Julian was not a genius, and he was well aware of that, his body was simply not blessed with any talent. But that did not mean that he could not understand martial arts. Julian had spent a lot of time reading different manuals of martial arts that he found in the several ruins he had been to, and as such had gained a great degree of knowledge regarding the subject.

'From what I have seen the count can definitely see where the attacks come from so any normal attacks that I do would be useless against him.' Julian thought as he rushed towards the count with an ever changing footwork.

*Bash* Julian slashed with the sword in his hand at the count who used the hilt of his weapon to block the attack.

"Huh?" the count exclaimed as he noticed that the other tanto that was in Julian's left hand was not there as Julian had just attacked Alfred with two hands rather than one.

Seeing that his attack had been blocked Julian was quick to retreat, as he did not want to lose his weapon like the others before him.

"Huuuuuh " Julian breathed out once he reached at a far enough distance from Alfred.

'Formless swordsmanship 1st phase: chaos wave'

Julian once more rushed at Alfred however this time rather than just attacking him with one random slash, Julian chose to use the swordsmanship technique he had formed after years of reading old martial arts books.

To the outside viewer Julian's attacks seemed like a desperate attempt to touch Alfred, but the count who was feeling the full force of the attack could see that while the attack was unpredictable, it made it so that the next attack would have a higher chance of landing.

"This is good but not enough" the count finally broke the flow of attack by moving back and stabbing at the sword in Julian's hand, which flung the sword along with Julian's hand. While it didn't disarm him, Julian was left with a massive opening which the count used to get extremely close to Julian to end the battle.

Almost as if he had been waiting for the count to get close to him, Julian used the short sword that he had kept on his back to attack the count. The attack obviously failed as the count could see the attack coming from a mile away, but what he didn't believe Julian would do was throw the knife at him from the odd position he was in.

The knife barely missed the count but dodging the knife put Alfred in an awkward position that Julian used to his advantage as he swung down at the count with full force.

'Eclipse swordsmanship, 9th form: quick strike'

*swoosh*

wind blew around the arena, and before Julian could become fully aware of what had happened *clank clank clank*, the sound of Julian's sword landing on the ground was heard in the room.

"Huh what happened?" Julian let out in disbelief as he had truly expected his attack to land.

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"I do not have much to say to you, you just need to focus on getting stronger, and as for technique I feel like giving any advice to you would be utterly useless."

Julian nodded and left the stage.

"NEXT"

"RANK 131 – ANDREW COMPTON"

**********

'Complacent idiot, did you really believe that you could touch him? You think he gained the title of a sword master for nothing? He is a transcendent individual, you think such a person would be defeated by simple techniques' the voice inside Julian's head once again started to speak to him. 'Shut up, I'm just weak right now, if my formless sword was a bit better I would have definitely landed a hit'Julian retorted. 'Hmpf, arrogant fool' the other Julian responded before disappearing once more.

Looking at Andrew walking up the stage had knocked Julian out of his thoughts, Julian patted Andrew's shoulder and wished him luck "good luck my man, you are going to need it, that guy is an absolute monster"

"Uhuh" Andrew responded as he nodded his head and walked upstage.

Andrew went up and greeted the count like everyone else before propping up his weapon and taking his stance.

Andrew took the two-handed long sword, similar to the one that count Alfred had in his hands, and took a basic stance with the sword placed at a 45-degree angle and one foot placed behind the other.

"BEGIN" Andra announced, however neither the count nor Andrew, had any thoughts on moving as they both held the same posture and stared at each other.

But this did not last for long as Andrew soon proceeded to smoothly move towards Alfred at a decent pace.

Andrew had slashed at Alfred, before switching from the slash to a stab, none of which Alfred ended up dodging without any effort. The boy then proceed to perform a wide chop towards Alfred but, the count blocked it with ease, and transitioned from the block to a lock making Andrew's sword stuck with his. Andrew kicked towards the count in an attempt to free his blade, but as soon as he tried to kick his form broke allowing the count to disarm Andrew and end the battle.

"Young one I want to talk to you after the announcement are over, so come to the principals' office after this ends." the count whispered into Andrew's ears and walked away from him.

"CADETS, NOW THAT YOUR PHYSICAL ASSESSMENT IS OVER, YOU MAY VIEW YOUR RESULTS THAT ARE POSTED IN THE CLASS SOFT BOARD, AND SINCE THE REMAINING CLASSES OF THE DAY ARE DISMISSED YOU ARE FREE TO DO WHATEVER YOU WANT, NOW DISPERSE." Andra's voice resounded throughout the training hall and as such the students began to leave.

Once all the students left and the hall was empty, the count went inside the glass chamber from where the principal and miss Andra were observing the battles.

"So Alfred, you find anyone that seemed to fit your requirements?" the principal asked.

"Before I start, miss Andra could you leave us alone for a moment, ii wish to talk to the principle alone for a moment"

"Alright, I will be heading back to the teacher's room, I have an appointment with a student anyway."

"I did find a few students that were interesting, and one even managed to fit every criterion I had" the count replied.

"Oh, who is it then? And will you be taking them as your disciple?"

"It was the last student that I had fought, Andrew Compton, while he seemed to have smooth movements, his technique was extremely crude, but his style was definitely the most similar to me. But that was not what caught my attention, if it was enough then the one before him would have been my first choice. The reason I wish to ask this boy to be my disciple is his eyes, they are similar to mine in that, they can see the essence of an attack, which is necessary to learn my martial art."

"Hoooo to think someone would have the 'eyes of martial art's' within the young students"

"What is odd is that he was using it in the bout but seems unaware of the fact that he even has it."

******

Meanwhile, Julian had left Andrew who said he had to go to the principles office and started moving to the teacher's room.

'Hmmm, I wonder who the count chose as his disciple?' Julian thought as he walked, unaware of the consequences that the count's choice today would cause in his life.