When this round of competition ended, arena master announced the top thirty two and the participants could finally get some rest. Many haven't had any water the whole day and the thirst was hurting them even worse than the wooden sticks of their opponents. They quickly dispersed along with the spectators.
Nick ran off as well. He knew there might be some trouble because of the arrogant aristocrat he killed and after changing his clothes and making few detours, he returned to the inn.
The sun had already set, but both his companions were still not there, so he washed up, ate and practiced Qi while waiting for them.
After a while there was someone knocking at his door. When Nick opened it, he was greeted by the smiling face of Nazir. The old man came to brag about his winnings and to verify in which fight exactly Nick will take the fall.
While chatting Nick suddenly realized he almost let this god sent opportunity to slip by without asking for a guidance from extremely skillful and experienced Qi master who came knocking at his door by himself. Thus he explained the predicament and the old man was actually glad to help.
"You are looking at all this situation the wrong way. The fighting with seemingly harmless weapons suits your agile and quick fighting style well, it's just that you want to end the fight in an instant with the maximum effectiveness and minimum moves. In normal situation it would be absolutely correct, but here you have to use the other nature of your favorite weapon, dagger, not the 'one-hit silent killing'." Nazir smiled.
"You mean – cut the opponent till he bleeds to death from the amount of wounds and not their depth? But I only have a wooden stick and not my dagger." Nick was confused.
"That is why I am telling you that you are looking at this the wrong way." Nazir shook his head while still smiling. This boy in front of him sometimes was a genius, but sometimes couldn't see the obvious, "How would you describe my cultivation level?"
"Qi master, of course!"
"And yours?"
"Qi practitioner …" Nick started to think hard – the old man was definitely trying to say something obvious.
"And in both cases emphasis is on which part?" Nazir was basically spoon feeding him and couldn't hold back his laughter.
"Qi! The f*ck! How could I overlook it!" Nick was angry at himself and cursed.
"Exactly. I saw how you scaled the wall of the Holy Order's residence." The old man nodded while still laughing, "Your Qi manipulation is way above all other Qi practitioners and I bet you're capable of infusing Qi in a weapon as well, correct?"
Nick nodded, stretched out his palm and under the surprised eyes of Nazir a small whirlpool of thin mist formed. If they were not in a weakly illuminated room, he would have seen the dark blue color of that mist and would be even more shocked.
"You do realize that many Qi masters and not capable of doing this?" Nazir grew serious, "Are you sure you're just a Qi practitioner?"
"Mhm." Nick nodded, "It's just that I've been practicing to manipulate Qi as soon as I learned what that is."
"Not bad at all." The old man got up, went to the door, called a servant over and whispered something to him. Then, couple of minutes later, the servant came back with two wooden training swords. Nazir took them and sat back down.
"Alright, back to the main topic. Tell me, where can you find Qi?" He asked.
"Qi is everywhere in the world and in every single thing around us." Nick replied with the common knowledge.
"Good. And what is the nature of Qi in the hands of a Qi master?"
Nick thought for a while. He still remembered elder Sonor's lecture very well, but it looked like Nazir wanted him to think of something that distinguished the Qi masters from any other living being.
"Ability to change Qi according to masters will and allowing it to take any form and …" Nick's eyes lit up, "Qi is the essence of everything in the world and thus it can become anything in a skilled masters hands! It can become object or an action, it can bring life and take it as well!"
"Uhm ..." Nazir got stunned for a moment and then smiled, "Actually, in theory that is true, but I didn't want to go that deep. But since you're able to understand that, let's look at it from such perspective. Most of the Qi masters are able to infuse Qi in their weapons and armor thus strengthen those objects. But the best are able to manifest Qi in object-like forms, like a small knife or a needle and use them as real items. For you it's impossible no matter how abnormal you already are, at least for now."
At this moment the old man glanced at Nick with a serious expression and thought for a minute as if imagining how the young genius will develop in future. Then took the wooden sword, raised it a bit and Nick could see a thin line of Qi forming around the blade.
"It doesn't matter that the sword is just a wooden stick, you force it to become a real sword by using your Qi and not just strengthen it by infusing Qi in the object!" Nick finally understood what the old master wanted to teach him.
Actually the youth dug too deep this time as well, but Nazir pondered for a bit and realized that it was even better this way. The conceptual understanding of Qi that Nick had was above that of many Qi masters and, if he continued to practice, who knows, maybe one day he would reach one of the legendary states which were only described on ancient parchments and were thought of being impossible to reach.
While the old man was lost in thoughts, Nick grabbed the second sword and started to experiment, forgetting everything around him. The old man watched for a while, then smiled, shook his head and on the way out said, "Don't forget, even if you manage to achieve even a small part of what I showed, tomorrow you can't demonstrate any of it. Your opponent can receive bruises and light wounds and it would be even better if you cause only light damage and your opponents loose seemingly because of the fatigue. Tomorrow there will be only thirty one fights on total and you'll have three yourself, correct? The fights will be longer and fiercer and it will be normal for someone to feint from exhaustion after receiving a bit of damage."
Nick nodded back seriously and understood the implications – if anyone noticed how he could manipulate Qi, he would be taken for a Qi master despite his youthful appearance and the consequences while unpredictable, were definitely not good.
Nazir left, but Nick continued to practice for two more hours until Steven came back. The latter was very tired, but burned with optimism.
"It is as I thought, there's a regular gap in patrols, most likely during the shift change." Steven excitedly said.
"Good. Tomorrow I should be able to enter the castle and, just in case there is some further development, try to be back earlier." Nick smiled back, then got up and went to leave the same message for Clayton as well.
When he returned, he immediately went to bed – there were only few hours left till the first fight and he had to be fully rested. All the other youths in the top thirty two were the continent's best and he couldn't allow any slip-ups.
The arena was as lively as during the previous days and this time participants could enter it right away. All of them had learned from their experience and brought few bottles of water each. The new addition was the huge board at the far end of the arena that had the names of all thirty two participants. Now they could see the names of their current opponents and could figure out the next ones as well, or at least have an idea from which pair the next opponent would come from.
Nick's next battle was with a good swordsman, named Salah, but there was nothing particular that distinguished him. Thus, Nick sat and practiced Qi while waiting for the round to start.
When the emperor Osman arrived, everyone fell on their knees as per usual and then the fights began. From the first two duels it was already noticeable that participants made some alterations to their style and had practiced, at least in their minds. The stakes were high for everyone, even for Nick – just in a different way.
Nick's fight was the fourth and it was soon his turn. Earlier he found a wooden sword that was shorter than the others and just a bit longer than his Wakizashi, therefore he was much more comfortable when confronting Salah compared to his last duel yesterday.
When the fight started, Nick approached it as a practice once again, but this time he concentrated at the Qi manipulation on the wooden stick in his hand and let his reflexes take care of the rest. He didn't try to immediately get close to his opponent, but rather parry few hits and return some of them by targeting Salah's hands and thighs.
After few exchanges Salah's wooden sword broke when parrying Nick's attack and Nick stooped to wait for his opponent to get another one. The old man was right, today he had to play the long game and the first fights already were much longer than any other during the previous days. Just a moment ago Nick got careless and his wooden stick infused with Qi almost cut the opponent's sword in half, therefore he tried to pay more attention to his Qi flow and let the other person make a mistake.
After three more minutes of them 'dancing' around each other, Salah, after missing a stab to Nick's chest, got hit two times on the shoulder and two more times on his thigh and basically became immobilized. His forehead was covered in perspiration from pain and stress and a minute later Nick nimbly slid behind him and knocked Salah out with a hit on the back of his head.
For many gamblers in spectator seats as well as Nick's opponents this was an eye opener since they didn't expect him to be able to fight head on for a longer period. They thought he was a rogue in sheep's clothing only capable of a sudden stealth attack and maybe could take a hit or two as well, but the footwork he showed this time was the sign of a diligent training.
Nick didn't bother with that, but went back to prepare for the next fight against the only remaining spear user Faiz who had the fight right before his. To Nick's deep annoyance, he had to acknowledge that Faiz was even harder opponent for him than the double sword wielder Jamal. The spear, or rather, the wooden pole, was fast and heavy, and its nature made it hard to get close to the wielder. That was also the reason for Faiz's previous fight lasting over ten minutes before he knocked out his opponent with a clean hit on the head.
The good news was that this was the last fight Nick had to win before advancing to the top eight, therefore he didn't pay anymore attention to the others and focused on figuring out Faiz's weaknesses.
Twelve fights and two and a half hours later the next round started and Nick still had no idea on how to deal with his opponent. Thus, he decided to relax his mind and let the body do the work. During the previous fight he noticed how he instinctively tried to avoid touching the ground by any means possible because of the dirt and the blood stench it had. This time he resolved to not care about squatting, rolling or diving in the arena sand if needed, because the long spear in Faiz's hands was harder to dodge than all the swords of his previous opponents combined.