Actively training the next generation, Brixton was already a veteran of many battles. By the time he had reached the level of Swordsman, he had taken the lives of thousands of barbarians and monsters and spilled enough blood to fill a lake.
There was not a man he had not seen. As a young man, he followed the current patriarch and joined his army. In some places, he had supported him personally. He could be considered one of the family's rare craftsmen. If it wasn't for his great ability to teach, he would be at the forefront of the war against the barbarians.
He had had the opportunity to fight one-on-one with many martial artists and warriors. Each of them had adopted a different style. They were experts in their field. Brixton had fought them and survived.
But he had seen very few people fight like Cain.
He was extremely agile, constantly changing his position, almost dancing. But seven or eight out of ten of his moves were deceptive. He used dastardly techniques, perfectly combining real and fake.
It was so mesmerizing that Brixton forgot that he was a child in front of him and began to use the skills he had acquired on the battlefield.
Brixton's combat techniques were tailor-made for dealing with those who, like Cain, preferred speed and agility to strength. It was simple and methodical. But behind it was the power and flexibility of a wave. He was the Dark Knight's Art of Defense in the flesh!
The battle was in the middle for a while.
The gap between Cain's attacks slowly widened, sweat beading his forehead and a troubled expression on his face. He was able to parry Brixton's attacks with the palm of his hand, but none of his attacks had any effect on Brixton.
Ninety out of every hundred moves he made were fake. At first, he was able to put Brixton in trouble, but after a few minutes, none of his moves were working. Brixton understood the logic behind his moves.
The battle was reversed in just a few seconds. Brixton planted her foot hard on the ground, then bent at the waist and pressed down with her palm.
As Cain took the attack, he lost all ability to think. It was as if he had taken a sledgehammer to the center of his chest. He staggered back and fell on his buttocks.
Cain took a deep breath and got up.
"Will this be enough?"
"More than enough," Brixton said with a smile. It was the first time he had been so serious war someone not of his own generation. At first she thought she could finish him in a few moves, but as time went on she wanted to see more.
Because of the difference in physical strength and experience, he could have finished him in fifteen seconds, but instead, he wanted to see Cain's limits.
"Who taught you how to fight?"
"I learned the Dark Knight Art of Defense from my nanny Anna." Cain hid nothing. He had been training with Anna since the day he took his first step.
"But I didn't see any trace of the Dark Knight's Art of Defense in the moves you showed me."
One of the most important fighting techniques of the Ashborne Family, the Dark Knight Art of Defense was an incredibly prescriptive martial art. Each of the moves followed a certain tempo, and at its peak, it was a dominant martial art.
Cain's martial art was too formless. It didn't follow a certain rhythm. It required split-second decision-making, mixing fakes with the real thing. If mastered, it would be one of the deadliest forms, but it was exhausting.
The Ashborne family's fighting technique was based on the military style.
Cain said nothing.
But his silence spoke volumes.
"Don't tell me you put your own interpretation on it!"
On rare occasions, there were those who derived one martial art from another. These were the real killing machines of the battlefield. After learning martial art sufficiently, it was possible to add one's own interpretation and create the most suitable martial art for oneself.
This was usually done by those who had reached the Swordsman level. It was a normal thing for them, but to achieve this at the age of eight.
'The one who will make history...'
With every minute that passed, he realized that the person in front of him was much more than a genius. If you gave these people one, they would take it as a hundred.
Normally he would have finished here, but he realized he could be as hard on Cain as he wanted, so he decided to continue.
"After some rest, I will teach you the Way of the Sword, the first step of the Dark Knight Sword Mastery. Now sit down and listen to me carefully."
Cain quickly sat down on the floor and after calming his breathing, listened intently to Brixton.
"There are thousands of Mana Veins in the human body. We call them Vena for short. The amount and shape of Vena in each person's body is different. But everyone's Vena is similar. This is the basis of martial arts passed down from generation to generation."
"You circulate your mana through the venas and unlock the hidden power of techniques. The Way of the Sword is activated by an unusual combination of the 3 Main Vena and sixty-three Sub-Venas in the human body. It takes months of practice to memorize this combination and make it a reflex. Because if you focus your attention on Vena on the battlefield, you will surely die, do you understand?"
Cain nodded.
"Let's talk about the Way of the Sword."
Brixton closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and a sword appeared in his right hand. This sword was Brock, the huge sword that had been on his back before. The sword was surrounded by a black aura, and when Brixton opened his eyes, it disappeared.
VOOO-VOOO!
There was a sonic boom as he suddenly appeared seven meters away.
BOOM!
It was a simple swing, but Cain could see neither the sword nor Brixton's movement. This was the Way of the Sword, the Ashborne Family's first technique.
Brixton smiled involuntarily when he saw the surprised expression on Cain's face. After putting away his gigantic sword, he began to speak.
"The only sword needed to bring death... Ask anyone who specializes in Dark Knight Sword Mastery and they will all have one answer: 'The Way of the Sword is the essence of the sword mastery.' It gives you superhuman perception and sword sense."
"The Way of the Sword is the foundation of everything."
The Ashborne Family was the breeding ground for the most powerful war machines of the Holy Alliance. No matter what lineage they came from, each one of them was a killing machine. Aside from their expertise in weapons, they had a rich and powerful army.
The Dark Knight Division, known as their special forces and representing the Ashborne Family, was undoubtedly one of the most powerful units on the continent. It was mentioned alongside the Golden Knights of the Imperial Family and the Light Knights of the Church of Light.
This was largely due to the Ashborne Family's respect for the strong. Anyone who had achieved enough success could obtain the family's main techniques. The technique used by the current head of the family was the same as the technique taught to the children.
This gave everyone the opportunity to become as strong as the head of the family. This was the main reason why the Ashborne Family was so competitive. If you wanted to be ahead of the competition, you had to be skilled and determined.
The Way of the Sword: The Black Knight was the core technique of Swordsmanship. All other techniques were built upon it.
"Close your eyes and follow my instructions without rejecting the Mana I will channel into you." Brixton sat in the lotus position and placed his palms on Cain's back, who was trying to enter meditation. It would be a bit overbearing to teach someone who had only met Mana a few hours before, but Cain had complete faith that he could handle it.
He wanted to know his limitations.
Cain closed his eyes and focused inward.
At that moment he felt something cold enter his body. His insides stirred, it was a strange sensation. He was sure it was Mana when he discovered that this cold thing had a gas-like structure. Brixton had lowered the density of his Mana, probably because his body couldn't take it.
After the Mana had wandered blindly around his body for a while, he decided to follow a certain trajectory. It flowed from the first to the second Vena around his heart, down to his feet, and then upwards again.
'Incredible! I didn't even encounter an obstacle.'
Previously unused veins would become blocked. After using the same Vena thousands of times, all the blockages would open and the flow of Mana would be perfect.
'He has a unique body.'
In a short time, he had passed through three of the ten main Vena and the seven most desolate of the countless Vena beneath them and had returned to his starting position.
He opened his eyes and asked, "How much do you remember?"
When Cain awoke from meditation, the air around him trembled. His eyes were as bright as a star but as piercing as a spear.
"All of it..."