Helix

Chapter 12 - Toph

I waited in a training room in the arena after school. It was time for Elaena and Hady to come, and I absently sharpened the three practice rapiers I prepared while waiting.

"Toph! We're here!" Elaena's voice shouted, bright and light.

I glanced up, seeing Elanea dressed in a comfortable and sporty outfit of a loose blouse and brown pants. Beside her, Hady walked a few paces behind, shielding her face with Elaena's elbows.

I jumped in front of Hady, holding out my hand. "Hi, I'm Toph. I don't think we've officially met."

"Hello, I'm Hady." Shy, are we? Shrugging, I handed them each a rapier.

"I'm not an expert rapier user, but I wanted to show you some tricks to help you," I said. I was no expert at rapier, but judging from the few recounts of Elaena's first class, I had a feeling the professor was focusing on the wrong things. "Elaena, what's the most important part to being a masterful rapier user?"

Without skipping a beat, she fired back, "Agility. Being quick, precise, and –"

I crossed my arms in the air. "Cut!" I knew it – the professor was already messing up. "Agility is only the second most important thing. If I were just fast –" I shifted behind Elaena, leaving a trail of dust eddying in the air. Elaena spun around and met my eyes in surprise. "I would be an excellent rapier user, wouldn't I?" I smirked, slashing my sword in the air behind me.

"The most important part to being a rapier user is having a unique determination." I paused a little, realizing it probably sounded dumb. "But this is the reason why I'm a swordsman even though I have the speed for rapiers. The determination to become the best stems from within you."

I walked to position some dummies in place. While smoothing out the straw in the dummies, I said, "You'll get this later, but for now, just remember that your mastery relies on how determined you are for rapiers. Now –" I spun around, grinning at them "– let's get this party started."

I demonstrated some basic moves of the rapier and set the girls to practice. "Keep your feet steady on the ground," I advised when I watched Elaena. "Bend your knees more so you can generate more spring force when you leap."

I corrected a few more of her postures before heading over to Hady. "You also need –" I started, but stopped myself. Something about the way she was lunging was off. Her legs were wobbly and unsteady like Elaena's but there was a tautness to her leg muscles that beginners like Elaena definitely wouldn't have. Systematically, her calves locked into a right angle that eerily resembled how Hunters propped themselves when hiding in tall grass.

"Ouch!" For the second time in the past ten minutes, Hady lost her balance and fell while jabbing at the dummy. Even Elaena hadn't fallen yet. She fell to her left and caught herself with her left elbow just like last time; I was almost starting to believe that she was faking her falls. Stepping closer, I noticed that Hady's forearms were also quite bulky. They were like Master's forearms when he trained with his bow for a Hunter competition, toned and muscular for effective pulling on the bowstring. There was something fishy about Hady, but I wasn't about to alert her of my suspicions.

"Put more acceleration behind your thrusts," I told her a random remark as if I was concentrating on teaching her.

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Our training lasted for a couple of hours until the natural light was too scarce. "Good job today, team," I announced. "Now, let's hit the showers and get some food down!"

Hady left first, and I started packing up the dummies and rapiers when Elaena called me. "Toph, um, I was wondering if you could tell me more about how you learned your Skills?" I could tell that she hated asking me for help on this because it was admitting her weakness in Skill theory, an academic, non-physical subject.