"Your left side is too open".
Arthur, flicked his wooden sword, smacking it "gently" against the lower left abdomen of the young man fighting against him.
"Your centre of gravity is too high, leaving you unbalanced from attacks aimed at your legs".
Arthur crouched down, avoiding the sideward strike from a massive two handed greatsword, swinging his legs across and knocking his opponent onto the ground.
"Your form is too rigid and open to peculiar and fast attacks".
Arthur's opponent tilted his head to the side, avoiding a direct strike to the face, only to be greeted with a blunt wooden blade to his ear, causing his sense of balance to become muddled.
"You're not making enough use of your flexibility. Girls naturally have a higher flexibility then men, use it to your advantage and stop swinging wildly".
The girl opened her mouth to try and say something, but was only met with a swift blow to the chest. All the air in her lungs were pushed out in that single attack, causing her to fall to the ground, clutching at her chest.
Arthur glanced at her for a moment before letting out a sigh and placing his hand on her back. The control over his origin essence surpassed every single person in this Village, and his comprehension was that of a Fae Immortals.
Guiding Nyssa's origin essence to her chest in order to suppress her being winded was easy for Arthur.
In fact, Leon and Dominic could probably do the same thing.
The girl sent him a slightly glare, although he just smiled, not thinking too much about it.
"You want to become strong right? If you don't experience pain now, then how will you react when exposed to the real thing?".
Arthur took out his moonsword fae and pressed it against her neck. He didn't touch her, although Nyssa glanced down at the moonsword fae before sighing and shaking her head.
"I understand..... Can we please go again?".
Arthur stood up and glanced around towards the numerous other Fae Masters below the practice stage. He had broken most of them up into five groups, and "requested" Parvan, Iryna, Zlatanna and Milena to help him train these Fae Masters martial arts.
They seemed slightly apprehensive at the thought of training them, seeing as though it would take time away from their own training, but the moment Arthur brought out some origin essence stones, they quickly changed their tune.
They all came from Fae Master families, but they weren't exactly rich. Arthur knew that Iryna lost her uncle and grandfather during the beast tide, while Parvan and Milena lost their mother and older brother respectfully.
All four of them wanted to become stronger. In order to take revenge, or to never let something like that happen ever again.
They didn't want to feel such sadness and loss ever again. Having to bury someone that they loved wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do. None of them were like Arthur, who didn't care about familial relationships, blood-ties or any sort connection between two people.
Getting them to sever their emotions would be difficult, but Arthur had already started forming some Heart Flame Fae, near the rear of the Village. It was the same Fae that Arthur needed for the Physique Attributed Control Skill: Regression of Forest and Affection, and they would be useful in removing the connection they felt to their families.
All they needed in the world, was Arthur.....
Seeds of affection had already been planted in numerous people, all over Parachenko Village. These four in front of him, and the four students he was currently teaching all possessed minuscule seeds of affection within their minds.
The Affection Tree Fae wasn't so simple as to just make people like Arthur.
It emitted pollen, that was untraceable by sight, scent, taste or touch. When it came into contact with anything around Arthur, the pollen would burrow deep, and lodge itself within the Mind of any existence between the heavens and the earth.
Eventually, over time that tiny fragment of pollen would become a seed of affection. It would take root within an individuals Mind, gradually creating a bond between the Affection Tree and the seed of Affection. The relationship between the two eventually became akin to a parent and child.
Those infected with seeds of affection still possessed some degree of free will, and could eat, clean, cook and kill as they saw fit. However, they could not help but feel some affection, or possibly even love towards Arthur. Even if Arthur killed their dog, or pet right in front of them, they would at most wonder why Arthur would do such a thing, before shrugging their shoulders and follow after him while stepping over their dead pet.
They could still kill Arthur, as this wasn't mind control, and if they were strong willed enough, they could break free.
The Affection Tree Fae wasn't omnipotent after all. There were exceptions to everything.
But.... there was something else that Arthur had been preparing....
He hadn't yet quite found all the right fae for it, and was still considering the best activation sequence and correct method of using connection fae and link fae but....
"I'm getting closer".
He turned towards the group of Fae Masters in front of him, the more talented ones being tutored by Arthur himself. He didn't reject Kristof from the group either, seeing as though the young man was practically begging for a beating.
Henrik, Eric, Helga, Dagen and Nyssa were people that Arthur could use in the long term. Seeds of affection had already taken root, and all five of them had taken to initiative to interact more with Arthur, making it seem as though they were the ones looking for him.
It was a good cover, and even Arthur was slightly fearful at the effects of such a powerful Fae.
The biggest weakness of such a Fae was undoubtably the time that it took for affection to be nurtured. The Affection Tree Fae was only Rank 1, so even though Arthur himself was a Rank 2 Fae Master, he could only influence Rank 1 Fae Masters, Knight Ranked spirit beasts and below.
If he could get the Affection Tree to Rank 2, the time that it would take for Rank 1 and below would decrease by roughly half. He could have a whole army of Fae Masters at his disposal, so long as he had the time to spread his influence.
He glanced towards the group in front of him before gesturing to Kristof, making sure that he was next.
"It's your turn next Kristof. All of the others have had their turns, so now you can show me what you've learnt over the past couple weeks".
All of these Fae Masters had already gone to the Clan Reserves and chosen their second Fae, and if things were to stay the same, Kristof, who possessed a White Lizard Scale Fae, would've also chosen a Ice Breath Fae from the Clan Reserves.
He promised to only use his strength and a wooden sword, while they were all free to use whatever the desired against him.
The slightly younger teen narrowed his eyes and picked up two small axes from the small array of cold weapons on the table. Jumping up to the main stage, Kristof spun the two axes around in his hands, focusing his gaze on Arthur.
"Let us begin".
Arthur remained completely still, only raising his wooden sword up slightly, spreading his legs while angling his body so that on foot was behind the other. Placing one hand behind his back, he opted to use a different technique against the powerful, aggressive axe style that Kristof used.
The fifteen year old grunted slightly before activating his Origin Fae causing an immense amount of thick, white coloured scales to appear all over his upper and lower body. His arms and legs were also covered in this thick layer of scales, as Kristof roared and started running towards Arthur.
He knew that the strength of a Rank 2 Fae Master fae exceeded the the limits of a Rank 1 Fae Master, so brute forcing this wouldn't work against Arthur. His opponent restricted himself to only using martial arts so he had the advantage when it came to mid to long range attacks!
Feeling his chest inflate greatly, Kristof let out a brightly coloured stream of white ice. It was much thicker than Arthur's "Silver Waning Moon", although the strength behind it wasn't even one tenth of the pseudo Attribute Control Skill.
Arthur bounced on his back leg and quickly approached Kristof, who turned his open mouth to the side, letting the ice breath stream attempt to follow Arthur's movements.
He had known that Arthur was quick, from the fights earlier, but seeing it and fighting against him were two completely different things!
Arthur flipped, rolled, evaded and even twirled around his ice breath, making it appear as though he was dancing, one arm still placed behind his back.
Eventually, Kristof needed to take a breath, pausing the unrelenting stream of ice, and letting his lungs inflate with a huge intake of new-.
Arthur smirked on the other side of the platform and completely disregarded his current technique. Lifting up his wooden sword, Arthur threw it like a javelin, forcing Kristof to turn to the side, in order to dodge the powerful strike.
He felt the hairs on the back of his neck tingle slightly, and his eyes widened and he flourished his axes, attempting to strike the person behind-.
"Too slow".
Arthur's hands thrust out, multiple times in a single second. They targeted the soft muscle tissue on his arms and upper body, causing minute tremors to appear all over his chest, abdomen and arms.
His grip on his two axes became weak, and Kristof couldn't control the violent shaking going on all over his upper body.
He could still control his legs, but even they felt weak as he fell to the ground, still shaking uncontrollably.
Kristof felt powerless in that moment. Despite being a Fae Master and having dreams and wishes about transcending the Thirty Three Heavens, he finally understood the difference in strength between him and Arthur.
Arthur squatted down, and lifted Kristof by the hair. Instead of affection, a small seed of fear appeared in Kristof's eyes.
"Next time, don't try and rely so much on your Fae".