Slave Harem in the Labyrinth of the Other World (LN)

Volume 4 - Ch 4.13

Roxanne continued to shower me with some much-deserved praise, while Sherry stood a little bit more o the side where she continued to swing her Clun around while mumbling things like Like this. . . . . .?Or this. . . . . ?Or maybe that. . . . . . . .?No, probably more like this. . . .. . Or like that after all. . . . . . .to herself. When I glanced towards her, it definitely looked like she was practicing the correct way of swinging her Club around, which kind of made her look like a baseball player practicing his swings before a game. She looks like she is beginning to figure something out, so maybe we should allow her to practice in peace for a while longer without getting in her way?

At first I though that her training method is a little unusual for that kind of weapon, but thinking about it now, if she wants to be hitting two opponents with one swing, then of course she would have to practice swinging the Club from side to side. But this really reminded me of what I used to be seeing on tv, where baseball players, batters, to be specific, practiced their movements by swinging their bats from left to right and then right to left many times over. Also, while watching over Sherrys practice, I noticed one particular thing about her, mainly. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Is Sherry a left-handed batter? Huh? Was she always left-handed? Or is it simply that I have not paid enough attention to notice that particular detail about her? Because if she really is left-handed, then this changes everything about her self-imposed training regimen.

Uhm, Sherry? Sorry for noticing that just now, but if you are a left-handed batter, then should the placement of your hands on the Clubs handle not be reversed?

If she is a left-handed person, then her left hand should be the one on the top, instead of her right one in the way she is holding the Club now. That kind of grip, called a traditional grip, might work if all she would be swinging around was a sword, but clubs and other bat-like weapons are a little bit more specific if you want to utilize them effectively.

Left-handed batter? Reversed?

And she looked at me with puzzlement in her eyes, probably thinking that here I was, spouting some ridiculous nonsense again.

With your current grip, the swing would be much smoother if you started it from the right and then moved to the left.

While I was still back on earth practicing swordsmanship during my short kendo career, the instructor was always telling me that my right hand should be the one on top while I was gripping the sword in my hands, even though I myself am left-handed. I do not know why that was, and back then I did not need to understand, so I never really pursued that matter. In turn, in baseball it was the other way around: those whose domineering hand was the left one were always told that their left hands should be the ones they should be placing on top of the other one when gripping the baseball bat. Yeah, I do not understand why that is either.

. . . . . . . . . . Something like this then?

Sherry asked, swinging the bat from right to the left.

Yeah, you got that right? And, what do you say? You can easily feel the difference, right?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . Ah! It is true! It does feel easier to be swinging it that way!

Sherry tried swinging the Club several more times while changing the grip on the handle. For a moment I also thought id maybe I should teach her about the one-legged form and the importance of the positioning of her feet and the right stance whenever she swings, but I ultimately decided against it, because that thing would be useful only in baseball, and not in martial arts where the gap between you and the opponent is often too big for it to be effective, and pendulum method is completely out of the question, because it would be too difficult for a novice to perform and teaching her that would simply take too much time.

But then, does that not mean that when Sherry is swinging her Club in such a way it would be easy for the opponent to tell from which direction the attack would be coming from based on the way she is holding the Clubs handle?

I do not think we have to worry about that considering the fact that most of the monsters are not intelligent enough to properly recognize Adventurers attack patterns.

I had such a conversation with Roxanne while watching Sherry improved training regimen. She is waving her Club from the right with her right hand up and then waving from the left with her left hand up.

I see. Sometimes it is harder to detect if you shake it the other way around, right?

Exactly. And if we ever happen to encounter human enemies or monsters that will be able to tell where are my attacks coming from, I can always try to mix it up in the middle of an attack in order to confuse them and throw them off balance.

Yeah, just like Sherry says, that should be more than enough to do the trick. Besides, that would only be relevant only if we did happen upon monsters that would be intelligent enough to properly understand the difference between the attack coming at them from the different sides.

Also, while what Roxanne says is definitely a downside, I think that this downside can be more than made up for by the sheer amount of damage that she is going to be dishing out.

In any case, what is truly important here is trying it first. Sherry states that now that I have shown her that different method of swinging she is definitely going to nail it, but I should not get too excited before I see it with my own eyes.

The next group of monsters we happened across consisted of only three enemies so we dealt with them quickly with my magic and the girls physical attacks and moved on forward, where we then encountered another group of four monsters consisting of four Collagen Corals. Great, no Escape Goats this time, which means that the battle is going to be that much easier on us. As the opening act, I used tow Fire Storms to weaken the monsters sufficiently, clearing the way for Sherry to have another try at hitting two of them at once.

I am going in, master!

Yeah, go for it!

Sherry psyched herself up and I encouraged her further while also launching a third Fire Storm at the enemies, just to be sure that their HP is going to be low enough for Sherry to actually defeat them. All that is left for her to now is to go wild without worrying about any of the four enemies making a run for it.

Standing in front of the two monsters, Sherry assumed her stance and then swung her Club with enough force for the hit to still be a powerful one, but at the same time weak enough to only graze the first monster and allow the momentum to carry her strike onwards towards the second enemy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . and this time the strike did manage to connect!

. . . . . . . . ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Ohhh. . . . . . . . .

Now, while Sherry did say that since she is a Dwarf then her STR stat is quite high and that even among other dwarves she was considered to be a bit stronger than the rest of her peers, but here is a hot take after what I saw just now: I do not know if I should call that strike of hers just now overbearing or incredibly powerful. . . . . . . . . . . but Sherrys attack really did end sending those two Collagen Corals flying a fair distance away. So that is an attack that only Dwarves, who are inherently much stronger than the members of other races, can do, huh?