Falaise

Tentative Training.

Buggy woke up to the familiar sound of clashing swords. Stretching his arms, he got out of bed quickly, surprised to realise that the sun was only halfway up. Soldiers usually woke up with the light of the sun, and, as it was not wartime, did not need to be on the training ground so early in the day. Putting on simple clothes, not expecting to meet many people on his way down, Buggy decided to take a look at the source of the sound.

As intended, he met no one in the castle's corridors, though he caught a glimpse of a few busy servants here and there. Finally reaching a door leading to outside, he pushed it open, shivering slightly from the cool morning air.

He walked to the training field silently, not wanting to interrupt the soldiers with his arrival. He stopped in his tracks as he caught sight of the two men standing in the stony pitch.

Mihawk had his eyes set on Crocodile, tracking his every movement.

The scarred man held a sword in his right hand, handling it surprisingly skilfully despite the hook on his left hand. It allowed him to block Mihawk's attacks with both arms, though the smaller man was obviously nimbler and faster. They were not on equal terms, that much was obvious. Mihawk was better at swordsmanship, whereas Crocodile was obviously better at hand-to-hand fighting.

The blades rattled against each other, Crocodile's embedding itself in the ground a few metres away from the two men. The man grunted, going to pick it up before he sheathed it.

'Enough, I'm out. Find another opponent, Swordsman.' He announced, walking away and taking a seat on a log nearby.

Unfazed by Crocodile's reaction, Mihawk turned towards Buggy, motioning for him to come nearer.

Surprised that he'd been noticed, Buggy approached hesitantly, barely suppressing a flinch as Mihawk threw him his sword, handle first. Buggy caught it mid-air, unsure of what he was supposed to do with it.

'Do you know how to fight, my Lord?' Mihawk asked, the last two words pronounced with a neutral tone. It held none of the usual deference people demonstrated when they spoke to him to his face, but also none of the mockery and contempt people used when they talked behind his back.

Deciding that he would not give any more reasons to his new knight to hate him more than he probably already did, Buggy nodded. 'Not as much as a royal guard, I'd expect, but to deny it would be to lie.'

Mihawk did not answer, but he took up a position, on the look-out and ready to strike. He swooped on Buggy, and the blue-haired man barely had the time to block the hit, feeling himself getting significantly pushed back. He almost lost his balance, but held tight, crouching instead.

The opposite swordsman did not pick up on Buggy's dodge, but struck again. Buggy blocked the blows, each coming at a faster speed, at a stronger intensity. But the Duke held tight, set on not showing any vulnerability in front of his knights. He was not weak, not as much as people liked to pretend, anyway.

Their swords clashed repeatedly against one another, Crocodile watching from the tree he leant against, arms crossed. It'd been a while since Buggy had actually fought for real. Every time he'd tried it, his opponent had been obviously holding his blow, and Buggy had stopped trying when he'd realised everyone around him would act this way. To have the opportunity to fight was welcome.

They kept exchanging blows for a while, undisturbed thanks to the earliness of the day. A particularly strong attack left Buggy rickety and unable to properly protect himself from the next one. In a swift movement, Mihawk slashed Buggy's tunic across the chest, leaving the Duke's skin slightly exposed.