William shakily stood back up, using his spear for leverage. He was panting hard.

As William was recovering, Umbra walked over to the edge of the platform and took a seat, so she was facing Damon.

“Were you able to learn anything from that?” asked Umbra.

Damon nodded his head.

“A few things, yes.” Said Damon.

“A few?” asked Umbra, taken aback.

"Yeap,” nodded Damon.

“Can you take me through what you managed to see?” asked Umbra, curious as to how much a child who had yet to awaken could have gleaned from such a fast exchange.

Although Damon was clearly a prodigy, the speed of the clash between Umbra and William should have been beyond his ability to track.

At most, she hoped he would have seen something in their starting stances, but she had expected him to lose track of everything after those initial stances.

This spar was aimed at being a lesson to Damon that the basics were just that—the basics.

In Umbra’s mind, witnessing such a spar would light a fire in Damon to drive him to practice harder and pay closer attention to the spars, which would hopefully allow him to eventually be able to start following what was going on in them.

Damon saying that he had actually managed to learn a few things thus came as a surprise to her.

"Well, firstly, I see what you meant about it being difficult to dodge while in the Eastern stance and why the steps associated with it are so important.” said Damon.

“There was more than one instance where you were able to change direction while charging forward, and because you executed the steps to perfection, you didn’t lose speed or momentum while doing so.” Continued Damon.

Damon gestured towards William.

“The same goes for William; using the Southern stance, he was able to block and interfere with your movement without losing his balance or falling into your momentum. Even when he pivoted, he kept good control of his weight.” Said Damon.

Umbra found herself nodding at Damon’s analysis, as she realized that he had followed the key details of the duel perfectly well.

Before she could say anything, though, Damon interrupted her thoughts.

“I have something to ask, teacher.” Said Damon.

“What is it?” asked Umbra, while her mind was still processing the fact that Damon had been able to keep up with their movements.

“Your durability should have been limited to match William’s, but for that last side-step you did, I saw your ankle flex at an angle that should have broken it and torn the tendons in your leg.” Said Damon, scratching his chin.

“A normal person using the Eastern stance would probably have been able to move like you did, but not to the same extent you were able to. The angles and timing of the way you changed direction while keeping momentum aren’t something normal bones and tendons can withstand. How were you able to do it even with restrictions?” asked Damon.

This was the key part of the duel that stood out the most to Damon.

Umbra’s demonstration would not have been possible if common sense were to be followed.

She had been able to control her body and movement to a frightening degree while charging at William, and Damon had seen her knees and ankles bend at impossible angles to allow her to do so.

It was one thing if she was at her normal durability and agility, but the braces she wore should have limited her agility and durability.

It was not as if she had relied on advanced reflexes and speed to move faster than William. Damon had definitely seen that she had relied on her experience instead. She started some of her movements before William had even committed to his, showing that she had read his intentions based on his shifting stance and weight and acted as such.

Small things, such as how slow she was in rotating the grip on her knives, as well as how long the actual maneuvers took to complete once she started them, showed Damon that her agility and speed were indeed restricted.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

What did not follow, however, was that though the movements were not performed at superhuman speed, they did involve superhuman rotation of her joints. The strain that this must have caused should not have been possible for Umbra to withstand without injury.

Umbra was silent for a few minutes, then she dropped down from the dueling platform and walked towards Damon.

“You were able to see all of that?” she asked.

Damon nodded his head.

Umbra sighed a long sigh.

“My body is naturally tougher than my physical stats would indicate. If you manage to become my disciple, you will learn how.” Said Umbra.

This took Damon by surprise.

He had seen techniques that could push one beyond the limits of their stats for a short time and with a penalty, but he had not come across techniques that permanently amplified them on a base level.

His determination to become Umbra’s disciple was further solidified by that exchange.

“Damon,” said Umbra.

“Yes teacher.” Replied Damon.

“I need to test something. Wait here for me.” Said Umbra before she flashed away, leaving behind a fading image.

A few seconds later, Umbra reappeared with eight white balls in hand, each about the size of a large marble.

“William, come down here too.” Said Umbra.

Still breathing hard, William made his way down from the platform.

Umbra held up the eight stones.

“These stones are commonly used to test what we call ‘Active Vision’,” said Umbra.

“Active vision is the ability to see things that are in motion. The more details you can perceive at higher speeds, the better your active vision is.” Said Umbra.

Damon nodded his head.

Active vision was a miscellaneous skill that he had come across in multiple fighters through his previous life; though, having had no formal training, this was the first time he was given a clear explanation of what it was.

He could infer as much what the importance of such an ability was—the more you could perceive in a battle, the greater your advantage.

“Normally, active vision isn’t tested or trained until one enters either the academy or formal military training. Up until reaching level 3, there are hardly any noticeable differences for most people, and simply leveling up increases one’s ability to track objects at high speed. Even then, only a rudimentary test is completed.” Continued Umbra.

William nodded at this.

“Right, Mister Norman gave me an active vision test. He only concluded that it was satisfactory for me to aim to become a warrior,” said William.

Umbra nodded her head.

“It is difficult to train active vision. Not only that, but the advantage active vision gives can be bridged by improving one’s agility and pushing one’s battle sense to its limits, both of which are much easier to do. As such, unless someone shows a monstrous level of active vision, it is not something that is paid attention to.” Said Umbra.

She pointed a finger at Damon and smirked.

“It seems to me that for your age and mana level, you have ridiculously high ‘Active Vision’, so we’ll test it.” Said Umbra.

She shifted her finger to aim at William.

“And since William is here, we might as well test him too,” continued Umbra.

Damon did his best to suppress a smile. True-Sight was an ability that existed beyond something like Active Vision, and William’s blessing of Kalanor increased all battle-related skills.

Umbra was in for another surprise.

Umbra picked up a few of the white stones and showed them to William and Damon.

The stones had varying numbers of black dots on them, like spherical dice, though the dots were all concentrated on only one part of each stone.

“So how does the test work?” asked William.

“It’s simple enough. The dots on these stones change color depending on how fast they’re thrown. The fastest is indicated by red, followed by orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Stones not thrown fast enough simply stay black.” Explained Umbra.

“I’ll throw the stones, and you two will observe them and write down which color the dots on each stone turn." Said Umbra.

She flashed a grin at them.

“For reference, at William’s level, being able to track an indigo stone is considered the baseline of talent to be a warrior. Being able to track a green stone is the threshold for a prodigy.” Said Umbra.

When she was done explaining, she walked about fifty meters away from them and stood with all eight stones in hand.

“Are you ready?” she asked.

“Yes!” Damon and William responded.

“Good.” Umbra said, throwing the stones.

They shot past Damon and William.

Even without True-Sight activated, the passive boost it gave to his vision was enough for Damon to track the eight stones as they zoomed past.

They were indeed traveling at different speeds.

Damon couldn’t help but chuckle to himself as he realized how crafty Umbra was.

She had thrown some of them at the same speed. For example, both the stone with five dots and the stone with three dots had their dots turn blue from the speed Umbra threw them at.

This way, it was impossible to try to use inference to work out the remaining colors, even if you were able to track five or six of the stones.

Umbra flashed through the air and appeared on the other side of her throw, catching the stones before they fell.

She produced a sheet of paper and inked quills from her space pocket and waited as Damon and William wrote down what they had seen.

When they showed her the papers, Umbra had a pensive look on her face.

William had tracked seven of the stones, being able to see an orange one. Damon had tracked all eight stones.

Umbra stood, deep in thought.

She looked up at William and Damon, then back down at the papers.

“Good news for the two of you. You have the day off tomorrow,” she said.

“Teach-” William started calling out in pleasant surprise.

WHOOOSH!

Umbra vanished from the field.

William turned to Damon.

“You think we would have gotten more time off if I had gotten all eight?” he asked, smiling.

“Who knows with her?” Said Damon, shrugging.

“Well, let's get out of here before she changes her mind.” Said William, walking towards the dueling platform to pick up the equipment that had been left there.

Damon stood where he was, deep in thought. Umbra had clearly been rattled, but would it benefit or hinder his plan?

“Time will tell, I guess.” Thought Damon, sighing.