Spar

Joey blamed his spear for not being flexible enough, although he understood what Mila was trying to teach he felt his spear was not good enough.

"Of course not. It is a makeshift spear. At least it's not staff anymore, you can consider bending this training" Mila said, it was difficult to do so it would strengthen his muscles.

She took Joey's spear and continued "Good spears normally reflect in the type of material they're made of. It should be flexible when slashing and sturdy when you are thrusting. Although too much of one limits the weapons potential"

"Now let's begin." Mila demonstrated the basic three moves to him: Thrusting, slashing and throwing.

She ordered Joey to practice Thrusting and slashing and made sure to warn him that abandoning his weapon would kill him faster than he could throw it.

After a few tries, Joey was able to do them perfectly. She then moves straight to Martial Arts. She showed Joey the Martial Arts book which was Advanced Tier. He never cared if it was for a spear, seeing an advanced Martial Arts book was a blessing.

"Memorize the first quarter, then we will start" Joey quickly got to studying it while Mila played with her spear and kicked up winds idly.

The Martial Arts book came across as elegant but had fatality behind its meaning. The book had high definition illustrations of people having their heads pierced and slashed but a set of moves.

At the end of the 1st quarter. There was a paragraph, it said "The way of the spear is the way of your heart. Put your heart into each strike and remember it. Only when your heart is pure can you master the way of the spear, for it is only an extension of your heart. -Kon Shin"

Joey thought he understood what he was trying to say and closed the book. "Did you read the paragraph at the end?" Mila asked Joey. To which he replied "yes".

"Explain it then"

"you can't have hatred in your heart and expect to master the way of the spear. Your spear will reflect whatever is in your heart. Only when your heart is pure can you truly master the spear" Joey confidently said.

Mila helplessly clicked her tongue as she said "That's nonsense. What if I'm a genius of the spear and I can use all kinds of spear Martial Arts. You think because I sin constantly means I can't master the sword?" Mila expressed "It has a different meaning to everybody because after Martial arts, they devolve into their own style. So what do you truly think it means?"

Joey had a hard time racking his brain for an answer for several minutes when she said "The answer is only 3 words."

The clues never helped in any way and he failed to figure it out.

"You should think about it later as homework," Mila said "Lets me see everything from the first quarter".

She went into her spear stance and didn't move.

Joey took his stance and charge toward her. He slashed toward her with his spear. The force made his spear move with a curve but Mila slapped it. "Is that all you got?" She mocked him.

Joey got annoyed at him thrust his spear toward her. His strikes were fast and relentless. His spear bent with the fury of his shashes and strike. Mila parried each of his strikes with ease. Seeing this, made Joey strike even faster.

"Stop being so dumb and think" Joey who was striking and reciting what he learned in the first quarter he was somehow struck by the simple words. Joey wasn't attacking with any strategy and it was making him tired.

Then Mila said, "One hundred dummies can never fight one genius. If I put a little thought into my attack I could have ended you in a strike. Try again"

Joey paced his attacks and tried to and put thought into each one. He started to follow her movement with his spear.

Swish!

A strike passed by his ears that he wasn't able to dodge. He heard Mila laugh and said, "You thought I wouldn't attack?".

They started sparring with each other. Mila was surprised by how fast Joey picked up on the Martial Arts that he read. I

t wasn't always about looking at illustrations it was about understanding what the book was trying you say.

She wanted to see if he could figure it out himself. But he did, even more, he started following her movement with his attacks and trying to trap her with her footwork. She was glad to see that he was taking it seriously and on top of that he was very smart with each attack and had impeccable concentration and prediction.

Mila basically gave him a nudge in the right direction and looked at what he was able to achieve. She wanted to scare him to make him know that this wasn't a silly spar. She wanted him to feel pressure and tension, see how he got when he was nervous.

She took her spear and thrust it past his face.

She looked at his slightly frightened face and laughed, then she attacked again.

Joey watched as Mila slashed the ground, he was dumbfounded. She slashed toward Joey and cut dozens of trees and broke the ground below them.

She then started pressuring Joey.

Bang!

A loud noise rang out as Joey blocked her slash with his spear that shook his body like an earthquake. Joey tried to edge constantly as he ran all over the forest. He was simply overpowered by Mila. It was a no contest.

He thought of it as part of the test and stopped running. He was now behind a tree and Mila was looking for him as she shouted the occasional rude remark trying to lure him out. Joey had no plan but hiding wasn't making things better.

Her voice became louder as she walked closer to the tree he was hiding behind.