*BOOOOM*
Space warped as a massive explosion erupted and shook the ground through the black metallic platform on the ground.
Gideon and Victoria withdrew their weapons and looked at each other with pride. On their weapons, layers of astral energy were overlapped and pulsed lively. They had achieved five layers.
"I don't know if you two will continue at this pace next time, but I hope you don't." Baal openly stated and the siblings just shrugged.
"Not bad." Draven appeared like a ghost and commented on the duo's progress, but drew no reaction whatsoever.
"Well you're early today. Whatever, take them away." Baal said with some annoyance as if he was pissed off by their outrageous progress.
"Sure." Draven gave a short reply before the two were wrapped in water bubbles and then disappeared.
"Tsk, why am I getting jealous?" Baal muttered to himself as his storage ring glowed and then the entire platform was sucked into it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Hmm, another significant improvement. At this rate, eight years should be enough for you two to beat whoever that guy is." Draven said with a nod of approval after they had arrived at his house in the woods.
"Anyway, I pretty sure that you two are aware of the fact that we'll be learning combat techniques, so let's get straight to the point." Draven said as he brought out his blue curved daggers.
"Both of you, get into a defensive position. I'll restrict my strength to Gideon's level so that it won't look like I'm cheating." Draven instructed and the duo complied as they entered defensive positions.
*SWOOSH*
Draven's figure blurred and in an instant, he reached the two of them. They immediately got ready to defend as Draven swung both of his daggers at their necks.
The siblings immediately put up their weapons, ready to block the strikes. But just as Draven's daggers were about to impact their weapons, something shocking happened.
Draven's daggers seemed to flicker in and out of existence. The interval was extremely short, but with the speed at which Draven was moving, it was enough for them to get past the duo's defense and press up against their necks.
"That's a technique that I call, 'Phantom Strike'." In they brief moment were our weapons are supposed to collide, I exert my energy output while simultaneously activating my stealth based skills on my daggers to cause them to 'disappear'." Draven explained while retracting his daggers causing the duo to rub their necks while staring at him in amazement.
"The theory sounds simple, but the execution is a whole nother matter. So don't think that you'll learn it quickly because of your talent." Draven warned and the siblings nodded in unison.
"Great, now hears what I need you two to do..." Draven began to explain the actions and movements the siblings needed to perform while also giving them a few more demonstrations.
It was as he said, the user needs to exerts their strength in that very brief moment. This was because the initial flex of the muscles would produce more force than having it flexed constantly.
Aside from that, the user is also required to have great muscular control and durability. This is because while performing the strike, the user has to very quickly, change the direction of their attack to swerve around the opponent's weapon before continuing on its original course whhile reverting back to it's original speed. If their control was bad, then they wouldn't perform the swerve around the weapon properly, either overdoing it or not doing enough.
And in the case if muscle durability. Such sharp movements while keeping your muscles at peak flexing could easily cause them to tear. It's pretty much what happened to Gideon when he had to catch those three tailed squirrels from before.
"that's... way more complicated than we had initially anticipated." Victoria said with a slight frown on her small face.
"Thought so, in any case. Let's begin." As he said that, he brought out two normal, wooden dummies without any special traits and placed it in front of them. Directly in front of the dummies was a pole.
"When using this technique, timing is one of the, if not the most crucial factor to perform it properly. Whether it's getting the muscle flex right, or accurately swerving around the opponent's weapon without doing it to early or late. If you can grasp the timing, then you've grasped a good portion of the technique already." Draven explained more and the siblings listened attentively.
"So that is where we will be focusing on first. Try to get you weapons around the pole and hit your dummy. Don't bother trying to use the technique and just accurately get your weapons around the poles. Draven instructed and the duo immediately obeyed.
They both walked up to their dummies and summoned their weapons. Gideon entered his usual stance and adjusted his breathing before concentrating. And after a few seconds, he struck out.
*PAH*
He mistimed it. He tried to swerve his dagger around the pole while maintaining a constant speed, but the moment he had to swerve it, he wasn't able to swerve it in time as he underestimated the force of the strike and ended up hitting the pole.
Victoria went for it and ended up with a similar result.
The two then tried to pay attention to the force of the swerve in the next attack, but due to that, they unconsciously reduced the speed of the attack and did the swerve too early, causing their arms to draw a wide arc around the pole, their force diminishing in the process.
Undeterred, they tried again, this time, paying attention to the speed and force needed to do the swerve successfully. Another failure.
They ended up hitting the pole and missing the dummy's face. And just like that, the grueling process of trial and error began.