I stood. “Go on then. What am I doing wrong?”
“You’re trying to fight like a man.”
Well, I had been trained by men, so that made sense.
“If you were as big and strong as Tusk, then maybe that would work for you, but you’re not. You’re strong and fast, yes, but in a straight fight against Ant you’d never beat him.” That was probably also true. I didn’t like hearing it, but I couldn’t argue the point.
“Come on in!” Amber shouted, and a moment later Silence entered, dressed in practice leathers.
Having filled out a lot from the young man I’d first met, he was still lean, but there was a healthy roundness to his growing muscles. He was definitely a man now.
“You want me to fight Silence?” I asked a bit shocked. Last I’d heard he’d still not graduated to the advanced classes with Jack.
Silence gave a bit of a smile. “Don’t worry, I can take it.” The grin grew a little. “Ifyou can hit me.” He’d been more confident lately, but this was downright cocky.
“I saw how poorly little Silence here was doing with Ant and asked to train him myself,” Amber said, putting a hand on his shoulder.
He didn’t even flinch when she touched him these days. He also wasn’t “little” anymore, taller than her by a couple inches, a match for my height.
“With his height and build, I thought it would be better if he learned a more womanly style of fighting. He’s excelled at it.” She beamed at him and he blushed a little then. Some of the old Silence remained in there. “And we’ve been working on integrating his avatar abilities into his fighting as well. I think you’ll find he’s more than a match for you now, with your current style of fighting.”
Really?
I was curious.
I picked up my practice sword and set myself.
Silence drew forth a single wooden practice dagger. He settled into an easy stance and nodded. “Whenever you’re ready,” he said.
I began my move. I’d thought to disarm him of his smaller weapon, then tap his shoulder to take out his primary arm. I didn’t get that far.
I felt his blade run across the sleeve of my practice leathers. I’d blinked and missed his movement. And he wasn’t done. The wrist of my sword arm was wrenched and suddenly weak. I dropped the blade as Silence, now somehow behind me, lifted his dagger to my throat.
“Hello, Legs,” he whispered in my ear, before releasing me.
At any other time, held by him like this, with hot breath upon my ear, I probably would have felt a thrill, but now… I stumbled forward, still a bit shocked.
“How’d you move so fast?” I gasped.
“It turns out, mice are quite fast,” Amber said with a hint of a laugh. “Our little Silence has some rather amazing speed. I don’t know if he can outrun Jack. We haven’t tried yet, but I’m willing to bet it would be close.”
Yeah, I had to agree. He’d simply vanished from in front of me.
“And what did you do to my wrist?” I said rubbing it. It ached a little, slightly numb, but feeling was quickly returning.
“That… is my style,” Amber purred, a cat-like grin on her face. “Or more precisely, Midnight’s style of fighting. She taught me when I was new. I taught Princess and Sparrow, then Silence. And now I’m going to teach you.”
I nodded. I suddenly very much wanted to learn this style. If it had just been Amber’s style I might not have been quite as impressed, but Midnight… she held a special place of awe in my heart for all her mysteriousness.
“I’m ready,” I said, regaining myself. “Where do we start?”
“With no weapons,” Amber said. “Toss that sword away. The first thing you need to learn is that your own body can be a weapon. More than that, if you know how to move in the right ways, you can make your opponent’s weapon work for you.”
I’d seen someone doing that… It took me a moment to recall Foggy capering around the pirate ship. More often than not, the pirates would hurt themselves or each other rather than him. “Is that what Foggy does?”
Amber laughed. “He knows some of this style, yes, though… he’s just… odd to begin with. Never much liked weapons and is very good at avoiding them. Midnight trained him herself, before she went off on her mission. And even she was just a little baffled by his natural aptitude for… chaos.”
That sounded right.
