Moon Slaves

Fencing [1]

"Lady Constance, I don't think that will be really appropriate." Elizabeth was quick to reply.

It was not just because she was afraid of Lady Constance, since she had been trained and honed in fencing by the Headmaster of the Junior Investigator Podium, but she had never spared with a WarWolf before.

She remembered when the Headmaster had begun her training, she was lucky to have been picked by the Headmaster amongst other Commoner children with dreams of becoming an Investigator and trained by him.

When the Headmaster had first begun her fencing training she had been sloppy and without a single knowledge of fencing besides that she needed to make sure the lithe fencing foil did not hit her body.

It was slow but she did learn, and up to date the Headmaster had been the only Alpha Wolf she had fenced with.

She was not assured of her Victory against Lady Constance. Matter of fact she was afraid the Lady might even try something nefarious during the fencing, seeing as she did not like Elizabeth very much.

Lady responded. "Nonsense, you are the assistant of a publicly praised detective like Lord Olivier, I would like to see what makes you worthy."

Elizabeth drew out her every code of conduct she had been taught by the Headmaster not to huff at that statement. She had not expected to become an assistant of such a great detective like Oliviér, but as luck would have it she did.

While she was happy and knew she was fortunate to be in a learning process under a Master detective like Oliviér, she knew her skill was worth something, and was irked by Lady Constance's use of the word "worthy".

Either way Elizabeth was clear on what kind of noble Lady Constance was. She knew using power to bully her would not be below Lady Constance's bottomline, so Elizabeth understood this was not a request but an order.

'Very well,' Elizabeth agreed internally. 'Then I hope the Lady does not expect me to not put up a fight.'

"Come now, Constance, don't be irrational, she's a huma—"

"Very well, Lady Constance, I will have a spar with you," Elizabeth said, struggling not to show the indignation she felt towards Lady Constance. "Can I borrow your weapon, Sire?"

She turned to look at the handsome young man by her side. She could see he was taken by surprise as she agreed but like a true noble he quickly dispelled his surprise and returned to his cheery gaze.

He smiled lightly and raised the weapon. "Of course Young Miss." He handed the weapon to her.

Elizabeth tried not to allow her cheek to grow hot from the way he purposely grazed his finger along her palm as he handed her the weapon.

'Must this noble act so shamelessly?' Elizabeth lamented in her head at the perverted actions, trying not go show her annoyance from his actions and her reaction

Seeing the weapon up and close she realized it wasn't a foil but actually an epeé.

The epeé was actually similar to the foil. But upon mastering both weapons she had come to realize that the epeé had a triangular blade instead, and was slightly heavier with a maximum weight of 770 grams, although most fencers tend to use lighter epeé blades.

As she aligned her fingers around the blade she was reminded that the hand guard was also larger than that in foil weapons. Similarly, touches were only scored using the tip of the blade.

She also noticed the Lady was using the epeé blade which was good because according to the rules associating with this blade while fencing, a point could be scored anywhere.

Though the weight difference was a disadvantage.

"Shall we begin?" Lady Constance graciously opened the door for Elizabeth.

Elizabeth nodded, spotting a serious expression as she entered. It was a nice space, free and wide for this kind of sparring.

As Lady Constance stood in front of her Elizabeth bowed her head slightly at the Lady.

Lady Constance must not have expected an attack from her right off the bat, probably because she had greatly underestimated Elizabeth.

Elizabeth, although seemingly attacked with volatility, was being extremely analytically in her head.

Before the match had even begun Elizabeth had taken Lady Constance's on-guard position, analyzing the basic on-guard position of her opponent - what hand and arm target seems to be open?

The right. It was the right, and Lady Constance in her dismay of her had made it painfully obvious while trying to guard against Elizabeth's restless attacks.

Lady Constance who was trying to guard against Elizabeth's harsh and ungraceful attacks was following the eyes of Elizabeth's to spot her concentrations because she had underestimated Elizabeth far too much.

But Elizabeth was not going to hit the Lady with her eyes - the opening was in respect to her blade and point. With some point control, attacks that could be delivered directly were easiest.

Elizabeth decided not to daily when she had the opportunity of stunning the Lady quickly extended, aim, and usye footwork to move the point to her target.

And then point. The ball-like tip of the blade was pressed against Lady Constance's right shoulder.

"Point." Elizabeth said calmly, retracting her blade from the Lady while struggling to withhold her smirk.

Lady Constance's eyes widened unbelievably and her expression morphed into an ugly one.

"Amazing! You fence beautifully!" The youth— Lord Nicolas was obviously amazed by the match he had just watched.

"Preposterous, trickery! I was caught off guard!" The Lady said in a loud tone.

Elizabeth opened her mouth to reply but was stopped by yet another word from the Lady. "Again!"

This time it was the Lady that attacked with volatility.

But of course Lady Constance must not have been trained to search for openings with her blade not her eyes, because even though she caught Elizabeth unaware it was too Elizabeth's reward.

Taking advantage of the harsh volatile attack close to that of a broadsword's rage attack than actual fencing, Elizabeth finished the match too simply.

Some targets were reachable with some angulation - “coming around the corner” of the bell guard - and some may be reachable with a “flick” that bends the blade in around that same “corner.”

And with the kind of aggressive movements from Lady Constance it was quite obvious she was focused on attacking rather than defending.

Elizabeth angulated her blade to her finishing technique.

The best angulation was delivered with a normal thrust and a movement outward with the hand during the attack - She bent her wrist to angulate at the beginning, providing Lady Constance the opportunity to counterattack and giving too much warning of her intent.

As a commoner trained by an Alpha noble she was quite clear on how flicks were difficult to do without opening her own hand and wrist target to a counterattack.

But after years of training she managed to get it right.

"As expected you are still a backend pretender with some skill." Lady Constance sneered, having blocked Elizabeth's blade.

Elizabeth's lips twitched with the urge to smile. "Don't tell me you don't feel that." Elizabeth replied.

Lady Constance was clearly confused for a moment then looked down at the blades, noticing Elizabeth's blade was bent so far down that even though Lady Constance had blocked, the ball-like tip of the blade was pressed on her chest.

Elizabeth's palm hurt a little from trying to deliver a soft blow while avoiding the way too aggressive attacks from Lady Constance.

"You…." The Lady's chest was rising up and down with so much anger.

"Marvelous…. You are amazing!" The youth's eyes were filled with awe.

The Lady on the other hand looked like she was about to combust. "Again!"

This time it wasn't an aggressive attack. It was a sheer attempt to hurt Elizabeth.