It was a week or so before the Knight of the Haunting Veil had her application for the tourney accepted. In preparation for the event, each participant would be relieved of their regular duties and assigned a mentor. She was kind of relieved to be leaving her section behind, putting that chapter of her life behind her, assuming she won.
It was typical, though not always the case, that the mentor would wield the perceived weakness of the participant, in order to help them defend against it, although this was not always the case, as the faction supported more than just the Triad. For what it was worth, though, this three-way system was an important part of their clan and culture and accounted for roughly two thirds of the Council. However, in many ways, Les Chevaliers were not like other factions. They were a proud clan, whose heritage went back as far as the Salamanders. But while the other factions and smaller clans focused on strengthening their abilities above all else, they focused more on gaining powerful spirit weapons, their martial technique, and the synergy between their weapons and abilities.
And yet, there were trends among the squires who would, perhaps eventually, become fearsome knights. Some abilities would gain popularity depending on their relative success in tourneys, while others would wain. Others had regional variations, based on the strength of local masters. It was sometimes the case that an ability previously discounted would reappear, used in new interesting ways with other fighting styles or weapons.
Sir William, on the other hand, was very traditional. He was the primordial image of a knight from the School of Brawn. A knight who, without irony, would claim he could not see why anyone would choose any other ability. That strength was tantamount to victory.
However, it was the prevailing theory throughout Les Chevaliers that strength enhancements beat defence, faster strikes beat the strong, better defences endure the quick. Or to summarise: brawn breaks rock, hare beats brawn, rock breaks hare. These were the three most common schools; in a nutshell, this was the Triad.
And so, Sir William had been taking the Knight of the Haunting Veil through some training that was clearly aimed at cultivating the strong. He would get her to pick up giant rocks, or pull PTVs. He would try to grapple with her and even challenged her to an arm wrestle once. In short, she was a fish being tested on its ability to walk. And she was doing well considering. Actually, she had found the grappling to be very useful and could see how this would come in handy. Usually, her heavy armour slowed her movements, but this was not to say there were not elements of throws and joint locks she could add to her repertoire.
But finally, it had come to the point where they would have an all-out sparring session. Unlike the tournament, they would still be using training weapons, but this would be the first time the Knight of the Haunting Veil would be fighting with a national-level hunter and both without their spirit armour and weapons.
Although she landed the first strike, this was followed by a solid hit to her stomach. She had fully activated her hardening to its maximum level, but she was not used to having no armour. Neither was Sir William used to punching something harder than granite. They both winced at the punch but in seeing the reaction, she smiled. "Yes," she thought. "You can't underestimate me either."
*
Although she had lost that fight, and the next, and the one after that, it was clear that she was learning how to deal with it better. He never tried to punch her again afterwards either, always striking with his hammer instead. She had earnt that much respect. And though she was willing to take a beating in a battle, for sparring's sake, she was not pushing herself to the point of failure in quite the same way she would have done against the beasts. She had no doubt Sir William could find more in him if the occasion called for it also.
After all, he may have been a simple man, but he was a national hunter for a reason, and every time a hammer struck her face and things went to black, she knew he was the sparring partner she needed to push to the next level.