A short story

The Adversary

Sidhi took a sideward step, left over right, with his sword towards his right and pointing upwards held in both hands. His eyes bored right into his adversary’s. His adversary had a different stance. He stood casually with his feet apart, with his sword in his right hand pointed to the ground. He looked back with hooded eyes. If one noticed carefully, the entire posture of Sidhi was rigid and tight. Muscles bunched at optimum to strike. It was a defensive pose because the whole body was ready to deflect and back immediately. The adversary’s casual stance allowed him to choose which part of his body he wanted to move first. He could start by flexing his lower body muscles to propel himself forward to attack or flex his upper body for a riposte.

Sidhi’s sword was a short, single handled, two feet, single edged, slightly curved blade called Carnalage and had ornate carvings along both sides. It was not a name chosen by him. But that is a later story. Due to its short length, it was suited for close combat and used for a slashing technique. That is why almost of Sidhi’s opening posture was a defensive one. Almost like giving up an attacking advantage for a stronger defence. It also showed Sidhi to be a conservative type. He did not like to go charging into a situation. He prefered to wait, watch and decide his moves.

The adversary’s straight two-handed sword was a longer one. Three and half feet. It was double edged and hollowed along its spine. The hollowed out sword reduced its weight to one-third. It could be used in piercing attacks and hacking techniques. For this, the body had to be rigid and flow in sweeping motions. At striking or countering positions, the shoulders, fore and upper arms and waist would do most of the work with the lower body planted firmly on the ground and balanced. It was an attacking sword.

Both fighters eyed each other warily. Each knew the other’s opening moves. They also knew that the opening was a feint. They were experts after all.

Sidhi relaxed his posture entirely for a moment and then charged at the Adversary. The initial minutes of the spar was dazzling but exquisitely slow in the minds of the swordsmen. It was an enchanting orchestra of steel caressing or crashing with steel and sub-tones of muted or sudden breath intakes with brief deafening silent interludes. The sizzle of slash meeting firm hold of the other’s steel. Sidhi’s technique involved his whole body turning in circular motions which flowed effortlessly and ceaselessly. He had to anticipate his adversary’s defence since he was the one who launched the first attack. Initially his focus was on his adversary’s steel only. It’s point and it’s edges which told him where the next action after defending a stroke was coming from. It was easier to focus on these two simple things rather than analyse his adversary’s body languate, noting various parts of the body and the sequence of muscles flexing to anticipate a move. Once Sidhi realised his adversary’s style, he focused on his adversary’s shoulder’s and eyes. At close range, these were the two easily visible point. The shoulders told him the direction his adversary was taking and the eyes told him whether it was a combination attack or whether Sidhi was maintaining his attacking advantage.

Carnalage kept slashing at the adversary’s sword, testing for openings. Suddenly the adversary stood still. There is certain orchestration in a sword fight. There is an opening move which is followed by attacking strikes till a disabling or killing blow is reached. The attacking strikes builds momentum for the final strike. If that is repelled, the sequence with variations is repeated again. One can improvise, but the basic rules remain the same. Some attacking strikes are gambits for luring the opponent into launching a counter-attack. The adversary instead of repelling Sidhi’s diagonal attack with an angular tilt of his sword to allow Sidhi’s sword to slide along the blade thus launching a counter attack, bunched his muscles and brought his own sword to a complete standstill forcing Carnalage’s concerto to a complete halt. The adversary did not use the sharp edge of his sword against Sidhi’s as it would hack its keen edge. There was the segment where sword met hilt which was blunt and thick. The adversary brought this section to meet with the same segment of Sidhi’s sword. The sound produced was cymballic. It brought Sidhi’s composition to its end. It took Sidhi a fraction of a second to see the adversary’s left foot behind him and realise that the adversary was playing his game all along. He just worked Sidhi’s energy against him. Even though Sidhi did not squander his energy, the adversary used even lesser energy. He used Sidhi’s ascending score, as his own; adding his own finishing touches and amplifying the culmination. Sidhi did recognise the danger of the strategy because if the timing and the action was not right, it would have ended with a decapitation.

There are always choices in life. One could choose to flow with everything life throws at you. One makes improvisations to ease the flow of what we choose are good for our life or descend the scale to lessen the impact. The other is to build one’s self to face disaster with physical strength and drive. The choice one makes has ripples. These ripples are choices in itself. Not born out of circumstance, but what one makes of them.

Then there is time. If one waits long enough to recognise opportunities, one can take them up or discard them. Either ways, one expends more energy to get what he wants in lesser time or conserves more energy to get what he wants later. But the balance is always there. One would conserve that energy later or spend that conserved energy later. In that sum total of time, one accomplishes what one has to accomplish. Others recognise those accomplishments. There is no crescendo. That is only a self perception. There is only satisfaction one gets from the choices one has made and the results they produced.

There are two kinds of swordsmen. One who took their vocation seriously and one who played for the gallery. These were neither. Their dance of death was graceful. Their movements economical and efficient. No unnecessary flourishes nor emblishments. Theirs was a serious and precise exercise.

He had led the combat with optimum efficiency and he had found someone with more efficiency than his. It was a flawless fight. There was no draw. He accepted the finality of the reversal of fortunes. No, not fortunes, but control. This was after all his time.

The adversary pivoted and reversed his hold on his sword to his left and hacked off Sidhi’s neck in one motion.

- YT