The next day began much like the last. Planning for everyone's movement and any circumstances he thought possible. But with two key differences. Firstly, he thought of a plan for Kai. And second, he wasn't part of any plan.
Instead of him, Kai would go with Oak. Everything else was more or less the same, with more details and contingencies, just in case. His plan, and reason for excluding himself from his plans, was to test something.
He knew that something had changed about him, but that change was sudden and left him chasing behind what he could be. He dwelled in the back of his mind since the ghast encounter in that storm. He couldn't get the song out of his head, nor could he shake the feeling he had trying to dance along to it. He was at the grasp of understanding something, surely he was close to reaching a breaking point.
Once he was done, he went outside to cool his head off before starting his training. His head was burning after all the problem-solving and plans he had to come up with.
'Was this how all of the hunters felt, or am I just doing it wrong?'
He tried to empty his mind and relax for a minute. He laid down on the grass outside the barracks, closed his eyes, and tried to let go. But his mind was overflowing with thoughts, a thousand worried for the effectiveness of his plans. A thousand more were thinking through every detail of how he would train and what could have changed about him.
It wasn't working. All of it served to give him a headache. He either needed to start now or find some other way to empty his mind of all the noise.
"Um... Weaver of Time?"
He opened his eyes to the sight of someone standing over him. It wasn't anyone he recognized, just another member of Skyla's subdivision.
"Oh, I was afraid you had passed out."
Lukas sighed.
"Is there something you need?"
"Oh, um... no, not really. I just wanted to thank you."
Lukas raised his eyebrows slightly.
"For what..?"
"You saved my sister last night. She got attacked by that ghast on her night watch. I fear for what would have happened if you weren't there."
Lukas was silent. It wasn't that he was flattered, surprised, or even taken aback. He simply had no words for what to say to the man. He didn't really feel anything in particular, just unsure of what to say.
"...You're welcome."
The man bowed before taking his leave, likely to prepare for whatever plans Lukas had given him. He didn't know the guy, nor did he remember who he gave which orders to. He didn't have the mental capacity to remember all of that.
But as Lukas closed his eyes again, there was nothing but the sound of the wind in his ears. The conversation had worked to temporarily stop his endless stream of thoughts. He laid there in the sweet silence for a moment, before inevitably realising the silence was present at all.
Then it was filled with noise again.
'Well, no better time to begin I suppose.'
Lukas stood up and walked to a nearby clearing of trees on the outskirts of Mistfell. He drew his tachi and began to practise his swings.
'...50'
At first, they came easily, he had trained the same way for nearly two years after all. But after around 100, he began to feel the pressure building up in his muscles.
'...250'
It took him a while, but once he crossed a quarter of a thousand, he felt his endurance began to plateau. As he moved each individual part of his arm, each part building atop the last, he began to steadily rise again.
'...500'
He lost count after that, focused instead on his body. With each consecutive strike, he slowed his movements down a hair. Each time he focused on his stance and the flow of energy throughout his body. This fine control of his body was new, the sense of his body preforming exactly how he wanted. It was like he had achieve an enlightened state of being. Or perhaps that was too grand of a definition.
After 500, he began to speed up, incorporating this minute control into his strike. He messed up a lot at first, but after a dozen or two minutes, he managed to catch up to the speed he started with. Then, he kept going. Faster and faster.
Soon, he was strike nearing twice as fast as he started, still with the perfect form he had built up. He even began to continue the simple strike with a follow-up one. It was faster than returning to the starting position after all.
At some point, he began to dance around the small clearing, bleeding strike into strike. It was as if he was learning a battle art, or creating a new one entirely. He had far succeed his expectations, and he had only just begun.
Now he wanted to try with the kusarigama, or even both weapons. Try to imrpove his running with the same delicate body control, or even just simple endurance training. He could try strength exercises to see how much stronger he was.
He was overwhelmed by choice, until he noticed the sun hanging lowly in the sky. It was already dusk, and he had only just begun. It would be foolish to train throughout the night. So he simply began to head back to the barracks.
Until he saw a small boy on the very edge of town watching him.
"How did you do that?"
"Do what?"
The boy's eyes were lit up in excitement, but Lukas didn't know what he was referring to.
"I saw you this morning, you seemed so slow. But I came back later and, and, you were going so fast! I could barely tell what you were doing! How did you do that?"
"I... I'm not sure. I was just training a little."
"Can you teach me?"
"Maybe when you're a little older."
Lukas meant it as a joke, and to get the little kid off his back. But the kid lit up in excitement with a bright smile that shined brighter than the sun. He ran off shortly after, screaming into the distance.
"MOM! MOM!"