During the duel, Nathan saw that Asher was trying to attack him from multiple angles,
'Heh, brat, you are a thousand years too early to make me block you!' Nathan thought as he countered each of Asher's strikes.
But suddenly he noticed that Asher's behavior had changed and his gaze was a lot sharper. His gaze was similar to someone who had a lot of experience fighting others. Asher's attacks were becoming unpredictable but Nathan could still counter most of them.
'This kid is good,' Nathan was having fun while easily countering Asher's attack, but he needed to be careful controlling his strength if not he could have broken Asher's arm with a simple soft counter.
'Hoh! He is following a rhythm,' Nathan noticed the pattern in Asher's sword, it was easy for him to sense it.
'Show me what you got brat' Nathan spoke to himself as he pushed Asher's sword back to him.
This was the moment when Asher knew that Nathan was comfortable with fighting him and with a huge part of his attention was kept on controlling his strength. The basics of the sword they were fighting on had strict footwork and strikes so the range of motion was limited. Asher took advantage of this fact and altered his pattern and faked the swing on his left.
'Hoh, I will give this one to you brat' Nathan let Asher hit him. He knew if the gap between them was not so huge this move of Asher would have definitely caught him off guard. Despite he could have countered that, his pride as a swordsman did not let him take this win from Asher.
Asher also knew that Nathan let him win this intentionally but he still smirked at him. This was the result of him not controlling his true emotions and letting them out partially. A person could only control their true self, not change it. Masking yourself into a different person had its limits and Asher was one such person.
His mocking expression annoyed Nathan. Nathan was not a saint, he might have seemed like a happy grandpa thus far but there was a reason most powerhouses avoided him. Nathan, who also had the Rune of Eirdin, was constantly tormented by nightmares.
Losing many people throughout his journey gave him many regrets and his last ascension to Rank SSS almost made him lose his mind. His way of acting silly was his escape from his nightmares and Arthur who also knew this did not mind Nathan's constant insults and played along with him most of the times. Greville were famous for their cruel personalities throughout their history, and Nathan and Arthur both lived up to these rumours. The only normal person in the whole Greville family was probably Amelia who was internally an honest and emotional person.
"This fuc**** Brat!" Nathan dangerously smiled at Asher,
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, It seems your basics are already perfect so let's hone your sword versus my greatsword." Nathan came close to Asher and stared down at him with his red eyes. Asher looked small in front of his huge build.
"Why not?" Asher was not a coward even though he knew he had provoked Nathan. He knew this was the best way for him to learn from Nathan. He already knew the fundamentals but what he wanted to learn from Nathan could only be learned by both of them dueling.
"Brat, use your mana or anything you have. We will duel until the twins come for their practice." Nathan told him.
Asher calmed his mind and decided to use the new mana circulation technique during the duel. He found that he could channel his mana better now. His new intelligence boost had increased his comprehension rate which helped him connect all the new paths Nathan created with the existing ones.
< Mana Circulation Technique: Rank A learned >
He did not know what the rank given by the system was based on but he knew that this circulation technique was better than the one he used in his previous life. Mana started coating his body and strengthening it. He focused his mana on his limbs and increased the force behind his attack. Asher dashed and attacked Nathan who disappeared from his place and kicked him on the back.
*Thud*
Asher landed on the ground as he crouched with one of his hands on the ground.
"Why so weak brat?" Nathan smirked back at him.
Asher had a calm face but he was not going to settle down with this much. He saw Nathan who appeared in front of him and saw his greatsword coming towards him from above. He braced his legs blocking the force.
"ARGHHH" Asher used more mana as he strengthened his limbs even more. He pushed the Greatsword back but could not move Nathan from his position. Knowing this he immediately took 2 steps back from his position.
*Clang* *Clang*
Asher and Nathan were sharing many blows but Asher kept getting pushed back because the force behind the greatsword was too much to completely nullify it. Asher was using their height difference to dodge most of the swings Nathan struck him with. Asher was timing his strikes because the reach of the greatsword was greater than his sword.
"Come on brat, show me that smug expression of yours," Nathan was not going to let Asher out easily. Call him petty but he was having a blast tormenting Asher and removing his escape routes every time he attacked him.
Asher was panting heavily but his focus was not broken at all. He was used to fighting people while breaking his own body. This made him lose the sensation of stopping when he felt tired. They went like this for a whole 20 minutes and Nathan found it surprising that Asher was not quitting at all. He decided to stop the duel by using the force behind his greatsword to send Asher flying back when he tried to block it.
Asher focused on his wrists and braced the impact but he still crashed onto the wall. At this moment he was gasping for air. But he still stood up. There was a reason even after killing numerous people, Asher was still alive until the day he regressed. Although his body was not able to keep up with his mentality.
"Let's stop brat, get some rest while I train those two." Nathan stopped as he looked at Lucas and Livia who excitingly looked at both of them fighting for quite some time.
"Okay!" Asher replied while breathing heavily.
"Okay, so did you two practice what I taught you," Nathan asked them,
The twins looked up and replied," Yes" at the same time.
"Good job brats, now I will teach you guys some other things before your awakening next week." Nathan started teaching various martial arts which would help them regardless of the result they got from their awakening.
Lucas wanted to follow the path of the sword as he admired Asher but Livia on the other wanted to learn to wield the greatsword. It was odd for a girl who liked cute things to get fascinated by Nathan's swordplay.
After teaching the twin and Asher getting a rest of 2 hours, they again started their duel. Nathan held back a little, unlike his previous duel where he wanted to thrash Asher around. Asher tried various techniques he came up with. The whole week, Nathan had Asher focus solely on swordsmanship training. He didn't train him to improve his physical strength or mana. Nathan knew that there were others at the World Academy who could teach Asher better.
After their last duel, Asher went to the shower room to wash his body covered with sweat. Multiple blue and black spots could be seen on his upper body. Nathan went ahead and made sure that Asher knew who was the boss in this family. This week even though his sword mastery had increased quite a bit, he was still working on mixing this style of sword with his current one. He knew that he would be able to invent a new sword style if he went through more battles.
As the water dripped down on his well-chiseled muscles, he was thinking of what he was going to do next. He knew that the dungeon in the mountain range he purchased would appear soon. He was now free to enter the dungeons of his level alone but Emmy would still follow him to the dungeon gate.
"Lucas will go through his awakening tomorrow, I can take him there with me," Asher decided to take Lucas with him as he knew what he was capable of doing. He got out of the bath and finally exited the training ground after two weeks.
He went back to his room because it was early in the afternoon and he decided to get some sleep before dinner. The curtains were shut but dim sunlight could pass through them and which gave a woody vibe to the room. Asher had always disliked loud places. He looked at the painting which stood near his bed. After his increased mental strength he was able to place a lid on his inner madness but he was unable to control it. Looking at the painting he felt that the burden on his mind, the constant thoughts that drove him mad were gone.
"I should go to sleep for now. Dinner would be too chaotic due to the dungeon explosion anyways," Asher leaned down on his soft bed feeling drowsy with his chaotic thoughts gone he went to sleep. The dungeon explosion where Nathan should have died was going to happen during the time they were having their dinner.