7 — Surprise!

Nicholas swung his sword left, right, ducking the way he'd been taught to when the dummy mechanically swung its sword at him in an offensive way that would have slashed his chest, something Nicolas thought would greatly please his sadistic father if he hadn't parried the strike. It was all his father's idea, making him train with a dummy. Something Nicolas had thought would be easy until he realized the dummy fought harder and more expertly than anyone he'd ever trained with. Nice, Nicholas bitterly thought, slashing again and missing the dummy who stepped out of the attack zone and roughly kicked at his legs, making him stumble and barely keep his balance. Nicholas didn't know what to call this bloodthirsty thing fighting with him but 'dummy' didn't cover it. "Watch your feet, Nicholas! You're too negligent with your feet!" His father barked from where he was sitting, munching on grapes and watching his son fight something greater than him. Nicholas was suspecting that the man was g