The treant seemed to notice Owari's shift in mood as it grew slightly cautious. Instead of risking more damage to its roots it sent another dozen leaves at him. It staggered and spread them out in the hopes of creating an undodgeable net, although it knew he could block them now, it had to use everything it could to create a moment to get a fatal attack. As he watched the leaves flying at him at high-speed Owari showed no signs of fear, with a light shift in his body he swung and cut the first leaf in half as it arrived with a diagonal cut. Then he shifted his hold on the hilt of the sword while changing the direction the blade faced to redirect it to make it go from trying to swing behind him to swinging in front of him again. Although there was some loss of speed, he made up for this with the air resistance lessening technique and his force redirection method. Although he did have to put in more strength to keep the swings from losing strength rapidly, this still allowed him to have an efficient stream of forward-facing attacks that were all as fast as any of his normal attacks.

Instead of just standing still and waiting, Owari started to move forward with heavy solid steps. It was entirely opposite of his normal footwork that focused on light and quick steps. If he were to take light steps the force of his swings would throw off his balance. Although his steps were solid, they were still quick. Owari kept his blade swinging as he stepped forward slowly but steadily. The second leaf came in range before he even had a chance to finish his first step but was cut down as easily as the first. The leaves were too far apart to get all of them, but a little over half of them were in range for him to cut down as he took one step at a time.

By the third step he had swung his sword more than seven times, and with each swing and leaf he struck he had corrected his movements and grown more efficient. A pair of three roots shot out from his front, back, and right to try and enclose him. He swung his blade down in a downward diagonal to cut the one in front, pivoted in place and continued the attack to cut the one to his right horizontally, and finally just before it reached him he cut the one behind him with an upwards diagonal slash.

He didn't stop there though and continued the rotation to slice the one in front one more time, and caught the one on his right as it tried to rapidly retreat, removing a bit more. Now he was much more comfortable with the force of his swings and his steps grew a bit lighter as he incorporated the force of his attacks to propel him forward. This meant each step covered almost twice the ground as it did before. The knowledge that each swing could mean the difference between life and death caused Owari to enter a state of focus that was even greater than in the train tunnels as even then he could just knock the enemies aside or dodge. But here he had removed his ability to dodge without risking a backlash.

As he moved forward the speed of his swings increased and the distance covered by each step grew. He was improving rapidly as he focused on maximizing the efficiency of every movement, and the treant didn't miss this change as Owari rapidly closed the distance. It seemed to feel a certain amount of pressure from him and in a slight panic threw out nearly 20 leaves with a shake of its branch. The amount of leaves increased but the spread hadn't caused the net to become denser. This way he couldn't just cut one leaf to cancel the net since there would be another leaf coming in right behind it in his path. Unfortunately for the treant, Owari simply swung his sword and cut each of the half dozen leaves that were in the path of his advancement. His sword traced lines through the air leaving afterimages making it difficult to make it out with the naked eye. Only flashes of the metallic shine from his sword catching the light allowed one to make out the blade directly.

Meanwhile Owari was moving his hands, arms, and upper body rapidly as he gently redirected and controlled his swings. If not for the time he had taken to train his accuracy back in the train tunnel he would have had a much harder time directing his sword now. Even then it was taking a lot of focus to do it. His hands would shift position on the sword hilt to act as a fulcrum, while his wrists were used to change the direction the blade faced, meanwhile he used his arms to control the distribution of force and his chest to apply more strength to the swings to maintain the speed of his swings. All of this blended into his newly forming technique allowing him to get a feeling for the direction he wanted to take it.

The treant realized its desperate attack had failed and it calmed down as it tried to figure out a way to stop him. It was confident, even as things were it would survive a few attacks from Owari so it had no reason to panic. Soon it came up with an idea and waited for Owari to get close, which was happening quite rapidly. In only a few seconds he had managed to reach less than three meters away which he could close in a moment with his current speed. However as he stepped on the ground the ground split open from every direction as seven separate roots shot out at him from every direction. On top of that they were faster and seemed to be under a much finer degree of control as they adjusted in real-time to strike him. Together they formed a kind of circle of death as the spikes shot towards him as fast as arrows.

Owari didn't panic as he had already detected this trap and prepared to counter attack as soon as he touched down. He crouched down in place as he gripped his sword with both hands and spun in place while leveling the sword horizontally. As he spun he swung the sword while redirecting all of his forward momentum into the spin, this allowed him to finish a full revolution before any of the roots had hit him and he had managed to cut every single one removing the tip from it and sending both the sharpened tips of the roots and a large quantity of water flying through the air as all of the force of his forward charge was forced into this attack.

Like this he had both stopped his charge and ruined the trap that had been laid out for him. He didn't just wait as he was, and instead he placed his sword into a sword draw position as he leaned forward and changed his breathing method for maximum strength. The muscles in his legs were pushed to the max as he shoved off the ground at full speed shooting out as fast as a full-speed train towards the treant. Now that he was closer to it he had seen that it was about as thick around as he was tall and that had given him a very simple idea. Before the treant could react he had already arrived and used the full strength of his moth wing strike as he flew past it. Having transferred most of his momentum into the strike he lightly landed less than a meter past the tree where he spun on his foot and turned to watch as the tree toppled over and smashed heavily into the ground causing many of its branches to snap and be crushed. Owari could easily cut through an entire boulder, let alone a tree that was merely mimicking the strength of a boulder.

The treant let out a very loud wail, the first time it had actually made any noise directly, before unceremoniously dying. The seven roots rapidly drained of nutrients and all the mana it used to fix its wounds and shoot those leaves at him had caught up with it. The final straw was being cut off from being able to suck up the surrounding mana rich water to heal it of the damage to its branches. In the end it died without even being able to give a life or death counter-attack. Owari sheathed his sword and smiled with satisfaction. He had made serious steps in his swordsmanship today and had created the imperfect version of his second technique which he could now go about improving.

As he walked over to the treants remains his moth came back to him and hid in his haori as usual. It was unfortunate but there wasn't much edible in the treant, so it wasn't getting a meal this time. It had actually made some serious strides in its evolution due to that bear from before and the countless magical beast remains he would leave to it. A magical beast's evolution is affected by two things, their environment and pressures of said environment, and the magical beast's own preferences. A magical beast that wants to live deeper in the ocean for instance, even if it has no need to adapt to living deeper in the ocean, will slowly evolve to do so.

When a magical beast has been branded and tamed the tamer can also weigh in and direct its evolution. Because humans have slowly perfected the art of tamed beast evolution and generally have a better grasp of what is needed and what isn't, magical beasts who have been tamed have more efficient evolutionary paths. For instance a normal ghost eye moth might evolve pretty much only to be better at finding a mate and having children since this was all they really knew to do with their weak sense of self. But Owari's ghost eye moth has been improving it's aura and mana sensory abilities and phantom affinity. This was because he was directing the flow of its evolution, and it was quite fast since as a relatively weak magical beast it required less to evolve. He had also bred it over many generations to maximize its growth potential and it had shown.

Owari didn't focus too heavily on his moth for now though, even if it had grown a lot it still wasn't where it needed to be for him to do anything about. Once the phantom affinity reached a level in which he could understand it a bit more clearly then he would figure out what to do with it going forward. For now he walked over and inspected the treant. Being an earth affinity one the wood that made up its body was very tough which was good for making certain items. On top of that if he boiled the leaves in a stew with some other stuff he could improve his earth affinity if only a little. Unfortunately it was even heavier than normal wood which would make moving it all impossible. Instead Owari started to inspect it to find the best quality bits to remove and bring with him.

He had researched how to dismantle a treant as he had researched plant type magical beasts quite a lot, this was one of the few he had a keener interest in since if he found one it would be quite fortunate. He walked over and started to use his sword to cut through the massive log of the treant. Considering how smooth a cut he could make there was no problem with this. After separating the main trunk into sizes he could work with he cut out a bunch of planks of varying sizes and filled his pack with what he could. He had mostly separated them into sizes for furniture legs and weapon handles or sheathes. He would have liked to make a greater variety but he didn't have the tools to carry it back. When he came out for his expedition he was going to purchase a cart to stack stuff in and pull back to the city. He would like to hire an animal too but they tend to be expensive to both buy and maintain and he could do as much work as even the toughest horse he could afford if not more.

Once he got everything packed up he put all the leaves in a sack and left them for his dinner, he planned on boiling a massive pot of stew with all the excess meat he had gotten over the day. That night he had a very simple but enjoyable meal and he slept like a baby. He was very satisfied with his advancements in his swordsmanship and the materials he found would pay enough to make up his expenses a bit. He had probably overspent a bit with all the books he had bought and this would help make up for that. He didn't take long to finish up his search of the area and get to training.

Since he had made some strides in his second technique and had even developed it to a workable level he decided to name it. Thinking of the various aspects of it he decided to call it 'blade swarm stream' because the number of attacks make it seem like you're being attacked by numerous blades and his movements flow like a stream and connect together to form said effect. He also thought it sounded cool which helped him come to a decision. Even if he was a bit of a quiet type and seemed mature he still had his immature parts, though there was nothing wrong with it and he didn't intend to change it. He also didn't mind giving his techniques names like this since he never intended to share the names with others.

He made some progress with his new technique during his training. Mostly he just figured out the most efficient way to transfer the force of his attacks into his movement so he could move faster while he was using the technique. He would direct the excess force that usually just disperses after each attack to propel his movements forward. This meant whether the enemy tries to block or run they would hopefully still have to take the attacks on in some manner. Other than this he also tried to find ways to smoothly transition between different attack chains so he wouldn't be caught in one set of maneuvers as soon as he began. Although he only made a small amount of progress in this regard it was still satisfying work since the last time he tried to improve this technique he had achieved little of note. He was able to feel the rush of improvement once again and he enjoyed it thoroughly as if it was a drug. However he was able to calm himself and stop when it was time to leave. He wasn't so lacking in self-control that he would lose himself to such a basic desire. He quickly packed up and made his way to leave as he wanted to get to bed early so he could go trade in his materials quickly.

As he walked through the forest the ghost eye moth detected some presences nearby that surprised him. Looking over it was a group of three humans over a dozen meters away who had also noticed him. The reason he had realized it was humans was partially because humans have very strong auras, and partially because he had learned some of the traits humans aura's and mana had when sensed by the ghost eye moth after spending so much time in the city sensing them. Not to mention humans are the only thinking beings who would consort with others of their kind with such radically different auras to themselves.

The three of them seemed to have some level of hostility to him, but it was an acceptable level considering it was dangerous to meet unknown hunters in the wilds. After all, who can confirm the disappearance of every single hunter when most die to magical beasts and never have their corpses found? The three of them did do something he didn't expect though and they started to approach him. Among them was two guys and a girl. One guy was a slightly handsome brown-haired guy in his twenties, the second guy was a big burly man with a scarred face and whose age was hard to tell, and the girl was an average looking blonde girl who was slim and fit. The brown-haired guy was wearing brown leather armor over his clothing and had a longsword at his side. The big guy had a breastplate and metal gauntlets and greaves as well as a warhammer on his back. The girl was also wearing leather armor though it was darker in color and she had a rapier at her side.

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As they approached their hostility rapidly increased, but their mannerisms seemed to be friendly as they smiled and seemed relieved. The brown haired guy stepped forward as the leader when they got fairly close. "Are you new around this area? I don't think I've ever seen you before." His tone was like that of a senior looking out for his junior.

Owari nodded as if he didn't notice anything off and answered back. "I just arrived at the beginning of this month." He took off his pack as they approached and set it down carefully as he was afraid it might tear open from the weight of the items if he just dropped it.

"Your pack is full? Must be heavy." The girl laughed a bit gratingly, clearly she wasn't as good an actor as the brown-haired leader.

"It's not too bad." Owari shrugged. The big guy started to step closer as Owari answered, and upon noticing this he glanced at the man. "I'd like it if you don't come closer. Safety first after all." Owari gave them the chance to back off with this.

The big man snorted in response. "I don't see why I should listen to a kid who looks to be on death's door. Why put on an act, give us your pack or we'll end you. And don't think the authorities will help you or something stupid like that. It's impossible to prove those materials were yours or that we ever met you. It's our word against yours and there are more of us than you." As he spoke Owari noticed that the other two didn't seem all that bothered by him declaring this. They clearly agreed it was pointless to play friendly by this point.

Owari thought for a moment, he was never going to hand over his things to others; it just wasn't his way. However he wondered how to handle the situation. He wasn't sure about the strength of the opponents and he was outnumbered. "I'd prefer to keep my things, and for nobody to die here today. How about we call things here and just pretend this didn't happen?" Owari offered this final compromise.

"What? The way you say that is quite funny, almost sounds like you think you can kill us." The big guy laughed as though he heard a funny joke. "Since you're so bold I'll only break a limb or two to teach you a lesson." As he said that he prepared to grab his hammer and his hostility skyrocketed to the degree of murderous intent. He was probably lying about letting him live.

Owari didn't say anything else, instead he dropped into a crouch and placed his hand on his sword. Then he used the same technique he used to finish off the treant as he launched himself full speed at the big man. The time it took for him to make all these movements was the same as it took for the man to grip his hammer. By the time Owari had moved and reached the man he had only just shown surprise at Owari suddenly preparing for a fight. Then by the time Owari had drawn his sword and beheaded the man and launched past him he had only just had a look of shock reach his face from the surprise of how fast Owari could move. His head came off and spun in the air with a look of shock that changed to horror as he saw his own body crumbling to the ground before his brain caught up and he died.

The other two had barely been able to keep up with Owari's movement after he attacked, and only managed to catch the head of their friend leaving his body and plopping to the ground with a look of horror. When they saw this the woman screamed in fear and the man's legs froze and he started to shake like a leaf. They hadn't expected the sickly looking kid to be so fast or decisive, it was as if he had no hesitation to kill in his mind as he took off a man's head.

As for Owari, after flying past the man he spun around mid-air and reoriented himself to face the woman who had screamed. As soon as he touched the ground and as the head hit the ground he launched himself forward with his blade in a sword draw position. Just like the bigger man he arrived and beheaded her before she could even realize she was being targeted. The brown-haired man only heard the woman's screams suddenly cut to a gurgling sound and he instinctively turned to look only to see her head to fall through the air and hit the ground before rolling his way. He stepped back in fear as he glanced up and saw Owari spin in mid-air and place his feet against the trunk of a tree and kick off straight for him.

He suddenly reacted and pulled his sword out and held it in front of him with the hilt pointed in the air just in time for it to intercept Owari's sword. Although he was terrified and had been shocked before, this guy was still a hunter and he had been able to get into a combat-ready state of mind. Of course it had taken two people dying for his mind to kick in gear showing how terrible his reaction time was and thus Owari was confident this guy was just some random nobody. However the guy still had a good sword and a mystic art as the blade between Owari and the man managed to block his strike from cutting through. He had even made sure to use an attack that could cut through steel when he saw the man pull his blade out which showed he had used mana to enhance it, otherwise it would have to be a high-quality material which would be quite expensive.

Either way even if the guy blocked the attack from cutting his head off the force behind the attack didn't just disappear. He suddenly felt an unstoppable force transfer through his sword and he had to press his other arm to the back of the sword to keep it steady as he was sent flying back and he even fell and rolled across the ground. He was able to press his sword into the ground and catch himself with his feet to reorient himself, but he was already over five meters away by that point and it had been so fast. The strength behind Owari's attack was no joke, he had been eating earth affinity magical beast meat like crazy, not to mention he had improved rapidly after the train tunnel fight had occurred. Even though his strength wasn't too much higher than it had been back then his ability to apply that strength was leagues higher.

The brown-haired man was slightly terrified of this strength as his arms were slightly numb, he wondered if Owari had used an earth type mystic art just now. However he hadn't seen any traces of a mystic art being used like a flash of color. The reason Owari hadn't noticed the man's sword flash with light as he activated an enhancement type mystic art to strengthen it was because he had used metal affinity which is silver in color and so it only looked like the glare of the sun against his blade.

Owari gently landed on the ground and swung his sword a few times as the man barely managed to reorient himself and observe his opponent. Owari was doing what he was to check his sword for damage and to get the numbness out of his arm after that attack. The solidity of the man's weapon had been outside his expectation, he now realized that if the hardness of a target was greater than he thought then he would suffer from some backlash. He would have to be careful of this going forward. As for the man his mind worked at a million miles a minute to try and figure out how to survive. He cursed himself for messing with a newbie before waiting to see who the surprise breakouts were, after all some independent hunters showed massive potential and shocked everyone each year. However he had subconsciously underestimated Owari who looked sickly and weak and who was alone without even a magical beast in sight.

However he had no time to lament his fate as Owari finished up what he was doing and looked over at the man with interest. "So you have a mystic art. I'd like to see how I compare. Let's have a fight." Owari's look of interest slowly shifted to a vicious smile and his eyes radiated madness as he prepared to attack again.

The man suddenly felt quite afraid as he felt a strange formless pressure pressing down on him. Looking at Owari's expression he realized he had met a madman and had stimulated the madness within him. He had seen a few crazy people before, especially battle crazy people so he knew the look. Owari flexed the muscles in his leg and shot forward swinging his sword down in a double-handed grip. He was so fast and his blade made almost no noise as it moved making it difficult to respond. The man barely managed to place his blade in the path of attack as a loud clang rang out and he felt his mana drain. His sword enhancement was pulling mana rapidly as it tried to block Owari's attack. Before the man could do anything however, Owari used the collision of blades to push himself back to negate the recoil of his attack. When the man saw this he was relieved as he wasn't sure how he would have held back the strength Owari was able to put out. His legs had already sunk and left imprints on the ground and his arms were numb. However he knew if he didn't take the initiative he would die for sure so he reached around and grabbed his sword hilt with both hands. Then his sword flashed with a silver light as he quickly swung his sword at Owari despite the distance between them. An arc of silver light fired out and flew at Owari who had just landed on the ground.

Not being sure of the exact capabilities of this silver arc, Owari didn't dare underestimate it. He pushed off the ground and jumped into the air over it and toward the brown-haired man who had run out of breath for a moment. He froze slightly when he saw Owari dodge his attack, the silver arc was as fast as an arrow as it shot towards him so it was difficult to dodge, you'd have to react as soon as you saw it to actually dodge it. For someone with his reaction speed he could never imagine someone would be able to do so. However to Owari this was normal, any one of the people he had fought with in the train crash incident would have been able to dodge it. And those three in particular wouldn't even have to dodge.

The man might have been shocked to see his attack dodged but being on the edge of life and death he wasn't willing to just give up, he forced himself to move as he gripped his sword once again and swung it at Owari. When he saw the man preparing the same attack he carefully observed it, after all he wouldn't get the chance to study mystic arts so closely very often. He had also carefully observed the damage the attack caused and saw it only affects the space directly in the path of the arc as if it was a blade. Because of that when the man fired another at him as he was stuck in mid-air he had an answer. The man watched first in relief and then shock as Owari threw his weight to one side with a twist of his torso and tuck of his legs. This gave him just enough sideways momentum to make the silver arc fly past him harmlessly and into the sky. Owari rapidly fell to the ground and landed lightly only a meter away from the man who was rapidly running out of options.

As he realized he really would die if this continued he didn't dare hold anything back. He decided to risk everything as he recalled a technique he had been trying to learn for years. He always failed at the final step but now it was his only option. He lifted his sword and spun it with the tip pointed at the ground. Then as it flashed with silver light greater than any before he stabbed it in the ground as it hit the peak of brightness. As soon as the blade sunk halfway into the ground the light within it exploded out and rushed along the ground at Owari.

It was so fast that it was three-fourths of the way to him by the time he had landed properly and realized the attack was coming. With no time to dodge properly he lifted his sword overhead and gripped it with two hands before rapidly swinging down with a full-force strike wasting no effort to shift breathing to the moth wing strike method to maximize his power output, even though doing it would cause some serious pain in his lungs later. As his sword swung down and connected with the line of silver light a loud screeching occurred as Owari felt a powerful force coming from the light. He was pushed back rapidly as his legs dug trenches in the ground as he forced the light down and kept it from shooting through him.

Unfortunately without a mystic art to make use of mana he could only rely on physical means to fight back, and as one would expect it didn't take long for that to go wrong. The initial swing of his sword was strong enough to weaken the beam and help him get a handle on the situation and have time to consider his options, however he soon had to rely on the strength of his arms pushing back against the light to hold it off. The problem was that he immediately started to feel the stinging in his lungs and the drain on his stamina was rather excessive as he pushed himself to the limits. As he felt the pain mounting his arms slipped up and he felt the light pushing rapidly up and he knew that if it was given the chance to hit him it would slice through him easily. Realizing he couldn't push it back anymore he shifted his grip on his sword and twisted the blade to point the blade down with the tip aimed at the light. Then he used all his strength to push it down and barely managed to redirect it to the left and past him. However as it did so it scattered rapidly due to the technique not being designed to handle being redirected so forcefully. Ironically this flaw in the technique would turn into a very powerful weapon against Owari. The scattering light fired off in all directions as it flew past and many of them shot at him. Since his body was still recovering from the backlash of the various maneuvers he just used he could only lightly shift his body to dodge. The left side of his haori was shredded and a few dozen cuts all opened along his arm, leg, and flank. He even had one cut across his cheek.

The man watched as the line of silver light rapidly shot out with glee as he finally managed to overcome this barrier that had held him back for years. As the silver line overtook Owari he lost sight of him but the man was confident. He practiced a metal-type mystic art and they were notorious for their offensive power. This attack especially he had heard it could cut through and shred even most low-level magical steels let alone a human being. Even if Owari had a sword that could withstand the attack he would have to find a way to hold the entire attack back. That would be even more difficult since it would fire out with the strength of a mid to high copper rank magical beast's full-strength attack. However only a couple seconds passed before the line was suddenly diverted and he felt the mystic art fall apart. As the light scattered between him and Owari he was terrified as he saw Owari standing there at the end of the large gouge dug out in the ground. He quickly shifted his weight and stood straight up with his sword at his side completely fine. Although the man noticed the torn clothing and blood that dripped down Owari's arm and leg, he couldn't help but feel the glee from a moment ago leaving him and for fear to return. It was then that he realized the pressure he had felt when he witnessed Owari's mad expression had never left.

"That was a powerful attack, I almost died. Mystic arts really are powerful huh?" Owari voiced his thoughts as he lifted his arm and looked down to assess his injuries. The wounds were numerous and he was losing a decent amount of blood. But his quick thinking had allowed him to dodge any fatal injuries.

The man didn't really put much thought into Owari's words, he was too busy turning over his mind. However he realized to his own horror that he was out of mana. He was completely and totally drained after that big move. He wouldn't even be able to use the silver arc anymore. He stood unsteadily and held his sword in front of him. Observing Owari's wounds he had some faint trace of hope, but even now the odd pressure he felt didn't leave and it frightened him a bit. Owari wasn't sure whether the man still had more tricks up his sleeve so he was cautious, though in this case his caution became action. He didn't want to give the man any more chances to catch him off guard. He was satisfied with this sparring session as he entered his sword draw stance and shot off at full speed towards the man. Despite his injuries Owari was only a beat slower, though he did send blood spraying into the air behind him as he shot out at high speed. The man could only put his sword between the two and grip it as firmly as he could. He didn't even have mana to put in it to enhance it, he just hoped whatever technique Owari had used to block his last move had drained him of his own mana.

Unfortunately as Owari's sword split his own like butter and sliced his neck just as easily he finally noticed that there was no flash of color as Owari attacked. In his final moment as he had been as focused as he had been this whole fight hoping beyond reason that Owari wouldn't have strength left he had clearly seen that there had been no flash, not even the silver flash of light of the metal element which he was beyond familiar with by now. This revelation, along with the words he recalled Owari stating that he had ignored not a moment ago, allowed him to realize with his very last thoughts that Owari hadn't even used a single mystic art this entire time much to his horror. He could only think of the word 'monster' as his thoughts ceased forever and his head hit the ground with a wet thud.