Free Web NovelChapter 9: Katana and a Scythe [2]
After waiting on Ezio for what felt like forever, he had finally finished eating all the food — after I had to order the maids to bring more, since his stomach was a vacuum cleaner.
It made me wonder what kind of meals he had been eating on his own all this time.
"It is time for you to start training me. Time is running out." I said to Ezio, who was slumped in his chair.
"Burp~, right now? I just finished eating. Give me a few hours and a good nap, then we will start." Ezio rubbed his stuffed stomach.
"Here I was thinking a Schatten always kept his word." I said with a look of disappointment.
At the mention of his family name, he sat up straight, the sleepiness gone from his body. "Tsk, I am the most honorable man you will ever meet, kid. Let’s go."
I shook my head and stood up.
"You can teleport us to my personal training room, right?" I asked.
"How did you—" He stopped himself and pinched the bridge of his nose. "It doesn’t matter."
At Ezio’s command, my vision went dark as shadows poured out of the floor and enveloped us both, forming a cocoon around us.
After a few seconds, the cocoon came undone and we were no longer in the mansion but inside Yves’s personal training room.
"Shadow teleportation sure is a convenient ability." I whistled in admiration.
I hoped my Main Story could unlock something like it in the future.
The training room was quite large, about half the size of a football pitch. Its walls, floor and ceiling were made of white marble, and a crystal chandelier hung overhead lighting up the room. Training dummies were scattered around while a rack holding nothing but katanas stood to the side.
Yves was truly obsessed with the katana.
I grabbed a katana that was neither too long nor too short, strapped it to my waist, and stood in front of Ezio. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
"So where do we start?"
"I’m starting to regret that deal already." Ezio clicked his tongue.
"Food is food."
Ezio closed his eyes and sighed. When he opened them again, his mood had shifted back to the cold composure he had when his blade was at my neck earlier, giving me the chills.
"Attack me with everything you have. As if you are trying to kill me." He said.
I obeyed.
Drawing from Yves’s memories, I took a stance with one foot slightly back and the other forward. Leaning my torso forward, I drew my katana and slashed at Ezio.
The movement felt so natural that it was as if I had done it a thousand times.
The katana moved at high speed, threatening to cut into Ezio’s shoulder, or so I thought. Ezio dodged the slash easily by stepping calmly to the side. His movement was so fast that I almost stumbled, but I quickly recovered, twisted the katana, and sliced to the left.
Ezio dodged easily again.
"I told you to go all out." Ezio said.
"Aye, aye, captain."
I let mana run freely through my body and felt every muscle and fibre enhanced with strength.
I hadn’t expected mana to feel so good coursing through me.
I bent my legs slightly, muscles tightening, and then dashed forward towards Ezio.
At the same time, my mind was running through all of Yves’s training memories to guide my movements. I was already in front of Ezio, the blade cutting through the air towards his neck.
Ezio pulled his torso back and my blade cut nothing but the air in front of his face. I twisted my grip on the katana, spun it, and stabbed towards his chest.
Ezio was in a very disadvantageous position, his body leaning back towards the floor with the blade about to plunge through his chest. I almost thought I would hit him, but I knew it was a futile hope.
With inhuman agility, Ezio pressed his left hand against the floor, pushed his legs up, and kicked the katana clean out of my hand.
The metallic clang of it hitting the ground echoed behind me. Even so, I didn’t stop. I activated [Esoteric Darkness Manipulation], forged a katana from darkness, and pressed the assault.
Ezio was already back on his feet, his expression unchanged.
We kept going back and forth around the room, but no matter how much I tried, I never managed to land a single hit. That was just how vast the gap between us was.
Every time I slashed at him he would dodge or simply move too fast. Whenever I cornered him, he would pull off some movement that seemed impossible for a human body and slip away. This was not a fight at all. It was more like a small lion cub trying to chase a fully grown gazelle.
It went on and on until I ran out of mana, drenched in sweat and completely exhausted.
Huff. Huff.
I was so tired I could barely hold myself up, using my katana as a cane just to stay on my feet.
I looked over at Ezio, who stood a few meters away with his hands clasped behind his back, a smile now on his face, the cold demeanour gone.
That damned snake of a guardian.
"Are you done?" He asked.
"Can’t you see?"
"Tsk, tsk." He clicked his tongue. "You have been swinging the katana wrong. Your solo training was trash."
"You put too much force into your slashes, making them heavy and brute instead of smooth." He stepped up beside me and patted both my shoulders. "Your shoulders are so stiff that my dead grandmother had better posture than you."
I frowned at his words but said nothing.
"Your shoulders need to be relaxed so your swings come out clean." Then he kicked at my already wobbling legs, sending me to the floor.
"Why did you kick—"
"Quiet, I am talking." He pressed his fingers to his lips. "Your footwork is so poor that a drunk man moves better than you. Hell, even a toddler could move better than you. Your feet need to work with your shoulders. It is about balance."
As irritating as the insults were, he was telling the truth. I had genuinely believed I could wield a katana from Yves’s memories alone, but it had not worked that way.
"Last but not least, you rely too much on mana. Mana is not everything. There will be situations where you cannot use it at all. And not only do you rely on it too much, you waste it as well." He paced around me. "Your mana control must be flawless, with nothing wasted. The same goes for your movements."
The more I listened to his words, the more I was able to identify and understand the flaws in Yves’s technique from within his memories.
"The first thing I am going to teach you is how to breathe mana."
