"Nuh, Uh, I'm winning this one," laughing as I run upstairs to change.
I hurry to pull on my basketball shorts and a t-shirt as quickly as I can, rushing in hopes of beating Is to the dungeons.
The moment I my shirt is over my head I take off running still cautious not to make a sound. I am mindful of Is' warning that more of the castle is awake than she expected as I carefully navigate.
I'm too late. I rush into the dungeons, only to find Is laughing at me seemingly relaxed and unprepared. By now I should know better, but I want to win so badly that I ignore everything I have learned about her and attack.
Jumping forward I aim a sweep kick at her left leg hoping for an easy win. Before I know what is happening, she vaults over me as I am crouched and pulls me into a headlock.
With that we are off neither one of us prepared to admit defeat.
I break from her headlock at the last moment, quickly flipping around to twist her arm behind her back which backfires as she sweeps my legs out from underneath me dislocating her shoulder in the process. With me now on the ground and off balance Is easily pins me barely even flinching from the pain in her shoulder. She lightly taps my throat to prove she could have killed me before standing and relocating her shoulder against one of the stone pillars.
"Are you okay Is?" I quietly ask worried
"Okay. Why?" She tilts her head at me as if confused.
"Just you normally wouldn't dislocate your shoulder first thing in practice." I ask concerned. Something feels very wrong. She always goes hard when training but usually we draw the line at injuries knowing we already have enough inflicted on us we don't need to add them to each other.
"It's nothing" she replies brushing it off, "I was pushing you harder since we can't actually train as long."
Something about that rings hollow but I can't place my finger on anything she has said that is untrue. I shake my head focusing on her timeline.
"Don't have as long?" I tilt my head trying to follow her logic, "No one who would look for us will be up for another two and a half hours at least. We've only been training for half an hour..." I trail off not able to figure out her logic this time
"We need to use an hour of our time to train you back into a wimp and it will take at least half an hour to re-dress your wounds from your last beating. So, we only have another hour to fight hard" She nods at me checking if I am ready to go.
"So," I begin hoping to stall just a minute, "you are saying that you are going to make me a wimp while I have to bear painful wounds without a sound."
"Yep, you get it." She grabs Kebakaran shifting it from necklace to sword as she continues, "We must train but unless you want Mykayla fighting you as you are we need time to dumb you down a bit before your training with her begins."
I nod in acknowledgement and appreciation of her willingness to help me keep my family in the dark. Is tosses Excalibur to me in the form of a keychain
"Oh, I forgot," I begin as I shift Excalibur's form and balance myself with a few practice swings, "After you went to bed. We changed our plans. Today is a beach day, we will start with a light day of training tomorrow and then buckle down with real Kongkean training on Monday."
"Well in that case lets go." she smirks swinging Kebakaran at my head.
With that we are off once again. Before I know it the hour, we have for real training is up and we are forced to call our duel a draw.
I am ecstatic! Previously the longest I have ever survived Is with a sword was thirty minutes. I just survived almost double that, I mean sure I would have preferred to win but a draw isn't a loss, this has to mean that I am improving. Or a more worrisome fleeting thought that is that maybe Is was distracted... but Nah I'm just improving... That's it. No other reason. I hope...
"Mitch," Is' voice snaps me out of my daze, "Come on let's fight again while suppressing your skill."
I smile embarrassed to be caught while lost in my thoughts.
"Let's go." I respond without enthusiasm as I know this is going to hurt.
"Ready?" Is tilts her head at me as I watch her drop into a common and predictable stance.
"Ready," I sigh not at all prepared but still forcing myself into a sloppy unbalanced mimic of Is' stance.
"Start," Is announces sending a straight punch at my right shoulder.
I tense for a moment almost knocking myself out of my sloppy stance into a proper one but catch myself and instead stumble backwards narrowly avoiding the punch and hopefully looking like I barely kept my footing.
My turn now. I throw a clumsy punch at Is and I think I caught her lost in thought because she actually looks surprised as she stumbles back narrowly avoiding getting hit.
I focus on keeping my stance loose leaving my body wavering as if I don't know how to balance, I am hoping this makes me look like an untrained buffoon... otherwise known as me before I met Is. It is hard to keep this stance though with a punch or kick aimed just right at the right time Is keeps surprising me which causes me to react with a counter that is too polished to be believed from the old dumb Brady.
Fifteen minutes pass and I feel ridiculous as I pant from the strain of fighting poorly. I can feel it though I am more naturally avoiding blows with near miss trips or stumbles instead of perfect blocks or counters.
"You're doing good Mitch," Is encourages me, "Don't be afraid to let some of the blows connect while you dodge as well. Like this"
As I throw another slopy punch at her she allows my hand to connect with her shoulder but moves with the punch by stumbling to the side so that I effectively imparted no force to her.
I work to incorporate this into my sloppy style slowly getting more and more reliable in my responses even as my muscles continue to scream louder that this is the wrong way to use them.
Thirty minutes later Is pulls me into a solid headlock and I sag against her exhausted.
"Good Job Mitch," She praises and I feel a smile break across my face at her praise. "I'll go easy on you today and let you head up to shower a little early. I'll clean up here then be right up to bandage your poor ouchies," Is teases me even as I catch the flash of guilt that passes through her eyes as she mentions my 'ouchies'.
"Thanks, Is," I give her a lopsided grin as I head out relieved to have a few extra minutes under the hot water.