Nick smirks as he turns around and hands me my katana back.
"You two both wield weapons, Luis, your katana, and Grover, your knives. While you two have already gotten good at using Cursed Power Barrier with your bodies, let's see how well you do using it with your weapons," Nick begins to say. "First, use your
arms and legs to break trees with Cursed Power Barrier, and when you're done, focus your Cursed Power into your blades and use them to slice through some trees."
"Right!" Grover and I say as we walk up to our respective trees. I ready my fist as Grover readies his leg, the two of us pouring our Cursed Power into your respective body parts.
"RAHH!" I shout as I punch my fist outwards, slamming it into the tree in front of me, and creating a small crater. At first, nothing happens, but when a wave of pain rubs up and down my body as blood squirts from my knuckles. I yelp in pain as I drop down to one knee and clutch my wounded hand.
"Hmm…you used far too little Cursed Power in your attack," Nick says.
"Yeah, no shit," I sneer.
"RAHHH!!!" With a roar, Grover launches his leg into his tree, which explodes upon impact with a rush of Cursed Power. "Yes!" Grover cheers as he lands back on the ground.
"You used far too much Cursed Power in your attack," Nick says, which causes Grover to groan.
Grover and I then practice using Cursed Power Barrier to attack for a little while. It takes us a bit, but eventually, we find a comfortable amount of Cursed Power to use for our attacks. We soon realize that for thick, stronger trees, and wimpy, weaker trees, Grover and I have to adjust the amount of Cursed Power that we use in our attacks in order to destroy the tree but without wasting any Cursed Power. Grover and I punch, kick, elbow, and jab the trees into submission.
Once Grover and I have finished practicing using Cursed Power Barrier in our bodies, we draw our weapons.
"Good, now Luis, you practice using Cursed Power Barrier in your katana to slice through trees, while you, Grover, practice using Cursed Power Barrier in your knives to attack them," NIck orders.
"Right!" Grover and I reply, as we move to our respective trees.
I draw my katana clutching it tightly between both of my hands, and focus. "This should be just like my wind control, but without the wind…" I softly say to myself. "I'm used to this, I can do this. Just pour my Cursed Power into my katana like it's nothing more than an extension of my arm." I do as I say, gather Cursed Power into my hands before moving it into the hilt of my katana, then settling it into my blade. The blade of my katana begins bubbling with dark blue Cursed Power. I smirk as I slash my katana outwards, slicing clean through the tree in front of me.
I then turn to face Grover, who's kunai knives are bubbling with light green Cursed Power. Grover then flings his knives towards the tree in front of him, and when the two make contact, large craters explode in the body of the tree, like the tree is being pelted by bullets from a shotgun.
"Very good, you two!" Nick congratulates Grover and I. "Now, keep practicing, but variate the amount of Cursed Power you are using in your weapons' attacks in response to the strength of the tree that you are facing."
And so, I begin to slice up more trees, as Grover continues flinging bullet- strengthened knives their way.
***
"Alright!" Nick says as he claps his hands together, once Grover and I have trained Cursed Power Barrier for a while. Both of us have gotten pretty good at using Cursed Power Barrier to attack with our bare bodies as well as using our respective weapons, and altering the amount of Cursed Power we use in our attacks. "It's time to move on to the next step of Cursed Power Barrier."
"What's that?" Grover asks.
"The second step of Cursed Power Barrier is used in conjunction with Cursed Power Sensing, another one of the five Cursed Power Techniques," Nick answers.
"What's Cursed Power Sensing?" I ask.
"It's like Barrier, but rather than pouring Cursed Power around your body for reinforcement, Cursed Power Sensing is when one pours Cursed Power into their ears, nose, and eyes to enhance their senses. The main functions of Cursed Power Sensing are: tracking, locating things, detecting your opponent's movements, and most importantly, sensing the flow of Cursed Power in one's body," Nick explains. "By using Cursed Power Sensing in conjunction with Cursed Power Barrier, you can read the flow of Cursed Power in your opponent's body to see how much Cursed Power they plan to use for their next attack, and adjust your Cursed Power Barrier accordingly. You sort of practiced that against trees of variating size, but now we will practice against Cursed Power. You can also use Sensing to read their physical movements and counter in hand to hand combat. Advanced users of Cursed Power Sensing."
"Alright, so just pour Cursed Power into my ears, nose, and eyes," I say to myself as I pour my Cursed Power accordingly.
"Can you sense the flow of Cursed Power in my body?" Nick asks.
"Mmm…not more than usual," I answer.
"That's alright, let's practice Cursed Power Sensing on its own before combining it with Barrier," Nick says as he zips over to me. But by reading his movements with my Cursed Power enhanced eyes, I'm able to react to his speed a little better than before, and I bring my arms up and reinforce them with Cursed Power to block a Cursed Power reinforced spear hand.
"Good, now let's test Grover!" Nick says as he zips over to behind Grover, aiming a Cursed Power reinforced kick to the back of Grover's back, who counters by pouring Cursed Power into his thigh and bringing it up to block.
"So if you couldn't tell, I've been using the same exact amount of Cursed Power to attack you two every time, to make it easy to teach you to defend," Nick explains. "I've also been moving far slower than usual so you two can track me with Cursed Power Sensing, but that's not important now."
"That's you moving slowly?!" I cry. "Also, it sounds like you just wanted to brag," I then grumble.
"Yeah, I thought that my measly Cursed Power Sensing was too inferior to match the amazing lord Bumblebee's speed!" Grover laughs. Nick Boras, Slayer hachi, the only man capable of soothing Grover Bradshaw, Slayer Midori's, intense ego.
"From now on, I will be attacking you with varying amounts of Cursed Power," Nick then continues. "Will you use too little Cursed Power to defend and get injured? Or will you use too much Cursed Power to defend and exhaust your strength? If you can't adapt, you will die on the battlefield."
Nick then zips back over to me again, aiming a jab to my gut again. "Shit, I can't sense his Cursed Power yet!" I cry to myself. "Should I use an excessive amount of Cursed Power to defend, or is Nick trying to trick me and go for a low-Cursed Power attack, and use a small amount of Cursed Power to defend? Should I guess how much Cursed Power to use, or try and sense it?"
But I was too busy thinking about how much Cursed Power to use to defend Nick's attack to even use Cursed Power at all, so Nick lands a free jab in my stomach, causing me to double over. Luckily, it's just a low Cursed Power attack, so Nick's strike doesn't hurt me too much, but it still hurts like Hell.
"Are…are you even trying, Luis?" Nick asks as he pulls his fist away from me.
"Yeah…just got a little too caught up in the moment," I grunt as I slowly struggle to stand up.
Nick shrugs before zipping over to Grover, who brings his hands up and pours a large amount of Cursed Power into them to block another spear hand from Nick.
"Mmm…too much Cursed Power," Nick says, causing Grover to groan in annoyance.
Nick then zips back over to me, aiming a roundhouse kick to my side. In response, I bring my arms up and pour just a bit of Cursed Power into them to defend. But when Nick's leg makes contact with my arms, I'm sent flying backwards for a bit, my arms sore from the impact. I used too little Cursed Power to defend.
Nick sighs as he zips away from us, the electricity crackling around his body slowly fizzling out. Grover and I rub our sore limbs. "Alright, this isn't working," Nick says. "It's impossible to adapt the second that you feel how much Cursed Power I'm using when I attack you. Without you two learning Cursed Power Sensing, this training will be worthless. Just like with Cursed Power Burst and Hiding, Grover is too intense while Luis is too reserved." That's a polite way of saying unenthusiastic.