Chang Guan woke up, tired as usual. He tried willing himself uot of his bed but was unable to part from it.
`Oh well, I'll just enter my mind's room and start the training like always.´ With this in mind, Chang Guan shut his eyes and activated his Rotation Intent.
When Chang Guan opened his eyes, he was no longer in the cave, but rather in the empty space. He began his normal training but soon realized something was amiss.
"Hmm, wasn't I unable to enter my mind's room?"
It was only after he had fully awakened, that he realized the illogicality of the situation. He began pondering on what was different.
`Wait a minute, if I couldn't enter my mind's room before because I wasn't relaxed enough, then surely I could enter it now because I was relaxed enough... But that doesn't make any sense.´
Chang Guan was currently extremely confused. The only guess that Chang Guan had was that it was because he was less alert after having just woken up.
"Well, whatever the reason is, it's good for me. I'll just stop worrying."
While he was thinking, he wasn't neglecting his training either and soon his training was reaching its end.
===
On a grassy field stood two boys. One had long black hair, and the other had short red hair. They both had emerald eyes and stared at each other. They were, of course, Chang Guan and Ryuu Kiyoshi.
Suddenly, Chang Guan jumped to his right, releasing a flurry of throwing knives, 20, to be precise.
Seeing Chang Guan perform his move, Ryuu Kiyoshi used his Body Double Tactic. With both Ryuu Kiyoshi and his body double assuming a defensive stance while activating the Shura Tactic, they created an impenetrable guard.
Out of all 20 knives, not a single knife got close to hitting its target.
Ryuu Kiyoshi's body double, who was currently in a stable defensive position, suddenly crouched down. At this very moment, Ryuu Kiyoshi stepped on his body double's back, launching himself forwards towards Chang Guan.
What greeted Ryuu Kiyoshi as he was flying towards Chang Guan was a rain of throwing knives, and 2 Chang Guans standing side by side, preparing to strike.
Ryuu Kiyoshi freed one of his hands from his saber and created a sword finger. He then swung it downwards, using a small-scale version of the Exploding Lotus Saber Art.
*BOOM!*
The explosion, though much smaller than normal, blew away most of the knives in Ryuu Kiyoshi's path.
*Swish*
Suddenly, a noise came out from nowhere, revealing a knife which had embedded itself into Ryuu Kiyoshi's thigh. Ryuu Kiyoshi's face contorted in pain but he landed back on the ground and darted forwards using the Stacked Speed Tactic.
Ryuu Kiyoshi stood right in front of Chang Guan. and swung his 3 blades towards Chang Guan, each aiming for a different body part; The leg, torso, and neck.
*Brrrrr*
Just as he had begun his brandish, he felt a strong force pushing down on him. It was Chang Guan's Ocean Lock Tactic which had finally been activated.
Abruptly, Ryuu Kiyoshi jumped back. In his place appeared 4 throwing knives.
*Swing!*
The noise of air being cut suddenly came from behind Chang Guan. He turned back, only to see Ryuu Kiyoshi's body double swinging downwards with all 3 of his blades.
*Swing!*
Although only for a second, this distracted Chang Guan. This was plenty of time for Ryuu Kiyoshi to prepare an attack.
Right slice, thrust, left slice.
Chang Guan, who was faced with this flurry of attacks, seemingly unprepared, revealed a faint smile as he threw a set of throwing knives out.
*Swish!*
They hit! The knives Chang Guan had thrown out had it their targets, each hitting near a vital points of Ryuu Kiyoshi and his body double.
*Crunch*
Although Chang Guan had hit his target, he didn't have the time to celebrate, as he was instantly struck by 6 sabers.
Chang Guan stood there, impaled by 6 sabers.
1 second.
2 seconds.
*Poof!*
Suddenly, Chang Guan's body disappeared, white smoke replacing it. At the same time, Ryuu Kiyoshi was struck from behind. He had 2 throwing knives in the back of his head.
*Plonk*
*Poof!*
Ryuu Kiyoshi fell over and his body double disappeared, revealing Chang Guan standing alone on the field. He had won!
"Phew, that was a close one."
Chang Guan won because of his trickery. With the Rotation Intent, he was perfectly calm, able to set up elaborate traps for Ryuu Kiyoshi to fall into.
The main point of his trap was Ryuu Kiyoshi's weakness - the Cloaking Tactic!
Although Ryuu Kiyoshi had easily mastered both the Body Double Tactic and the Stacked Speed Tactic, he was only on the second layer of the Cloaking Tactic.
He despised trickery and always fought head-on and honorably. Thus he had never put any effort into training the Cloaking Tactic.
This was important because this meant that Chang Guan, who was very proficient in this tactic, could easily use Ryuu Kiyoshi's lack of knowledge to trick him into believing that Chang Guan's body double was the real Chang Guan.
Chang Guan fell to the ground. He laid face up, looking into the sky. There was no deeper meaning to it, he was just tired. Tired and satisfied.
"Finally..."
Chang Guan had spent quite a while trying to defeat Ryuu Kiyoshi but to no avail, so of course, he would be ecstatic when he finally succeeded.
Chang Guan kept on lying there and didn't get up for a couple of minutes, before closing his eyes and left his mind's room.
When he exited, he was greeted once more by the ceiling of the cave. He swiftly packed his bed and calmed himself with the Rotation Intent. He was ready to continue.