Sword God in a World of Magic

"Yes," Shang answered as he slowly stood up.

Shang had always wanted an evaluation from a neutral party. After all, he could evaluate himself only to a certain degree.

And on top of that, Shang had already been given some feedback just now.

His headwound was proof of that.

'I didn't notice such a huge vase coming towards my head. Now that I think back, I can remember hearing the column shake, but I simply filtered it out as irrelevant information.'

'I guess that's the Vice-Dean's way of showing me that I ignored my surroundings. I can get why that is a bad habit on a battlefield.'

"Alright," Soran said as he sat back down in his chair. "Then, let's talk about your sword techniques first. Mervin?" Soran asked as he looked at the older man beside him.

Mervin nodded and looked at Shang.

"Horrible."

Silence.

Shang was waiting for more, but nothing more came. "Could you elaborate?" Shang asked.

"Your movements are fast, but that's it," Mervin answered. "You plan your next strike very well, and you unleash your strike with quite some speed, but there is no after. You fight like you only think about the current strike and not the one after that or the one after that."

"When something goes wrong with your current attack, you hesitate and pause for a moment because you're unsure about what you should do next. In essence, you are planning your attack only when it's already time to unleash it, not beforehand."

"Another thing is that your attacks have no nuance. Your attacks are all very straightforward and honest. What the enemies see is what they get. You don't use feints, and you don't use your sword to manipulate the enemy's perception."

"Lastly, your only goal in attacking your opponent is to kill them. However, that is the end goal, and it can't always be achieved with one strike. Oftentimes, you have to achieve multiple subgoals in order to finally take your enemy's life."

stood up and walked past

two smiled a bit when they saw him get up of his

in front of him as he looked at Shang. "Can you take me out with one attack if I had your

at Mervin.

he didn't seem to hold

"Why not?" Mervin asked.

your sword," Shang

rid of my sword?" Mervin

"Difficult," Shang answered.

would you need

need to keep attacking you and shake your balance until I get the chance

"Correct," he answered. "I noticed that you realize these things rather quickly in a fight, but you don't realize them immediately. You first have

as he put his sword away again and went

become overwhelmed by your sheer killing intent. After all, your attacks very directly show that you are

on inexperienced soldiers. Someone that can actually keep their calm in a battle will be your downfall. They will notice your very simple attacks and goals, and they will lead the battle into a losing

block. Then, you attack again, and they block. And then, they attack. Suddenly, you are with your back to a wall, and blocking from your current position is difficult. You would much rather evade. However, you can't evade due

and without paying attention to the surroundings, something like that can happen to you," Mervin said. "The enemy follows their plan, and they will push you into an unfavorable position. As a warrior, you

You are not using

fixed by learning a couple of sword techniques. After all, these techniques are specifically created to avoid such situations. There are attacks that are

all these techniques, you will subconsciously already

your sword techniques are only fit for slaughtering beasts, not humans, and a warrior that

sentence, Mervin became

to Mervin's barrage

was what he was here

Feedback!

Teachings!

completely right in everything

Shang could very well imagine how such a fight