Billy assumed a defensive stance again to see how Natalie would fight that day. Much to his surprise, she looked more composed despite the fact that she was exhausted. After taking a deep breath, Natalia dashed toward Billy and swung her sword toward his left side. He moved his staff to block the attack, but Natalia stopped and tossed her sword to her left hand at the last moment. Before Billy could fix his stance, Natalia grabbed his staff with her right hand, grabbed her weapon, and swung toward him.
In the end, Billy had to do the unthinkable… he let his sword go since he wasn't strong enough to pull it back in an instant and retreat. He should have just accepted the pain of the strike instead of letting his weapon go… for a warrior. That was unacceptable.
"I guess my mentality is nowhere near at the right level for fighting…" Billy thought.
"See? I told you it wouldn't end up in the same way," Natalie said with a big smile on her face.
"Not bad, but I won't fall for the same trick again," Billy said. "Did you come up with better strategies overnight?"
Natalie's smile froze since she indeed spent the night training and reviewing the spar of the previous day. Since she was just a kid, she thought that a single strategy would be enough. Soon Billy taught her that it wouldn't.
Natalie tried to attack again, but Billy had a longer reach, so in the second round, before she could do anything, Billy hit her stomach when she advanced. She was reminded once again why she wouldn't charge so recklessly. When she controlled herself, she managed to dodge the strike, but when she advanced to attack, she had lost her momentum. Thus, when she swung her sword, Billy jumped to the side and made her hit the air. She was strong and fast, but it seemed that Natalie didn't have much experience in spars. It was clear that she only now was realizing that she had to keep her guard up when attacking and that she needed a way to recover the momentum as fast as possible after dodging a strike.
Although she wasn't using the fighting style of her tribe, she was making progress and making Billy get even more fighting experience. When it comes to skills, they were at the same level since Natalie was fighting using her own simple and basic style, but when it came to status, she was stronger. That was fine with Billy because the experience of fighting someone stronger was a lot more valuable than fighting with someone weaker or on the same level. Despite all that, Billy landed more hits because Natalie was a kid, and he had the mind of a twenty-four years old man. Fooling her was easy… still, it was pretty fun to practice with someone that used another weapon since he more or less knew all the moves Alexander could make.
In the end, Billy and Natalie ended up daily for several months. While the kid wasn't pretty simple-minded, she had a good head for combat. She had strength, speed, and at some point, began to rethink and change her strategies in the middle of a battle.
"Billy, I heard that you made a friend from another tribe," Camilla said while patting Billy's head. "Treat her nicely, okay? But don't forget Alexander."
Billy frowned when he heard that… It seemed like his mother wanted to give him the job of babysitting those troublesome children. He knew that the instructors gave reports to the parents of all kids weekly. Still, it seemed that they didn't tell her anything about Alexander and the fact that he also made a friend. However, he had a hard time sparring with her since the sole weapon of her tribe was the bow.
Along the course of those months, Billy talked with Natalie about other things aside from combat, even though she was quite the muscle head. Apparently, her father didn't have the talent to use the fighting style of her tribe, so he developed his own fighting style over the course of the years based on speed and strength. However, he died two years ago, and people said that it was due to his lack of talent and bure fighting style. Natalie wanted to prove to those who said that they were wrong. Still, she couldn't ignore her mother's side, so she wanted to mix those… due to that, she had close to zero friends, and the other kids didn't want to spar with her since the tribe was known for being skilled and not a brute.
Billy finally understood why she was so violent on their first meeting. She was too stressed because she didn't make any progress with her goal. Regardless, at some point, Billy asked Alexander to spar with Natalie as well because he used less his head and relied more on his fighting experience. Another reason was the fact that Billy wanted her not to get over-reliant on him. It was fine having her goals, but sticking too much with a single thing might make her lose sight of others that could help her along the way.
In the end, their level of strength was similar. Still, since Alexander wasn't defensive like Billy and he was slower due to the length of his weapon, Natalie ended up winning three of four of their spars.
"You are too timid when attacking, Alexander," Natalie said.
"... it is because I don't want to hurt a girl," Alexander said.
"Hah? Are you looking down on me?" Natalie asked.
In the end, Natalia ended up getting Billy's habit of telling others what she thinks that they should improve after a battle. It wasn't something amazing, but the more he did that, the more Natalie improved, and she could see that… that made Billy realize that she wasn't a bad kid.. Since she also wanted to see others improve.
