Tightening the gripped on my sword. I check my surroundings, anticipating my next available move as well as do I have the space to execute them. I remembered what the King taught me for the past one month, majority comes from Footwork. I steadied my breathing and poise myself walking stepping forward.

The King returned the exchange by getting into his stance and walking forward. There was a lot of emotions running through my head as I keep thinking to myself how do I get past this huddle. The King was like a Mountain itself standing in-front of me. An impenetrable fortress. The king was towards me slowly, as his eyes were showed nothing but hostility.

In a blink of an eye, he suddenly disappears and appeared right above.

"What the____."

He lightly swung his Sword from above. I swung my sword in a ascending diagonal direction to parry it, but the strength behind those blows was still unimaginably strong as I got blown away.

Shit, I though I could have wore him down even a little, seems like that's not the case. I started Slashing at the King hoping that it would make a difference but he just stood at the same spot, deflecting all of it like he was swapping a fly.

"Shit! Shit!" As I got more agitated slamming blindly at the King.

The King starts making a barrage of attacks, including slashing, cutting, cleaving and stabbing. I tried defending against the onslaught revealed by the King, but I couldn't retreat anymore as my back leans against the mountain rocks. There was no place I could retreat to anymore.

"Damn it, if there's no way to go, I can only go in-front."

I began counterattacking.

Before I made the first move, going for a blow in the neck.

[Stop!] Ryong who have been quiet these entire time shouted at me. Getting stunned, I got surprised and stopped whatever I was trying to do.

The King swung his sword, cleaving the entire rock at the spot I was going to move forward to.

Gulp.

I swallowed my saliva, as I realised that I would have been split in half if it wasn't for Ryong.

[Calm down. Why are thou so agitated. Thou need to watch thy opponent before making a move.]

"I am watching but there aren't any opening I can use at all."

[Then open thy's eyes. Look properly. There's already a huge handicap placed for thou. He doesn't charge to thou after every exchange. Which means thou have the freedom to move around more.]

Though the training with the King has only been a month. Ryong has been stuck with me longer and taught me longer. In the past it might have been hard for me to understand but, for some reason, it was easier to follow and execute. This would be the perfect time to use Ryong's advise to improve furthermore.

Reading the King's posture and shoulder motion. I carefully shift myself to the left and continue observing his motion as well as looking at his gaze.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

His gaze itself was able to freeze this entire mountain however his killing intent was extremely heavy. Making it hard to pace my breathing at times.

Suddenly the King changed his stance, to that of no guard. He carries his Sword with one hand and relaxes his entire posture. It baffled me but I suddenly remembered what this was. It was the King's Devastation Stance, where it specialise on heavy attacks that overwhelms the enemy. With no choice. I thought to myself and changed Fang into a Great-Sword.

I myself dropped all stance and carried Fang with only 1 hand.

[Mimicry]: The King's Devastation Stance.

[*Since this is an passive skill, it has been created in your passive skill permanent*]

"Hoh, now the little disciple is trying to copy his master. Let's see how far can you go."

Suddenly he chose to rush this, putting his entire strength in that strike. Realising I cant blocked this and I would die, I dodge to the left and dragged the great sword up.

With the King using a long sword, he anticipated the attack and slipped pass the great-sword aiming for my neck. I changed Fang into a long sword, to defend against it.

Chaeeeeeng!

The screeching sound of the weapon echoes the entire mountain as I deflect the sword to my left side, using my leg to trip the King. He anticipated it and spin his back on me, and in that split of a second, his sword appears above me and he slams the entire thing onto my face, planning to cleave it.

Just then, the King suddenly slipped and I took this moment to knee him, [Muay Thai Knee]. He blocked it with this palm, thinking that he got me where he wants me to be. Just for something to slam his head.

Thunkk!

As he grabs his head in pain. I flew towards him immediately and planned give a [side kick]. Suddenly the motion on his shoulder moved. He was making a move. I grabbed Fang and change it to the long sword and starts blocking.

[Wind Cut]

AOE Skill

Razor sharps cut on selected target.

The Wind Spirit plays a naughty prank on it's targets. Might result in heavy injury or death.

Status Effect: Bleeding

Skill Cooldown: 2 Minutes

I still couldn't see anything as I got cut all over again. My clothes now soaked in my own blood as I desperately find ways to block against the attack. I suddenly remembered I could use aura detection and use it to check the area. There was a clump of mana located in places and it's moving towards me. There should be where I got cut at. I evade all the area that has the lump of mana and made my way to the King.

Ok, let's try this again, look at his shoulder motion and strike.

I took a huge deep breath to prepare my assault closed in. In this small gap between us, the King took 2 steps forward, he shifts it to a stance waiting to wreck whatever is going to appear. But would the attack be vertical or horizontal? Would it come from the left or right? All these thoughts filled up my head in those small gaps.

"Check the shoulder properly. The moment the shoulder lifts abit, it's always the opposite direction where the sword strikes"

These were the words from King Darius himself.

"Thanks for the tip." As the King's left shoulder lifted up, showing signs of attacks.

I took out my spear, Stix on my left hand and plunged it on floor, Suddenly he couldn't swing the sword due to the spear blocking his direction. And in that 0.5 second, I swapped fang for Naga, and in the first time, successfully imbued both Aura and Mana at the same time in the sword. This resulted in the Sword extended like a whip with the increase weight in power. I slammed the blade of the weapon on the King.

Boom!

The effect was like a Wrecking ball destroying a wall.

"Hoh. That was something new."

As the dust and snow starts clearing up. Seems like he used magic shield to blocked the attack.

Not giving him a break to catch his breath. I ran towards him and swung my sword horizontally st him, accompanied by a vertical slash from Naga, he dodged both of them effortlessly and returned with a stab. I took out my shield to deflect it and summoned Stix to aimed for his neck. With his inhumane reflexes, he avoids the spear head at the very last second and swing his sword horizontally again. I guarded it with Stix and swing the spear on his feet. Suddenly letting go of the spear, i appeared no less than 0.7 meters in-front of him. He was about to slash upwards on my face but

"Urghhh!"

The King suddenly received cuts from

the arm that was holding the sword. He turned his head only to find that I was holding 2 daggers in my hands.

"Nice."

He evokes the Skill [Ruler's Grip] on me but it missed as I ran through it and changed fang back from a dagger to long sword.

With his arm cut, he was still a monster striking his weapon with the insane strength that be had. I guard it with the dagger and returned the exchange with the sword.

Chaekkk!

Chaenggg!

The exchange when on for a couple of seconds but felt like hours as each blow gets harder to predict.

The King threw his sword up and used it with his left hand.

He then mutters:

[Mydarn Sword Technique: Canon]

Suddenly, like reloading a canon, blue energy starts surging around the blade, as it looks like the blade was charging up, glowing in blue, causing the surrounding snow to tremble from the force absorbed in the sword.

Sensing this was a bad news I try disabling the sword from his hand by throwing my dagger. He deflected it and aimed at me.

He then thrust his sword at me.

BOOM!!

The entire top of the mountain was blown to bits as I saw what happened to it. Like a canon firing at a wall, it decimates the entire wall as if 100 canons were firing at once to bring it down.

I only managed to evade the strike because I summoned Combo-Maker in 3 Staff mode and using the chain, dragged his arm to fire it at another direction.

With my entire body out of energy, I took my chance dragging his arm with my weapon and the sword left his hand as i retrieved it when I fling it away from his hands.

With my body heavy as hell. I took the staff and pointed at him waiting for his next action.

The King suddenly started laughing hysterically before announcing:

"Finally. Congratulations you passed."

"Huh?"