The New Cadets

The sharp pain of the wooden sword slamming into Cecilia's leg sent her dancing backwards across the wooden floor. She re-established a neutral distance between herself and the new recruit who now watched her tentatively for instruction as he tried to compose his stance and maintain a guard position.

Ruefully, Cecilia slid back half a step farther from her original distance before starting her match with Cadet Alcott. The sandy-haired recruit was at least a head taller than Cecilia, giving her an inkling of how most other girls felt when they were on the training floor against male opponents.

She had misjudged his size, and he had good speed and more reach than she had initially anticipated. He most likely intended to deliver a diagonal strike to her torso, but her retreat made his wild follow through catch her on the leg, just above the knee. She winced a bit at the thought of the bruise that would develop later.

"What's wrong Gullfot, having trouble with the greenbeaks?" The person jeering at her from the next bay of the long training hall was Hero-Cadet Ruprecht. She could hear laughter among the group of other senior cadets gathered around him. More jeers and exclamations that were probably jokes made at her expense followed, but they faded into the background as she nodded at Alcott to indicate she was ready to continue.

Alcott swung at her again, and she marveled at his reach. Utilizing the advice she had imparted upon her female recruits, Cecilia hopped back, and raised her sword left-handed, delivering a rapid strike against his extended arm. She smiled at the crisp pop of the wooden sword against his leather gauntlet, and allowed the blade to bounce up poised both to protect her head and for a follow-up strike as she stepped past his guard and landed a blow to his helmet before passing him.

"One, one Cadet Alcott," she told the recruit as she turned and aimed the point of her sword toward him.  

Alcott turned, sword leveled at Cecilia. He kept glancing over nervously at the senior cadets in the other bay who were egging him on, cheering for him to beat Cecilia.

As Alcott fidgeted, Cecilia shifted her stance to bring her right leg to the front. She decided to take the initiative and stepped forward with a right-handed strike that was much heavier than her previous one. Setting her center of gravity, she allowed her body to smash into Alcott, sending him staggering away from her.

Cecilia moved to neutral distance, formally inverted her sword before lifting it in salute. The match was over, and as Alcott returned the salute, Ruprecht and the other senior cadets turned away in boredom as Cecilia's victory robbed them of their sport.

Cecilia looked down toward the far end of the training bay where the sound of the wooden swords against the practice armor was unusually loud. Cadet Dair and Cadet Stauffer were sparring under the harsh light at the far end of the training bay. They harbored an inexplicable animosity toward each other, and the match had devolved into the pair standing with rooted feet, hammering away at each other with punishing blows that they would feel for days after even with the padded training gear they wore. 

She was annoyed by their complete abandonment of technique, but consoled that at least neither of them abused their divinity to increase the power of their blows, using it instead to maintain their apparently unshakable positions on the floor.

Neither recruit would grant the other the satisfaction of admitting a legitimate strike so they stubbornly stood at a fixed distance, exchanging blows. She sighed, deciding to leave them to their own devices for the moment, and let their aching bodies reprimand them for their behavior later.

She surveyed her trainees in the concrete-walled bay. She had engaged in a circuit of drills with each of them, finishing each session off with a best of three match. Dair and Stauffer were of lesser noble houses ranked similarly to Cecilia. They were sent to her possibly because of their stubbornness, but definitely due to their families' lack of regalia she noted cynically. 

She was assigned all of the recruits that the other senior cadets found too troublesome to oversee, or that they felt had no potential. The other six recruits practicing on the floor all originated from the common population, and seemed to be incorporating the techniques she presented in her lessons with diligence as they sparred.

Her eyes searched for her final missing trainee, and she noticed him with Ruprecht's recruits. Frowning, she strode over to bring him back to their bay. She could ignore the unrelenting provocations, criticism, and mockery from the hostile cadets of Ruprecht's clique, but she drew the line at their interference in her duties.

"Cadet Cochran," she said sternly, grasping his shoulder. "I'm done with Cadet Alcott, and it's your turn."

As she dragged Cochran away, he made a comical face to amuse Ruprecht's recruits, who burst out laughing.

Cecilia waited for Cochran to put on his gauntlets and don his helmet. The recruit should have been paying attention and awaiting her instruction when she had finished with Cadet Alcott. She did everything possible to make sure her trainees would succeed at the academy, but even she did not have infinite patience.

When he was finally finished with his gear, Cecilia made Cochran run through a series of drills, making sure that she tired him out. At the end of the drills, she let him catch his breath for a very brief moment before signaling for him to take his position to spar.

Cecilia raised her blade in a perfunctory salute, and immediately launched into a blinding attack that left him stunned from a blow to his helmet. Passing him, she turned with her sword point directed at his chest. Cochran acknowledged the point, and took the guard position.

For her second attack, Cecilia advanced toward Cochran at a measured pace. She raised her sword two-handed, feigning a blow to Cochran's head. As he raised his blade to intercept her sword, she paused, and changed the angle of her blade to target his body.

Cecilia purposely slowed the start of her attack to allow Cochran to try and defend his body, then accelerated her swing to strike the side of his torso with a resounding crack as the sword impacted his breastplate before he could fully react. 

Again, she initiated an off-speed attack at his head to bring his blade up in defense before delivering a measured blow against his helmet. Immediately, she angled her sword for his body, drawing his blade downward before delivering a lightning fast strike to his body.

Cecilia repeated this pattern for several rounds, alternating strikes against his breastplate and helmet like a metronome as Cochran tried to raise and lower his sword futilely, unable to match her rhythm. She finally became bored and retreated back to neutral distance. She saluted, and stalked off as her students murmured among themselves at her display of speed and the ability to control Cochran like a puppet. Thankfully, even Dair and Stauffer had stopped assaulting each other to observe.

Cecilia called her group to attention, and assembled them in ranks in front of her. Dair and Stauffer glowered, silent and full of tension. She might need to get an amicable senior cadet to exchange trainees with her if the two could not resolve their differences or at least control their antagonism toward each other.

Cochran stood red-faced, and she suddenly felt guilty for making him look foolish in front of the other recruits. She dismissed the class, and walked over to Cochran, slapping him on the back awkwardly. "You did fine," she told him. "You don't need to try and block every attack. When you're in trouble, just move away. Or if you are so inclined, just counterattack."

"Uh, ah yes. Thanks," the recruit mumbled in response.

"When you find yourself caught in a pattern, it means that you are only responding to your opponent. You need to make sure that your mind is focused on what is actually happening, and not let instinct replace thinking." Cecilia spoke loudly to ensure the other cadets could hear her.

Her lesson finished, she made her way over to the two female trainees of her class. "Cadet Bischof, Cadet Eschen, are you ready to head home?"

"Yes ma'am!" exclaimed the pair of girls. Both were heavy-set farmgirls who lived in the same all-girls dormitory for indigent students along with Cecilia.

Cecilia was fully ready to return to her dormitory. She needed to take a hot bath and change before she could go to the dining hall to get her dinner. Only afterwards would she be able to relax on her couch and listen to the Musikkasten before going to bed.