House of the wolf

I start with the breathing exercises Barristan taught me in the training yard. After doing that for an hour I try out the basic forms for a greatsword.

 

Footwork is essential with a greatsword of any kind, step into and with every cut to maximize power and range. 

 

Usually, the weapon´s size and weight, make them difficult to control and maneuver, you want to direct the weapon more than control it the way you might other swords. 

 

But that is with normal greatswords, Ice is made of Valyrian steel, stronger and sharper than steel yet lighter. So much lighter that it increases my maneuverability by a lot more than if I were wielding a normal greatsword.  

 

As I swing Ice in the air and get a feel for it. Once I get a flow going for it, it feels like I could swing this sword for hours, not getting winded at all, unlike my past experiences with greatswords. 

 

One reason for that is that I have gotten much stronger and taller. So it is not as taxing on my body, but another reason that is just as big is the weight and balance of Ice, it is easily the best weapon I have ever personally wielded and I have tried the finest steel swords in King´s Landing.  

 

So as I get more and more engrossed in my training. I work on my flow with the sword and the ease of motion.

 

Flow is an aspect of the sword I knew about before but Barristan opened my eyes to the potential of it and how vital it is for swordplay. 

 

If you outclass your opponents you can use it to completely dictate battles and win them with the least effort. In more skilled duels you can use it to set up a flow of attacks that you can uphold until your opponent tires out. You will force your opponent to take a risk to get himself out of the onslaught.

 

But before I can get too into training I feel a niggle on my thigh. So I decided to call it for the day. 

 

I sit down to meditate forgetting about all outside factors and think about my personal fighting style and preferences. 

 

While I much prefer light armor for movement over full body plates, the wound that is prickling on my thigh right now and the scars all over my body are a reminder of the dangers of that choice. 

 

But if I had on heavy armor for my most dangerous battles, I definitely would have been captured, killed, or lost the battles. 

 

The first battle was fighting my way out of King´s Landing, something that involved a whole lot of running and speed. And Ironically the worst wounds I got from that battle were on the only places I had steel armor on, the Hound´s heavy blow cut through my helmet, and the armor plates on my chest.

 

The second battle was taking the Dreadfort which had multiple facets involved with conquering the castle. 

 

We first had to climb the walls and then sneakily kill all the men patrolling on top of the walls.

 

After that, it came down to a hundred of us massacring the enemies in the main yard as fast as we could, then blocking off three separate choke points.

 

The only scenario there where it would have benefited me to wear heavy full plate armor is the blocking of the choke points. But even then I doubt I would have been as efficient as I was against the enemy. Even with light armor, I was completely drained of stamina and energy by the end of the fight.

 

So my fighting style is very cemented in speed and stamina despite my size. Heavy armor reduces my best aspects as a warrior, versatility. 

 

No wonder, the one advantage I had over everyone here was my mature mind as a child. Even before puberty, I was pretty certain I would end up being a big man so I trained my body as hard as I could to maintain the speed and dexterity as much as possible.

 

Utilizing training manuals and practices from my old world as well as the best ones from this one.

 

While I was no fitness freak in my past life I was around healthy people and knew old coaches who were as strong as ox despite their age and filled with vitality thanks to their diet and an old Asian man well over his 50s or even 60s who could still do the splits and handstands but the only training I ever saw him do was stretching. 

 

I understood protein and weight exercises are good for the muscles, fish oils are nutrients that are good for the bones and joints. Ice baths can be good for recovery.

 

My mind was filled with random knowledge, most of which would be considered basic in my past world and most others would know about it but not many practiced it. 

 

Living in this world made me realize how insane I was, all those times you just didn´t do the things that the world knew scientifically was good for you.

 

Sleep, exercise, and most of all food are the source of good health.  

 

Here I could not afford to not do my due diligence, so every day I swallowed a spoonful of different fish oils eventually settling on salmon fish oils the one I felt was best for my health, I also ate hearty meals with nutrients of most kinds. Everything from the ocean went into my belly because in this world I have no fear of microplastics.

 

Bone marrow, organs, eyes, honey, and alcohol have all become regular parts of my diet, not daily as I feel the consumption of too much of these things could be bad for you but a week never passes without me eating at least one of these foods. 

 

Eating eyes and drinking alcohol is something I found out by truly studying how food affects my body and drinking a cup of mead or wine a day has left me feeling more refreshed and healthy. 

 

And I already knew about fish eyes and sheep's eyes being good for the brain and even eyesight. In my past life, I was too squeamish and disgusted to eat them and would only eat them as a challenge. 

 

It was hard at first to force myself to eat them but after a couple of months I felt the benefits of it for myself then I got used to the texture and taste of it, so now I treat it as a delicacy.

 

The results of having done all this led to me being incredibly well-rounded physically. 

 

The potions I drank are the only questionable thing I impulsively put in my body that I can´t explain the effects of. I definitely felt them, I would say they gave me a at most ten to fifteen percent increase, over the lifestyle I have lived. And they got less effective with each use, I will not drink them for another decade and see if the effects increase again after some time has passed.

 

While ten percent is not something that can be underestimated in the slightest, I must not forget it is thanks to my lifestyle and conscious mind that I could do things like win an archery competition even though the bow is not my main weapon.

 

My eyesight, clear mind, and steady hands come from a rock-solid foundation that I have built and maintained every waking moment of my life.