SECRETS OF THE SWORD

VOLUME 2, PROLOGUE; EXCERPT BY kyle lopez

Almost as soon as Kyle thought about it, Raki's gaze snapped towards him, a big smile breaking on the the puppy's face before he leapt up to his feetand released an excited bark, waving his paws wildly.

Another person? Another pokemon?! Wonderful, he was so bored!

"Hn? What are you—?" The man besides the puppy suddenly spoke up, his brow tilting as he was broken out of his flow state, following the puppy's gaze until he found...

Oh.

"Ah. Good morning, Mr. Lopez," The man said as he stood up, patting the sweat on his hands unto his pants before bowing politely at Terrakion. "Ser Terrakion."

His attention turned back towards Kyle, tilting his head slightly.

"I hesitate to refer to it as a 'hobby', but I am, indeed, Ser Cobalion's assistant in Ms. Miro's Swordmanship training." He confirmed, a small smile appearing on his lips as he confused Kyle's conversational hail mary for genuine interest. "Why? Are you perhaps interested in learning from Ser Terrakion as well?"

He sounded... excited at the prospect.

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SECRETS OF THE SWORD

VOLUME 2, PROLOGUE; EXCERPT BY kyle lopez

Gwyar laughed. The champion was rather amicable!

"You are quite alright, Mr. Lopez. Swordsmanship is not quite as common a calling as it used to be." The man said with a grin, shrugging his shoulders. "I've been told I'm rather old fashioned."

The man watched with interest as the champion interacted with the Sword of Justice. He had only seen about a minute of them together, so he couldn't yet compare their relationship to that of Cobalion's and Melody Miro.

His attempts at analyzing their relationship were quickly derailed however by the question the champ threw the sword's way. The pokemon remained silent on its thoughts— Gwyar, not so much.

"Shall we seem then?" Gwyar said suddenly as he casually kicked up the sword reclined against the table with his back heel, the sheathed steel flipping into his hand. Holding it by the sheathed edge, the man gently brought the pommel to press against Kyle's deltoid, then bicep, then upper chest.

The man's casual smile pursed at the first press, flattened at the second, and then turned into fierce concentration at the third.

"... Mr. Lopez. You..." The man said after moment, gaze darkened by his mop of hair briefly... before the man gave a calculating look. "How often do you train?"

"Because if I got this right — and I usually do— ... You might be a natural swordsman."

A natural everything, really.

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SECRETS OF THE SWORD

VOLUME 2, PROLOGUE; EXCERPT BY kyle lopez

Gwyar laughed. He really, really laughed.

"Well... it means you can skip the Body conditioning phase of training." The knight said simply, smiling wide as he gave the younger man a thumbsup. "Which leaves a lot more time for intensive training!"

Gwyar had no idea of who exactly was Kyle's 'personal trainer', but they had certainly done an enviable work. The body of the youth before him was at complete odds with his seeming character; not work as hard? His humor was as good as his battling skills!

For, surely, a man with a body as perfected as was already well acquainted with hard, nay, brutal work!

At the champ's words, Gwyar gently placed his sword back at the table, before reaching over the other side for yet another blade leaned against the furniture.

While the earlier blade had been, in videogame terms, a 'broadsword' (or a rather thick longsword, rather), this one was... different.

Slightly longer than the man's arm, thin, with a single hand grip and a simple, if ornamental guard.

"As far as swords go, Melody's is certainly on the lighter, more agile side." The blonde said, humming. "Her swordsmanship relies on her inherent qualities; Ser Cobalion's teachings are quite adaptable."

As a dancer, she needed to go beyond her limits. Beyond the limits of others.

"Legends praise Virizion's blinding speed, Terrakion's overwhelming might, and Cobalion's Steel body and will." The man expositioned briefly. "With such a thing in mind... I cannot help but wonder what Ser Terrakion's approach to teaching might be."

He was getting giddy already. Placing the Jian besides his Longsword at the table, the man turned back to Kyle before grinning.

"Shall we ask him to choose your arm for you?" Gwyar asked, before smiling as he turned his gaze towards Terrakion. "As I am but a simple assistant, a translator if you will, the task of choosing your weapon —and thus, style— is best left to the master."

Before long, Gwyar had a surprisingly expansive selection of arms, western, eastern and everything in between alike, set upon the table, left for the legendary to choose.

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SECRETS OF THE SWORD

VOLUME 2, PROLOGUE; EXCERPT BY kyle lopez

"Oho! A Zweihander, eh?" The blonde man said with an eager smile as he reached over and grasped the sizable blade's grip.

It was incredibly lengthy, the handle alone easily being at least the length of his forearm as he hoisted it up in the air and into both hands, staring at it and grinning.

"I am particularly fond of it myself." Gwyar said somewhat giddily, before turning his gaze towards the champ. Much like Terrakion, he also completely missed the younger man's attempts at pointing out the Katana. "If Ser Terrakion's choice is anything like Ser Cobalion's, this might well be the most compatible blade with you, Mr. Lopez. Why not give it a try, get used to its weight?"

He flipped the sword around before holding the handle towards the youth.

SECRETS OF THE SWORD

VOLUME 2, PROLOGUE; EXCERPT BY kyle lopez

The large man laughs, clapping the youth in the back.

"Indeed! It's not a weapon that can just be picked up and wielded!" He said, shaking his head as he crossed his arms over his chest and observed the young man'stance. "It's certainly not a weapon for a complete beginner. But..."

Regular swords might be able to be swung with a measure of speed even if one lacked any training; a zweihander was a bit too large and (relatively) heavy for rookies to get reckless with.

"To be frank, Mr. Lopez? With your body, any weapon is compatible." The blonde man said, cupping his chin thoughtfully. "Before attempting to swing it about, perhaps you should try and find a stance you can hold it in comfortably?"

In any martial art, the stance was the lead off towards any attack; the four basic stances of the longsword all created false openings for rookies to attempt to utilize while positioning the swordsman in order to strike them down should they attempt it.

"Try it out, Mr. Lopez. Perhaps Ser Terrakion will assist you in finding your ideal stance." There was no point in trying to teach Kyle conventional swordsmanship— not yet. That could come later, after the basics behind Terrakion's lessons had been ingrained into the youth.

Just like with Melody Miro and Ser Cobalion.

SECRETS OF THE SWORD

VOLUME 2, PROLOGUE; EXCERPT BY kyle lopez

For his part, Gwyar had fallen completely silent the moment he saw Sir Terrakion move.

With his new notepad in hand, the man immediately began to take notes as the Sword of Justice began to make adjustments on its trainer, dismissing his own thoughts in favor of faithfully recreating what he was seeing. From words to sketching to words again, the man's wide open eyes consumed the pokemon's lessons voraciously.

Gwyar hummed thoughtfully as he considered Kyle's words. Rounding up his weaknesses... in which sense? Self defense? No, there would be no particular meaning to the Zweihander if self-defense alone was the purpose. With a body like that, Kyle could surely handle himself if ever caught of guard for the short time it would take him to get a pokemon involved, in any case.

Then...

"Do you perhaps mean, a weakness of character?" He followed, tilting his head. He didn't know Kyle personally, nor had he worked with the man closely enough to know of any undesirables in the man's work. But, that was interesting all the same. "I see...!"

Melody Miro's was a Sword for the body. kyle lopez's was a sword for the mind, perhaps?