Third pov:

As Itami got into the shower ready to take a long bath, he was lost in thought.

Itami pov:

"What should I do now?

I have no teacher. How am I going to win the fight?

More importantly, how am I going to change?

Is there a reason to change?

No, there's definitely a reason to change. Uncle said if I continue down this path I'm going to die early, and although I want to be a hero, I will not be a martyr.

How dumb was I?

In my mind, I thought I was mature for my age, but in reality, I probably need to grow the most among those in my age group in many aspects.

I'm way too weak to protect the things I care about, I still believe in fairy tales, and I've taken for granted many things that have already left me".

**Bloop bloop bloop**.

"Am I crying? I'm crying, aren't I?

I'm still a kid who cries when things aren't going his way. Is this another thing that makes me weak?

No, feelings don't make us weak, they strengthen us.

Dad taught me that, and although I haven't been making him proud, today I will change. Today I'll start my path to be a worthy son."

Third pov:

After Itami reached a new resolution he got out of the shower and dried himself. He had answered many questions like who he wanted to be and achieve but one question was left unanswered. 'How am I going to get stronger?

It's all well and good that I want to, but if everybody could will themselves into being strong there wouldn't only be 9 kings in the world.

If I were to think about it being a chevalier was split into two divisions, the physical and the ethereal, but which one should I focus on first?

If I work on the ethereal then I can get stronger, but the problem is my body the vessel. If the vessel gets filled with too much ether regardless I could run into problems in control and injure myself. Vice versa if I work on my physical strength too much then I'll have no ether to control and will get beat badly by my opponent in a year and a half.

I think my best course of action is the most difficult, which is to train both at the same time and not allow one to get too far ahead of the other. Now the question is how to split it up. For the physical portion, I can go through the survival training route continuously and run along the mountains, and I can probably increase my strength by doing simple exercises.

For the eatherial portion, I can work on connecting with my spirit, and my aspects abilities. What I'm lacking the most right now is proper techniques whether it be physical fighting styles or astral arts. However, I have an idea of a fighting style technique, and astral art that I want to try.

Half a year later

On the top of a mountain blanketed by snow there's a boy in a lotus position working on his new prototype astral art.

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'I didn't think it would be this hard, but after half a year I've almost completely mastered the technique, but now I'm not so sure if mastered is the correct word. It would be more accurate to say I've completed it because mastering a technique means that the progress of the technique has reached its final point.

However, my technique will take a long time to reach that junction, but for now, I should test out my current strength against that.'

Over the last half year, things have changed in the badlands, because the Saruyuki was defeated a vacuum of power was left and later filled by the 5 kings of the snow.

Although all of them were goblin-ranked magic beasts, within that classification they were some of the strongest, and Itami was going to face one of them. It was a Grendel, a humanoid monster that had two horns. Itami chose this beast because after doing some recon it was the most advantageous matchup against any of the kings.

The most troubling thing about this magic beast was that it was almost impervious to sharp weapons because of its tough skin.

However, this was perfect for Itami because he didn't use bladed weapons. In the last 6 months, Itami had been training with two stone rods crafted by himself out of the mountains where he trained.

Although he couldn't say he had his own style yet, he was proficient enough with it to kill many lower-ranked goblin-class beasts without being too tired.

During this time Itami had battled countless lower-mid level goblins, so he could accurately gauge his strength. Some were almost capable of taking his life, but none of them were comparable to today's challenge.

As Itami made his way to the cave where the grendel resided, he looked for any discrepancies along the way that were different from his current information.

Since his uncle had that talk with him six months ago, he had made it a habit of confirming information before proceeding with his actions because any little detail could be lifesaving.

Once he arrived at the cave he steeled himself and proceeded with the "Ishi no shototsu" to make sure he hadn't missed anything. After he confirmed with himself that was the case he proceeded to take out his stone rods and get into his battle stance, the Dimakaerusu.

Named after the gladiators, it revolved around him defending with one rod and attacking with the other.

It was a balanced form that he'd taken a liking to, and currently, the only one he developed. Once he got into his stance he waited for the grendel to make the first move, so time passed. Eventually, it charged at him running wildly with no form, and threw a heavy punch at him.

However, it was met with an unexpected answer.

Itami used his first rod to divert the punch and with his second rod, he attacked the chest of the grendel breaking its sternum and planting it 15 meters away skidding on the ground. Seeing the damage he'd inflicted, Itami didn't let up.

In a flash, he got to where the beast had landed and attacked it with a flurry of combos.

First, he hit the ribcage, then the chest again seeing it was open, and finally the skull. Nevertheless, the grendel didn't take this lying down and hit him with a counterpunch to his ribcage.

However, the punch slowed down in front of Itami so he's able to use his rods to divert some of the damage. This was the prototype astral art he was working on, Gorugon no shoheki

(gorgons barrier).

By spreading his ether into the atmosphere it allows him to perceive any attacks coming at him, virtually freezing them in front of him.

However, he can only use it three times a day as it is mentally taxing. After taking the hit from the grendel and being pushed back a few meters, the fight resumed this time with Itami on the defensive.

The grendels' style was very unorthodox, even for a magic beast. If one were to see it on a regular day without any prior knowledge they wouldn't believe it was one of the rulers of the badlands.

It was very uncoordinated, but that's what made it hard to read. Using its long whip-like arms it's able to attack almost omnidirectional making it hard to defend.

After trading blows with him on the defensive, Itami knew he'd have to break the beast's leverage soon or he'd be in trouble because it was too taxing to continue this exchange with the beast.

Ultimately, Itami decided to take a risk and use one of his incomplete astral arts, overload. Based on the concept of Gorugon no shoheki, rather than controlling his ether gently into the atmosphere he uncontrollably released it blowing away everything around him.

It was incredibly useful when he needed to deflect a strong attack or create space between him and an individual. However, it had a huge drawback, it used too much ether. It strained the ether reserves so much that the user could only use it once a day.

Which is why he considered it incomplete. Taking the opportunity he created by blowing the beast away, Itami pressed it once again. Knowing that he was low on reserves he knew he had to make this count, so he charged his remaining ether into one of his stone rods and aimed for the Grendel's head, but he narrowly missed. Or did he?

At the last second Itami transferred his ether into the other stone rod and smashed the grendels' head into smithereens. After defeating the grendel, Itami yelled at the top of his lungs. **Aaaaaaaaaah** Now that was a heroes battle.