She huffed with irritation, stumbling a touch when she failed to make impact, and I tapped her leg with my bare foot.
“Stance, Asher.”
“Bite me,” she hissed.
“Later. Adjust your fuckin’ stance.”
The furious glare Arken leveled at me probably could’ve made half my cadre flinch, but I just smiled serenely as she adjusted her positioning as instructed.
“Again.”
This time, instead of dodging when Arken came at me, I simply caught her aetherblade with one of my own, choosing to disregard the strange sensation curling around my core as our arcana clashed.
“Fighting with a blade, even shortswords and daggers like these, is very different from fighting hand-to-hand,” I explained, dispelling my daggers again so I could guide her dominant hand lower, and shift her hips from square-on positioning to something a bit more side-on. “Here, we prioritize mobility over firm balance. The angle of your body will give you broader reach and make it easier to lunge forward when you want to attack.”
All of Arken’s prior frustrations had dissolved as her academic nature transformed her into an engaged student, listening to my words with rapt attention and nodding along. She echoed some of my statements beneath her breath the way she often did any time she wanted to commit something to memory. Something about the repetition, she’d said, helped her grasp a new concept faster during verbal instructions.
“And this,” I chuckled softly as my fingers wove around hers, loosening her reverse grip on the aetherblades. “Is not for beginners.”
I largely fought in reverse, relying on the power I could put behind a downward thrust and my comfort with fighting in close quarters. Given that I was probably her only example thus far,it made sense that her instinct was to mirror my stance, but she wasn’t quite ready to learnmyfighting styles.
Instead, I guided her hands to form a hammer grip at first—and then, on second thought, I loosened her fist a touch and nudged her thumb so it rested against the crossguard. A saber grip would give her greater reach and enhanced precision, and make more sense for her brain as we focused on mobility and finesse.
“We’re going to start by practicing your thrust attacks,” I continued. “Use your thumb to direct your movement, extending your elbow forward. Raise your other blade up in a defensive position—Yeah, just like that.”
The fact that Arken had natural instincts for combat probably shouldn’t have been doing things to my cock, but then again, there was something wrong with me.
I continued to guide her through the motions of a forward thrust before moving on to slashing and cutting. We would return to the fundamentals again for the sake of mastery, but Arken needed variety to stay engaged. After giving her some visual examples of a series of moves in slow motion, I had her try to emulate them.
It was a solid attempt.
“Are you sore?” I asked, eyeing her ribcage.
Arken bristled. “No, why?”
“You’re positioning yourself more defensively on your left side than your right, favoring it,” I explained. “Sometimes muscle memory is just like that—your body remembers where it’s been hurt before. You’re going to have to actively challenge that instinct before it becomes a weakness or a tell for your opponent to exploit.”
“Isn’t it already a weakness?” Arken muttered, eyes darkening as her lashes dropped, staring at the floor.
I tilted my head. “How do you mean?”
“I mean clearly, with the Leshy?—”
“Let me stop you right there,” I interrupted, holding up a hand. “What happened to you in the Wyldwoods wasmyfuck-up, Arken. It had nothing to do with your weaknesses and everything to do with the fact that I wasn’t shielding you properly. I don’t think I ever formally apologized for that, so allow me to do so now. I’m so sorry, Little Conduit. I got distracted, I thought I’d—Well, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that I failed to keep you safe, and I willneverlet that happen again.”
Arken’s eyes glistened as she looked away.
“Kieran, that’s not fair,” she murmured. “I chose to follow you into that clearing. I’m the one who refused to let you go alone. That’s on me. You can’t claim responsibility for me not knowing how to defend myself against a daemon. A majority of the population doesn’t know how to defend themselves against a daemon—they don’t have to anymore.”
“The fact that you managed to do anything at all against the Leshy with only seconds of instruction ahead of time is a testament to both your braveryandyour strengths, Arken. You cannot blame yourself for getting hit. That wasn’t weakness, it was just my fucking fault for focusing so hard on offense that I wasn’t quick enough to shield you.”
“If I were stronger, you wouldn’t have evenhadto shield me in the first place!” she countered.
“And if I had wings, I wouldn’t have to walk anywhere,” I retorted. “Listen, I’m not trying to blow smoke up your ass and pretend you don’t have weaknesses. We all have fuckin’ weaknesses.” I pointed at my blind eye to emphasize the point. “But we work with the resources we have in the moment, Arken. And we honor those resources. You cannot utilize what you don’t acknowledge. You did good in the Wyldwoods that night. You actually did really, really fucking well.”
She’d landed a blow that half of my recruits would have botched on their first try. And according to my cadre, the Leshy had been rather easy to dispatch once they’d arrived on the scene, already weakened by the burst of Light arcana she’d managed to force into the daemon’s mutilated, bark-covered body.
She truly had no idea what she was capable of.