Once the remnant flakes of snow had settled, Will stood up and a lot of damage was visible on his body. Blood was dripping from the corners of his mouth and his chest showed three massive diagonal gashes that were revealing bloody flesh underneath.
If I had not put up the water wall up in time that would have been the end of me.
It wasn't as if Will did not see signs of the bird moving. Due to his dual mind ability, Will had no blind spots in his vision. Every single minute movement the bird made from a little ruffle on its stony skin to a flicker of its fire mane was clearly visible to Will and was being processed. Unfortunately, even if he could see the attack coming, his body could not react in time.
Luckily I can move water faster than I can move my body.
Will quickly covered his frontal wounds with ice to stop the bleeding and looked at his opponent. It was not polite enough to wait for Will to attack. Will could tell with one look that it was getting ready to attack. The only question was; what was coming?
In the end, do I have to use it?
Will had no doubt whatsoever that if he used bloodlust he could kill the beast. However, that would be a blow to his self-esteem and would render the past few months of training useless.
Will could feel his water particles during every collision they had. From the previous mizuken, he could tell that the Helios Warhawk had a hard and hot skin. Let alone injure it, Will wasn't even sure if he could put a scratch on the thing.
As far as Will was concerned, there was no normal attack in his arsenal that could do damage, well no attack he had accomplished anyway. At this dangerous and chaotic time, two words resonated throughout Will's mind, refusing to leave. They were like an old tree that had taken root in the soil that was his conscious and would never let go.
True strike...
"Hu."
Will let out a breath and decided to give it a go. He wasn't trying his luck. It was more like for the first time in a long while, Will finally had an idea. He figured out how to bring out qi! Or rather it would be more accurate to say
he had an inkling of an idea.
Every time I take in exp in the form of Word Energy, it enters through my pores. So once that energy is converted I should be able to reverse the process right?
All of Will's 64 unified brains were thinking at high-speed to come up with a solution to this problem. For the past few years, Will had a focus on perfecting technique and understanding what sword intent was.
Trying to bring in qi was something he could barely even fathom.
Every time I use my water manipulation ability I am bringing out water-based yuan. I have two classes. Water Meister and Swordsman. As a swordsman, I have qi as the primary effector and mana as the secondary effector. Which means the yuan within my body relevant to my Swordsman class is still somehow within my body.
Qi reliant classes are better at close combat, which means techniques using qi don't really go far. So I don't necessarily have to bring the qi out of my body. I just have to somehow use it to reinforce my body. The best way to bring out sword qi would be to cultivate while moving!
Will had learned long ago that he could cultivate while he was moving and that his cultivation would actually be faster if he was doing sword strokes than if he was sitting down. At first, he merely thought this was to get users of the SSS manual to practice more, but now Will came to a conclusion.
The reason I cultivate faster when I do sword strokes is that I'm producing more sword yuan! Water exists everywhere within the atmosphere so Water-type energy is easy to get. However, sword-type energy has to be produced through certain movements.
Will decided to test out this theory on his new opponent. This was a genuine battle with his life on the line. It is only in such situations when one's potential can be pulled out most.
There is still the matter of sword intent. Meh, let me just use killing intent instead, after all, swords were made to kill... wait...
All of these thoughts merely took a fraction of a second to process; however, this was enough for the Warhawk to make its move. Believing in the power of its defense, the bird decides to make use of its superior speed and made a nose dive straight for Will.
It expected the young man to make preparations, but Will did nothing of the sort. He merely held his sword by his sight and stared at the beast with a blank expression on its face.
Meters were covered within moments, yet Will still did nothing. The bird was confused; however, it was not polite enough to refuse a free meal. As far as it was concerned, Will was its favorite type of prey; a water type human cultivator. It was only when it was a few meters away from Will that the Warhawk stopped midflight. Its giant wings kicked up a storm of torrential winds that shifted massive amounts of snow.
The Warhawk was stunned. Abruptly, from nowhere, came the most intense and dreadful killing intent it had ever felt. Although it was only for a moment, the Warhawk had a dreadful thought permeate its mind.
If I get near him I will die.
Although the killing intent eventually subsided, the bird's heart couldn't help but palpitate at the possibility of its demise. What had happened?
Why had this happened? How did he do this?
Many questions were drifting I'm the quagmire that was the creature's mind yet no answer seemed to come. The bird decided to shrug off the fear in its heart and decided to continue after all the killing intent had subsided, or rather, it had changed. Little by little, Will's body started to emit a unique kind of killing intent. Due to the sudden changes that had occurred to Will's demeanor, the bird decided to become more cautious.
It increased its distance from Will slightly and decided to carefully observe him, to see if what it had felt was a mere coincidence. Or rather it hoped it was a coincidence.
As time went on this feeling started becoming more and more obvious, the Warhawk could only think of one word to describe this killing intent.
Sharp.