Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 123. Mikaela’s Dormant Potential.
“Do more than before,” Mikaela mused, concentrating on the fight. His senses slowly grew sharper, the sensation of his body and his surroundings becoming clearer and easier to recognize. “Step in fast, don’t waste time,” the thought crossed his mind and without hesitating, he grasped the ground with the toes of his feet and dashed forward, accelerating much faster than he himself expected to.
“Don’t make your steps too long or too short.”
“Look at the enemy, predict his movements and adjust your own.”
“Reduce unnecessary movements to the minimum. Each and every movement needs to have a clear purpose!”
The advice his teachers had given him sounded in his mind. Back then, when sparring with those old men, he had thought he was doing properly as he was told, but it was only now that he understood he hadn’t been trying at all. Just relying on his instincts wasn’t enough; after all, they would only tell him to do what he was already comfortable with! If he wanted to push himself to the extremes and squeeze out every little bit of his potential, then he needed to focus! And as he did so, the mere act of dashing forward that he had thought to be nothing much became akin to art.
The clear feeling of each part of his body moving in unison was exhilarating and the sensation of his sword meeting and deflecting the thrust of Laien’s spear in a perfectly smooth manner was equally intoxicating. “He’s going to step back and do a backswing.” Noticing Laien’s movements early on, just as Laien began their motion, and then reacting to them in a suitable manner was just as amazing.
“Can I?” Mikaela wondered if he had enough time to take advantage of Laien’s somewhat wide attack. Would he be able to force his way in, defend and follow up with an attack all at once? Him from just a few minutes ago would never have even considered the possibility, but the current him was willing to give it a try. Thus, after making a split-second decision, he once again kicked the ground with all his strength and lowered his stance even further, leaning forward so much that without the forward motion that carried him he would immediately fall flat on the ground.
“Here, step and block!” he cried out inwardly, attempting to grasp the perfect timing after making the low jump to the front. He stabilized himself with one foot and raised his sword above his head, holding the blade flat and supporting it with his left hand from below. “Make it smooth, make it slide along,” he thought, attempting to make the layer of water engulfing his sword to act in the same way Laien’s water did when deflecting his attacks.
The next instant, he felt a considerable force push him down to the ground as the back-swipe of Laien’s spear struck against his sword. He had a feeling that he did manage to reduce the force by quite a bit thanks to good angling of his sword and thanks to the way he controlled his spiritual energy, but the impact was still a bit too much to handle. However, just as he was falling down, he grit his teeth and slashed out at Laien’s leg; and to his joy, he managed to leave a nice scratch ten centimeters below Laien’s knee, just the split-second before Laien’s leg withdrew fully.
“Roll, fool!” However, instead of being allowed to celebrate, he was rapidly brought back to reality as Nicolai shouted at him the moment he hit the ground. “!” Recognizing what was about to happen from the movements of Laien’s lower body, Mikaela followed Nicolai’s advice and pushed himself off the ground with his left hand and rolled to the right. The next moment, he felt the ground tremble as pebble and pieces of stone flew all around in consequence of Laien smashing down with his spear.
Jumping back to his feet, Mikaela swallowed and revealed a nervous smile. Had Nicolai not warned him, that one attack would have broken most of the bones in his body. “Scary,” he thought to himself but still, couldn’t resist smiling due to feeling overly excited. He really needed to try his best, else Laien would beat him into a pulp! This really was very different to the spars he had had with his teachers or even with Raphael. Even though Laien didn’t seem to be using lethal attacks, that was only under the assumption of being healed right after receiving them. Someone who would relax and allow such an attack to hit him most definitely wouldn’t be in their right mind.
“That’s super fun,” Mikaela thought merrily. If the way the first two short spars with Laien felt like walking through the mud, now he felt as if he was running freely across a mountain path. “More, let’s try more!” he mused excitedly and without wasting any time, he attacked Laien once again.
He expected to first be faced with a trust once again, but to his surprise, he saw Laien smile at him in a wry manner as he assumed a defensive stance and swept with his spear. “The openings… there are none?” Mikaela gulped, realizing that he couldn’t see a way to close the distance between him and Laien at all. It was almost as if Laien was surrounded by a sphere of influence which wouldn’t allow anything to get past it, or so Mikaela’s senses were telling him.
“If there’s no way to break through in one go, then I will just create an opening!”
Mikaela didn’t get discouraged and could swear that he saw Nicolai smile contentedly within his mind. However, since it wasn’t the time for him to be thinking about such things, he wielded his sword and engaged in an extended exchange of blows with Laien. So what if Laien’s spear arts seemed impregnable? So what if his attacks were being deflected and he was being kept at a distance the whole time? Little by little, he would get used to Laien’s technique and he would work out a way to counter it! He would try attacking in different ways, he would try baiting Laien’s counterattacks, he would try dodging by a skin’s width! There were so many things he could attempt to do! It truly made him wonder why had he ever seen fighting with weapons as boring.
As the time passed, the sounds of water and steel clashing started becoming more and more intense as the tempo of the exchange was being pushed to the extremes by none other than Mikaela. Even though more and more wounds appeared on his body, Mikaela appeared not to care at all as he continued the offensive with an immensely pleased smile on his face. Having fallen into a battle-trance, Mikaela’s mind was devoid of all and any unnecessary thoughts; he was wholeheartedly focused on fighting Laien and on overcoming his own limitations.
Thanks to Mikaela casting off his own mental shackles, and thanks to Laien subtly guiding him as the two of them exchanged blows, the very foundation of Mikaela’s sword arts began to evolve. His previously stiff and almost textbook-like movements became wilder and if they could be described as such, more playful. The inborn agility of Mikaela’s body, his ridiculous movement-perception and reaction time all started shining brightly as Mikaela circled and jumped around Laien, changing the tempo of his attacks so often that it almost looked like many different people were fighting.
Dodging in extremely low stances, jumping back without hesitation only to leap back in, even dodging attacks in an acrobatic-like way that no common person would consider doing in fear of losing track of the opponent or interrupting one’s own tempo. Even Laien was looking at Mikaela’s evolution with awe in his eyes. This fighting style was certainly unique to Mikaela, there was no one who could have realistically taught him to fight in this way. Learning by trial and error, to think that Mikaela would develop at such an astonishing rate once he put his heart into the duel!
“His martial talent might actually be superior to his magical talent,” Laien mused quietly, his eyes shining brightly as he kept exchanging blows with Mikaela. Faced with such an honest approach from Mikaela, he couldn’t help but respond in kind and give his absolute best to guide Mikaela to even greater heights. Thus, as Mikaela improved, he steadily increased the pressure and upped the level of their spar in all aspects, be it the level of spear arts he was employing or the degree of strength and insights he was using. And to his delight, Mikaela responded to his efforts by improving in real time, from second to second, from one exchange to another. The sense of gratification coming from leading and joining Mikaela in this astonishing process was immense.
Moreover, even though Laien himself was too absorbed with Mikaela’s improvements to notice, the level of his own spear arts kept increasing at a steady pace. For him, it was the first time he was wholeheartedly putting his mind to guiding someone weaker. He had fought against opponents at his or at a superior level many times, but he had never suppressed himself in order to guide someone else, and someone else whose talent was so exceptional at that! The new perspective and the unique fighting style Mikaela was displaying provided Laien with many new insights, allowing both sides of this duel to reap considerable benefits.
Needless to say, all of those who had been doubtful about Laien’s idea with an ‘imaginary friend’ working were now watching with wide eyes and open mouths. The difference between the level Mikaela displayed originally and his current performance was akin to the distance between heaven and earth. Be it Richt, Jugal or Lea, or anyone else with the sole exception of Yin, they were all astonished that a simple change in attitude brought by Laien’s ‘game’ could bring forth such unbelievable results. Even those of them who had been leaning towards Laien’s methods early on were stunned, wondering if what they were seeing was reality or perhaps just an illusion of a kind.
“Mika…” Raphael murmured, his thoughts in a complete disarray. He had always viewed Mikaela as someone with great talent, but ever since yesterday, his old assumptions kept being shattered one after another. The way Laien taught magic to Mikaela, the way he was able to communicate with him and motive him, then the way he managed to make Mikaela undergo an extreme transformation with regards to the martial arts… by this point, he couldn’t even feel jealous anymore. All that was left was honest awe and joy for his childhood friend, who found a perfect teacher for himself and thus was able to bring out all of his dormant potential, allowing it to shine brightly on full display.
“Monster,” Lea said in a low voice, the sight of the two youths exchanging blows sending shivers through her whole body. She was a martial master of the first rank, but with each passing moment, she was becoming less confident in her ability to beat a boy who was seven whole years younger than her. The way Mikaela fought was already causing her not to know how to face him in a duel, but what terrified her the most was that she could very much literally see the improvements Mikaela was constantly making. She could even tell that the water he was using alongside his sword was becoming stronger and more mysterious with each passing second! This level of talent, it was simply too Heaven-defying!
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And to top it off, there was Laien, who was easily handling Mikaela and leading him forward step by step, displaying an inhumanly level of control paired up with unfathomable spear arts.
“That brief fight he had with Luca… it didn’t force him to reveal even a little bit of his true strength,” Lea thought to herself, unable to remove her eyes from the duel of two extreme geniuses.
“Kahahaha, they really did it!” Jugal exclaimed with a greatly amused laugh. He was just as surprised as everyone else, but unlike them, he was able to quickly adjust to the new development and enjoy it. “Amazing, just amazing!” he cheered on, taking great pleasure from watching the duel between those two kids.
“How can they be so strong?” Luca asked helplessly as he was overcome with a whole bunch of complicated emotions. He didn’t know how strong Mikaela’s magic was, but he had a feeling that once Mikaela advanced to the sixth mortal realm in his martial practice, he would straight-out lose to him in the contest of martial arts. He could still accept losing to Raphael who was only slightly younger than him but seeing Mikaela improve so fast and seemingly without limits delivered a serious blow to his self-confidence. He wanted to be the strongest, but he was having great trouble with keeping his resolve strong when he was faced with monsters such as Mikaela or Laien.
“They are just way too compatible,” Raphael said with a quiet laugh. “I thought I would have a hard time catching up to Laien after he wiped the floor with me in our duel yesterday, but now I even need to worry about Mika chasing me from behind,” he added lightheartedly, able to somewhat sympathize with Luca’s feelings. Sometimes, when faced with an overwhelming level of talent and strength, it was way too hard to maintain one’s own level of motivation.
However, his casual comment achieved the exact opposite effect to what he intended as Luca’s expression turned into one of astonishment. Raphael and Laien had fought against each other? And the result was so bad that Raphael went as far as to describe it as Laien ‘wiping the floor with him’? B-but… that made no sense at all! Was Laien really so ridiculously strong or was Raphael jesting with him? He really wanted to believe that Raphael was overexaggerating, but judging from the tone of Raphael’s words, he knew that it was very unlikely to be the case.
“Ah, that thing eh,” Jugal picked up with a wry smile, joining the chat while continuing to observe Laien and Mikaela exchange blows. “That was a piece of art. That black-haired bastard didn’t show everything he had, but I suspect he is already strong enough to hold his ground against a decently strong martial master of the fifth rank,” he praised openly and glanced to the side, then chuckled at the looks of shock that painted themselves on the faces of those new kids. Yeah, that was exactly the kind of a reaction he hoped to see.
“That’s… eh?” Luca began saying, but the rest of the sentence remained stuck in his throat as he saw the instant in which Mikaela’s sword arts made a huge qualitative breakthrough.
“He merged them!” Laien exclaimed within his heart. The great amount of experience and all the scattered insights Mikaela accumulated during the past minutes bore fruit and condensed into a true, bona fide Water Flow Sword Art! The change in Mikaela’s movements and the increase in his prowess became instantly apparent. Mikaela’s sword art… although it was also based on the multitude of water-element insights, with the Profound Mystery of Shifting Currents taking the lead, it could be said to be the polar opposite of his own Water Flow Spear Art. Unlike his spear, which pursued ultimate defense, Mikaela’s sword became the embodiment of unstoppable offense!
There were many similarities between their Water Flow arts, but on the fundamental level, Laien’s spear art made his enemies feel as if they were attempting to attack and damage the sea by swinging their weapons at it, while Mikaela’s sword art made one feel as if the whole sea was pressing at him! This polarity between something that was so similar and yet so different allowed both Laien and Mikaela to experience further enlightenments, pushing both of their skill levels further and further ahead. As their insights increased, the water engulfing their weapons kept changing to resemble the true shifting currents, leaving streams of clashing water in each place their weapons passed through.
With one side pushing outwards, defensively, and the other pushing onwards, offensively, the very insights came into a resonance and constantly uplifted each other’s quality. This resulted in both Laien’s and Mikaela’s fighting styles evolving further, filling up the aspects they were lacking in without changing their essence. Mikaela’s defense became more fluid as he kept attacking Laien in the same crazy and playful style he had developed, whereas Laien’s counterattacks became sharper and less predictable thanks to the influence of Mikaela’s unique approach.
“More! More! More!” Mikaela pressed on with the attacks, so exhilarated that he paid no attention to how tired he was or to how much spiritual energy he had left. “I love it! It’s so fun!” he shouted within his heart, unable to contain the positive emotions that were spreading throughout his whole self. In consequence, although he wasn’t all that strongly aware of it, the originally half-complete foundation of the Aspect of Love within his soul filled up, causing his attacks to become marginally stronger. After all, the Aspect of Love wasn’t a pure combat-oriented Aspect, so the difference wouldn’t be huge, just like with the likes of Lust of Compassion.
Yet, what happened a few seconds later increased brought a big benefit to Mikaela’s fighting potential as thanks to his extreme concentration, his Aspect of Awareness similarly achieved a full foundation. Surprisingly enough, the order in which Mikaela attained the full foundation of the Aspect of Awareness was the opposite of the usual one. Mikaela had naturally realized that everything contained an aura of life, a life force or so to be called and only now, as he fought with Laien, he filled the lacking battle experience and joined the two halves into one whole.
“That’s crazy,” Laien thought with a smile, sensing how Mikaela’s spiritual energy and aura itself continued to undergo rapid changes. “Be it Mikaela or Yin, there really are people with a scary degree of talent,” he mused, though unlike usually, this thought didn’t only cause him to get into a competitive mood, but also caused him to calm down a little. He still wasn’t willing in the slightest to give up on being the strongest, but… it was difficult to put these feeling into words. Yet, it appeared like he wouldn’t even need to try to do that in order to understand them as within his soul, the half-complete orb of essence representing the Aspect of Humility became whole.
The humility coming from understanding his own limitations after the close encounter with death during the battle with Yimar Furi and his men. The humility coming from accepting that his talent wasn’t superior and perhaps wasn’t even equal to some of the geniuses around the world, it appeared that to him, those two realizations were necessary to complete the Aspect of Humility. With this most recent accomplishment, he now had insights into five Aspects: Tranquility, Wrath, Awareness, Compassion, and Humility, all of which had full foundations!
“Mutually beneficial,” Laien couldn’t help but grin. He could tell that Mikaela was quite tired already, but he wasn’t about to end this duel early. He would keep Mikaela company all the way until he collapsed from exhaustion as he was sure that no other outcome would be able to satisfy Mikaela as he was now.
“Can you guys sense it?” Jugal asked with an amazed smile on his face. “They are both growing stronger! Just how ridiculous can those kids be?” he asked with a bright smile. Although it wasn’t like him, he caught himself thinking that with Raphael and Mikaela, the future of their country would be well accounted for. At the same time, he was glad that Elder Samuel had the idea to see if those kids couldn’t become friends. With those geniuses in their young generation, the likes of him should finally be able to retire in a few decades and focus on enjoying their lives… or at the very least, he would be able to get some proper, long holidays from Elder Samuel.
“They really are matched well,” Yin commented brightly. He was happy for Laien and Mikaela from the bottom of his heart, though admittedly, his competitive spirit was roused by the improvements Laien was making. He needed to try his best to also grow stronger, else one-day Laien would leap past him and leave him far behind before he could even notice!
“It’s just…” Luca said with a groan, unable to find any words to describe how he was feeling at the moment. He had struggled with his Aspects since forever, but Laien and Mikaela were both making it seem like a walk in the park as they kept growing stronger by the moment. “If only my Aspects weren’t so stupid, it would be a bit easier,” he complained with a sigh. Wrath, Desire, Pride, Envy, Greed… he hated himself for embodying all the negative aspects of human personality. Just training in them was making him feel grossed out, but he always bore with it just to become stronger. Yet, now it began to seem that even if he did his absolute best, he would never be better than the likes of Laien, Mikaela or Raphael. It was quite a mortifying and very demotivating feeling.
“How are your Aspects stupid?” Raphael picked up, sensing that Luca’s voice was unnaturally weak. “I’ve heard of your Aspects from Laien, but so what if they have no foundations? We both lack real-life experience, but as long as we fill that gap, we can become stronger,” he said with an understanding smile. He had felt the same when he first realized the gap between him and Laien, but now his perspective changed quite a bit and he wasn’t as pessimistic about catch up to him.
“That’s not it,” Luca said and shook his head. “The Aspects I’m good at are just terrible on their own. Who would like to give in to his own Wrath or Envy?” he asked in what was intended to be a rhetorical manner but to his surprise, he actually received an answer.
“And what’s wrong with it?” Raphael asked with a laugh, though he unchangingly didn’t take his eyes off Mikaela and Laien. “Aspects are different from person to person, so there are no truly evil and no truly good Aspects. One can feel wrath when he sees innocent people killed, someone else might feel wrath when someone looks at him wrong. It’s the same principle with all the other Aspects, too. So what if you envy one’s strength or talent? If that motivates you to become strong and if you do good with your strength, what’s wrong with envying others?” he inquired with a clear smile on his face. He might not have come as far as Laien in terms of experience, but his mentality was definitely mature.
On the contrary, Luca was still very much child-like, so it took him a good while to digest Raphael’s words. If he went with logic, then he had no way to rebuke Raphael’s argument, but even then, it wasn’t so easy for him to overcome the ill-feelings he had harbored towards his insights for all those years. He could see that Raphael had a point… but as for whether he would be able to accept it with his heart and not just with his mind, only time would show.
It was around this time when Mikaela finally approached his limits. Even as excited as he was, he could tell that he wouldn’t be able to go on any longer. On one hand, he was happy with the results he achieved, but on the other, he was a bit frustrated that despite trying so hard he didn’t manage to leave a second wound on Laien’s body. It should be an obvious outcome given the difference in their strength but still, it was annoying as hell!
“Come on, just once!” he cried out inwardly and after just barely dodging out of the way of Laien’s swipe, he dashed forward and put all his remaining strength into one last attack. He didn’t really think about defending anymore, but thankfully, Laien met him head-on and defended with the shaft of his spear, allowing the final exchange of blows between the two of them to be a pleasant one.
“He could have dodged it easily,” Nicolai’s voice rang out within Mikaela’s mind for the first time in a good while. “You’ve really got it good, owner. Just make sure not to forget today’s feeling and we should be fine,” Nicolai added with a wry smile just as Mikaela took a shaky step back after in the end failing to put a scratch on Laien. His owner was quite emotional, but he was quite satisfied with him after all those breakthrough he had made thanks to this teacher of his.
“Good fight,” Laien said contentedly, looking at the sweat-drenched and heavy-breathing figure of the silver-haired youth before him. Some might say that one’s appearance after overexerting himself was unsightly, but in Laien’s opinion, the current Mikaela looked truly great.