Awakening

Chapter 11: Lorenzo

Chapter 11: Lorezno

Beads of sweating was rushing down Lorenzo’s forehead as he was beginning his morning training with his master. It was only ten minutes in and his whole body was sore. “Quickly, do another set of vertical strikes!” Rina barked out, “Do it now!”

He did what he was told but every strike he performed felt like he was getting hit by the sword. His muscles ached so much and his whole body was on fire. Each swing he performed was a struggle and he breathed out heavily after each strike. “Too slow!” Rina yelled out, “You are never go to hit anyone with that kind of speed!”

Lorenzo gave Rina an exhausted look, which she took to be quite offensive. She went over to him and slapped him in the face. “What the hell are you doing just looking at me?!” he dropped the sword when it reached impact. He held one hand on his cheek staring at Rina. “If you wanted to become my pupil, this is what you would’ve expected! I am taking my time to train you and you can’t even follow simple orders?”

Having his head down, he dared not to talk back to his master. “Look at me when I’m talking to you!” Rina was getting a little edgy, as she lifted up his chin. The cheek that he was concealing was reddish and he was crying just a bit, after experiencing pain. He was breathing quite heavily. “Go, pick up your sword again. I’m not going to be wasting my time teaching someone who can’t handle ten minute drills!”

Obidiently, he reached down for his sword and held it tightly in his hands. Instead of practicing drills, Rina went over to her wall of weapons and picked out a lance. Grabbing it, she spun it a couple of times over her head and readied the lance behind her back.

“I will teach you a lesson first hand to show you how slow your technique really is…” she lowered her stance and did a taunting hand gesture, signaling Lorenzo to come at her. “Come…”

Even though he didn’t show it, Lorenzo was getting all fumed at the disrespect his master was giving her student. He didn’t even care about going into a readied position, as he charged at her with the sword lowered to his side. He then lifted it up for a vertical strike, but in flash, the wooden tip of the lance already met his neck.

“When you lower your sword, there is no need to go for a slash coming from above. Its slow and pointless.” She lowered her guard and went back to the same readied stance as before. “I’ll give you another chance.”

Smarting up just a little bit, he took a couple of steps back and rethought his next actions. This is impossible, there is no way I can attack her when she has a lance. Why does she treat me like garbage? He held his sword tight and pointed the tip between Rina’s eyes. I’m going to go a half strike… it should be a little quicker than before.

Rina smirked a bit and again performed the hand gesture. Lorenzo inched his way forward and then leapt forward. Responding quicker than lightning, she ducked underneath holding her lance with both hands over her head, which caught the sword. Suddenly she stood up, catching Lorenzo off balance and performed a somersault, hitting him in the chin.

Landing back, Rina starting spinning her lance to her right side which was later exchanged to the left. “Predictable.” She shook her head in shame, “I saw that look in your eye that you were going to leapt forward. Slowly inching forward can easily be detected.”

“It doesn’t seem like you are ready for this…” She turned her back to him, having the lance over her shoulders. “… I’m done with you… get lost.”

Lorenzo closed his eyes in pain and slammed both of his fist on the ground. His eyes were wet with tears, being overly frustrated and angry that he couldn’t live up to his master’s standards. Rina didn’t care as she ignored it, leaving him behind in the dojo. Lorenzo wept for a good minute or two, and yelling, “Dammit! Why do I suck?! I’ve been following everything that you’ve been doing… step by step… and I still fail!” He buried his hands in his face to only cry once again. Sobbing, he cried out, “Why… why do you hate me so much?! WHAT HAVE I DONE TO MAKE YOU BEHAVE THIS WAY?!” His cries continued until there was nothing left in the tank.