One sword is enough (2)

"You are quite strong and can easily break the floor with your swings. Can you do the same by using your foot?"

"Use my foot to cut the floor?"

"No, to break it. In a normal fight here the floor is constantly covered by a layer of mist. Keeping your footing without the ability to see where you step is already challenging enough as it is. If you can stomp holes into the ground the terrain will completely change but most adventurers will only notice when they trip over it.

"And you won't be hindered by it in the slightest, will you? Because you don't use your eyes to see, do you?"

"How did you know?"

"When we fought you attacked me through a wall of mist that I couldn't see through at all. Your attack was accurately targeting me and you did not trip over the ground you had cut open. Doing so while relying on common eyesight would be impossible. Also, you don't have eyes."

The skeleton swordmaster looks baffled at my last sentence. As if to verify my claim it feels around its empty eye sockets with a bony finger. The flames in its eyes glow brighter as it lowers the hand.

"I had never thought of that. I do not have eyes so looking through them would be impossible. But it is as you say, I see the world through a more magical form of sight. Material blockades have little effect on my vision."

Wait, then how does it see the ground so well? Shouldn't it have difficulty seeing something that has little effect on its vision?

"Anyway, try the stomping attack. If you can significantly change the terrain during a fight you will certainly give adventurers more trouble than before."

The skeleton swordmaster obediently raises its foot and brings it down with full force. The ground cracks and partially sinks in but the damage is much less severe than if it were to use a sword. Still, we can work with this.

"Now that we have verified that your stomp can break the floor you need to learn to do so while fighting. After all your opponents won't wait for you to stomp around as you please before attacking you. I'll be your opponent for now."

With that, I rush forward daggers drawn and strike at the skeleton swordmaster's waist. It wastes no time with contemplation as it slashes at me. Its sword draws an elongated arc and is set to meet my daggers head-on.

Like hell am I going to let that clash happen! In a battle of brute force, I'd lose by a large margin. And the learning effect of such a confrontation would be minimal.

I abandon my strikes and slip away to the right. The move is a perfect provocation to make it use the forceful redirection move it is so accustomed to. I want to see if it remembers not to use that move consecutively.

The moment the sword is about to pass me by the skeleton swordmaster redirects the slash into a sideward swing. I leap up to avoid the swing like back when I defeated the skeleton swordmaster before.

I feel a moment of hesitation go through it as its sword passes beneath me. However, instead of redirecting for the second time, it allows the swing to go wide and simultaneously brings its foot down onto the ground.

I didn't even notice it raising the foot but here it is stomping the ground hard enough to make it crack. My astonishment deepens when I realize that it angled its body backward and used the stomp to retreat.

I carefully land back on the ground and immediately go after it but the cracked ground forces me to slow down.

While I'm closing the distance it gives the ground where it stands another three good stomps and greets me with a piercing attack as soon as I get in range.

I parry the piercing attack and find myself pushed by just from the friction of the sword that slides past my daggers.

Now that I am past the sword's tip I keep it away from me with one dagger and slash with the other. Just then I notice that the skeleton swordmaster isn't really using its other hand. At most, the free hand is used for some balancing.

It retreats using another stomp but I already know that move and since I am not airborne needing to first worry about where to land, I directly follow its movements. I chase so closely that the sword is still behind me and the blade is held at bay by one of my daggers.

"Try to use your other hand when an enemy comes too close. It's not doing much right now anyway."

I could give it more concrete directions but after seeing how it thought of using the stomp to create distance between us I want to let it try by itself. Idea's from one's own head tend to be easier to learn and later apply in difficult situations.

I am expecting a punch to come heading my way and prepare to parry it. But the skeleton swordmaster doesn't try to punch me with its free hand.

Rather, it uses its flat hand as a blade and sort of slashes at me. The hand has no sharp edge but it gives me the same feeling of danger as a real sword would. I guess that if you have a high enough level in sword use you can make anything work as a sword.

And using a sword is naturally more convenient for a swordmaster and will have greater effects.

Greater effects I am not willing to deal with! I stop my advance and retreat out of the hand blade's range. Before the skeleton swordmaster can begin its counterattack I wave my hand to motion that the practice us over.