"what's your method?" - Andy. "Hmm well let me give you some pointers."-Kei. They stood 10 feet apart. "I'm sure you are doing something wrong, but I can't exactly tell what is it. I'm thinking that if I spar with you I'll find out." - Kei.
"start" kei dashed toward Andy. Andy unsheathed his sword 'Absolute swordsmanship, kill series: 9th form, massacre'. Kei suddenly stopped his dash right outside Andy's range by kicking the ground and causing a part of the broken rock to fly towards Andy.
'Absolute swordsmanship, pulverize series:1st form grind' Andy looked like he swiped the sword horizontally once and the head sized rock got disintegrated. Andy looked up to see Kei having jumped and became directly above him. 'absolute swordsmanship, thrust series: 11th form, pierce'. Kei pushed of the ceiling sideways to dodge the energy ray that made a seemingly endless hole in the ceiling.
Kei once again right outside of Andy's 5 meter range kicked a slab of rock toward him. Andy made a vertical slash and split the rock. His sword was almost touching the floor, but Andy had used the rock as a cover and was lunging right at his face. Kei had decided to make the buzz hit part of his main skill list and decided that he will make an adaptation for it with every advancement.
Using the buzz hit for the first time with flame energy he slammed his hand into Andy's face and knocked him out. After waking him up they continued going through the halls. "Ok I found out what's wrong. You use each move that fits into a certain situation, but you use them as individual moves. You need your fighting style to flow from one form to another easily."
"At the same time if should be unpredictable by the opponent. I'm sure the swordsmanship has some foot work, but you never use them due to not arriving at a situation that needed them. They are there for you to link the techniques."
"Lastly, you need combat experience. What happened now was due to you never watching anime. You actually fell for the oldest trick in the book. So, you have to watch anime to expand your horizons and increase your creativity." - kei
"How did that help us finish the halls?" - yato. "I was thinking that maybe this is an illusion. I guess it's a spatial compression after all. Which means there is no easy way out. Unless we can tear the fabric of space ourselves but we are too far from that point right now." - kei
Eventually they reached a room that had cliff behind it. The cliff overlooked what seemed to be an endless abyss. They saw a sandal floating in the middle of the space that was between the cliff they were standing on and the opposite wall. Over all it was like a normal room but with a huge hole in it.
Kei threw a coin. It hit the sandal and became still in its place while the sandal continued floating. Following that Kei jumped toward the wall opposite to the cliff. In the process he made sure that this space was indeed devoid of gravity.
Using the ceiling as a propeller they jumped and went downwards as fast as they could. Convincing was so hard that they had to tie him up and force him to come along. After they made the jump things starting getting darker the more they fell. Eventually only the light from their flames was visible.
By that point Jimmy fainted from fear. He only closed his eyes for a few seconds when he opened his eyes again, but they were different from the Normal. They were so aggressive and they had white and blue sparks on them
"Finally. That fool is gone" - Jimmy
" Are you fine?" - Kei
"Shut up" - Jimmy
"should I be happy that you finally got the courage to talk back to me or should I get angry cause you aren't Jimmy?" - Kei
"I told you to shut up" roared Jimmy and blew him away a blast. After getting slammed into one of the nearby walls, yato and and Andy stopped descending and were at a loss about what to do.
"shit schizophrenia should make a person act differently. It's not drugs so why is he getting stronger?" - kei
"if you want to keep your life you would get out of my way" - Jimmy said coldly
"Hand over my friend's body first" - Kei while getting closer and getting ready for a fight.
"White tiger slaughtering technique" - Jimmy punched toward Kei with his hands on the shape of a claw. An aura that took the shape of a white tiger with blue runes on its back went out to destroy Kei. "Black tortoise armor technique" yato stood in front of kei with black aura surrounding him and took the hit. As a result they were both blasted into the wall. Yato and Kei were severely injured from that attack.
The secret techniques had 9 mastery levels. Yato had used the first level a while ago which was a green armor, and now he barely managed to unleash the second level. Jimmy, on the other hand, had used the ninth and final level of the technique. That's why the tiger appeared vivid and lifelike from the skill.
The difference in the level is what caused yato to lose miserably despite both of the techniques being of equal strength. Yato with his body full of wounds while more than half of Kei's body got pulverized. "vermillion bird revival technique" a projection of the Phoenix surrounded Kei and in one second Kei's body was fully restored.
"that's absurd, how can you regenerate half of your body in a second!" - Jimmy. "what do you think revival means? I can even regenerate if I die, so why would I take more than a second to heal a wound that didn't even kill me?"-Kei. 'although the revival can only be used once per day and that's while my strength is lower than a certain level' - kei.
" you aren't the only one who can reach the ninth level. I understood when you used it. The mentality influences how fast your technique advances. You can't become stronger with just a change in personality. Seeing how you used the ninth level I was also able to reach my own ninth level"-Kei
"originally mastering a secret technique of a divine beast would have taken a year. However, it had never happened for 4 wielders to be together. Yato survived your level 9 so when he wakes up he will be able to access his level 9. I used mine as well just now thanks to you, and since you already performed it once when Jimmy regains his body he will be able to access it as well. "-kei
" the only one left is Andy, but after seeing the 3 of us doing it and trying it out himself he should be able to do it too. Thanks for giving us a 1 year time skip"-Kei smiled and flames burst out from his body and engulfed a huge amount of space that included his friends as well. When the light cleared Yato had fully healed and Jimmy was looking around in a sleepy way and yawning.
"what happened here? The last thing I remember is entering the trial and almost dying there."-Jimmy. " just a little heart devil problem. By the way, it's time you change your attitude. You could be a lot stronger with just a slight change in your mentality. " - Kei.
Yato tried off his 9th level technique and he managed to do it. He summoned a black turtle that surrounded him and it had a snake tail. His illusions also got stronger.