They faced off, David holding his single blade lightly, easily, Alek with his sword still a bit awkward in his right hand, but his knife, a long single-edged hunting knife with a fairly broad guard, comfortable in his left.

Alek immediately took the offensive. He figured he wouldn't last long, but he might as well get in what blows he could. He led with the sword, using the moves David had already drilled him in over the last week. His first blow was easily blocked, and David came back with a fast counter. Just as before, Alek's sword was still frustratingly out of position, with no way to get it back in ahead of David's blade. But the knife wasn't, and there was a ching! of steel on steel as he deflected the stroke. After only a few more exchanges David managed to twist the sword out of his hand, but Alek was still grinning. "Told you!"

David smiled. "All right, you win. But I'll get my revenge. Time to work on mental combat."

Alek groaned. "Oh man. Have mercy! I'm never going to be any good at it!"

David sighed. "You'll never be able to beat me, maybe, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't still practice. There are vampires weaker than you, and you ought to at least know as much as you can about standing off a stronger one."

Alek was lightning fast, and strong enough, though David and Mack could both win an arm wrestling match with him. But his mental skills were weak. Weaker even than Mack's merely average abilities. "I never thought I was a genius, so I guess I'm not surprised," he'd said when he'd discovered his relative lack of ability. "I have brains enough to keep you from seeing between my ears, and that's it, as my buddies used to say. Don't worry about it."

"It's not intelligence," David had said. "You've come up with a lot of good ideas already, I think you're smarter than you give yourself credit for. It's more... determination? Willpower? I don't know."

"So it's not that I'm dumb, it's that I'm a wuss? Well, that doesn't surprise me either."

Now with another groan and a great deal more protest, he readied himself to defend against David. David held back, and they strove against each other for some time, balanced in combat. Then David was unable to resist the urge, and he stepped forward and kicked Alek's ankle. With a yelp Alek toppled over. David grinned. "And there's one reason to use mental combat. While they're being kept busy trying to pry your mind open, you can get one up on them physically."

Alek gave David a glare, but it was a half-hearted one. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. I'm going to have such a headache. I should hit you over the head a few times, just to make up for it."