65th of Searing 4622
"Are you absolutely bloody insane boy!" The sound of the shouting struck out across the clearing. Birds flew out of several pieces of shrubbery and it almost felt like everyone within a mile's range of this action could hear the shout of disbelief and anger. The only reason that Hugo himself did not reach out to protect his ears was the fact that he was a resonancer and was able to tolerate the negative effects that loud sound waves could make. Still, the volume of the shouting still clearly demonstrated the anger that Bertrand was feeling. "You want to join a suicidal expedition, for what ? Glory, status, piety, wealth? None of that fucking matters if you are a bloody corpse that is floating on the sea, your flesh to be devoured by the fishes and with no one left to remember your name?" Bertrand's face was beginning to get red. His sharp features which normally helped Bertrand give himself a very concentrated and intense look now helped convey the anger felt by this individual.
Yet for all the screaming and shouting that Bertrand was doing Hugo had a clear face. For once in a long time not having a smile on his face. His hands were clasped behind his back and he presented an image of absolute control. Though that image would change if one could see the back of Hugo and could see how he nervously held his hands together. The tight grip putting pressure on his bones and preventing any other visual ticks from showing his own nervousness and discomfort at the current encounter. "Are you almost done?"
"Not bloody yet I am not! Do you think you are invincible boy? Do you think that your status, your magic, your own 'uniqueness' will prevent you from dying an inglorious death? No, it will not, you may think that you are an adult. That you know better than the old coots standing before you but you know jack shit ! Your own Grandfather died because he was careless in battle, ambushed by bandits. Even he could die in combat to unexpected surprises. But you will not fight bandits but sea monsters and who knows what else? You will be facing a far greater foe whilst not being half the man your grandfather was." As Bertrand said this Hugo's expression shifted from blank to focused, whilst his grip on his own hands got tighter. His teeth clamped down on each other before Hugo let out a frustrated breath. "Bertrand, I give you leave to speak your opinion because I respect it. But if I respect you, you must give me at least some time to explain my idea in more detail before you go on a long rant. " At this Bertrand seemed ready to continue back to shouting, but after a momentary internal struggle he relented. "Fine, but it better be a good explanation."
Hugo's tension slightly ebbed away with these words from Bertrand. He was still in hot waters but now he was in an area of expertise that he was more familiar with. Which was persuading people that what he was telling was a good idea. Or at least that the present option was the least bad one. "The fact that you know as well as I do, is that I am a Veir almost purely in name not in fact. I may have some of the authority and magical skills of a Veir, yet I barely have any assets to my name. But more importantly, I do not matter." Hugo had to let out a sigh at that admission, something he would only admit to Bertrand. "Right now if I offended another Veir, or if a Veir spontaneously decided they don't like me, then I would be exposed. I have no allies in court, no fame and only a modicum of authority. I would have my status stripped, or more likely I would be killed, and no one would care overly much. I would only be killed as the noble that another Veir killed." Hugo then closed his eyes for a moment, before refocusing his attention on Bertrand. "I know what you say is right. I have told it to myself as well. But I know that eventually, I will make an enemy. Either due to me not being able to relent on certain issues or due to people like... our guest. When that happens, I must have wealth and renown or I will die. It is a matter of survival. " If Bertrand looked very closely, he might see Hugo's eyes getting more reflective, his voice a little choked. "If that means I have to go on a risky adventure to fight on the seas then so be it. At least it is better to die like that than to someone taking a petty grudge with me."
After this impromptu speech, Hugo breathed heavily, trying to regain the bearing he had lost for the first time in months. The last time was just after the burial of his father in the backyard of the cottage. Seeing all of this Bertrand went with his hand through his hair, trying to process the whole speech he had heard from Hugo. As such the both of them were silent for a while. Then finally Bertrand spoke up. "Alright, I won't say I fully agree with you but alright. If you decide that this is the course that you want to take I will follow you. If only to make sure that you won't die in this venture. " At this Hugo merely nodded.
Bertrand took another moment to gather himself again. Before responding. "Well, if this is going to happen we should best make sure that your basics are down so that you can at least survive against an average mercenary." This was followed by a roll of Bertrand's shoulders who then picked up the stick-sword that was used for most of these practice sessions. "If you wish to engage in combat it is important you at least have 5 basic guards that you can shift to depending on the circumstances. If you gain a fine enough control of these guards you will have the adaptability to survive in combat. "
"To begin with, I will be telling you of the Window Guard, one which is unlike most sword forms that I have taught or will teach you. Specifically in how, generally, you are not supposed to start with this position. For now, you can describe it as an intermediate Guard. One you can use whilst shifting to another guard, or after your initial guard blocked the enemy's blow but you were not able to follow up on it." Bernard then raised the sword stick, with the end of his stick being near the head whilst the rest of the stick was pointed towards the enemy. "In illustrations you will see this position illustrated most commonly but in effect, the Window Guard can be applied for this general position in the range from about halfway up your upper body to your head. For now, can you attack me with an arc from the upper left?" From experience, Hugo did not question Bertrand and instead did as he asked. Bertrand then blocked Hugo's strike after using a Woman's Guard himself. "Now my strike is blocked, but you could potentially try to attack me from the other side. By shifting the position/edge of your sword you can effectively block the second strike. Furthermore, this position is good to be used for thrusting attacks. It is especially good against enemy thrusting attacks. So if your enemy tries to thrust you can step out of the way and then go from your upper position to hit the area around the enemy's neck" Bertrand then showed each of these moves, effectively always countering Hugo's attempts at simple thrusting attacks and being able to block a lot of the different attacks that were coming for his upper body. The disadvantage of this position though was that it was quite defensive. So whilst it may block an enemy attack it was not good for starting a counter-attack of your own.
Seeing that Hugo had gotten reasonably good control of the Window Guard Bernard quickly shifted to the next part of the lesson. "Now we will move on to the left Woman's Guard. This attack opens up a bunch of options. In theory, it is simply a woman's guard where the sword is held above the left shoulder instead of the right one, but in practice, it leaves a bunch of different options. If you will, can you attack me from the more traditional position of the woman's guard, essentially from the right." Hugo did so and found that due to the timing Bertrand pushed his sword away, creating a far larger opening. "See how much of an open space I gained there. Enough to go for several different methods of attack. So let's try this again." The same manoeuvre was repeated and this time Berarnd used the footing associated with the woman's guard to get quite close to Hugo after his sword swing was deflected. "Now that I am in this range. There are many different ways I could attack you. Maybe I could do a direct swing for your head, but that would not be ideal. Another option could be that my left hand here, grabs your right arm. This means that you can't react fast enough for the longsword in my right hand to attack you from a more vulnerable angle."
Hugo felt Bernard's tight grip on his right arm whilst the elder soldier explained this manoeuvre before his teacher shifted back to the position that he been just a bit earlier. "Other options are that I can get even closer and attack you with the pommel of the sword. That or you can use the sword with a half-grip." Bertrand then demonstrated putting his hand around the middle of the stick. "This way you can use the sword more effectively at close quarters and have a wider range of options than your opponents. Though this could backfire if your opponent is good at unarmored combat. Though I have heard only tales of that happening. Now how about you try it." Hugo tried the different attacks that Bertrand showed. What he especially liked was how attacking from this angle allowed for him to get a stronger swing. So this movement could be useful for breaking a strong opponent's guard.
"There is also the Long Guard but we can leave that for now.... I guess we should probably go back to the cottage. Who might know what our guest is up to." Hugo shrugged before responding. "Alright but I think something fell out of my pockets during sparring. I'll try to find it but I should be back in a bit, you just go ahead." Bernard furrowed his brows in response but didn't inquire further. Beginning to head back to the cottage where the Abreo household lived.
Just after Bertrand left Hugo took a good long look at the wooden sword he held in his hands. Analyzing it from every angle, before his mind drifted away into further thoughts. As it did so Hugo sat on the grass whilst putting his knees in a V form. He kept looking at the sword but his breathing got heavier. His mind drifting towards the expedition that would only be a few weeks away. He thought of falling from a ship, drawing as the weight of his armour dragged him down. He thought of an eldritch monster eating him up in his entirety or squeezing his bones with a tentacle. But most of all he thought about poison, knives in the dark, a strangling feeling whilst he slept or having his burned to a crisp through galvanized Ether.
Hugo curled further up and began slowly sobbing, feeling the thoughts that had been pushed back by the training returning. The many and likely threats that were likely to find him. As tears began going down his face he just muttered to himself. "I don't want to die."
