“Are you done?”
“…I am.”
“It looks like she, too, gave you a piece of her mind.”
“…Is it that obvious?”
“Silly child,” his master said, ruffling through his hair. “You know how much she cares about you… And how much you mean to her. Her words… Do not take them too seriously. She is just worried about you.”
“It is not about what she said, but about what she did not say… Anyways, I am ready now, master. Let us begin with the Martial Styles.”
“…If you say so,” his master said, before reaching into the air with her hands, opening her ‘Dimensional Pocket’ in mid air, retrieving a white coloured pouch. The same pouch which had once stored the scrolls of the Martial Styles she had given him before. Or at least it was similar in colour, shape, design, and size. A storage device which his master had once used in her younger days.
Closing her ‘Dimensional Pocket’, his mater put the bag in front of him, and said, “You do not need me to teach how this works, right?”
“…This should be a True Ranked Storage Device, right?”
“Right, so you can go ahead and take out the scrolls while I activate the Glyph Arrays.”
“…Are there a hundred sets of Martial Styles in the bag?”
“Even if there are a hundred sets of Martial Styles in the bag, can you master all of them today? With your affinity with the Martial Styles, and Aspects, maybe you really could have done so. But can you do it with your busy training schedule, which is going to get even more hectic?”
“…Probably not.”
“Stop thinking about useless things, and start practising the Martial Styles.”
“…Yes, master,” Alnea said, and plunged his hand into the bag, pulling out the first scroll that came into his hand. It was just a plain scroll, with a white spine, and golden edges. But that was to be expected. There had to be at least thousands of Martial Styles in the bag. If his master used the blood, and skin of Dream Bulls for all of them, then it would not take long for them to truly become extinct.
Besides, it was not as if the Martial Styles were going to be as esoteric, and difficult as the Art of Spirit Rebirth. They relied on Aspects, after all, and not the Mysteries of the Origin Sea. Even if there were some esoteric concepts encompassing their moves, bringing them together as a whole, those were things that he would have to grasp through practice, and not through calling on the prowess of the Origin Sea. But before that, he would have to learn the Martial Style itself.
“Star Piercing Style,” Alnea mumbled. Specialising in Strength, and Speed, with more emphasis on Speed, the Star Piercing Style was a Martial Style of the Weapon type, focussing on sword type weapons. And its name suggested, it was designed by its creator with the hope of one day piercing the stars themselves. Of course, that was an impossible task. After all, not even the Supreme Wanderers could reach the stars.
But Warriors of the defiant kind in the first place. And all of them tended to be ambitious. Yearning to pierce the Stars… Only a Warrior could think up of such a ridiculously ambitious goal. And if the man had kept stuck to his conviction, then even if would not have pierced the stars, at the very least, he would have been able to reach the Mystic Rank. At very least, his Star Piercing Style would not have remained as just a Lowest Grade Martial Style.
Unfortunately, the Warrior’s determination could not keep up with his reality. As he walked further on his path, his conviction could not fight against the impossibility of his situation. Or maybe there were other situations that were not recorded in the scroll. In any case, one day, the conviction of the Warrior was finally broken, rendering him unable to advance on his path.
Since the creator of the Martial Style had his path as a Wanderer cut off before he could make much progress with his Martial Style, the most that the Star Piercing Style could do was allow him to concentrate his Aspects at the tip of his sword, increasing the speed, and strength of his attacks. Even with his Aspects though, the speed of his stabs would not increase beyond twice its original speed, while in the department of strength, it would be increasing the penetrating powers of his sword, adding only slightly to his strength.
But Alnea did not have anything to complain about. With the way that he normally used his Aspect, just pouring it all out, wrapping his entire sword with it, all he could achieve was better synchronisation with his sword, while lowering the consumption of his strength. Or maybe, that just came with the synchronisation with sword. After all, with better synchronisation, he did learn how to swing his sword more proficiently.
Just swinging his sword though, was not enough. He also needed to have power behind his swings, and he needed to be fast. And though the Star Piercing Sword would not be able to help him much with power, it surely would help him with speed. Besides, using his Aspects in the way he did was a waste of Oren. Focussed, and efficient, that was the way of a Warrior. That was the way of Martial Styles.
Seeing Alnea roll back the scroll, and put it down, his master looked at him with a smile, and asked, “Done already?”
“Yes,” Alnea said, nodding with a confident grin. “I should be able to master it in a while.”
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“You sound quite confident of yourself.”
“There is not much to the Star Piercing Style, after all.”
“…We will see about that,” his master said, as her lips curled up in amusement. Before he could ask what she meant though, she picked up the sword lying by her side, and handed it to him. “Your sword… you will need it for practising the Martial Style.”
“The sword of Farin,” Alnea mumbled, taking the sword into his hand. He may not know where the country of Farin had been. But he did know one thing. The sword was meant for him. And its sheath… The golden vines, pregnant with red thorns, rounding about the pure black sheath in strange, and mesmerising patterns of their own, reminded him of the robe he was wearing. Golden on black…
“I did not have many ingredients that matched the sword, so I had to make a temporary sheath for it,” his master said. “I will create a better sheath for it when we have time.”
“No,” Alnea said, tracing the patterns of thorns on the sheath of his sword. “I like this sheath… Let me keep it.”
“…Silly child,” his master said. “Go, and try out your new sword.”
“Yes master!” Alnea said, as a new sense of enthusiasm surged within his Heart. For a while, he had been waiting in excitement just to practise his new Martial Styles. But at the moment, he was also excited for the swinging his sword. Or stabbing it. That was how he was supposed to practise the Martial Style.
There was only one move in the whole Martial Style, a stab. To master the Martial Style, he had to keep practising the stab over, and over, while trying to urge his Aspect to gather directly at the tip of his sword. Not overflow from his body, and seep into his sword. No. He had to gather his Aspect directly at the tip of his sword right when his sword was supposed to strike his enemies. Maybe the concept of the Martial style was related to the Space series of the lineage of Time.
In any case, according to the Star Piercing Style, by gathering his Aspects at the tip of his sword right before hitting his enemies, he would not only be increasing the explosiveness, and the penetration power of his stabs, but the sudden acceleration of his stabs right before making contact with his enemies would also cause them to err in judging the speed of his attacks, spoiling all their countermeasures.
And the way to gathering his Aspects at the tip of his sword was repeatedly practising with his sword, especially his stabs, while trying to communicate with his Aspects, urging them to follow his command. The greater the level of communication, and understanding he had with his Aspects, the easier it would be for him to control them, and the faster, and more explosively he would be able to gather them at the tip of his sword.
Or at least that was how the scroll had described the Martial Style as. Of course, since neither his Aspect, nor his conviction aligned with the Martial Style, he was bound to never be able to use the Star Piercing Style like its creator had, but something was better than nothing. At least, the Martial Style could help him in improving his control over his Aspect. Besides, the faster he could master the Star Piercing Style, the faster he would be able to move on to the next Martial Style.
So, after nodding at his master with a confident smile, Alnea picked up the sword, and walked up to the muddy bank of the stream. Since he was going to practice stabs anyway, then he might as well also practise his base. A strong base would always help him, even when he would reach the True Rank, and learn to fly. Thus, without wasting any time, he got into the position of practising stabs, spreading his legs to shoulder’s length, keeping his left leg little ahead of the right.
This time though, he was practising with a real sword rather than a wooden sword, and as such, had to more mindful of the position of his sword. Since the sword was still in its sheath, Alnea brought the sword to the left side of his waist, keeping his right hand on the hilt, as near to the sheath as he could, while holding the sheath with his left hand, right at its base, where it met the hilt. Just as was depicted in the scroll.
Since the sword was long, it was going to be tough to unsheathe it. But if he angled it well, it would not be too big of a problem. This was what the stance he was in for. To help in him in unsheathing long swords, and unleashing their fury. Taking a deep breath to readjust himself, Alnea focussed all his attention on the sword, before pulling it out of its sheath, and—
Along with the sword, Alnea found himself stumbling, and falling face first into the muddy ground. The sword… he had forgotten how heavy it was. Especially since it had been so light when resting in the sheath. That must have been the work of some Glyph Arrays… the thorny vines on the sheath…
“Do you still think that you will be able to master the sword in just a while?”
Alnea turned towards her with a pout, and said, “You knew that this would happen.”
“I just wanted to let you know that you should never underestimate anything. What you think might be easy, could end being something that is beyond your limits.”
“…This is not beyond my limit,” Alnea said with gritted teeth, as he forced him himself up from the ground. “I was just caught a little off guard.”
“Alright, alright, it is not beyond your limits. But it will surely tire you out. How about you change your sword with the wooden sword for now?”
In truth, Alnea wished to change back to the wooden sword, and get used to the Star Piercing Style, before changing back to his sword, the sword of Farin. As he saw the look of amusement in his master’s eyes though, a strange sense of shame built up inside of him, flushing his face red. Biting his lips, he turned away from her, and pushed himself up from the ground.
“A mere Lowest Grade Martial Style,” Alnea said, weighing the sword in his hands, before getting back into the position of a stab. “It cannot stop me.”
“It might not stop you, but it will tire you out, and delay your other training.”
“It will not,” Alnea said. “I promise you.”
“You—
“I, Alnea Oathkeeper, take an Oath that I will practise the Star Piercing Style, and all the other Martial Styles with my sword, the sword of Farin, while making sure that it does not affect my other training.”
“I wonder where you get your stubborn streak from,” his master said, but did not stop him from taking his Oath. So, in way, gaining her approval, while ignoring the manifestation of Mysteries around his Roots, Alnea took a step forward, urging his Aspect, the one in the shape of a sword, to gather at the tip of his sword, while stabbing it in front of him with all the strength he could muster. And though the sword was heavy, causing his arms to shake, and shiver, the sword itself did not shake. It was as stable as ever.
Unfortunately, having never used his Aspect in such precise manner, he was not very proficient in its usage. Thus, instead of gathering at the tip of the sword, the Aspect gathered around its edges. That too, much earlier than when he had intended. And so, with his hand quivering under the weight of the sword, Alnea brough the sword back to its initial position, before thrusting it into the air once again, only fail once again. And again. And again. But he did not give up. Because he was Alnea Oathkeeper. Because he was going to be the greatest Wanderer. Because he was going to be the first Origin Wanderer.