Nevin was growing more and more exasperated with himself by the minute. He hadn't bothered getting himself a regular weapon - the whip he had designed was vicious enough to serve him well in place of a normal sword or something. He had hoped to get training in how to use a whip, but the woman in charge of the training time was having absolutely none of it.
"Look pretty boy. The captain says you learn just the same as the rest of the girls, so there's going to be none of your loud, showy, ineffective whip popping here. You'll learn to use a sword. Take this, and swing." She had grabbed up what looked like a half-rotted wooden sword and shoved it into his hands with a glare, daring him to challenge her on this. Instead, Nevin had gritted his teeth and gotten to work.
The motions were repetitive, which he could handle. The problem that he was encountering was that this piece of wood carved into the shape of a sword was horribly off balance to him - he had been working on exercises to strengthen his wrist and forearm to use his whip, and the motions that Glenda was having them practice were focused on upper arm strength. When he tried to get advice from her on what he was doing wrong, she had just glared at him and told him to keep swinging.
So he had just. kept. swinging. His arms were burning, but he was not going to let just a bit of pain keep him from the chance to actually learn to fight. So on he had gone, trying to maintain footing with something that felt wrong to use - when he heard the rather distinctive clop of hooves on wood. He paused a moment as Philomel came up to him and handed him a sword, and then told them to find her at the break.
A few testing swings after she had left, and Nevin could already tell a difference. That wooden sword had been in poor condition and poorly weighted, and this was... It felt better in the hand, that was for sure. Still not right for him, but considering he was beginning to doubt he would find anyone who could actually train him to fight with a whip, he would take what he could get. With a grim set to his lips, the Alchemist went back to swinging.
