The entrance of the dojo was the same as I left it a year ago.
The same wooden gate structure with the name of the dojo written on it: ‘Ono-Ha-Itto-Ryu Dojo’.
When there were many apprentices here, the voices of their training could be heard from the outside, but this was that time of the year where most of them were either working with their guilds or out raiding dungeons.
The training field was right behind the gate. It was empty. No one was training.
When I approached the main building that was located far behind the training fields, and next to the walls that encircled this place, someone jumped at me from the roof with a wooden sword. I brought mine to block and pushed him away.
He jumped back and charged at me with a straightforward stab. I parried it with the side of my sword and countered his attack with a hit to his arm.
He took the hit head-on and continued his attack with a lateral slash at my head. I lowered my body and attacked with an uppercut slash.
He jumped to the back again and we went for several clashes that ended up in constant draws.
He dashed backward to make a distance between us and attacked me with a ‘Step Slash’.
I used a ‘Breathless Fang’ to block it midway and dissipate his dashing power. The clash of our wooden swords vibrated through the field.
I attacked and spun around and tried to hit his defenseless torso. “Ono-Ha-Itto-Ryu, nail slash.”
He did not care about guarding and went for a mutual hit. “Ono-Ha-Itto-Ryu, crescent cut.” With his sword held with two hands, he swung it from above directing it at my head.
‘Damn, this won’t end well if I get hit by it.’ I muttered.
Before finishing my move, I threw my sword from the swinging hand to the free one and blocked the heavy attack.
The impact made my arm shiver to its core.
He jumped to the back and went for a ‘Step slash’, but I parried it successfully and countered with a short-range ‘step slash’ of mine.
“I was waiting for this,” I said as I hit his stomach and made him fall to his knees.
“It is my win, Kamui.” I removed my glasses and extended my hand to him for a handshake.
“I didn’t think you’d block the crescent cut with one arm. That’s impressive.” He shook my hand.
Kamui was a C-rank warrior who joined the dojo at the same time as me. We were kind of rivals here while we were training.
While I left the dojo to return to raiding dungeons, he stayed to keep learning and training his swordsmanship.
He was a young man at my age and a native of this country. He had a topknot hairstyle and was wearing the yellow dojo attire.
While we were reminiscing about the old times here, we heard someone clapping his hands from the entrance of the main building of the dojo.
“It seems you haven’t lost your touch, Shiryuu.”
“Master Musashi. It’s been a while.” I bowed to him.
The master of the dojo was a retired S-rank warrior who was from the few swordsmen who mastered the two-sword style, and he used one of the legendary swords, the cursed sword ‘Muramasa’. After retiring, he returned to this dojo and became its master until this day.
He was an old man of small posture. He was bald with a long white beard. His eyes were always closed and was wearing the same dojo attire as us.
He approached me and kept looking at me with his closed eyes. “Hmm, it seems you grew in strength tremendously.”
“He is a Mythological Weapon user now, old man.” Said Kamui.
“I know that you moron.” He hit Kamui on the head with his walking stick. “I read the news, don’t insult your elderly.”
“Sorry master.” Kamui apologized.
“So, you came here again because you hit a wall, right?” He shifted his gaze towards me again.
“Yeah, I came to continue my training and grew stronger to achieve my goals.”
“It seems you haven’t changed your view on strength.”
“What do you mean, master?”
“Well, you will learn with time. Come let’s not waste any more time. Follow me you two.”
***
The main building consisted of two stories.
The second floor was the dormitory section. The first consisted of several training rooms and staffs offices, while the base floor was mainly for visitors, a cafeteria and registration desk.
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At the basement of the dojo was where important items were stored and shown to visitors, and the main training field of the high-ranked warriors.
Master brought us to the main training field and brought out six dummies from a corner.
“Shiryuu, use all the six techniques you learned here against these dummies. I want to see how much you have improved. Do not hold back. You have to destroy each one with one skill.”
I took out my wooden sword and took a thrust stance, putting the sword horizontally with my eyes and dashed. Upon contact, I created an arc-like slash on the back of the first dummy and destroyed it. “Ono-Ha-Itto-Ryu, Swallow Slash.”
Then without stopping, I created a second arc-like slash, but this time I dropped my sword a little bit and jumped, slashing the dummy upward. “Ono-Ha-Itto-Ryu, Uppercut Swallow Slash.”
Afterward, I descended on the third dummy with several quick slashes that looked like claws from a vicious animal, cutting it into several pieces. “Ono-Ha-Itto-Ryu, Tiger Hunt Slash.”
After destroying the third one, I spun around myself a few spins and slashed the fourth dummy. “Ono-Ha-Itto-Ryu, Nail Slash.”
I used the fourth dummy’s body as a platform and propelled myself at the furthest dummy without making the faintest sound. “Ono-Ha-Itto-Ryu, Breathless Fang.”
Only one last dummy remained, and it was the sturdiest of all the six. So I put my sword on my hip, moved it to the extreme side, leaned forward a little, closed my eyes to clearly see the flow of mana in the air, tried to concentrate all the surrounding mana into the tip of my sword, and with a blink of an eye, I stepped forward in an instant dash and slashed the target.
“Ono-Ha-Itto-Ryu Ougi, Flash Slash.” A whoosh sound vibrated through the closed room and the last dummy was cut in half cleanly.
“Your skills are more refined now and have more power than before.” Master started clapping his hands. “Do you remember what I told you before you left?”
“Yes, you told me that what I learned was only the base skills of the Ono-Ha-Itto-Ryu, but mastering them will unlock more complex skills, yet simple when learned.”
“That’s correct, and you’ve already seen one of them today.”
“Do you mean that swing attack that Kamui used against me?”
“Yes, it is. He already mastered the three skills of the third branch of the Ono-Ha-Itto-Ryu, and he’s now training to unlock the secret technique.”
Ono-Ha-Itto-Ryu skills were divided through one base, three branches, and one top. Each level is difficult than the previous one, with only a handful of people managing to climb to the top level and master its techniques.
“Kamui, explain the third branch.”
“Yes, master! The third branch consists of three different sword techniques and one secret skill that needs a total mastery of the base skills. The requirement to learn them is to show harmony in doing the base techniques and manifest a power enough to destroy the level three training dummies with one hit each. If the base skills required a high level of speed in doing them, the third branch skills require an unmatched power that can’t be blocked by normal means.”
“That’s what I made you do. So you are eligible to learn the third branch techniques.” He added. “Now, Kamui show him the stances for each technique.” He brought out more training dummies and aligned them in front of Kamui.
Kamui took out his wooden sword with both hands on top of his head. He just stood there doing nothing until he opened his eyes and swung his sword with tremendous speed and power.
The swing left a black line through the floor and all the training dummies were completely destroyed.
“This is the first move ‘Crescent Cut.’”
This time he surrounded Kamui with a huge number of dummies.
Kamui held his sword with two hands, put the hilt in front of his eyes in a way that he could only see it, then he turned the sword around him and sent a huge air slash that extended 360° around him and cut all the dummies surrounding him.
“This is the second move ‘Tornado Slash’.”
This time, he opened a portal I, the ground of the field, and a huge dummy went up.
Kamui tilted his knees, held the sword with two hands, held it over his shoulder and charged at the dummy, and impaled his sword in its body. He brought it out, turned around to return to his position, and the whole body of the big dummy was destroyed.
“This is the third move ‘Bull Tackle’.”
“If you learn these three moves and can bring out their true potential, then you will reach new heights.” Said our master.
“They are impressive, right?”
“Yeah, each move needs a lot of power to make it happen.” I nodded.
“Now that you know about the three skills of the third branch, let me tell you about the secret technique. Its name is ‘Disaster Typhoon’. You need to fire a thousand blades.”
“That’s the only thing about it?” I questioned.
“It sounds simple, but you can’t learn it if you don’t master the first three skills and find out about its tricks.”
“I’ve been trying to find a way to learn it for the past three months, but I failed so hard….” Kamui scratched his head.
“No need to rush. First, you need to find out how to use each of them. This is your first job.”
Afterward, we went out from the basement and met three sword trainers that taught newcomers the way of the sword. They were all A-rank warriors who are still active from time to time.
“Oh, if it isn’t Shiryuu. It’s been a while.” Said one of them.
“Hello, Mr. Shimatsu. Thanks for your hard work.”
“Congratulations on getting a Mythological Weapon. You are the talk of the dojo lately.” Said Shimatsu. “Hey Master, let’s go and have lunch together and catch up with what Shiryuu has been doing after he left.” He added.
“Hoho, you’re right. I forgot that I was going to eat before Shiryuu arrived. Excitement took a better out of my old body.”
We went to the cafeteria to have lunch. We chatted about different things. They asked about how I got the Dragon Sword and the changes it brought with it.
Moreover, they were curious about the recent events and the bad reputation I was given out of nowhere. I kept the appearance of the demons a secret for now and only told them that very strong monsters appeared and took us out one by one.
“By the way, one of the awakeners used a sword style called the ‘Muso-Ishiden-Eishin-Ryu” I addressed master.
“Oh, so you met one of their trainees. The dojo of Muso-Ishiden is our rival. We had several competitions between us in the past. The last one was three years ago, and we won it.”
“That’s impressive,” I replied.
“So that old fart is still teaching new students the way of his sword. Maybe we should have another bout with them in the near future.”
“That’s interesting. I want to participate.” Jumped Kamui with excitement.
After finishing lunch, Kamui left first to go and train.
There were only a few trainees at the dojo this time. Apart from Kamui, Master, and the three trainers, only four swordsmen were actively training and doing their own regimes attributed to them by the trainers, but they came back each night and went out the following morning.
That afternoon, I went near a cherry blossom tree at the back of the dungeon and meditated to understand what I have been taught that morning.