He nodded in agreement at Carrick, smirking when the vampire spoke about his issue with the rapier. It was something his former mistress couldn't understand. He wanted to be able to wreak havoc, not train to have a clean, civilized duel.
He simply chose to ignore the question about his cross bow helping him survive.
When Carrick showed him his sword he cocked his head to the side, fingers itching to take a hold on it. “No I have not. Not up close. I only know about them from books. The romans adopted it from the.. celto.. spanish celts ? They were impressed by those swords while fighting them.”
He really did his best to hide his excitement when he was allowed to take the sword, although he couldn't help the grin on his face. He took the sword and weighed in his hand; It was better balanced than his falchion. From years of wielding and training with the latter his arm was used to the imbalance, and he knew it will take quite a while to be able to wield this sword skillfully. “I am not very used to thrusting a sword obviously.” he explained as he approached the dummy. The falchion was hardly used like that; it's strength lying on forceful blows and swings that could chop through almost any bone in a man with ease.
“Yes I know.. I remember the books saying how the romans edged closer to their enemies..” he mused, holding his left arm angled in front of him. “with shields. Until they presented an opening. And then..” he lunged forward, thrusting at the middle of the dummy.