Combat Rat

"Is it me, or does your residence change every time I visit it? I am certain the front did not look like that" Shu commented, something was definitely different, but he had not come here often enough to know exactly what it was that was no longer the same.

"Must be the flowers, ever since spring began, Fanqia planted some everywhere, she is quite the gardener, she is already planning for trees as well, I think she did a pretty good job" Edrick responded matter of factly, for the place where he, amongst the most deplorable human beings to ever walk the earth, at least on his previous earth, lived and committed many more questionable acts, he certainly had a very bright, colourful and fragrant home.

But it wasn't like being the sort of person he was, and odd living conditions had to go together, he wasn't a lunatic, he was perfectly sane, so it was naturally reflected in his house.

Instead of walking through the front door, Anoteros led Shu over to the side of the habitation, they walked for much longer than the inner disciple would have expected before reaching the backyard, in the meantime, he got to see that Edrick was not exaggerating when he said that his wife had done some gardening everywhere, the sides of the house were filled with various kinds of flowers and plants, including harmless little vines that grew upon the house directly, but could not actually damage the surface, everything was blooming.

Shu did not know much about that sort of thing, but it was indeed very pretty and well done.

"I didn't realise that-" he thought for a second "-Your first wife had such a green thumb"

"Fanqia has quite a few hobbies, despite being a noblewoman now, she very much enjoys working with her hands and doesn't mind getting dirty, you wouldn't believe the amount of things she has planned for the residence's outside" Edrick responded with a slight smile before opening up a side door using keys, which led him and his guest to an enclosed exterior, there was no roof, although it seemed to Shu like there was a mechanism to cover it up.

There were no flowers here, only a wide, square space, with a circle of soft, white sand in the middle.

"We have some indoor sparring rooms as well, but the weather is so nice, it would be a shame to lock ourselves inside, don't you agree?" he crossed his arms as the inner disciple took in the sight around him, since he had known Anoteros, Shu had come over to his residence a few times when the noble scion had things he wanted to order from him, and he felt very certain that this place had not been nearly as large as it was now.

'Sparring rooms? Plural? Do you even need more than one?' Shu did not dare imagine the amount of money that had been poured into this place, instead, he focused on the atypical architecture of his surroundings, it had a certain flair of what he was used to, but clearly, there was something else being used as inspiration, the outside sparring area was surrounded by over elevated hallways that were completely opened up, small bells and charms were hanging around, the atmosphere was rather serene.

"I think it's important to live not just comfortably, but as comfortably as possible, everything is arranged to be as perfect as it can be, whether that is visually or in terms of usefulness, I think you would call that Feng Shui?" Edrick shrugged and walked over to a tall and large closet sitting in a corner alongside some sealed boxes and other containers.

He used a small key to open it up and turned back to Shu.

"What is your favoured weapon?"

"Hum… I use a dagger"

"What style?"

"Depends, either a Misericorde or Karambit"

"I see, so then, which would you prefer for our little spar? I have wooden versions of pretty much everything here"

"Well… Let's go for the Karambit then" naturally, Shu went for that one, a Misericorde was more intended to go against an armoured opponent as it was made especially thin so that it could slither through the gaps or weak points of an armour, which made it quite surprising that he would be practising with one to begin with, as protective gear seemed rather unpopular, be it armour or shields, cultivators seemed to believe that you should just make your body blade-proof instead.

And naturally, the Karambit Shu was talking about was far removed from the modern variation that Edrick remembered from his past life, the original appearance of the weapon was quite different, but thinner and smaller in comparison, the curve much more pronounced.

Naturally, even if it was a spar with wooden weapons, it was only logical to pick the weapon best suited for the job, as Anoteros did not wear any armour.

"Grab this" the inner disciple caught the training dagger, which was surprisingly adapted to the size of his hand, he looked at Edrick, who gave him a knowing look.

"Coincidence, Shu… You just have about the same hand size as my wives"

"Oof… I know it wasn't meant in that way, but it hurt a little to hear it…"

In the meantime, Edrick grabbed a quarterstaff made out of bamboo, as obviously, wood was already the primary material for that sort of weapon, bamboo was more flexible and would hurt much less than hardwood.

It wasn't amongst the four weapons with which he had a cultivation technique for, but Shu did not know that, he had no idea that Edrick was intentionally going easy on him.

"By the way, Shu, do you not do any dual-wielding?"

"I never really tried"

"Mmh… You can make the first move" Edrick got into a combat stance, and immediately, Shu felt a cold sweat run across his spine, he definitely did not want to be here.

Breathing in and out, he focused and sprung into action, although unassuming, he definitely moved very fast, and although it was hard to gauge in a one-on-one scenario like this one, the way he moved definitely held very stealthy qualities to it, even if one had the capabilities to completely follow his movements, they would find it hard to keep track with the strange way he moved around.

Anoteros was not easily distracted, however, stomping the ground, lifting grains of sand upward, he made a wide swing in front of him, as Shu ducked underneath the attack, he felt the air being displaced, probably because that bamboo nearly gave him a kiss on the head.

Much like a rat however, even from such a disadvantageous position, he was able to move swiftly by crawling, not even needing to stand right back up, homing in on Edrick's knee, they hadn't precised the rule of the spar, but surely, taking out a joint should count as a win.

Anoteros saw what was happening, and could have just kicked sand right in the inner disciple's face, but he wished to see what he could do for longer than this, so instead, he made use of his height and took a long step to the side, moving in a curving manner to end up behind the rodent-like young man, bringing his quarterstaff down, leaving an indent in the white sand as Shu just rolled away and swiftly contorted himself back onto his two two feet.

"Not bad at all, let me see if you can ride the wind like the rodent your cultivation technique is named after!"

Shu winced, he definitely was going to have a bad time.