Jason was sure today was the day. There was only eight days left until he ran out of time to challenge to be a count, counting today. He had decided to wait until he could defeat the opponent across from him.
Jason was still a level ten mage apprentice, as he was waiting to go to the mysterios realm to break through, and he wanted to beat this stupid puppet first. Since he had the token he could transfer there at any time he wanted anywhere in the kingdom. It would be a great escape card, but for it to work he needed to be completely still for six minutes. This token would let him bring his registered adventure party with him to the realm. He had also found out that the time in the mysterios realm was accelerated, one year there was only one day here.
Jess estimated that if Jason went there to advance after a year he would be a level two wizard and if he was lucky enough he had an infinitesimal chance to reach level three. Thus meant he would be fighting two level eight warrior or possibly two at level nine. Jason figured he would mist likely lose if he was being honest with himself. But the thought of fighting such opponents made his blood race though his veins.
All of that was for later though. today he would battle against his old for and finally beat him. Jason sprinted at the puppet, ducking under its swing he sent a leg sweep that it jumped over while throwing an axe kick at Jason's head.
Jason rolled and sent a snap kick from the ground at the puppets leg joint right as it landed the kick connected. The wood splintered slightly and the puppet limped with that leg. Jason flipped yo his feet and sent a spin kick to his opponents head but the puppet managed to grab his leg.
Jason jumped and turned his body using the his right leg, the one the puppet held, as a pivot point, sending an even faster kick at the puppets head. The puppet let go and stumbled back while Jason managed to land in a half kneeling posture. Using his forward leg Jason lunged toward the puppet sending three fast fist strikes to disable the puppets right arm.
The puppet tried to swing it's left arm at Jason, but Jason grabbed the arm and applying torque quickly snapped it. Now with all but one limb out of service, Jason slipped to the puppets back put a knee to the back of the puppets leg forcing it to begin to kneel, he wrapped his arm around the puppets neck before quickly jerking up ripping the head of in the process.
"You can rest to the side. Thomas will beat his today as well, though not as cleanly, admittedly he can take a beating haha." Kyle said.
"Yes, Master. "Jason said in respect before heading to corner were he slowly began to practice his katas. War Blade had taught him and Thomas that when he said rest they must still be productive. Jason was far to excited to meditate and was worried his spells would startle or distract Thomas.
After another forty minutes Thomas beat his opponent as well, and War Blade called Jason over to join them. "You two have shown your work ethic, talent, and skill. You have earned my recognition by defeating my puppet which is five levels higher with combat power of the knight squire sixth level. You may now address me as Kyle. If you can reach great wizard or great knight level one before you turn twenty-five, I will accept you as my formal disciples. You will need great many great encounters to achieve this. You are both ten already, and it takes people normally takes one to two years per level increase and those are for the gifted people. You have fifteen years to grow as much as a gifted person can in thirty to sixty years. " Kyle stated.
"Can we continue to call you Master?" Thomas asked.
"If you do it must be, Master Kyle, not just Master as I do not recognize you as my disciples yet. Currently you are just my students." Kyle explained.
"Ok. Thank you Master Kyle, and we shall strive hard to reach the goal you set for us." Jason responded with fervour
"Now I shall begin your weapon training. as you can see there are new weapon stands here with crystalline weapons. These are called soul whisper weapons. If you attack with it you will know if it is right for you. Some people have multiple weapons connected to them others only have one. You will try all of these. After I will train you in the one you are most suited for. "
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"Hey Jason which weapons or weapons do you want?" Thomas couldn't help but to ask as they walked towards the racks.
"I don't really know. I guess I will be happy with anything other tgan than knifes."Jason said, he remembered the knife training in his last life, he absolutely hated fighting with a knife. "What weapon do you want?" Jason asked after shacking off the memory.
"I want dual swords. Watching my dad dance with his short swords like a bear waving his claws but the grace of a gazell." Thomas said.
Jason looked at Thomas in confusion. He still found it hard imagining Thomas was his father's kid as Thomas looked like the wall of a castle with his size, standing at six feet eleven inches now and nearly three wide at the shoulder, and he was only ten this year. His father on the other hand was six foot flat and while muscular it was whipcord muscles meant for speed and reflexes not strength. Trying to imagine Thomas fighting like his father was hard. But after thinking about it he realized their was a graceful savagery about the way that Thomas fought.
"I wish you luck buddy." Jason said before they each split ways to search alone. Jason started at the knives and daggers because they were the closest. As soon as he touched the first knife he felt a horrid revulsion and a stabbing pain in his heart.
The next second he felt the a strong hand rip the blade out of his hand. "I am sorry for not warning you. If your soul has to much disharmony then negative effects may happen. I didn't warn you as this is very rare for a human to have such a strong reaction to a weapon. Just take a breath and then you can continue. Skip the other knifes and daggers though, because if it was this bad for one of them then they will all be pretty bad for you." Kyle said with a hint of regret and curiosity.
"Ok thank you. " Jason said, and following the instruction he continued on. jason tried hammers, mauls, maces, ninjatas, morning stars, spears, glaives, halberds, and axes, hundreds of different types and designs of each weapon. Nothing. The only weapons left was swords, sabers, staffs, whips, gloves, and two-handed versions of the weapons that had them.
Just looking at the whips caused revolution in Jason's heart. But looking at the other weapons two drew him in. After a moment he walked towards the glove section,some gloves had spikes or blades, others were made of metal. But the pair that drew him in was a pair of light leather fingerless gloves. They went past the wrist slightly and only covered till the first finger joint. There was metal plates on the back of each 'finger' obviously to give more protection and cause more damage when hitting.
Putting on the gloves Jason followed his instinct and began to practice the katas that Kyle helped him create from the martial Arts from earth and the martial art Kyle taught Jason and Thomas. after going through each Kata four times with each faster than the last he stopped. He felt more connected to these gloves than he had to any object and he couldn't explain why.
While jason was practicing the katas Thomas continued to explore. he went through each section and yet failed to feel anything. Only when he grabbed a willow leaf sword did he feel a small connection. He began to fill excited, maybe he needed two to really fit!?! Reaching diwn he grabbed the same kind of sword with his left hand. He had already noticed that there was four of every weapon except for two handed weapons, which only had two. He figured it was set up like this so both he and Jason could try to dual wield the same weapon, while two handed weapons only two would be enough as who would dual wield that. Grasping the second willow leaf sword he did feel more whole but not complete as Kyle had told him he should.
Currently Jason was holding single handed messer that was nearly three feet long. He had a feeling thus was almost perfect, but a part of him wanted more. unconsciously he reached out and grabbed the second messer, of the same size. Holding the two swords in hand while still wearing the gloves Jason felt whole. He began to move, at first it was the original katas from earlier but they began to change and to evolve albeit rustily. Then sigils would appear when ever Jason would sum a fist in a certain direction rather than swing the blade. Kyle seeing this nearly stopped Jason. But seeing as Jason never cast the spell and only reabsorbed them, he decided to leave him be so Jason could absorb as much of the enlightenment as he was capable.
Thomas had still not found something he connected with, although he did have the same reaction as jason towards the whips. Finally he arrived at the two handed weapons. walking down the racks he tried each weapon reluctantly. Thomas hated the idea of fighting with a massive two handed, he wished to fight elegantly, not as a barbarian, but unfortunately you cannot choose what you are destined to use. On the twelfth two hander he felt the connection again significantly stronger than when he dual wielded the two willow leaf blades. Looking down at the greatsword in his hand he realized it was the same design, just on a much larger scale, the blade alone was five feet long and nearly three inches wide at the widest part. The strange thing was that Thomas still felt like he needed more. after some thought and a look of doubt Thomas reached out and grabbed the second two-handed willow leaf sword with his other hand. The hilt magicaly shrank a small amount so it perfectly fit Thomas's hand size. Holding the two swords Thomas initially tried to imitate his father's fighting style, but shortly it changed in a drastic way, Thomas's fighting style resembled a perfect mix between, tiger's graceful movement, a monkey's flexibility and a gorrila's brutality.
Seeing Thomas Kyle was astonished. based on the heritage that he assumed Thomas possessed he was almost certain he would choose a two handed great axe or hammer. maybe dual wield normal one. Yet Thomas choose two swords, great swords at that which was even more shocking. But most of all it was his fighting style durring his enlightenment that shocked Kyle. He was already surprised that Thomas tried to be grateful before, but under enlightenment what you want doesn't matter only who you are. Surprisingly this child was a graceful warrior, he was even far more graceful and light on his feet know that when he was only imitating his father. Between Thomas and his fluid movements, and Jason with his graceful but unorthodox blending of kick-boxing, magic, and dual sword play, Kyle was shocked, and couldn't wait for them to grow and shock the world.