to counter those hits. Instincts are not inherent, at least when it comes to swordsmanship, they are built with experience, which you currently lack. I am training you like this in order for you to develop such a fighting instinct."

"I see. So I have to learn how to counter those air slashes, right?"

"Exactly. Once you develop the skill for countering my air slashes, your true training as a swordsman shall begin. It all depends on how you persevere through it. Know this, if you quit you shall never reach your goal, but as long as you don"t quit, I shall gladly partake in your training."

"I will not quit, Sword Lord, you may not know this but I am pretty stubborn if I say so myself. I will not back down even if that air slashes of your throw me across the mountains!"

"That"s the spirit! Let us begin then!"

The training lasted for more than ten hours. By the time they were done, the landscape of the training area looked like an elephant strolled through it. There on the ground, completely bruised, lay Bakit, breathing heavily.

"Well, you have learned to dodge some of the air slashes, so that is some progress." Master Zen said with a smile, trying to be a little sympathetic. It was impossible to get the hand of such technique just after training a few times. It takes time and effort to learn such skill. Sword Lord in particular wanted Bakit to develop three skills, detection, avoiding, and countering. Bakit seemed to get the hang of the first two, which is impressive of itself, but he seemed to have trouble countering the air slashes. He ended up receiving most of his injuries because he couldn"t muster enough strength to counter and dispel the air slashes coming at him which he could dodge in time.

"I can avoid your air slashes majority of the time, but…"

"You will not always have the opportunity to run from your enemy, run when you can, dodge when you can, but when backed into a corner, you must be able to counter the air slashes. You have made a good progress for today. Now go home and rest. We shall practice more the next time you come." Sword lord was impressed. Even with one hand, Bakit kept going through the training, in fact, this time he lasted two hours more than the last time. He was steadily improving. It seems like Bakit practiced simple swordsmanship under the tutelage of the knight he was squiring under. That was good, but as the apprentice of Sword Lord, he would need to learn more than basic swordsmanship.

"Yes, sir." Bakit bowed and left. He was most happy that his teacher did not think of him as a lost cause, he still had a chance at becoming strong. In his heart, Bakit thanked his teacher, the Sword Lord, for such generous treatment, even if he did end up beating the h.e.l.l out of Bakit during training.