A DAY AFTER GARGOLEM'S DEFEAT
There was a lot to celebrate. For one thing, the continent of Gaeia was rapidly regaining its forest life. For another, the exploits of the architects had brought on a phenomenon akin to a revolution of architecture but most importantly, the Gaeian cities had just survived the terrible onslaught of Gargolem's golem army with almost no casualty.
The cities were lively with celebration but the Masters, Students and Jo-lan knew there was more work to be done. They had been invited before the king of Gaeia who wanted to reward them for their accomplishments.
"Ask anything you desire and I will grant it if it is within my power to do so" the king said.
They stood in the Throne Room.
"Well, there is one thing" Jo-lan said.
"What is it?" the king asked.
"It would please us greatly if you resumed Trade with the continent of Avalon and entered into Trade Agreements with the continent of Vung" Jo-lan said.
"We have already begun trading with the continent of Vung as a way to repay their king's kindness. Regarding the continent of Avalon, the only reason we halted Trade there was because of fearful rumours regarding the seas surrounding Avalon. For a time, no ships sent into those seas returned" the king said.
"That must have been the work of Asmodeus and his master Anubis. There is nothing to worry about. The seas surrounding Avalon are quite peaceful now. You can verify that from the fact that the reeds used in the construction of the new buildings were shipped here from Avalon" Estelle said.
The king nodded in agreement.
"Then I have no reservations with resuming Trade with the continent of Avalon. We also need more of the reeds for use in constructing our buildings" the king said.
THE FOLLOWING DAY
The Masters, Students and Jo-lan sat at table in an inn preparing to discuss their next course of action.
"We've defeated Anubis, Apollo and Gargolem, all that's left is…them" Master Luna, Josec's mother said.
Her tone left the impression of a sense of ominous foreboding.
"Yes, Aeros who commands Wind, Aesakal who commands Ice, Raichuu who commands Lightning…and Syren who commands Water. The four amongst Souryu's generals whose connection is most severe. So severe in fact they are referred to amongst all of Souryu's generals as 'The Four Great Malevolent Storms'" Master Fencer said.
"What do you mean by…their connection is severe?" Josec asked.
"It was particularly to cripple the abilities of these four generals that I suggested we take down Apollo, Souryu's strongest general right off the bat. Most storms are caused by the combined effects of three things; water, air and electricity. The movements of water and air can furthermore be affected by heat. In a place like Vung where there was minimal moisture, all the heat generated by Apollo resulted in an arid atmosphere but in wetter places, that heat quickly converts the water from waterbodies into vapour which accumulates in the atmosphere. When you add the activities of the wind and lightning into the equation, you have the perfect breeding place for a storm" Master Fencer said.
"Plus, you said Aesakal's activities have the ability to destabilize the atmosphere" Harry said.
"So what's the battle plan?" Buern asked.
"Amongst these four generals of Souryu, you could consider some of them as amplifiers or catalysts and you could consider some as the amplified. It would be foolish to attempt to take down an amplified while the catalyst to its power is still in effect" Master Andrea said.
"I see, so Apollo was an amplifier" Josec said.
"Aeros, Aesakal and Apollo act as Raichuu's amplifiers and Raichuu in turn is Syren's amplifier. So our next order of business is to take down Aeros and Aesakal. Once they are down, Raichuu's power should significantly drop" Master Ayumi said.
"However with unpredictability as Lightning's predominant trait, it will be quite difficult to defend against Raichuu's attacks" Jo-lan said.
"Leave that to me" Master Luna said.
"You intend to fight Luna? I thought you'd sworn off fighting after marrying Vega" Master Fencer said with a sly smile.
"Indeed, I never fight in the presence of the two men I care the most about in my life but I am currently the only one who can fend off Raichuu's attacks since my power is quite similar to his. I am willing to make an exception this time. We are currently aware of Aesakal's location but the other generals are unaccounted for so I intend to resume my scout for them" Master Luna said.
"Mom" Josec looked at her worriedly.
"Don't worry Josec, your mother can handle herself but I promise not to do anything foolish or reckless. I'll return once I've mapped out the location of the other generals. I most certainly will not confront them on my own" Master Luna said.
"Then I suppose we should take this chance and rest as much as we can before resuming our journey" Master Kyem said.
"Then I'm off to do some training" Josec said as he left the inn.
"I think I'll get some training done as well" Buern said as she also left.
AN HOUR LATER
Josec stood in a forest outside Gaeia's city. He was engrossed in training. Buern watched him closely.
"He is much focused and very swift and unlike the time we trained in the mountains, there are almost no wasted movements in his attacks. I suppose the major hurdle he needed to cross was to reach a level where he had an awareness of his joki. However considering the fact that he only learned about his ability to utilize will in combat just a few months ago, his improvement is astounding…in fact…far too astounding" Buern thought.
Buern watched as Josec took in a deep breath. Her skin began to tingle.
"His focus has become even deeper" Buern thought to herself.
Josec smiled.
"Now to utilize the special technique I developed for increasing my combat abilities exponentially within a short time" Josec said.
"He had such a technique? Now I'm curious" Buern said as she concealed her presence amongst the trees and watched closely.
As she watched, Josec suddenly became six Josecs surrounding one Josec. Then all of a sudden, combat broke out amongst all seven Josecs. It would be better said that six Josecs began to assault a seventh Josec in the centre of their encirclement but the seventh Josec was parrying all their blows and fighting back. He broke out of their encirclement and began to battle the others all over the area. If Buern were not as advanced a fighter in the Jo-lan martial arts as she was, they would have been completely invisible to her due to their high speed movements.
Normal people would only hear the sound of blows and see air currents flashing sharply through the trees, notice leaves fall and branches break and punch marks appear in the trees. Buern was astounded.
"This is no longer at the level of replicating oneself with high speed movement. To be able to make physical contact with an afterimage would require a tremendous amount of speed but Josec is battling six of them and all seven of them are not making any wasted motions. Every move executed seeks out a vulnerability. So there are a unique set of moves, a unique combat style for all seven Josecs" Buern exclaimed in awe. "It could in fact be said that Josec is simultaneously learning seven different styles of combat since all the others are replications" Buern said.
Then Josec took in a deep breath and opened his eyes. The other Josecs disappeared.
"Buern" he called.
"He could sense my presence?" Buern wondered and walked out.
"What manner of training is this? I can understand you replicating into an army to drive the golems away but this…is just insane" Buern still looked shocked.
"Yeah, I know. This all began with me trying to do some training. I asked the Masters what sort of training style would be best suited to me. Master Pheisl suggested that since I utilize will in combat, image training would be the best. At first, I found it really difficult to imagine myself fighting myself but then it struck me that perhaps the memories I have of my father training in his arena at high speeds were probably a form of image training and if I could see my father's movements at that age, then he probably purposefully limited his speed. I wondered what would happen if I did some image training at my fastest and ended up splitting into multiple mes engaged in combat. Made image training a whole lot easier" Josec said with a laugh.
"No Josec, you don't seem to realize what you've done. First of all, it should be impossible to make physical contact with an afterimage because you are still essentially at one place at one time regardless of the illusion of multiplicity. It's not impossible to use this illusion of multiplicity to take down greater numbers of foes though because you could choose which foe to make contact with at which time. Your foe may not be able to tell that you are a single person. However, to make contact with an afterimage would imply that your speed has reached a level that has allowed you to achieve real multiplicity. Most importantly, to be able to utilize unique sets of moves for seven different afterimages, with each combat style seeking out vulnerabilities in their opponent implies that you're making independent judgements for seven different people in a rapidly changing environment. You're basically thinking seven parallel thoughts" Buern said.
"Huh? What are you talking about? All I'm doing is trying to avoid taking a hit from myself" Josec laughed.
"I see so it's not seven parallel thoughts but rather instant judgements? That's a bit more believable" Buern said.
"So why are you here Buern?" Josec asked.
"Well, for starters I came to make sure you weren't doing the wrong sort of training but I will admit that I was a bit curious to see how much stronger you've become" Buern said.
"So am I stronger than you now?" Josec asked with a teasing smile.
"I admit Josec that this new training style of yours is ground breaking and has great potential but it has three flaws. First of all, compared to me, you lack real fighting experience, secondly, regardless of how fast you are and the illusion of multiplicity, you are still essentially a single person and you'll have to make contact to deal any damage which implies that you can be countered and finally, a fighter utilizes more senses than just his sense of sight. Of course if you were to work on the variations of each afterimage's attacks, you'll eventually be unstoppable but the point I'm trying to make here is that it takes more than a great technique to win every fight" Buern said.
"That makes you even scarier than I initially thought you were! You've already contrived countermeasures to this technique after seeing it once?!" Josec exclaimed in shock.
"I'm not the daughter of Innovain for nothing you know?" Buern said with great pride. "Any real fighting experience you could gain can be achieved through that technique but you'll have to battle different people to get a feel for how wide combat really is. Great technique together with great experience is what makes a truly unstoppable fighter. So have you thought of a name for this technique?" Buern asked.
"Yep, I have. I call it the Killer Ghost Frenzy" Josec said.