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"No, not each other Buckblades have orthogonal es, otherwise they’d fly out of your hand and stick to soonal?" Cole asked "Is that positive or negative?"

"Neither There’s two other kinds of netic fields, monopoles that can be harvested here in hyperspace All Buckblades have the saether, h one another"

"They fly away from each other? Why not e, then?"

Cole tried to h

"You just lost your clever points, son Now I have to assuot lucky before"

"What do you think would happen?" Penny asked, taunting hi it s at you, you can’t get hit Not even a little, okay?"

"I think he’s learned that lesson," Penny said She darted forward and sht hand with her sword

Cole dropped his weapon and shook his hand, glaring at her

"Good point, Penny Now, Cole, keep a firrip on your sword" Arthur bent down, picked it up, and handed it back to hi, but try not to drop it"

"Why’d youhis hand

"Same reason God made the other one that way So you’d take care of it Now listen, you don’t want to get hit Not once And you can’t really block your opponent’s attacks, they’ll just repulse each other--"

"How does this work, then? He ings first, wins?"

"The other way around, usually See the slits on your sword?"

Cole inspected the wooden blade There were deep cracks running down the length of the thing He nodded

"When you swing the practice swords at each other, internal sensors calculate where they would be repulsed to Lights in the blade shine out and your suit picks theame of billiards It’s all about the bank shots"

"Okay, another clever point for you Now,back and hitting theh stance, you can send most attacks back where they came from Think of your sword more as a shield It’s your opponent’s sword that’s your real weapon, and your sword is theirs Get it? So learn to fear what you’re holding and figure out how to attack hat their wielding Now, Penny will show you the basic attack angles--the safest ones They aren’t what you’d think, so pay attention and unlearn your fencing"

Cole nodded and tried to take the same stance as Penny: feet apart, shoulders square, prettyfro instructor

"The power is from side to side," Penny told him "It’s in your hips" She moved hers back and forth while Cole watched

"You’re supposed to try it too," she said, reaching out and s his sword

"Oh, yeah" Hethe wooden stick just like she did

"It’s a lot like a judo throw, or a good roundhouse If you don’t get your whole body in on it, you won’t go far"

"Gotcha," Cole said, trying to ignore the way her suit hugged her body

"Give me your best shot"

Cole’s feet shuffled auto stance Penny lashed out with her sword, which he instinctively blocked Solidly The wooden shafts shs on his suit lit up, showing hiot no power like that," Penny said, tapping his hip with her sword "This isn’t a contest where you score points and gab with your opponent about whose mother smells worse" She rapped his sith hers, then tapped hi noble or fun about this, okay? It’s one swing and you’re dead There isn’t anything heroic about it, and nothing fun or pleasant, even for the winner"

Cole nodded, resuhts with these?"

"Do I sound like I’ from a textbook? Trust me, it isn’t pretty"

"I’ve seen what they can do," Cole told her

"It’s different when you’re the one doing it Now, there are three les--they’re your safest attacks and the hardest to parry Forget thrusts altogether, okay?"