Chapter 8 - Samurai Training

After a month of training in Martial arts, Xin then went to his Samurai Master. Xin was outside of their house. The door opened and saw a samurai in armor. Come to think of it, he also has a samurai armor too!

"Hello, master! Shall we start?" Xin asked while his hands were on the back of his head.

"Yes, we will start! Better prepare your self and I will train you to the fullest. I hope you can cope with me," His master said.

"Yes, you can train me to the fullest. But I won't hold back a bit," Xin said confidently. He was excited to test his mettle.

"Yeah, I like that! Don't hold back because it would not even be enough to surprise me," Xin said confidently.

"It was nice! Let's use a wooden sword. I will warn you, It will be hard to beat me with sword skills," His master Daisuke said.

"Master! You're a cheater! You are a samurai but you learned ninja skills. Well, I will be like you in the future but still, it was not enough to be a samurai? You are pretty strong being a samurai," Xin asked.

"I was forced to learn ninja skills and surprisingly I beat my master in ninja skills. So I think it was my forte and I became a full-fledged ninja. But don't underestimate me, I am still a master samurai," Daisuke said.

"So how about we start sparring?" Xin said, being hasty.

"Yeah! Equip your wooden sword and we will start," Daisuke said.

Xin saw the sword and grabbed it. It was sheathed in a colored black sheath and Marlin puts it to his waist.

Shiiiick!!!

He draws the sword and holds it in his front.

"Hahaha! You've familiarized the wooden sword for years now! At least you've improved holding the sword. Okay okay, I will be ready," Daisuke said.

He grabbed the hilt of the sword and draws it slowly. They were in armor and were using wooden swords.

"Okay, I will be aggressive for now," Xin said.

"Okay come!" said Daisuke.

Xin went too aggressive. He used the right rising slash from his right.

Tak!

Daisuke sidesteps while parrying his strike. Xin then slashed a horizontal slash from his left.

Pak!

Daisuke then holds his sword vertically to block it.

"Your moves are sluggish. At least make it faster than a split second!" Daisuke said then he tripped him on the legs.

Pak!

Xin then slammed into the ground.

"He distracted me on his block. But aimed at my feet," Xin said in his mind.

"You need to strike faster! Judge your opponent's strike and immediately make a counter-attack! Be fast and cunning! You can use feigns but you need to be fast to strike!" said his master while parrying his attacks.

"Okay practice blocking first! I will strike but you block," Daisuke said.

"Okay!" Xin shouted.

Daisuke dashed toward him and strikes with a predictable horizontal slash. Xin then blocked it.

Pak!

His strength was making his block to be moved a bit.

"It was heavy yet fast! My feet on the ground were moved a little," Xin said in his mind.

"Here are my chained attacks! Prepare for it!" Daisuke said to him.

Daisuke then used a horizontal slash. Xin blocked it but Daisuke didn't stop it. He switched to his left and slashed a left diagonal slash.

He then used random slashes and some landed on Xin's armor. He used vertical slashes, diagonal slashes, and rising slashes with horizontal slashes.

Xin was nearly destroyed even though he blocked it all, his block was destroyed and Daisuke's strikes were all landing in his armor.

"Okay, that's enough for now. Now parry my strikes!" Daisuke shouted.

"Okay!" Xin shouted.

Xin then held his sword tighter. He breathes in and breathes out. Relaxing his muscles then his uncle burst with his strikes.

He used all his strength to parry and It was all parried. From the left horizontal slash, he stepped back a bit and pushed his strike downwards.

The vertical slash was parried as he pushed it toward his side. The diagonal strikes and rising slashes were all pushed sideways.

"Good! You were getting better at parrying. The problem was your offense. But we will polish it in a slow but sure process. Let's practice feigns, counter, chain attacks, and evade,"

"Now your body is warmed up, we will proceed with our training. Let's start first with feigns.

"When using feigns, you need to be agile to make a fake strike or bait and then predict his strike. You can evade then strike. It was similar to counter," Daisuke said.

"Okay! But you will play along with that you don't know that I'm gonna feign right?" Xin said.

"Yeah!" Daisuke said.

"So shall we start?" Xin said it out loud.

"Okay!" Daisuke said.

Xin then prepared his stance and Xin attacked. He used a vertical slash. Daisuke then prepared to block it but in an instant.

Xin swings his sword downwards in a curve. Evading his block and Xin slashed him with a left-rising slash.

Tak!

Daisuke was surprised that Xin was able to land a strike in a flash.

"Hahahaha! Next was the counter! Prepare yourself!" Daisuke said.

Xin prepared and his uncle slashed at him with a downward diagonal slash. Xin saw it and he ducked while side steps. He evaded his uncle and he used left to right rising slash.

Tak!

It landed on his master.

"How was that huh?" Xin said.

"It was passable but not enough. It was pretty dangerous to execute but you pulled it off thus I congratulate you. You are still far from me. Next was chain attacks. Are you ready?" Daisuke said.

"Yeah!" Xin shouted.

"Here I come!" His master shouted.

He used diagonal slash then rising slash and vertical slash. He used it randomly but it was all blocked.

"You looked distracted, where is your speed lately? You need to focus to attack! Make your slash faster than before! Faster and faster!" Daisuke said.

"Yeah! Here I come!" Xin shouted.

In a flash, he strikes three slashes. A diagonal, rising, and horizontal. He then stopped his strikes. He felt his hands numbed.

"Three strikes were my limit," Xin said.

"I am surprised that you can do it. But still not enough to be passable," Daisuke said.

"Next was evading right?" Xin asked.

"Yes, it is! Are you ready? I will use chain attacks! So that you will be learning faster," Daisuke said.

"Okay!" Xin shouted.

"I will be evading chain attacks. The fastest attacks are called the deadly simultaneous strikes, Xin said as he gulped his saliva.

"Here I come!" Daisuke said.

He attacked with fast attacks and Xin evades the first strike.

"His strike is predictable. I can do this and evade it all!" Xin said in his mind.

It was when Daisuke attacks faster and faster. His strikes were evaded in hair's breadth. His armor was scraped a bit.

"Darn! He was faster than before! I can't keep up!" Xin said as he evades them.

Pak!

It sent Xin flying when a rising slash landed on his body.

Tak! Tak!

He landed on the ground and he wiped the blood in the corner of his mouth.

"Again!" Xin shouted.

"Come here and we will resume where we left off. Heheheh!" Daisuke said.

'I can't keep up with his strikes. If it was only normal strikes, then I can already evade it. But the problem was he was using chain attacks. It was strenuous to make sudden movements to the body. Well, the solution was to try and try,' Xin said in his mind.

"You can rest a bit if you want. We can rest a bit," Daisuke said.

"No, I can still go on," Xin said.

"Okay let's resume then!" Said Daisuke.

"Yeah!" Xin shouted.

His uncle then used his fastest strikes in chain attacks. Xin was hit sometimes but was able to dodge others.

"I can see it! His trajectory, his flow, his power, his footing, his movements! It was all seen by my eyes! I will aim to be the fastest and the strongest!" Xin said.

"Daisuke was using his fastest to hit Xin. Even though Xin was able to dodge some of it.

'While enduring the pain, he was learning to evade at a very fast pace,' his master was surprised.

Xin was evading his strikes and Daisuke was getting faster and faster.

'Xin is getting faster on evading. He is coping up now,', Daisuke said in his mind.

'Yeah he is faster now but it was still not enough. Maybe in due time. He will beat me in swordsmanship,' Daisuke thought.

'He will be a great samurai in the future. Let us not hasten his growh but build up his core,' his master thought.

"Let's stop! You passed!" he muttered.

"Yes!" Xin never felt so alive from before.