True Love's Seventh Kiss

Ch.41 Birth of a Gentleman

Henry tried to keep in mind what Kaliban had told him:

"Those who fight with two swords fall into three basic and distinct categories. Assassins, rogues, and dancers. Which means in order to master the two sword styles you must become all three!" Kaliban advised, and then taught him how a "gentleman" would master such a craft. At that point the philosophy was lost on Henrick outside of a few key points that were beaten into him.

"A gentleman must be able to dance, and more importantly when he shares a dance with a lady he must dance WELL!" Kaliban said and taught him how to dance the footwork and how to lead a lady.

Henry swallowed and winced only slightly, since from that point on Kaliban had been quite exuberant in beating the lessons into him. He closed his eyes took a deep breath and when he opened them, he focused his gaze on the crimson-eyed noble lady in front of him.

"You may begin." Count Novak smiled.

At this point Henry was glad for his spartan training since his body sprang into action as soon as it needed to. Even though the philosophy was here and there and didn't make any sense, Kaliban had put his body through the wringer so that it could respond even when he couldn't think.

Gloria's happy go lucky attitude changed and she switched to a lower stance and went on the offensive as she took three low strides and then leapt at him. Without that training Henry would have never seen it coming since she quite literally managed to slip out of focus when he blinked his eyes.

Instinctively, Henry raised one leg and before she jumped, he took a step to the side and took the low road ducking under her as blocked her swords with a pivot and then he changed his stance so that his feet were close together and he was standing tall with both of his swords raised and pointing in the air so that the tips touched. They sizzled slightly as they touched, and Henry's face flushed from embarrassment since he was already being called twinkle toes by the guards.

However, this was one of his best defensive postures, or at least that is what Kaliban said. It was because he presented minimal surface area for attack, and he could easily step forward or backward to dodge a ranged attack or thrust.

What he didn't expect was the round of modest applause coming from the young ladies who had never seen such a handsome and dashing sword style. Which only embarrassed him more.

"Focus, young Henrick. A Gentleman's attention does not waver from his partner when he is in the middle of a dance." Kaliban admonished with his signature clap that he did a shoulder height.

Gloria refocused as well, since she was using an assassin-based style, she specializes in short bursts of aggression and surprise attacks.

She proved this with her next flurry of attacks. What she didn't expect was that Henry would move with such ease and manage to find her blind spots with his dance-like style. No matter how she attacked it was as if he knew how she would strike and would somehow manage to block or dance into her blind spot. Usually, she would run circles around her targets but Henry managed to stay near her and made her feel like she was spinning around.

Frustrated by how she wasn't able to strike him with her daggers she managed a spin kick across his face. In response he used the momentum and landed his own kick on her. The tiny Gloria was sent spinning and in her frustration, she threw her daggers at Henry forgetting that they were Starbrands and not actual daggers.

Henry panicked because he had just KICKED a noble lady and was only able to block one of the daggers.

"Young miss Gloria, is the victor!" Novak announced.