Right now, he was trying to consolidate the insights into the nature of his Daos that he had formed during his training. His Dao Fragment of Resolution was benefiting more from the grueling, tortuous training methods that Gordanus used, but his other one was still progressing as well, just a bit slower. He was nowhere near a rank up, as of now, but he was slowly getting closer.
In addition, he had figured out more about the nature of Dao progression. The ranks within a stage were more of a guideline than anything else, especially within the first stage. As long as one possessed the necessary insight, they could skip through the levels at their leisure. In addition, the thing that Sam had done with his broken Daos during the tournament was also another way to bypass having to level up bit by bit, although he was not anticipating having to do something like that for a while, given that his new class made it far easier to possess different Daos. However, there were bound to be Daos that were fundamentally opposed, like Good and Evil, or Light and Darkness. Such powerful Daos were likely eons away from his current state, but they would come eventually, if he managed to survive for long enough. For now however, he was still in the very infancy of his power.
Hearing a scuffling noise coming from the other side of the room, he looked up to see Manarox heading his way, his massive sword dragging on the ground behind him. The man was clad only in a pair of cloth leggings, and his alien musculature was fully exposed.
“Are you available to spar? I feel like fighting one on your level would help me progress in my weapon mastery. You are the only person other than my brother that I know who has reached the Brotherhood stage of mastery.”
Sam nodded, getting to his feet. He was sort of in the middle of something, but it could always wait. It would be valuable to train with someone other than Gordanus for once, if only to salve his bruised ego. He did not know how adept Manarox was with his weapon, but it was surely nowhere near that of his eccentric teacher. Sam hefted Mjolnir and followed Manarox into the training room, taking up a stance on the padded floor.
The other man nodded at him once and then sprang forwards, baring his sword. He held it in a serious grip, from both sides of the weapon at once, and when he moved, he started to change his stance slightly as he moved through the air, rendering it impossible for Sam to predict which direction he was going to strike from. All people of this level were ambidextrous by now, the effects of high Dexterity, and none of them had any sort of tell, unless they were a lot weaker than Sam was. Obviously, Manarox did not fall into the category.
A few moments later, the sword snaked out to the right, hissing towards Sam’s neck. He whipped up Mjolnir, reading the trajectory of his opponent’s strike, and interposed it between himself and the sword. He was starting to find that he was actually quite skilled with his weapon. Likely the effects of his weapon imprint that he had mysteriously gained during the tournament. It imbued him with a repertoire of various stances and skills that blended with his more holistic mastery of his weapon, allowing him to match people with far more experience than he had. He had never really been in a situation where he could properly fight with his weapon skills alone, as Gordanus was too skilled, and everyone else that he had faced was not enough. However, Manarox seemed to be powerful enough.
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Sam parried the blow as it glanced off of his hammer, and then counterattacked, sending a straight thrust towards Manarox’s torso. As the alien general withdrew his sword and slapped Mjolnir’s head away, he sent the tip of his sword, which had a much longer reach than that of Sam’s weapon, hissing toward him once more. Sam was forced to duck, as he was not in any sort of position to dodge the attack, and he kicked out, trying to trip up his opponent. Manarox took one foot back and rooted himself, causing the kick to simply glance off of his tree trunk of a leg.
Sam whirled to his feet, conserving his momentum, and found himself within Manarox’s guard. He hammered his weapon into the man’s knee, causing him to curse and stumble, and then punched him in the stomach, taking advantage of the momentary distraction. Sam withdrew like a wraith, flitting out of range of a counterattack. Manarox gave him a look, and then laughed.
“I was going to go easy on you, but it seems like that was a mistake,” Manarox said in glee. He was apparently happy that he would get to use his full power.
A moment later, his sword began to move through the air like the head of a striking snake, darting from place to place without any apparent pattern. A few moments later it darted out towards Sam, and he was forced to parry it. Then another strike came in from a different direction, testing his skill.
“This technique comes from the movements of my people’s ancient ancestors. They were a race of highly agile snakes that moved so fast that they were thought to have many heads but it was really only one. With the blessings of the System, I can reenact their technique with my blade.”
Manarox seemed to take great pleasure in this, and as the sword started to speed up, Sam was forced to start going all out. His hammer blurred from left to right, knocking aside the attacks coming his way. If he had been a more petty man, he would have used some of his free stat points, but he had decided to save them for a rainy day, and he did not need to use them now, as he was not in any real danger. As it was, he had a copious store of the things, enough to increase his strength by a sizable portion. The difference wouldn't be night or day, but it would still be enough to surprise whoever he was fighting. In addition, if he used the strategy of allocating them in batches, rather than all in one go, then he would get even more.