Better

I stared blankly at him, processing what he'd just said but then nodded. "First off, let's shake hands, grip as hard as you can" He said extending his hand out. I did as he instructed and gripped with all my strength but he showed no reaction. "Boy, what type of training have you been doing?" he asked grinning slyly, "You're gonna need more than that". He took his hand back and asked, "Now, how fast are your reflexes?".

"Faster than a wind" I responded.

"Oh really, I'm gonna punch you then, full strength" he said raising a guard. I got ready and stared at his hands. Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my nose. "I got you" he said patting me, "Don't cry now boy". I wiped the blood and asked, "What now".

"From now on, you will learn to expect the unexpected, your instincts are pretty good so to put it simply, you have good instincts however you haven't got enough experience, if you know what kind of attack they're going to use, you just have to react fast enough so, you're first task is to widen your Knowledge of the weapon arts"

I nodded and left. I understood what he was saying but he didn't tell me how to widen my knowledge. I searched around the building and eventually found a library. All of the books were about war or fighting techniques, just what I needed. I took one called the art of the sword and read. It spoke about the stances. I decided to pick a basic long stance. It offered the most safety and it was versatile. I tried it out with the wooden sword and I already felt much stronger. Next, as the man said, my grip was too weak. The wooden sword was light and easy to maneuver but a real sword would be much harder to use. I needed stronger forearms.

I went back to the training room and by now since about an hour had passed, there were less people and the man was gone. I looked around the room and found a pair of metal bricks. They were extremely heavy but I pushed on and did about 20 curls. I then tried to do it once more but my muscles cramped up. Upon feeling this pain, I realised I needed to increase my pain tolerance. A real sword would hurt much more than the wooden one and slashes are far more deadly. I needed to become better