Sell you a Bridge chapter 57

The Clock Tower July 22nd 2010 12:00 PM EDT

When Jim had talked about preparation I'd expected him to be talking about  more lessons like the ones we'd had before. He'd been working us pretty  hard the last month and now that we had an emergency inbound there was no reason to expect that to stop now. That, it turned out, had been  wishful thinking on my part. Our lessons weren't as strenuous as they  had been before, they were more so. My particular lessons were in something I'd considered using my points for  in any case, namely my sword work.

 I had an extremely solid grasp on  the use of a sword in very specific circumstances. I was a master  assassin, and my skills with my tanto led themselves to quick brutal  strikes from hiding. With my enhanced reflexes I could take advantage of  openings to use those skills to deal damage, but against anyone with  actual combat experience anything but an attack from stealth or a first  blow that was faster than expected would be useless.

Despite  the fact that he mainly used a long sword, Blood was apparently a  master swordsman so he would be taking charge of my training. I wasn't  sure who the others were training with, but I had enough on my plate  with just learning from Blood. Training in the sword under an actual  Arthurian knight sounded awesome, but in practice it was more painful  than interesting.

Blood,  as one might expect from a man possessed by an actual demon who learned  to fight when child labor laws didn't exist was a little vague on the  concept of holding back. I expected to be able to lean on my reflexes  for this but sadly that was wishful thinking.  Which was how I found  myself here undergoing literal hell training. The flat of a dull but  still definitely metal sword smashed into my fucking ribs from my blind  spot and I went sprawling onto the ground in pain.

Blood  clicked his tongue, staring imperiously down at me "Too passive boy. I  told you, you can't win every fight by reacting. You have to take the  initiative. And seasoned swordmaster has means of dealing with a faster  opponent. You can not keep counting on your instincts to save you." He  had told me that. Multiple times. Each one on the tail end of a fairly  vicious beating he seemed to enjoy giving me a bit too much.

I  saw his point. Obviously. I would have to be an idiot to miss it after  he spent two hours beating it into me. Through a combination of feints,  experience, and what I could only describe as manipulating my  perception, he kept getting through my guard. If he couldn't find an  opening, he made one, and even when I saw what he was doing he managed  to avoid my counter. I'd thought Lady Shiva was scary, but Blood was a  fucking nightmare even in human form.

The  problem was I didn't have any follow ups for my attacks. My  assassination techniques weren't designed with contingencies. If you  missed or got blocked you were pretty much either supposed to vanish  into the dark never to be seen again or die trying. I climbed to my  feet, scowling "I keep telling you I'll attack when you teach me how. I  don't know any actual swordplay, I'm just really good at shivving people  when they aren't paying attention." I kept telling him this and he kept  hitting me anyway and it was really starting to piss me off.

He  didn't swing again, waiting for me to reset. "And I told you, I won't  be teaching you techniques. They would be useless with that short blade  of yours in any case. You aren't listening to what I'm saying. I've  given you all the tools you need to progress, you just need to evaluate  the things you've learned and put them to use. If I have to coddle you  and spoon feed you every technique it won't matter how strong or fast  you are. Regurgitated stances and forms are how you make a meat shield,  not a warrior."

I  growled in frustration and lunged at him, doing my utmost to stab the  smug prick in the shoulder. Not lethally, though he told me not to worry  about that anyway. But enough to fucking hurt. But as usual he  deflected it with ease and shifted the momentum back to him switching  from his deflection to a backhand chop aimed at my collar bone. I  considered everything he'd said so far, and going with my gut I dodged  his blow by moving closer instead of retreating.

Naturally  he reacted instantly, changing his attack seemingly before I even  finished my movement and aiming for the side of my skull with the flat  of his blade. I decided to take his advice about proactivity and mix it  with the experience he'd been using against me. Instead of blocking or  evading I tucked my head down low and shoulder checked him in the chest.  He stepped back to keep balance and I finally caught an opening.

I  drove my tanto down at his thigh, which was exposed by his off kilter  stance. His blade flicked down to deflect it almost like magic (though  he swore it wasn't) but this time he backed off afterward. He nodded  approvingly. "Good. You couldn't find an opening so you made one. And  you used your entire body and not just your blade. It takes most men  decades to learn that lesson, if they ever do. Being willing to take a  blow to give one is also a necessary skill for any warrior." For the  first time in these lessons he sounded genuinely pleased with me. It was  a nice change.

Instead  of having me reset again my new teacher began to lecture, placing the  tip of his dull blade against the ground as he spoke. "Now I can see in  your movements that you know how to track the center of gravity in  combat, that's good, but it's only the beginning of what you need to  know. Your major issue is that you think of your attacks as contained  events rather than a select portion of a larger whole." I'd been using  Artemis's training in our matches so that part I got but I was confused  about what the rest of that meant.

That  confusion was clearly evident on my face because Blood interrupted my  question before I could even ask it. " Think of your battle as a game of  chess. When you attack me, don't think of the result if you make  contact. Think instead of my response, then consider how you might  respond to that response in turn. The further ahead you can predict, the  more effective you can be. You noticed my tendency to create openings  when needed, but creating them at the drop of a hat isn't always  possible. Where you might not find a gap in a single exchange, finding a  flaw in the overall situation may save your life."

That  made sense. It also kind of highlighted the major flaw I'd already  noticed in my combat style. One and done attacks and back stabs didn't  really fit well into the flow of battle. Aside from not knowing what to  do next and leaving me open and off balance mid fight, even worse was  that assassination stressed doing maximum damage with maximum speed and  ferocity. Putting everything into you attacks and springing from ambush  was great, but then you ended up with nothing left energy wise if you  missed.

Blood  had me reset again and we gave it another shot. I tried to do what he  said. In concept it was pretty simple honestly, the kind of thing anyone  would consider. But in the heat of battle when you're focused on making  every move count focusing on the present seems like the only way to  survive. All the thought I put toward the next exchange was thought I  wasn't giving to my current self and that went against every instinct in  my body. Fighting was a visceral immediate thing, getting to the point  where you could think while doing it wasn't as simple as it sounded.

Every  time I tried to game out my next move and his next move I ended up  slipping up and leaving him an opening, and despite what some would have  thought he did not let em skate on them. He punished me severely every  time I slipped up, stopping just short of breaking bones with every  blow. My entire body was a giant bruise but I kept going. The main  problem I was having was that I was trying to chain the assassination  sword strikes together into a usable style, which took active  concentration.

All  my muscle memory was for the singular attacks I was trying to move past  so I couldn't rely on reflex to make up for the gaps. I tried fixing a  sequence of moves in my mind and focusing entirely on that while  reacting to his attacks on reflex, but Blood kept finding the seams in  my moves and interrupting them. I pulled back, and he let me go,  listening to my frustrated voice as I ranted. "I don't have the  experience to know what you're going to do. I can't plan for your next  attack because I have no clue what you're going to do!"

He  smiled "That isn't as much of an impediment as you think it is. You say  you don't know what my next blow will be, but you know it'll be a sword  blow. You can anticipate the approximate direction it might come from.  You aren't at a level where you can perfectly map every movement a  person will make like precognition, but you don't have to be. You can  come up with more general counters to certain broad sets of moves. That  should be enough for your mind to use as a template when you act on  instinct. It doesn't have to be one or the other boy."

I  blinked. He was right. He said to predict what he would do but he  didn't tell me how specific to be. I was the one who took his chess  metaphor and decided he was talking about becoming basically  precognitive. I tried it, coming up with a few broad variables to help  manage my reactions and then attacking. He blocked, like I figured, I  countered and he dodged. I'd been expecting a deflection and got caught  in the ribs but he was right, this was much less complicated. We went  again, and I did better, and again, and I improved more.

Of  course it was hard to map my improvement considering Blood was  increasing the difficulty as I went, but perfect memory comes in handy  and I knew where I was doing better. The exchanges got faster, not much  faster, but faster. It was good my muscles had stamina because this was  more a marathon than a sprint but even so, I eventually got worn down  and had to call it. I expected Blood to force me to keep going but he  didn't seem upset. He seemed to trust my understanding of my limits.

He  nodded to me as I put my tanto away. "Well done boy. You've learned  quite a bit. I must say i find myself in the rather unfortunate position  of agreeing with Craddock about something. You really are an  extraordinary talent. Mind you, we're far from finished, you have much  more to learn. But this was as good a start as any I suppose." 

With that  he sheathed his blade and walked out of the room, leaving me to crawl  over to the water bottle I brought for a drink. I smiled slightly to  myself as I dumped the cold liquid in my head and slipped my phone out  of my pocket. Since I had some downtime I might as well call my  girlfriend. Talking to her sounded like the best way to cool down after a  hard training session.