Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 180. Creating a Sword Art.
“Just what are they thinking?” Yimar Maar asked himself, a heavy frown present on his face. He had been taken by surprise the moment Arslan’s group suddenly turned to the north-west, but now that they rode into the forest and even slowed down, he only grew more confused. He obviously wasn’t willing to give up on Arslan after everything he had done to capture the kid, but he detested the idea of blindly playing into whatever plan Arslan’s companions had cooked up. “Why did they take this stupid risk and go north instead of south? If I didn’t screw up and move too far east, they would have suffered far more casualties. What are they aiming for?” he asked himself rather impatiently.
He knew that he didn’t have much time to think since he needed to give out new orders, but he still wanted to figure out what was up with that weird course of events. Yet, just as he was starting to feel truly anxious, it suddenly hit him. The letters he had received and the darkness-element martial master of the ninth rank who had intervened. He had long since known that the Guild of Shadows was meddling into his war, but since the Guild was known for their non-involvement policy, he had never considered the most obvious option! The Shadow Trials, it couldn’t be anything else!
“Which bastard is undergoing the Shadow Trials?” he wondered. “Is it Reian, the future Captain Commander? If so, then are they baiting me because they realized the Guild of Shadows will keep intervening until that man passes or dies? They are trying to give him an opportunity to show off using me, huh,” he deduced with a strange smile on his face. He had thought it was weird that the Guild of Shadows appeared to be helping him with information and some other things like killing off the message beasts and scouts of Makarash, but he never would have thought it was because of the Shadow Trials. He absolutely hated to be a tool in someone else’s hands, but in contrast to the Great Prophet, the Guild of Shadows would at least leave him alone once the Shadow Trials were over.
“Go get Abdain’s elites to the western part of the forest,” he ordered one of his close aides. “They can use all five thousand country experts that are with them. They are to split up into smaller teams and keep the people in the western part busy. They are to keep harassing their opponents, but not to engage in an outright battle,” he instructed and moved his gaze away from the man, who in turn understood that he was done talking. The man quickly turned his horse around and galloped back towards the six-thousand strong bulk of their army that was under the jurisdiction of Abdain’s elites.
“As for the rest of you,” Yimar Maar picked up, a rare, genuine smile emerging on his face. “It’s been a while, but we’re going on a hunt. Send the mice to the eastern part first,” he said eagerly. Coincidentally, as the news spread, the remaining thousand and a half out of his original three thousand elites were reinvigorated. It indeed had been too long since they last engaged in their forte from the days past! In this forest and with their enemies having split up, they would be able to finally exert their true strength!
Instead of suffering as they had in those grand-scale battles against Mustafa, they would once again be able to follow Yimar Maar into a proper bloodbath!
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Ten minutes after Arslan’s group entered the forest path, the respective clashes in the western and eastern parts of the forest were about to begin
In the middle of the road, a few hundred meters behind Arslan’s group, Abdain and Julien were still exchanging blows, though without much ferocity. The two of them had long since realized that it would be extremely unlikely for either of them to kill the other without dying himself, so they were content to keep one another occupied. While somewhat unwillingly, they accepted that the outcome of this battle wouldn’t be decided by them but by their respective allies.
A few seconds later, judging by the sounds which started spreading from the eastern part of the forest, everyone present on the main road was able to tell that one of the two clashes had just begun. Yet, what occupied the minds of Arslan’s party and of the young boy himself, was the situation in the still silent western side of the forest. After all, since they were acting for the sake of those two boys, it was entirely up to them whether they would be able to retreat early or if they were forced to fight a gruesome tooth-and-nail battle. Thus, albeit they were admittedly accompanied by varying and not always equally positive sets of emotions, everyone in Arslan’s group wished the best of luck to those two brave and reckless youngsters.
“You can do it,” Arslan muttered unwittingly, his eyes shining with mysterious confidence. Out of all the people in their group, he was perhaps the one who trusted Laien and Yin the most. It wasn’t just the character of those two that he trusted, though. He also believed that no matter what, those two would be able to break through all the obstacles and emerge victorious! While it was a somewhat childish belief on his part, he had been fascinated by Laien and Yin ever since he had met them in Yimar Sharu’s harems. And, to this very point, this belief of his had never once proved to be wrong.
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At this very time, a few kilometers to the west, the many groups consisting of Abdain’s elites and the regular experts of the Guode Yimarate were about to start their own battle.
The one thousand ruby-golden-robed experts of Abdain’s and the five thousand regular experts had split up into many smaller groups in order to put pressure on the scattered experts of their enemies. The numbers of those groups differed from twenty at the lowest end to sixty at the highest, but the overall combat ability of theirs was rather well-balanced in contrast to their numerical count. The cores of the smaller groups usually consisted of the tight-knit cliques of the four or five of the strongest ruby-golden-robed experts while the larger groups contained up to a dozen of them, though of the comparatively weaker ones. Naturally, be it smaller or bigger, each of the many groups was led by a ruby-golden-robed martial master of the fourth or fifth rank.
That being said, the faster-moving of those groups were finally approaching the scattered teams consisting of the White Sword unit and just about thirty of Julien’s elites.
“There they are,” a ruby-golden-robed martial master of the fifth rank said quietly. Given that they had ridden most of their mounts to death to get to this area early, they have had no choice but to pursue their enemies in this huge forest on their feet. He had been slightly worried that those sly bastards from the north would forcibly keep their distance using their superior mobility and employ hit-and-run tactics against them, but judging from the sight of those ten men, it seemed unlikely. Rather, seeing as those ten enemies of theirs were on their feet and weren’t even running all that fast, a little over one hundred kilometers per hour at most, he felt as if some other trap awaited them along the way.
If someone were to ask him, he would guess that the Tempest Horses were a few kilometers ahead, waiting to pick up those who fell into trouble at any time. Still, while a bit annoying to face, if it was only this much then he wouldn’t have thought twice before attacking. However, partially because of Yimar Maar’s orders to keep it easy and partially because of the rumors circulating amongst their ranks, he wasn’t all that eager to start a fight of any kind. True, their master was holding Julien back and Reian was confirmed to be resting in the middle group, and even that Prince from the Bolan Kingdom was in the same boat, protecting Arslan. Yet, ironically, it weren’t those well-known and logical threats which made his throat clench and stomach churn at every other moment.
Instead, it were the rumors of those two Devils which filled him with an inexplicable sense of terror. He wasn’t a superstitious person, but the news delivered by those few of their comrades who had survived the initial massacre gave him quite a fright. He never would have thought that six hundreds of their brothers under Abdain’s command would be decimated in a matter of minutes! He had been able to tell from those men’ voices that they were genuinely broken and this awareness only added to the sense of urgency he had been experiencing ever since then. He could still keep calm when facing a normal expert, but fighting against Devil-children whose existence he couldn’t comprehend… it filled him with an illogical sense of terror and made him think of his soul being imprisoned in hell.
“We should be careful,” he muttered under his nose. “If those two Devils were to appear anywhere, then this part of the battlefield would be the most likely option,” he mused in silence. Technically speaking, they wouldn’t be disobeying the orders even if they only trailed those northerners and never really engaged in any fighting with them. This would, on the other hand, allow them to constantly keep their guard up against any surprise attacks and ambushes. They wouldn’t need to focus on fighting and would be able to keep their aura spread and their senses focused, just like he had been doing ever since they entered this forest. Even if they were to be reprimanded by Yimar Maar later, so what? In the end, they were primarily Abdain’s subordinates, not Yimar Maar’s.
“Let’s take it easy,” he said aloud, having made his choice. “No need to go overboard, let’s keep on their tail for now and see what happens,” he added right afterward in order to avoid any questions. To be fair, as a martial master of the fifth rank he was rather embarrassed to act in such a timid manner. Yet, when he considered how many true experts on their side had perished up until this point, he could bear with the shame. As long as he and his close friends could keep their lives, so what if they stepped back and waited? Compared to losing some face, keeping himself and his good friends alive was far more important. Of this one thing, he was absolutely sure.
Also, his team wasn’t the only one on this part of the battlefield, wasn’t it? He could let others show off this time and take it easy himself. Yes, the more he thought about it, the more he was convinced that it was the right decision. As long as he and his five friends survived, then he wouldn’t even care if the remaining twenty-something members of his unit were killed. To be fair, he even asked himself if he shouldn’t use those regular experts as the forefront scouts just in case something unpredictable happened.
Just as he was pondering this option, however, he vaguely sensed danger approaching him from behind. Then, a split-second later, this unclear sensation of danger exploded tens if not hundreds of times over, his instincts crying out to him that he was about to get killed. Yet, even though he immediately roused his fire-element Qi and started turning around at haste, his neck was still slashed and his head fell to the ground, separated cleanly from the rest of his body. Curiously enough, the bigger part of his corpse still managed to take three steps while spurting blood before falling down.
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Alas, the remaining thirty members of the team were speechless and were in no mind to pay attention to the wonders of the human body. They had just witnessed a green-haired youth jump out from behind one of the big trees, without any aura or killing intent to him, seeming as if he was but a mere mortal. Was it not for that boy’s extremely great speed they would have been ready to swear he was a normal human, and was it not for the grass squishing under his feet they would have doubted if their eyes weren’t deceiving them to begin with. They had been more startled than anything, but none of them would have thought that alongside a momentary burst of killing intent, this very young boy would behead their captain with one attack a few splits of a second later.
Before any of them were able to recover their wits, the green-haired youths moved again and attacked the closest of the ruby-golden-robed experts to him. The man was a martial master of the fourth rank and wielded the fire element, so despite the numbness of his mind, he was able to move his sword in order to defend himself in time. However, just as he was about to block the green-haired youth’s slash, the incoming sword blurred into a surge of lightning and bypassed his defense. Subsequently, the sword of lightning dug into his stomach and ripped it open while shattering a good part of his spine into pieces at the same time. Moreover, as if to make sure, the lightning-element Qi itself sought out his Qi Origin and assaulted it, shattering it without much of an issue.
“Lightning Devil!”
Once Yin claimed his second kill, all of the surrounding experts cried out the same words in their hearts. Some of them had taken the rumors of two devilishly strong boys more seriously, some of them had paid it less mind. Yet, having seen two elite experts under Abdain die to one of those youths in less than a second, they had no choice but to become believers! They would have never thought that the old tales of their lands could be true, but it looked like Djinn spawns truly existed!
“Attack!”
One of the four ruby-golden-robed experts shouted, the deaths of two of his dear friends having infuriated him beyond belief. The other three were in a similar state of mind and they were jumping at the green-haired youth too without any regard for their lives. Speaking objectively, they should have known that the moment they allowed the strongest one among them to be killed they lost any chance at victory. However, they were too blinded by hatred to think logically and those regular twenty-plus experts were too fearful to disobey them and be charged with desertion. As a result, all of them focused their attention on Yin and moved to attack him to the best of their ability.
However, about a dozen of them shivered when they saw a genuinely happy smile emerge on the green-haired boy’s face. By this point, it was painfully obvious that they were all planning to attack him with all they had, but his response to that was to smile! In fact, to them this simple smile was far more terrifying than the greatest of killing intents, especially considering how the boy’s aura, killing intent and even any presence of Qi had again disappeared altogether.
Perhaps sensing the hesitation of half of his enemies, the green-haired youth dashed in their direction. He first dodged the blow of one of the two nearest ruby-golden-robed martial masters of the fourth rank, then crossed swords with the other. He softly led the first impact sideways with one of his twin swords before quickly following up with another slash, but to his dissatisfaction, since he didn’t use a martial technique, the enemy only received a mildly-serious, non-lethal wound.
“Too soft,” Yin complained in his heart, the smile having dimmed on his face. He was greatly satisfied with his ambush using his aura-hiding skills and he was content with the first soft exchange of blows with the man just now. However, he failed to kill this man while trying to preserve his Qi. He was well aware that had he used more of his strength, a fire-element marital master of the fourth rank wouldn’t be able to escape him. Yet, his goal was to improve his killing efficiency, to evolve his abilities to a higher level. There were too many enemies in the grand scope of things for him to take care of using his usual methods, so he had no choice but to improve. To top it off, if he didn’t put himself in danger and force a breakthrough of a kind, then he would never pass the Shadow Trials.
“Using seventy percent of my strength to attack gives me far more flexibility,” Yin pondered while continuing the combat. To his further discontent, he had been forced to use Lightning Steps to reposition himself after the last kill and even though he used this fact to claim the life of another ruby-golden-robed man, it didn’t improve his mood. “I’ve improved my Lightning Steps greatly ever since I learned the Profound Mystery of Lightning Dance and they no longer place much of a burden on my body, but they still feel lacking,” he thought absentmindedly. Originally, he had overly focused on using his entire strength to either corner the enemy or kill him with one blow. Then, he improved his swords arts and made them smoother thanks to the spar with Reian, which allowed him to bring out the best out of his accumulated experience. His fighting style was definitely making progress, but he felt it wasn’t nearly enough.
Thus, he began searching for what he could improve. He had been thinking about it for the past ten minutes too, but as it seemed, nothing could beat the actual battle experience. He had had a gist of what he needed to change, but now, as he fought alone and actively looked for a way to improve outside of his usual boundaries, everything became simpler. His all-out attacks were forcing him to stop too often? His weaker attacks weren’t enough to finish off the enemy in one blow? He couldn’t effectively kill many relatively weaker enemies without overusing his Qi? Truthfully, he was appalled with himself for not thinking to fix those simple issues earlier!
If his finishing blows were too rigid, then all he needed to do was to change the way he attacked so that he could both slash and move at the same time!
If his controlled blows were too weak, then all he needed to do was to find an opportunity for even a weak attack to be lethal!
If he had trouble killing weaker enemies in large numbers, then all he needed to do was to use the Principle of Energy to experiment more with his lightning!
Had any other practitioner but Laien learned of those thoughts of Yin’s, he would have cursed him out all the way to hell and back. To change not only one’s fundamental style but all of one’s abilities in order to maximize their efficiency on the battlefield was a process that usually required dozens of years and countless life-endangering clashes against superior enemies. For anyone to be trying to change their entire skillset into not just something new, but something lethally effective and without any weaknesses would be called a pipe dream by the entire cultivating world. To then be attempting this very recklessness in one battle wouldn’t be called crazy or mad, but mentally deficient!
However, if there existed someone whose raw talents were great enough to accomplish just that, then it was none other than Yin.
In the time span of a little over ten seconds, Yin had slaughtered almost all of the thirty enemies he had chosen to attack. To be fair, they had posed too little of a challenge once two-thirds of their core combat strength was taken out of the picture, so it wasn’t much of a tempering process as far as he himself was concerned. However, thanks to him wholeheartedly pursuing the new paths and ways of fighting, he managed to obtain some achievements despite the lacking strength of his foes.
He was so glad to be improving, too, that he failed to realize that he was smiling all the while swinging his sword and sending a surge of lightning after five escaping enemies. The lightning he released seemed quite strange at first, almost as if it was a liquid. However, once it approached within ten meters of its targets, it suddenly changed into pure lightning and sped up twice over. And, even though Yin himself wasn’t quite sure if he saw and sensed it right, this lightning seemed to have taken a vague form of lightning wolves before crashing into its five targets.
The five regular martial masters had no chance to resist such a strike, so they soon fell to the ground, their entire bodies charred black. Yin, on the other hand, paid this one thing no mind and hurriedly left the area. He didn’t want to get caught by multiple enemy groups and he needed some time to digest his new insights, so staying in the same place would be a foolish thing for him to do.
“Hah,” Yin smirked self-mockingly while running back towards the ever-shifting frontline. “I should have figured out that I can do something similar so much sooner. I mean, I saw Raphael coat his light enhanced by the Positive Energy in the light with Negative Energy in order to bypass Laien’s icy mist. It’s a bit hard to do and it limits the overall power, but I can increase the range of my attacks by a lot using the same trick. I just coat my lightning in the Negative Energy, causing it to become stable of liquid-like, then have it erupt forth with its power at the last moment,” he mused contentedly. Coincidentally enough, he was once again unwittingly thinking outrageous things that would cause any lightning-element practitioner to turn green and purple from flabbergasted anger.
“All that’s left is to adjust my fighting style,” Yin told himself half-jokingly. This, in fact, was the hardest part even as far as he was concerned. “First, I have to change or compensate for all the weaknesses my current style has. I’ve got to work on my Lightning Steps, that’s for sure. The true lightning moves as it pleases and is unrestrained, while the Profound Mystery of Lightning Dance should allow me to use Lightning Steps almost continuously. If I can improve enough to make a qualitative breakthrough in the Profound Mystery of Lightning Dance, that would be the first step,” he told himself and decided to put a fair bit of attention on this aspect of his technique.
“I can’t do all at once,” he pondered with a slight frown on his face. “If I attempt to try changing my usual attacks too, I’ll only make my overall improvement slower. But, what if I merge them into the Lightning Steps training? What if I could make my normal movements just like that of lightning? If I want to strike to kill without sacrificing my mobility, then I have to create an opportunity for that first. In fact, I only need all-out blows against stronger enemies, don’t I? Using them will carry a risk, but I can lead up to them with Lightning Dance and only strike once I’m sure it’s worth it,” he thought in silence, the frown on his face having long since smoothened out. Then, unexpectedly, he saw a dim spark, which by some inexplicable way appeared brighter and more powerful than the most powerful of thunders, appear in his mind for an instant before disappearing just as fast.
Thrilled, Yin felt a shiver of excitement run down his spine. If he wasn’t mistaken, this spark was related to the essence of the Supreme Mystery of the lightning element, the Profound Mystery of Lightning Rush! This sudden flash of enlightenment not only assured him that he was pursuing the right path but also guaranteed that he would have a far easier time comprehending the Profound Mystery of Lightning Rush once his strength reached the necessary level!
“Lightning Dance?” Once his initial excitement subsided a little, Yin noticed that his insights into the Profound Mystery of Lightning Dance increased by a good amount. And not only that, but as he concentrated, he could tell that with just a little bit of effort, he would be able to push them to a whole another qualitative level. All he needed was more practical experience! He had known that one’s mindset was very important when pursuing new insights, but he hadn’t thought that in order to master his lightning-element Profound Mysteries he would need to wholeheartedly pursue an unrestrained, unpredictable and domineering lightning-like style of fighting!
In fact, although it was a bit presumptuous in his own opinion, he ended up coming up with a nice name for this style on the spur of the moment.
“The Thundercloud Sword Art,” he said quietly. Once he started fighting, his enemies would feel as if they were caught in a thundercloud with lightning striking all around them. With the kind of a battle style that he had set his mind to pursue, no other name would fit it as well as this one.