"Hahaha, boy you're gonna have to run faster than that if you wanna escape from my strikes"
Karl laughed as he drew runes in the air with his fingers, manipulating the earth to chase after and attack Noah.
"Dammit old man, you're more perverse than Ryan, how do you expect me to keep surviving when you keep attacking me with moves 2 whole levels ahead of me, and stop laughing Ryan"
"Ho, if you have enough leeway to quip back at me, then you can handle this just fine, I'm hurt, and here I thought I was pressuring you"
"How about I join in then and make it a bit more challenging "
Ryan said and jumped in without waiting for a confirmation from Karl, not like he was going to stop him anyways.
"Ahhhh, you evil bastards, one day I'm going to beat the shit out of you, mark my words Ryan"
"Hahaha, you sure have an ambition young Noah, well then, might as well take this up a notch"
Noah had to face off against Ryan in close combat while defending against long distance and terrain manipulation from Karl.
Since Ryan got back from his quest during the winter and found Noah awakened, the perverse training regime that Noah thought couldn't get any worse did just that.
Ryan was a practitioner of the body route thus he couldn't be of much help to Noah on developing his embodiment route, so he brought in Karl who was of the same route to do so.
They might have had different elements, but Karl's knowledge and experience was more than enough to make him a qualified teacher
"Atleast let me use my weapon dammit"
Noah requested as he used his left hand to deflect a strike from Ryan to the left before sidestepping to get out of range of a protruding earth spike
He then waved his arms in arms in Karl's direction, forming 3 massive ice spikes and sending it hurling towards him.
This however gave Ryan time to regain his balance and draw his sword for a strike on Noah's undefended back. As he took a step forward however his movements started to slow down.
Noah knew the moment he tried to attack one, the other would capitalise on that chance so when he turned to attack Karl, he used his heel to send a blast of ice trail towards Ryan.
Ryan in his haste stepped in that allowing the ice trail to climb up his body, slowly solidifying him. He was quick to notice that though as the veteran that he was, stopping his attack to deal with the ice.
But he was forced to stop as he was now surrounded by ice shards from all angle, although they wouldn't hurt him if he was to be hit by it all, for a battle they all were fighting on Noah's level, he had already lost.
Now it was back to just Noah and Karl.
Karl didn't have a problem blocking Noah's attack, he just raised a mud wall to block and encapsulate the strike. That moment though blocked his sight, and though his sense was enough for him to pick-up on what was happening on the other side of the battle field he didn't, as that would be fighting way above Noah's level.
"That was very good kid, and no, you know why you can't use your weapons, you rely on them too much, you're a domain master, make the environment work for you, don't just fight like all those sage practitioners"
"Not that there's anything wrong with that, but you get what he's trying to say right Noah"
Ryan added as he broke through the restraints with his body generating intense heat before walking off the fighting stage.
"As a domain master, you shouldn't have given me the chance to even get close to you, while your response was impeccable as a warrior, as a domain master, you had failed already"
This was how Noah's training had been going for the past 3 years.
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During the winter 3 years ago after the events of the forest, when leaving Diara's office, Noah eyes glowed white and a ring of ice formed around his body pushing both Diara and Valdor away.
While Valdor was panicking and looking at Diara wondering what was going on again, Diara just laughed as this youths was a bag of surprises, it was one thing after the other.
"I expected this to happen but not this soon, don't worry Valdor, nothing is wrong with your friend, he just going through the impartation process of an art. Looks like the temple deemed him worthy of an art"
Valdor immediately understood what she was referring to. The temple since their existence had always provided arts to the ones they deemed worthy, No one knew it's criteria for choosing, and where this arts came from as even the priests and priestesses knew nothing about them neither could they use them.
A temple in a human kingdom had once even been destroyed in the past by its royal family after a rival noble aiming for the throne had their son blessed with a powerful battle art.
They believed the temple wanted to dethrone them and was using powerful arts they had kept for themselves to lead the attack against them.
Even after torturing every member of the temple and turning the location upside down, not a single trace of an art was found.
The temple was willing to take the shame and bear with it to prove nothing was done by then but by the will of the one they served, that is until, the king made the head priest watch as the knights killed the residents of the temple in an attempt to get him to spill the whereabouts of the arts.
The world still remembers what happened afterwards, a massive angel was seen in the sky and the whole kingdom was wiped out the face of the world.
Valdor watched on with glee as his friend underwent the impartation process, not even the least bit jealous, he was just happy good things were finally happening to his best friend.
He had to return home however and wait for news of Noah been done before he could come see him. But not even Diara thought it would take a whole month before Noah got up again.
***********************************************
"Alright boy, now fight me, domain master to domain master, show me just how powerful of an art you received from the temple"
Valdor on hearing Karl's words released all inhibitions, what was he worried about anyways, he had never used the full extent of his abilities since he frozen off Ryan's arm during their first spar 3 years ago.
The arm fell off and shattered but thankfully, Diara was able to fix it, how he didn't know.
"Well you asked for it, don't blame me old man"
The temperature of the area around Noah began to drop, it wasn't as cold as when he exhibited his vision years ago, but it was enough to remind them of winter with it's slow flakes floating around the young man.
Karl and Noah shook their head in amazement as it was always surprising whenever Noah used his arts. He was just a mid level practitioners with only 35 channels open, but when he exerted his power, he was similar to a high level practitioner.
Karl drew ruins in the air creating rock chains, spikes and and boulders floating in the air. He however made sure to maintain them at the level of a high level domain master.
He sent the rock chains to enclose Noah, the spikes shot forward like an arrow released from its bow, and the boulders where shot into the sky to simulate a meteor
"Umm maybe I went a little over board"
Karl muttered as he signalled to Ryan
"Get ready to save him"
To which Ryan nodded, he didn't need to be told twice.
Noah watched as all those attacks approached him with a calm mind, his eyes capturing every movement of each rocky item, he waited until they got into his range, which was 200 meters in any direction around him, before he opened his mouth, uttering
"Freeze"
All the rock attacks sent his his direction by Karl were completely frozen over, losing momentum, although still approaching him, he clicked his tongue as that was not the result he expected
"Disintegrate"
He followed up, causing all the now ice enclosed creations to all crack on itself, turning into harmless tiny pieces
Setting his eyes on Karl, daggers, swords and spikes started forming around him, ready to launch at his target.
Both Karl and Ryan, opened their eyes in amazement at Noah's actions