Consequences

"Left slash, right slash, right slash, upwards slash, parry, poke, left slash, stop!" barked Herbeorht

Alchred lowered his wooden sword, every muscle in his body was aching, Herbeorht was making him work on basic slashes all morning. Barking orders at him, which Alchred would then replicate on a wooden doll. Every once in a while Herbeorht would interrupt him and criticize Alchred and make sure that Alchred corrected these mistakes. 

"You're becoming lazy again, after each slash return to a natural stance of close right, otherwise you leave yourself open to a counterattack. After each slash, poke or whatever you do you must rapidly return to a defensive stance to protect your body from your enemies attack. Many people see swordsmanship as a dance between 2 people, but it's more of a chess game, unless one has overwhelming strength over their opponent they will take turns taking strikes at one another. Like in chess, one must attack but if one doesn't defend and loses all their pieces they will lose the game. Also put some more strength into the upwards slash, as a slow upwards slash will lead to your chest becoming exposed due to not being able to return to a defensive stance. Now again"

"Left slash, left slash, left slash, downwards slash, horizontal right slash, parry, poke, poke, upwards slash, downwards slash, parry, right slash," ordered Herbeorht

At one point Alchred started to zone out, he heard each command everything else around him blurred out it was just his sword and his target. He performed each move right after he heard the sound waves leave Herbeorht's lips. Even though he was intently focused on the practice dummy and performing his strikes and the world around him was blurred, he was seeing the whole world, each sound, each movement around him. It was a feeling like never before.

Then snap, the wooden sword Alchred was holding snapped in his hands as he performed a right slash. Splinters flew everywhere and Alchred was pulled out of this trance like state he was experiencing.

"Much better, I could see no visible mistakes in your technique other than you holding the sword wrongly. Even if you apply incredible physical force and hit your target perfectly with your blade, it will never shatter unless you used it wrongly. You must always aim to use the sharp edge of the blade to cut any deviation in angle will result in a force being applied to an area of the sword which it can't handle, leading to the destruction of the blade." explained Herbeorht.

"But this wooden training sword doesn't have a sharp edge, it's rounded. How am I supposed to hit the target with something that doesn't exist?" asked Alchred

"The rounded edge makes it even harder to break, as it's thicker than a normal sword and rounded objects are harder to shatter. Your strength definitely didn't shatter it, as that was made from the copper wood from the forest. It makes it even more impressive that you messed up to that caliber that the sword would shatter." responded Herbeorht

Alchred grumbled under his breath, but decided not to press on in case of a punishment.

"Go grab some lunch while I procure you a new training sword, meet me back here in around 30 minutes, if you are late there will be hell to pay." commanded Herbeorht

With a simple nod, Alchred ran off before Herbeorht changed his mind and made him run laps while waiting for Herbeorht to find a new blade for him.

---

Alchred returned to Herbeorht in time, however Herbeorht still made him run around his cabin over and over until Alchred felt like he had to vomit. Without giving him a moment of respite, he made Alchred return to drilling on the practice doll.

After what felt like days of drilling on the doll, Alchred had enough and decided to do something about it.

"Herbeorht, how am I supposed to learn how to fight when I'm hitting an inanimate object over and over?" asked Alchred

"Alright, we will begin sparring now then since you want to fight something that will fight back even though you are clearly not prepared. Remember, actions have consequences."

Alchred was already starting to regret doing something about the training doll, he much prepared an inanimate object to receiving a beating from Herbeohrt.

As they started circling each other, Alchred went in for the first move, he feinted a poke at Herbeohrt's shoulder before darting back seeing the broadside of the sword being used to attempt to block the poke leaving Herbeohrt's grip in the wrong place, Alchred tried to change the poke into a right slash aimed at Herbeohrt's hip. But as soon as he tried to change the momentum of the swing, Herbeohrt's broadside of the sword swung down like an executioners blade and smacked Alchred on the head.

"Now you are dead, because you left yourself open for an attack. Alchred remember that actions have consequences, although your idea was a good one, you left yourself too open to an attack against an opponent that is much faster than you." explained Herbeorht.

They kept sparring over and over, until the sun started setting. Each spar was over in a maximum of 4 strokes, as Herbeorht emerged the victor. However, after each spar, Alchred learned from his mistakes and started improving. This sparring was not a form of punishment like it was yesterday, it was rather a learning experience. But Alchred nonetheless felt tired and bruised all over because of the sparring. 

Eventually Herbeohrt stopped, as the sun started setting, he decided to call it a day. As Alchred was returning the wooden sword to Herbeohrt's hut. As he was walking there, he heard a rustle from the bushes at the edge of the forest. He saw a large wolf like creature run through the undergrowth, barreling straight towards him.

All Alchred could feel was fear, as the giant thing ran at him, jaws opening revealing a harrowing row of sharp teeth. Before he could snap out of his fear, he saw a glowing yellow light from the corner of his eye. He saw Herbeohrt ignite with yellow light as he harnessed his magical energy. Herbeohrt jumped up, longsword in hand,, which was also glowing a bright yellow. He drove the sword down, using 2 hands to drive the glowing blade into the skull of the wolf.

The blade cut through the thick fur and skull of the wolf and came out through the other end of the head, driving the wolves face to the ground. Herbeohrt caught all the inertia from the wolf's charge and stopped it in its track. As blood started seeping through the 2 gaping holes created by Herbeohrt, he pulled his longsword out of the head. Only then did Herbeohrt stop glowing yellow.

In the distance, Alchred could hear some members of the garrison running towards them after seeing the wolf. Alchred just looked in awe at the dead wolf struck down in one hit.