Re:Atonement [ARC 1] - Continuing 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 in Another World

5: The Journey Outside With a Planned Diversion

The dawn of the sun arrived: causing Avril to awaken. She washes her face and fixes her hair before making her way to the garden to do some morning exercises. Arriving at the garden, she sees a familiar figure training once again. She waves and greets the person with a smile.

  "Good morning, Reinhard!"

The person stops his training and turns around to greet the girl, "Good morning Avril, do you want to do some training with me this morning?"

  "Yes, but I'm going to stretch my body first."

Reinhards continues to swing the wooden sword, while Avril does a lot of warm up exercises.

  "I'm done warming up, let's start the training."

  "Alright then, take this sword. Do you want to strike first?"

  "Seeing that I did offense first yesterday, how about you strike while I parry."

Remembering the same event yesterday that caused Avril to get a strain, Reinhard quickly said, "Um, I do not want a repeat of me going too far."

  "Oh– right... In that case just use swift blunt strikes instead. My goal is to just parry the attacks, and hone my instinct. Oh, and– start slowly before going all out, ok?"

  "I get what you're asking," Reinhard smiled and nodded. He then gives the wooden sword to Avril and prepares to attack; before he begins, he asks: "Are you ready?"

The girl once again grips the sword tightly, she takes a deep breath and clears her mind. She then prepares a stance and readies her instincts and eyes. Finally, she then said, "Let's go!"

Reinhard rushes forward, striking at Avril's left side and then all the other sides. Knowing that things are starting out small first; she easily parries all the starting blows. What follows next is a series of quick feints. Using her instincts: she is able to pick it up and block the attacks.
Things start to pick up, and her opponent starts to get faster each moment. Avril uses some of her mana to enhance her speed and strength, keeping up with the attacks much better. The feints and attacks get stronger and faster, but Avril is still able to block all of it.

Reinhard starts to strike from above and uses a feint; Avril seeing a familiar feint before, was able to parry it, although the sword nearly closes in on her. To avoid it: she quickly jumps back, and recuperates to be able to better deflect incoming attacks.

A few more minutes went by and Avril was still going strong– probably because the attacks did not hit like a speeding truck or an impacting battle hammer. Then again, this is her forte.

  "Impressive Avril, you truly are better at parrying attacks. You never faltered badly, and always managed to maneuver through."

  "Thanks, I may be better at parrying with a lance; though all of my training with Teacher and the Parry God paid off."

  "Now that I have a grip on your fighting style and skills, I can help you better your offense. And I believe that you won't need too much help on defense."

  "Really? I'll take that opportunity to get stronger!" Avril said with a wide smile.

  "–And, I would like to ask. Who is this 'Parry God'?"

  "Oh– that, It's usually a title to those who mastered the Guard Style. A technique that fully focuses on defense, parrying, and countering attacks."

  "And you were able to train with the best? No wonder you're so good at it."

Avril let out a chuckle as she replied, "Ahaha, Teach was the one who introduced me to the sword. While I was basically forced to duel the Parry God on multiple occasions– But I'm not mad at all that he trained me; in all honesty, I'm glad I was able to get better."