Rakna twirled his daggers and swung one of them at Chiron's neck. The centaur calmly countered with his own pair of daggers and they both pushed back against the other for a short second before taking a step back.
They resumed right after and Rakna grunted as he was forced to expand his senses to its limits to cope with Chiron's strikes that occasionally felt like they were coming from two directions at the same time.
The therian's arms blurred as he directed his internal energy, and his daggers suddenly flashed in a burst of speed only to once again be dodged by a smiling Chiron. Rakna scowled and his leg stirred this time. He parried one last blow and jumped to launch a kick at the centaur's head.
The star entity briefly glanced at it and raised his arm to block it. Ripple of Rupture should have normally shattered every bone in his arm with this action, but instead of the kick landing, Rakna's leg was violently shoved downward and Chiron's arm, which had been in a defensive position, was inexplicably in a pushing motion.
Chiron didn't waste this opportunity and drove his dagger forward. Rakna gritted his teeth and pivoted on his remaining leg to dodge before jumping back. But before he could get far, the centaur thrust his second dagger.
Rakna once again used Ripple of Rupture to give himself an uncanny boost of agility and parried the blade. However, right after, his eyes widened and he urgently tilted his head, a small wound appearing on his cheek without any warning. In a panic, his entire body blurred this time and he retreated for a dozen of meters in a cold sweat.
When his feet touched the floor, his cheek had already healed. 'There wasn't any mana or internal energy behind that thrust… how did it injure me without touching me?' He wondered silently and commanded Sonata to switch to the dual katanas. Chiron did the same with his weapons without a word.
"All right, I admit it. Not only in weapons, but even in unarmed combat, despite my Sunken Ripple of Rupture, you're leagues above me," the therian stated.
"Is that the name of that martial art?" Chiron commented. "It's quite impressive. I would even say it's far superior to anything I have learned before. Furthermore, you possess incredible instincts that would make Hercules jealous. Your motor capabilities, your reaction speed, your adaptivity, and your reading are top-notch as well. But you lack two crucial things; insight and intent."
Rakna raised an eyebrow. "Was that invisible attack related to that?"
He smiled and raised his blades. "You will have to find out."
The therian huffed and gripped his swords tighter. He dashed forward but rolled to the side almost instantly after. A gash suddenly appeared on the floor and Rakna furrowed his eyebrows as he somersaulted back onto his feet with one hand.
He quickly looked at Chiron who had an easygoing smile on his face, with one of his two swords currently lowered as if he had just swung it.
'Not playing anymore, I see,' Rakna thought and his body began to blur. He kicked the ground with a resounding noise and he saw the centaur swing at him from a distance. He squinted his eyes and lifted the reproduction of Juuchi Yosamu. He felt and heard something collide with the katana.
'So, it is physical… A flying slash? Without mana? Internal energy? It's not his divinity either,' he noted to himself and approached Chiron whilst weaving through his attacks. When he finally reached a striking distance, his sword clashed with the centaur's and he felt a strange force shake his wrist.
The next thing he knew, his attack veered off course without his control, and the demi-god before him swung his other sword. The therian rapidly parried it whilst making sure to put more strength in his wrist and grip. He once again felt a pushing force but he didn't lose control this time.
The two katanas remained entangled for a short moment and the duo began to exchange blows at mind-boggling speed, creating sparks and after-images left and right. But unlike before, Chiron had the obvious advantage.
Rakna was fully on the defensive, to the point he was forced to take a step back every few seconds or so. 'There's a force behind his strikes that wasn't there before,' he remarked to himself. 'Assuming this is the same principle as those flying slashes, where does it come from? Insight? Intent? What do they mean?' He racked his brain for an answer and the centaur smiled.
"Have you tried extending that martial art of yours to your weapon?" Chiron asked in between the strokes of their swords.
"What?" Rakna exclaimed but the only answer he got was a blow strong enough to make him fly for a few meters, followed by a single swing that shot a volley of invisible slashes. He narrowed his eyes and transformed his katanas into a bow. He pulled on the string midair and used nothing but his instinct to intercept every single invisible blow with an Eion arrow.
He then set his sights on Chiron himself and shot three arrows at the same time. The centaur had already switched to a bow as well, and he responded in kind. However, his arrows pierced through the Eion and even curved midair to target Rakna from different angles.
"Now, that just isn't fair," he grumbled and batted the arrows away with a blurring knife-hand before landing on the floor once again. 'Did I try using Ripple of Rupture on my weapon? Of course, I did. It didn't work,' he thought as he initiated a ranged fight with Chiron. 'Otherwise, my Founding Intuition would have made me synthesize Weapon Mastery for it as well. Is he trying to get me to think about the reason behind it?'
Rakna grunted and jumped away from a barrage of arrows that embedded themselves in the glass floor. 'Tch, I can't focus like this. Sorry, but I'll cheat a little. Eye, activate Time Accel,' he instructed internally and his perception promptly accelerated by many times. Everything around began to move in slow motion and he took that time to trigger Founding Intuition as well.
He instantly looked at the bow he was holding and tried channeling Ripple of Rupture into it. Just like the first time he tried, the energy failed to hold and even rebounded. 'Rejection,' Rakna came to a conclusion almost instantly. 'Sonata is not just incompatible with internal energy. It outright rejects it. Why? Internal energy is one's inner force. It resides in muscles, blood, and bones. It is not magical in nature. Ki Entropy theory… an organic mass generating energy by friction, cellular micro-movements, spatial displacements... No, does it need to be organic?'
Rakna's eyes widened and his slowed perception stopped. He caught one of Chiron's arrows with his bare hand and changed his bow into a Guandao.
The centaur raised an eyebrow at the therian who now had his eyes closed, surrounded by fuming soul circuits. 'Hm, Egregore's Intuition is indeed cheating a bit… but certainly not blameworthy,' he thought with a smile as he matched his summoner's weapon of choice. 'Come, show me what your intent can do.'
Meanwhile, Rakna was undergoing a process some would call becoming one with the blade. It was as if his spirit, the extension of his mind, was fusing with Sonata. 'Insight,' he intoned in his mind and began to feel like he had a new pair of limbs, eyes, and ears. A faint vibration was coursing through his body and strange waves of energy that matched the frequencies of his internal energy were surrounding him.
'Then… intent!' He opened his eyes and moved this new limb of his with nothing but one goal; cut.
Sonata suddenly gave off an unsettling pressure and Rakna could clearly perceive it; a new layer of worldly energy he hadn't been able to detect until now. He could also see it around Chiron, but in a much larger quantity, and unlike Rakna, the centaur's entire body was covered in it.
Rakna's look sharpened and he slowly raised Sonata over his head.
Higure, who had been observing him from the start, almost jumped out of her skin when she heard the wall of the training room abruptly cave in. She looked at the spot in question and spotted a deep laceration. She gaped in shock when she realized that it was perfectly aligned with the tip of Rakna's glaive.
Chiron grinned. "Beautifully done," he said as he beheld a geyser of power that only he could see. He didn't sit still and began to gather the same kind of force as the therian.
As the two of them built up their power, a sound akin to thunder resounded in the training room and startled Higure who had barely enough awareness to follow the energetic movements. Cross Sight was also helping her a lot in that endeavor.
'What are these two…?!' Before she could finish her thoughts, Rakna and Chiron swung at the same time. The centaur was in perfect control over his intent while the therian carved a deep trench in the wall and ceiling to perform a full swing.
Then, when the two forces collided, the thundering sound returned full force, even more deafening than the first. A shockwave swept through the training ground and a crater appeared in the blank space separating both fighters.
The clash lasted a few seconds and was formally ended when Rakna staggered and kneeled with one leg, his left fist pressed against the ground and his other hand using Sonata as support.
He had a mild feeling of tiredness, which made him aware of the fact that this stunt had expended some psychic power. However, his physique could easily ignore that kind of consumption. What made him lose his bearings was the influx of information caused by his proficiencies improving.
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Weapon Mastery has Exceled!
Weapon Mastery has broken through Exceled! You have gained the new proficiency, Arms Master!
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Arms Master has leveled up!
Arms Master has leveled up!
Arms Master has leveled up!
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Sunken Ripple of Rupture has leveled up!
Sunken Ripple of Rupture has leveled up!
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You have gained a new Proficiency; Spiritual Intent Control!
Spiritual Intent Control has leveled up! 4x
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- Spiritual Intent Control (Lv.5): Spiritual Intent is also known as Worldly Ki. It is a known fact that organic living forms produce Ki naturally out of their physical presence.
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Worldly Ki, on the other hand, is a hidden layer of Ki that emerges circumstantially. The Ki that humans possess is generally called Flesh Ki. It is a power that is generated from the inside purely from existing while Worldly Ki is something that is birthed within inanimate objects. The two energies can interact with each other, but if they come into contact, a rejection occurs, making it impossible to combine them.
Worldly Ki has many different possible states that are commonly called Intents. Such as Sword Intent, Spear Intent, etcetera. Intents are the product of a 'friction' between the Worldly Magic Circuits and a living being's Inner Ki.
Intents can only manifest when one achieves a state of spiritual insight with an object foreign to their body. The object in question will produce Intent within itself by extrapolating those external forces into a completely new power.
Ultimately, Intent is a form of psychic power heavily depending on one's power but also martial capabilities. It is also not limited to weapons. One can learn variants such as Fist Intent that temporarily welcomes Worldly Ki inside the body, generally the bones, before being released on impact. This is a technique known to be extremely hard to grasp, and even more so to master.
Finally, infusing Intents with a 'Drive' is the necessary trigger to properly wield them. When using Intent, one must always dedicate their spirit to only one idea; a goal. To cut, to crush, to slash, to defend, to destroy, to sever, to kill; Drives are the basis on which Intents are born. This is the one thing that must absolutely be trained in order to learn Intent Control.
The peak of Intent Control, the ultimate peak of martial prowess, is said to allow a warrior to apply the nature of their Drive onto the very fabric of the universe through their Intent.
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