"Yes." We replied, at the same time, Baha clearly not as excited as I was.
Better for me.
I tie the ornamental cord from my scabbard to the hilt of my sword in order to secure it.
As the old drunkard asked, we positioned ourselves face to face, ten meters away from each other, I with the sword, which for this fight will be without a blade, in hand, while Baha can only count on his own fists.
"Begin!"
Kaz basically orders, leaving no trace of the lack of sleep I had previously noticed.
Without fanfare I run forward, straight to Baha, he does the same. I don't know if he knows what he's doing, but since he's going to put himself within my reach, I appreciate it.
As soon as he comes within range of my sword, I swing it like a baseball bat right in his face he dodges, ducking slightly in the last few seconds, or he thinks he dodged, without pausing I kick one of his legs making him lose the balance.
"Roll!"
Kaz almost screams, and Baha reacts to the sound as if he's been shocked and obeys what was said as if it were a command, which saves him from a second swing of my sword-staff that skims past his right.
"Lucky you." I grumble audibly just to taunt him, which I hope works considering how easy it's been to taunt him in light ways so far.
It doesn't seem to have worked this time, do what.
Baha hastily stands up, takes two steps back, and we begin to measure each other with slow steps.
Baha is the first to break the lull, charging towards me.
I stand on guard with the sword diagonally pointing down ready to fend him off before he can attempt a decent attack, as expected he comes straight towards me I swing the sword as soon as he enters my reach, he brushes aside , I attack again pulling the sword horizontally towards him, he dodges once more.
This type of exchange is repeated a few more times.
"Rhythm! Remember what his talent is?"
Kaz speaks with his voice almost rumbling in my ears despite the distance. Is he using some kind of Synchro to broadcast his voice? Or is he just excited to see some action?
But the tip is real, constant attacks tend to follow a rhythm, a rhythm that Baha can read. So I'm going to use something he can't read.
My dantian connects to my breath, the movements of my lungs change and become anything but natural, trying to make my breath become part of the currents of wind.
I blow out a breath supported by half of my dantian's Ki, a small cloud of dust emerges and covers us.
With that the preparations are ready, the cloud of dust will serve to block the vision and rudimentary sixth sense of the Baha, I hold my sword with both hands and gather my focus, I feel the vibrations of that realm that hides the secrets of all matter and beyond, I don't need what's beyond, I just need a weapon that breaks all barriers.
My sword is still missing many segments to break all barriers, but I only need to break a man's defense.
I thrust my sword forward in a spiral motion, the dust spreads out in waves, on Baha's shirt you can see a spiral rip in the chest area.
"I lost." With arms raised in surrender, Baha admits defeat.
"Well, the fact that it doesn't have an unexpected twist is a little disappointing." The old drunk comments casually, although all these near-death situations may have traumatized Baha, but I doubt he cares.
"Baha, do you know why you lost?" Kaz asks without showing any sign of concern for our state.
"First stage versus second stage, simple as that." Baha gives an answer that he considers one of the main factors and the most obvious contributor to the current result. I don't think the sadist who only regards aberrants as danger is interested in hearing about obvious factors and common sense.
"Yes, but the first three stages don't have such a huge disparity in power that it's an unbreakable wall, your problem is the lack of experience, especially with the sixth sense." He begins the lecture "There's a reason the sixth sense isn't kept on alert all the time, can you guess what it is?"
"Exhaustion?" Baha takes a blind kick.
"Sigh, Mingten and you what do you think?" Kaz changes the question for me.
"Noise. More specifically the lack of a method of filtering out noise."
"Noise? Can you be a little more specific for the total newbie here?" Baha asks after hearing my answer.
"Noise is what we call the excess information that the sixth sense brings with its activation, since it is a sense without a specific sensory organ but dependent on all the other fives it is easy to get lost or disoriented when a new wave of information is introduced, especially if it's something that can overwhelm or disable the other senses." Kaz pauses, catching his breath to continue with the lecture "Something like being in the middle of a dense cloud of dust, which blocks your sight, smell and interferes with your touch, although taste and hearing are supposed to be free of any interference, as exactly you can use your taste to dodge an attack is a mystery even to me, that leaves hearing that can be easily deceived, and if you try to use your sixth sense to understand the situation without knowing what to focus on you will only see the movement of each speck of dust and the molecules that make it up while your enemy knows you're basically paralyzed and have enough time to filter the noise out of the dust while preparing an attack."
"I think I get it, it's like looking for a specific person but everyone in the place you're looking for is similar making the process a lot more difficult than if there was a clear difference between the individual I'm looking for and the population."
Baha tries to summarize the concept of noise but his analogy strikes me as just as confusing as the gallon drinker lecture.
For me the concept of noise has always been clear and defined, I think this is one of the differences between someone who has always lived among Synchroners and someone who has lived among ordinary civilians.
"With Baha's biggest flaw being in the process of being fixed, how about telling me what kind of weapon you want brat?" The gallon drinker as always changes the subject without caring about how much we absorb from the previous conversation, he sure as hell is not an educator.
"Honestly I don't know, I've always used bastard swords because they're easy to replace not because they're indispensable in my fighting style, so if you have any suggestions I'm all ears." I answer without thinking too much.
"Well it's not like I can make a masterpiece right here and now" Kaz starts talking "so let's look at the forges of our next stops and see if I can get them to let me use a decent one while you think about what weapon you want, if If there's no place with decent equipment, we'll use the tower's connections to get some." and continues "You should also think about getting some level of protective gear, Baha especially now that you've got me to train you."
I'm going to pretend the gallon drinker's sadistic arousal wasn't plastered all over his face out of respect for his best poker face attempt so far, failed, but the best so far.
Speaking of forges reminding me of the deal I... that Yanan made with Kaz so that I would have some sort of protection in the form of his forge assistant, I was forgetting that detail with the mess this short trip is becoming, partially my fault, but I doubt the gallon drinker will forget. I really don't want him to forget despite how unpleasant he is, having him as an ally is welcome, especially with the contacts this tower seems to have at its disposal.
As for my weapon of choice, all I know is that it must be some kind of sword, as I've gotten used to the bastard sword's versatility of changing the ways of wielding it depending on the situation, so having a sword that maintains this characteristic is the best for me.
"So, weren't you going to teach us the basics at least?" Damn it, Baha!
Getting a free lesson isn't bad, it's great actually, but I was trying to make a trade for the technique that causes paralysis, and from what little I've seen it's perfect to cover one of my weaknesses.
"Okay, okay, my word has lost value in the last decade, but it's still not enough for brats to question my integrity" Are you sure, liquor thief? "For you Baha I'll show you some methods to filter noise, Mingten will increase your energy reserve, and both will have training aimed at physical strengthening in the meantime."
"Physical strengthening? Like normal exercise?" Baha asks before I have the chance.
"Like that, but worse."
Kaz responds smiling.
Of course it had to be 'worse' sometimes I have to wonder if Yanna's fortune-telling coin didn't just sell me to some demon thinking my luck couldn't get any worse.
Easy, Mingten, he might just be trying to scare the both of us, maybe this training could be fun.
OK, the last part is only in a dream, but Kaz might really just be intimidating us, with his personality, it's plausible.
"Now we're going to camp here, after all the first part of effective training is knowing when to rest and you two are obviously finished." Kaz speaks, still excited about the bleak future he's going to impose on us starting tomorrow.
But, he's right neither I nor Baha are in a position to start some intensive training today, I'm probably in a better situation than Baha as I can cross one of the items off my training list right now: energy accumulation.
Kaz makes a fire, near the city it is unlikely to have absurdly strong and aggressive beasts, even if we are hit by this improbability the gallon drinker seems to suffer from insomnia which makes me fear for how much his mood is capable of getting worse overnight, I would pity the beast that tried to attack us.
I start to meditate, just like any low stage Synchroner I can only accumulate one type of energy at a time, although I can establish two connections per sync which also means that I can keep two types of energy stored, in my case wind and rupture , the last one is exclusive to the Order of Breakers.
I'm obviously going to use wind power, I might want Kaz as an ally, but we still don't fully trust each other so I'll be careful not to show all my cards too soon.
"First and foremost let's eat, I can handle it but first and second stage babies still need to eat sometimes."
This blacksmith freak, if I use everything I have can I at least land a punch before I die?
A word comes to my mind, the one that for various reasons I strongly associate with Kaz: fear.
No, I wouldn't land the punch.
Damn it!