Cue training montage

Sebastian entered the arena with fascination in his eyes. It was amazing how well some of these people fought. He smiled internally to himself and started looking for the practice swords.

I walked in with some of my siblings; Lou Ellen was with her family, attending school and such so in her absence, I took the lead of the Hecate cabin. Today we fought with the Tyche's.
I was dressed in my Spartan armor: Corinthian helmet with horizontal crest of horsehair, lamellar armor, shield embossed with a capital lambda, leg and arm pieces, all Stygian iron. Underneath I was wearing an orange Camp Half-Blood tee and a pair of cargo pants with my combat boots, my hair bound in a ponytail under my helmet. After assigning everyone a sparring partner with the cabin leader of the Tyche's, I got Sebastian, my cabin's newbie, so that he could train with me.

"Thanks for agreeing to train with me again." He said. "I always wanted to learn swordplay." He had declined her offer of using armor because he liked to have maximum mobility, so he simply had his Camp tee (which looked great with his dad's old leather jacket) and simple shorts with sneakers. "So, are we gonna use practice swords or..."

"Practice swords? What for?" I asked with a wolfish grin.

Turning around, I went over to a free spot, shouldering my spear. The sand crunched under my combat boots.

"The first thing you wanna do when you're facing a monster is to know your surroundings. It's too dumb to stumble on a piece of furniture you overlooked, very good way to get killed. Wherever you are, you aren't defenseless and you can use a lot to your advantage if you know how." I looked at him from inside my helmet. "Example, this arena. Which elements can you use against an opponent here?"

"Well, there's sand. I could throw a lot of it at your face so some gets into your helmet. I could also kick it around a lot and make a dust cloud or something. There are some swords over there which I should probably take." He took two swords and flipped the left one so he was holding it back hand and smiled. "And there's also your spear. Even though it's long range, it's hard to swing so you're left with poking me. I could easily block that with these swords if I'm quick enough. And there's also the practice dummies which give me protection. I could also use one of the benches for that. So I think I've summed up everything that I could use here to help me win."

"Good, but you've forgotten the light. If you managed to make me turn a couple of degrees to the left, I'd have the sun in my eyes. Vision is very important, as you might've guessed," I grinned. "Also, don't underestimate my spear. You can block it, but it has two ends, I'd just need to flip it around to make another attack." I shrugged and stabbed it into the sand. "Though I probably won't need it now."

I drew my sword out of its sheath in a metallic noise, the Stygian iron blade so cold it released a streak of eerie white smoke in the summer heat. I wouldn't use the other shapes of my weapon today, this was training. I could use the kopis and dagger shapes, but probably not the blazing whip.

"Now a bit of tactic. People usually say the heart, the neck, the head are the vital parts. My experience says no. The legs are at least as vital as those. Strike the legs hard enough, your enemy's on the ground and you just need to deliver the final blow. Good enough for you?"

"Yeah." He said getting comfortable with his weapon style. "I got it." He got into a defensive stance, the two blades held horizontally in front of him as he shifted his feet. "Let's do this."

"Attack me," I told him.

I stood in fighting stance: my feet apart, knees slightly bent, leaning a tiny bit forward, arms ready to jump into movement any second.

"You asked for it." He ran at her, his feet kicking up sand as he did. Five feet from her, he let his legs slide on the sand as if he was playing base ball and used the left sword to go for the legs and the right he held upwards to try and defend any attacks.

I protected my eyes from the sand with my shield and side stepped his gliding track. His blade glanced off my leg greaves, the metal ringing in the air.

"Nice, for a starter," I commented. "Though if you're going for the legs, look where it's not protected and hit there. Inside of the knee usually does the trick."

"Ok. Now, let's see how I defend." He got into the same defensive stance and nodded.

"Chill, everything comes in time. You barely attacked me right there. Sword fighting takes time, you won't master it overnight. Now, let's exchange a couple of slow blows."

I slowly pointed my sword towards his sternum, so he'd have time to slap it away.

He blocked it just as slow then asked "So we're doing this in slow motion?"

"This is training," I said, curling my blade upwards at his chin. "As I said, sword fighting has to be learned. Once you know the moves, you can go faster. Until then you have to grow accustomed to the weight of your weapon, to your stance, to your overall fighting position."

"Ok. I think I got it." He moved her sword away with the right and went for her neck with the left

"You literally just picked up your swords," I corrected him. "I told you, it doesn't happen overnight."

I blocked his blade with my shield and kept exchanging these slow blows. After fifteen minutes, I grinned at my brother. "Not bad for a first. Let's see if you can do it a bit quicker."
I showed him a couple of tactical moves first, after the 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 scheme where each number corresponded to one move. It was basics but basics needed to be known. Once I saw he was comfortable with them, we did the choregraphy a bit quicker, swinging our blades at each other.

"This is pretty fun." he said while resting his arms. "So, what's next?"

Damn, the kid was impatient.

"Next?" I asked. "You're gonna do me eighty push-ups with one hand. Physical condition matters."

"What? Are you kidding me? I can barely do ten with both."

I laughed, of course I was kidding. "That look on your face though," I chuckled. There was nothing mocking or rude in my chuckle, I just liked teasing people. "You gotta work on your sword hand there, bro, you hold it all crooked, you should have it this way (I turned his wrist to the left slightly) with your palm really in the middle of the handle."

"Like this?" he moved his palm on the other hand so that both were perfectly aligned

"Perfect," I said. "You're picking up fast."

We went back to exchanging established blows before I suggested doing some free combat in the last minutes of the lesson, just to try it out. I wouldn't go full blast on him, but I'd still be a bit meaner.

He started off by using the right to frequently attack her shoulders and neck, using the left to block any attacks that he couldn't block with the right.

I quickly realized he went solely for my neck and shoulders, which made it easy for me to get under his guard and aim at his stomach, ribcage and thighs. "Alter your attacks," I told him over the clanking of our swords. "Don't always go for the same spot."

"Ok. So I keep my attacks inconsistent and sporadic. Got it" He started attacking in different places, frequently circling around her to try and hit her sides or back, having the advantage of no armor to make him faster and more mobile.