Sergio was running through the forest when he suddenly dodged to the side. A set of huge paws slashed at him but missed. It was a spirit beast at the early sovereign stage. It was the size of a bus. It was a leopard with green and brown fur. A dark black longsword appeared in Sergio's right hand as he turned towards the beast with Luca on his left shoulder. He was in a defensive position as the leopard pounced on him. With perfect footwork, he maneuvered his body to dodge it and ended up on its right side.
The leopard landed on the ground causing the ground to cave in 50 feet. He stabs his sword into the leopard's eyes and into its brain, killing it instantly. The sword then disappears as Sergio walks away and is at the edge of the forest when he feels Luca moving around, about to wake up.
Sergio finds an open area and puts Luca on the floor. Luca opens his eyes slowly in confusion as he looks around.
"Where am I?"
"Took you long enough."
"You?!?"
Luca was pointing at Sergio as he started to remember what happened. Sergio just looked at him normally like what happened was no big deal. Before Luca could say something, Sergio stopped him. He thought about what you could do to stop the kid from falling into depression. The pact he made with Aidan Ryland would be broken if the kid didn't start cultivating and being able to survive on his own.
"I know that you feel horrible about your parent's death and losing a friend. But remember that angels are the reason why you lost everything. The only way to avenge them is to become strong and powerful"
Sergio had no problem putting the blame on the angels, it was partly their fault. When Luca heard this he felt a wave of emotions. He wanted to cry and fall into depression, but his inner fox bloodline started to influence him. He started to feel hatred. Slowly his feelings were replaced with the need for vengeance. He wanted to make the angels pay for what they did and make them suffer. If he met an angel right now he would rip them apart. He didn't care if it wasn't the ones who killed his parents.
He was young and wanted to put the blame on someone so that he could justify his parent's death. Luca shouted in conviction.
"Your right, I'll make those bastards pay," he clenched his fist and gritted his teeth.
Sergio felt sorry for the kid as he could relate to him, but this was the only way. Now he can finish his promise by helping the kid out.
"I see that your cultivation is weak, you're not even at the early body refinement stage. We need to bring it up but lucky for you the azure demon fox is special. With my help I can speed up your cultivation by having you drain the primordial energy of the spirit beasts in the forest"
"What's a spirit beast?"
Sergio had an awkward grin as he needed to catch this kid up to speed.
"You see spirit beasts are wild animals that are gifted with the ability to cultivate but can't use spells and only rely on their bodies. They use primordial energy to refine their bodies. Spirit beasts and cultivators at the same level aren't equal. Cultivators are smarter, can use spells and later domains."
"What are domains ?"
"Don't worry about that for now. You're too far away from that to worry about it. Let's get to work, and have you drain the beasts that I find. Also, your draining ability works best on spirit beasts because they didn't have elemental affinities. It makes it easier since you don't have to filter out a lot of impurities."
Luca was surprised that he knew so much about his innate skills. Seeing Lucas expression Sergio wasn't surprised, but he didn't say anything. Not that he didn't want to tell him, but it involved Aidan Rylands which only brought his mood down so he avoided talking about it.
In the distance, the sound of rustling and branches breaking was heard. Without turning away from Luca. A dark black spear appeared in Lucas's hand. It was 3 meters long and had a long sharp wide blade on the front. He then casually threw it towards the direction that the noise was coming from.
His spear broke through the sound barrier and created shockwaves. The moment it left his hand a cry from the spirit beast was heard then a loud thump was heard afterward.
"Found one, let's go."
Luca was dumbfounded by how strong Sergio is, with his mouth wide open. He mindlessly follows behind Sergio looking at him in admiration. In his mind, Luca put Sergio as a role model and hoped to reach his level. He was excited that he had someone to train him besides Damien. In his mind, "Ha just you wait angels, ill be coming for you!"
With his newfound passion, he rushes to Sergio side. When they got to the beast they found it with an enormous hole in its stomach. Surprising it was still alive, barely, and was only an early power expansion beast. When Luca saw the gore, he wasn't affected at all. The simple reason being that he saw his parent's horrible death. With that in his mind, this was nothing at all. Luca then saw something amazing happen. Just when he thought the beast was close to death it jumped at him with its teeth ready to bite him. But it was stopped when Sergio gently slapped the beast on top of the head. Knocking it out as it crashed to the ground.
"Wow!"
"Never understate your opponent, even if they're close to death, always stay vigilant. Got it?"
"YES!"
Luca kept seeing amazing things in front of his eyes today. He didn't get to see the fights that happened in Greenwood. This was his first time seeing such displays of power. With caution and excitement, he semi-evolved and released his claws from his hands. Stabbing his claws into the beast, he said "drain" in demon tongue. This was his first time draining a living being and he was nervous.
He then felt a gush of energy rushing into his palms and into his open meridians as they went into his nexus core that was filtering it out. It was a very weird feeling for him. It was like breathing through your nose was what he was usually doing when he was cultivating. But now he felt like he was breathing with his mouth. Consuming large amounts of energy at a time. It was overwhelming and he was starting to feel bloated.
Sergio saw this and could sense the primordial energy being pulled into Luca. He knew that the drain ability could only consume 10% of the energy you get from a target but since it was a spirit beast the efficiency increased, and you could consume 20%. The problem was that Luca wasn't experienced and was overwhelmed. He was seeing this happen already.
"Stop."
Luca pulled out his hands and was sure that if he kept going he would explode.
"The problem is that it takes a while to filter out the primordial energy that you consume. So right now, you're at your limit. Your body will filter out the energy by itself, now its time to teach you sword skills.
"But my teacher said that human arts are pointless for me?"
"I met a demon fox during my travels centuries ago. His style of fighting was amazing, but that was in his beast form. In his human form he was at a disadvantage. Right now, this is your weakest form, but also the safest one, as many will want your head if you use your evolved form. This training will help you to hold your own in those at the same level."
The moment Luca heard that Sergio was centuries ago he was staring at him in disbelief.
"How old are you!"
"What did you say brat! I'm not old, if anything, I'm young compared to those old monsters out there."
Sergio saw the confused face of Luca and knew that he didn't know. He explained to him that the moment you enter the body refinement stage your lifespan increases. You can live for 200 years when you enter the body refinement stage, in the mind consolidation stage you can live for 500 years. In the power expansion you can live 1000 years and those in the sovereign realm are said to be immortal, but that's just a rumor in reality no one really knows, as there is still alive while the rest have been killed. None have ever died of old age yet so we don't know. If you have a noble bloodline then it's twice these numbers, it was unknown for sovereign cultivators though. It means that Luca could live for 400 years!
Luca then asked how old Sergio was and at what stage. But he just ignored his question as he told him to stop fooling around.
"Its time to teach you some of my skills, it's part of my job anyways. Every person has a weapon that suits them and some that don't. I'm going to create many kinds of weapons, and I want you to tell me which one feels the best."
He clapped his hands together as a bunch of black weapons appeared out of thin air. They fell to the ground as Luca tried them out one by one. There where spears, halberd's, longswords, short swords, rapiers, axes, sabers, etc.
Strangely, Luca had two weapons in his hand. He was holding a scimitar in one hand and a spear in the other. Sergio was nodding his head in approval, and he was also surprised. Most people only ever find one weapon that suits them. Having two was rare, especially since the two weapons he picked aren't related at all.
Either way, he made the other weapons disappear. Then he had made a black saber in his hand, and he told Luca to put the spear down.
"I'm first going to teach you how to wield the scimitar. The sword you have is a one hand scimitar. First off, it's a slashing weapon that has a short range. I'm going to teach you the Zatvoriti style."
The Zatvoriti style puts emphasis on constantly moving around and out maneuvering your opponent. It also uses the tip of the saber to stab if required. The style doesn't emphasize strict techniques. You move your saber in fluid arcs across your body, keeping the opponents guessing. Not knowing from where you're going to attack because you're always moving your saber around you.
When you attack, you burst out with speed and power, slashing in unexpected angels. Cutting your opponent down with a single slash. When you attack you dodge the attack by outmaneuvering it. If forced, you angle your body and use the edge of your blade to redirect the attack away from you.
It's hard to master because of how fluid it is. Not strict with repetitive movements but with everchanging and adoptive movements and attack patterns. Luca had a hard time picking up the style, but Sergio told him that this style was suited for Luca.
Luca also went into the skill shard, but because of the busy days he didn't have much time to learn from Damien. Which brought down Damien's mood, but he saw the kids' power growing stronger, so he let it be. He taught him the beast arts. Damien simply called it the demon fox style, it was a savage and overbearing style. You would use everything at your disposal, using cheap shots and attacking weak spots was emphasized. You used the claws as weapons and aimed for killing. It didn't have any wasted movements, always aiming to kill the opponent as fast as possible.
With Luca absorbing the primordial energy of high-level spirit beasts and learning the Zatvoriti scimitar style and the demon fo style, he felt that every day was fun. He liked the feeling of getting stronger and the days passed by. Before he knew it 1 year had passed and he was at the peak of body refinement.