Death Frost | Deathsworn #2

Chapter 21 ❆ Spar

Hello!

I will continue to update this book since I already have some chapters available in advance, but I think it will be a little slow since I haven't rolled out of my "vacation" mind yet haha. There should be at least 2 chapters every month. Sorry for being slow! I'll try to update as much as I can.

Advanced chappies are now available on mylovelywriter.com. Read up to Chapter 33.

While everyone else went off to prepare for bed, I took the chance to break away. I made my way down into the praying grounds, sitting before the statue of Kaliya. The familiar cold energy of death circled around me and I thought I could spot one or two Veils hanging around the vicinity.

There weren't as many in here as in Venerya for some reason. Lovarda was much closer to the West in terms of distance, considering all trades and drop-offs were mainly done here as well. However, there seemed to be more in Venerya than here in Lovarda...The gathering must not be solely because of the topography. They must be coming over for something, right?

"There are more and more of them every day," I muttered under my breath. I then took out the booklet that I was given during the tournament a while ago and sat down crossed leg on the ground.

The technique Mistress Veronika gave me was a movement technique. This would benefit me a lot. We weren't really allowed to use weapons against our opponents, so we'd be stuck with close quarters combat and our fists the entire way through the tournament—or so I hope. This particular technique launched off on the wisdom imparted by the Movement of the Seven Dragons but capitalized on the offensive characteristics of it.

"Pierce the Scales, huh? Kind of uninspired to call it. What does this refer to?" I asked myself. I ran a finger down the pages, pointing at specific poses to see what they would entail. If I were to put myself in the feet of the one performing this...what exactly could they be up against?

I memorized the first few stances and walked into the open space to execute the first couple of moves. The lines in the illustration emphasized the use of force. The fist would punch, then the elbows would sweep in from a spin.

"I think I get it..."

I could see what this was trying to pull. From what I remembered when she told me this was made especially for her, I had a vague impression that she made this herself—which was more impressive than it seemed. Mistress Veronika seemed to have comprehended something from the "story" that was told through the Movement. This brought to the table her own interpretations, particularly of how to cut through a seemingly impenetrable defense.

In other words, this technique specialized in breaking down a fortress. If I were able to master this, I should have no problems cutting through a certain degree of defensive measures that my opponent would fall into—but that would be if they indeed would take the passive stance in the fight. I had to be very aggressive if I were to use this attack, which was much harder to do in actuality.

This would give me an upper hand when taking back the rhythm of the fight. However, the disadvantage would be that I would have to proactively be in offense—and to do so, I would have to open myself as well. The level of aggressiveness on this one was...exceedingly high.

This thing took a lot of guts to do. And I could understand why it wouldn't be suitable for Erenol at the moment. Like was already mentioned, this took a lot of guts. Eren currently didn't have a lot of that, and this might indeed only put her on the spot and cause her doubt where she should be taking action. Also, considering the lack of time, it would be a wiser move to capitalize on her strengths as a fighter rather than improve on the weaknesses. The latter would take more time to work on rather than the former, especially on our case. We needed something fast.