She watched while he showed her the guards, and nodded her approval. He's getting good.
"Well I don't know if you'll consider it a challenge my Lord, but I have your first drill. As you know, the strike of the sword is merely a transition from one guard to the next. Almost every stroke you do will be on a diagonal line, like this" she cut from Tail guard up into Window, "It's a subtle diagonal, never a 45 degree angle and never a vertical line, because a human being fits into approximately this space," she drew a rectangle in the air with her sword, "and you want to cut as much of him as possible. The other type of strike is like this," she cut from Guard of the Woman in a horizontal line to reverse-Window, "and that's to cut their throat or take their head."
"So, keeping that in mind, we're going to drill the guards one at a time, slow at first, in the order I showed you them. Every time I call one out, take a step forward while you strike and end in the guard I called. We'll start slow, and then we'll get faster. That's the first drill. Still keep your sword from hitting the ground." She smirked, thinking of the first day she trained the roadies on the longsword. "I make the boys do push-ups for every time they hit the earth with their swords, but obviously that doesn't apply to you."
Exactly as she'd said, they went through the guards one by one, slow at first, then quicker, until thought was removed and all that was left was the natural fluid movement of the sword. She stayed in front of him instead of at his side, so that he could watch the way her hands and feet moved and perfect the little subtleties of each guard. In about twenty minutes they were up by the moat again.