Battle techniques had many different categories and what someone focused on depended on their personality.
Ray however didn't want to create an extreme offensive or an extreme defensive technique.
What he wanted to create was a flexible battle technique that could stay firm and unbeatable in any situation.
In his last life he had fought numerous people, watched thousands of battle techniques and had slowly decided what he would learn.
Even though he learned all the weapons, his favorite was the sword. Mostly because he could use his skills perfectly with a sword.
Even during his third life, people who mastered a weapon style completely were rare.
"Huff…"
Clearing his mind and exhaling his breath Ray lifted the sword slowly until its blade was parallel to the ground and he brought his hand to his left.
*Slash*
He slashed his sword vertically, as if to cut a person in half.
*Slash*
Then he did the same thing but horizontally…
*Slash*Slash*
Diagonally.
*Slash*Slash*Slash*
The slashes seemed to get faster and smoother with time…
*Slash*Slash*Slash*
After an hour, Ray's hand now appeared to be a blur as the sword moved extremely fast, slashing wildly and ferociously.
After another hour he stopped.
He had reached the greatest speed his A ranked agility supported.
This style of the sword was used by a commoner girl named Nerris. In his third life she had become the first SSS ranked adventurer, but had died of old age shortly after that.
She was a neutral person with skills that supported her speed movement, and Ray already had plans including her in this life.
This sword style was fast. Extremely fast. Each slash was consistent, with low to medium power. Each individual slash didn't do much damage, but after being slashed hundreds of times, even the strongest of people would feel the attacks damaging them.
This sword style got faster with his agility stat increasing.
"Next is…"
Without letting his body calm down, he raised his sword again.
*Slash*
This time, the sword was slow, but packed with explosive power, using every ounce of his A ranked strength.
*Slash*
*Slash*
*Slash*
After about thirty minutes, Ray sopped slashing.
This sword style was used by people at a certain villain group in the beastmen empire. The members were all men and committed heinous crimes of plundering villages, killing people, looting things, but they went too far when then killed their empire's fourth prince and got eradicated.
Every slash used extreme strength.
Since the group always worked in large numbers, they had plenty of cover on each side and didn't need to rely on speed. They left their backs to their fellow group members readily and focused on one enemy with complete strength.
This style would get stronger if his strength stat grew more.
"And finally…"
Ray's eyes grew serious while his lips curved in a smile. A contradicting expression, but he felt nostalgic every time he did this.
He started performing another sword style… but this was different from the previous ones.
The sword was neither fast nor slow. Each slash had moderate power, but not enough to fatally injure someone.
However an experienced person could tell that this style was much more lethal than the previous ones.
This style focused on vital points and vital points only. The absolute weaknesses of a living body. The throat, major arteries, heart, mana core, and every strike was precise.
Ray might have been naive in the past, but he had never been a complete fool. This was the sword style he had made himself in his second life.
His only achievement from the second life that he was proud of.
At that time he didn't know how strong or how many people he would have to face, but he did know that he was weak and had to make every move lethal.
After years of only focusing in the sword, he had finally invented this technique.
It grew better and more lethal with his dexterity.
Ray stopped after another few minutes.
"And finally the result…"
All of a sudden, the sword started moving again, but if one saw closely, this was not a new style, but a combination of the previous three.
Every slash was fast, powerful and precise.
With time the speed, strength and precision kept growing until his hands were a blur once again, each strike contained full power, creating loud noises every time the sword slashed the air and every slash would have been fatal if not defended.
This was what Ray had decided after lots of tries.
Out of thousands of styles, he had chosen these three and tried his best to compile them into a single style.
It possessed speed, strength and precision. Everything in one.
However, Ray stopped after only half an hour and started breathing heavily.
Incorporating three extreme styles at once strained his muscles so much that even his A+ ranked stamina could only last him half an hour.
He knew that this time would lengthen if his stamina grew.
"First form is almost complete…"
Ray had named this style the 'First Form' as this would be the first style of his battle technique. After he completely mastered this, he would come up with more forms.
"Now I just need two things to complete this form… choosing which skills to use with this one and finally using this in a real battle!"
Most battle techniques had hundreds of styles, but that was because as one grew, the older styles would become relatively weak.
This however was not the concern for Ray.
He decided that his technique would have only about ten styles, and each one would be stronger than the other.
Above all, the first style would keep growing with his physical stats. Agility increased its speed, strength increased the force behind each slash, dexterity would make each strike more lethal and finally stamina would let him use the first form for a drawn out battle.
Trying to calm down his breathing he willed the system to show his points.
[Remaining Balance: 2340]
'It's almost time to buy another system function…'