Emperors War

Vance dodged Aker"s spear stab as he returned a saber strike. Aker had already antic.i.p.ated Vance dodging using a feint and was prepared to dodge himself and stab with his spear. After over six months of daily training with Vance, Aker was finally going to defeat him.

As Aker dodged to the right and prepared to stab, Vance"s saber turned and sliced down in one smooth motion. The feint was not a feint and was the actual attack. Aker understood immediately that he had miscalculated recovered by putting the spear over his shoulder and crouching down swinging his right leg out and slamming his left hand on the ground. Aker was now making a V shape with the ground and the spear.

Vance"s saber struck the spear and glanced away; Aker had countered Vance"s strike, albeit due to his earlier mistake it was not perfect, but it was effective. From the low position Aker was in he took the spear that was resting on his shoulder and slid his hand down to grab it at the end and in one smooth motion swung it out wide at Vance"s legs.

Vance had antic.i.p.ated this move and jumped in the air just as Aker"s hand reached the end of the spear shaft. Vance while in the air pulled out two throwing darts and tossed them at Aker. Vance had never been an advocate of using throwing darts but after fighting Aker so many times he had truly become a fan. Throwing darts could be used for so many different tactics it really was a great little weapon. In this case Vance was only using the throwing darts to prevent Aker from attacking while he was defenselessly jumping through the air.

Aker seeing the throwing darts speed toward him kicked his feet into the air and went into a one-handed cartwheel narrowly dodging the throwing darts, his spear in the other hand just missed Vance due to the trajectory change caused by the throwing darts.

From the one-handed cartwheel as soon as Aker was standing, he tossed the spear at Vance who was coming falling to the ground. The spear shot at Vance with enough force that if it struck him it would certainly tear into his shoulder.

Vance without any option used the half swording method of holding the hilt and the saber blade, one hand on the hilt the other hand held near the top of the saber blade in order to deflect the spear. With a loud "dang" the spear and saber met, the spear was knocked away and Vance"s feet landed firmly on the ground.

Just as Vance"s feet hit the ground Aker was already attacking with a punch. Vance dropped the saber in his and used a parry to knock the punch away. Vance"s hand went from a closed fist parry after knocking away Aker"s hand to an open-handed grab.

Vance now holding Aker"s arm used Aker"s momentum to pull him back and sling him over his shoulder.

Aker feeling that Vance was going try and toss him after grabbing his arm jumped with Vance"s throw thus taking control of the situation and landing on his feet about two meters away. Both Vance and Aker were standing there staring at one another not saying a word.

Over the last six months this was how the two would practice every day. They would fight against each other for a few hours straight and Vance would toss out tid bits of advice on how Aker could improve himself.

Initially Vance would talk non-stop as they fought, constantly critiquing Aker on how to improve his form, when to feint, when to watch out for feints, and how to counter. In any given fight they would cycle through a half dozen weapons as they would both try and use whatever they could to try and gain the advantage over the other.

After they had been fighting for a month Vance started to notice a glaring weakness in Aker"s battle capabilities, Aker only fought with weapons. As such for the better part of half a year Vance would force Aker into a situation where he would have to fight hand to hand as well.

Initially Aker"s skill without a weapon was atrocious and frankly uncoordinated and hard to watch. Having to fight bare handed it was as though Aker had never practiced or fought in a battle in his life. Even still as he fought with Vance, he found himself struggling to adapt to attacking and defending without a weapon in his hand.

Perhaps it was a safety blanket for Aker but from his first struggle of life and death Aker had a weapon in hand. That moment that guard tossed that knife in front of Aker without saying a word and led him to the arena, as Aker stood in the center of the arena looking out into the crowd scared, Aker could still remember the feeling of grasping the knife tightly. Even now Aker keeps a knife on him at all times; while the sword has certainly become the weapon he is strongest with, the knife is the weapon he feels safest with.

Even though Aker"s improvement in hand to hand combat wasn"t at the level of genius he was still improving each day. It could only be said that he wasn"t a genius in hand to hand fighting when compared to his learning ability and capabilities in his other skills. If others were to hear that he was struggling in hand to hand combat and then they were too see him fight, they would be left with the thought "if that"s struggling then my best is failing". Interestingly enough the larger benefit he received from his hand to hand combat training was his deeper understanding of weapons in general.

Aker who had developed a sword seed unknowingly, was more adept at using a sword than he was at any other weapon, however there was still significant resistance from the sword in his hand. The primary driving factor behind this resistance was that Aker has been viewing the weapons he was using as tools and nothing more.

As Aker fought desperately against Vance moving between the different types of weapons and then onto different barehanded fighting styles, he was developing a new feeling towards all of the different types and styles of weapons. They were becoming no longer just tools to him as they started to become an extension of himself. The spear wasn"t just a spear, it became similar to his arm or a leg. He began to view the mult.i.tude of weapons in this way, and because of this he began to have a better understanding of the minute and intricate details between weapons.

A sword was meant to be a b.l.o.o.d.y beauty, it could dance in your hand and mesmerize your opponent. At times it could be as st.u.r.dy as a mountain while at other times it could be as soft as water. It could be as fast as the wind or as patient as an oriole waiting on the mantis.

The spear and staff are strong and mighty, they can both attack and defend simultaneously. The spear and staff can keep an enemy at bay while also exuding pressure that creates dread and fear in the opponent. The spear and staff bring to life the words, "an inch longer an inch stronger".

The saber knows no fear and only pushes forward no matter the cost. It defends only so that it can attack. Its will is dominance, its belief is itself.

While Aker didn"t come anywhere near mastering any of the new weapons he was utilizing, he did gain a deeper understanding of the similarities and difference between them at a rudimentary level. Utilizing different weapons that traditionally used different theories had Aker pondering concepts such as fast and slow as well as firm and soft.

Each day Aker would cook in the kitchen, and after half a year of Sampson and Aker creating together both of them had opened up new worlds to one another.

Aker"s skill in magic cooking had become mostly consistent as long as he cooked simple meals. a.s.suming Aker didn"t use more than four or five ingredients he could successfully cook his magic dish over ninety percent of the time. So far over this half year he hadn"t had anyone else besides himself try one of the dishes he used magic cooking to make but he was now comfortable with the idea of others giving it a try. Originally just as in his idea of using nature particles in the medic station and being afraid of hurting the patient, Aker felt the same way with his cooking, however he had been eating his own magic cooking for awhile without any issues.

The time Aker spent in the kitchen with Sampson would turn into a trial and error compet.i.tion between the two. Sampson had taught Aker more of the "common sense" of cooking in the outer Eastern Universe and Aker had taught Sampson the radical and extreme ideas of Earth"s cooking.

It wasn"t long until both Sampson and Aker were wildly creating outlandish dishes that combined the cooking styles of both. Each would watch the others face as they finished their experimental platter calling out "Try this!". Each wanted to finish first as the success rate was horrendous and most of the time the dishes they would create would be rejected by Hades as too cruel to use for torture.

They both struggled on with their creative ideas because occasionally one of them would create a dish that would cause the universe to pause in honor of and for the heavens to sing its praises on one of their creations. These dishes were far and few between, yet both of them agreed that suffering through the mountain of disgusting was worth it.

Vance would find himself irritated with Aker when he spent extended periods of time with Sampson. At those times Aker would fall into the abyss that is Sampson and he would act overly refined and scholarly which p.i.s.sed Vance right off.

When Aker wasn"t practicing with Vance, cooking with Sampson, forging with Mavis and learning the engineering behind the ships with Cap he was in his room alone drawing and practicing his dizi.

Initially Aker wanted to learn the dizi only so when he met up with Kara again he could play a tune with her, he found the thought of that exciting. However, as Aker practiced the dizi, even though he didn"t feel his progress was very good, he still found that he enjoyed reminiscing while playing. Playing the dizi had a calming effect on him that he didn"t get from anything else he did.

Perhaps it was due to him playing the dizi after fighting off the pirates and he now psychologically a.s.sociated the dizi with calming himself or perhaps it was because music had a way of calming the mind, body and soul. Whatever the reason, Aker would always play his dizi for a while before he began the process of absorbing nature particles.

Aker had discovered that when his mind was calm, he could absorb nature particles much faster. It wasn"t just the speed that the nature particles entered his body but also the speed at which his body was able to absorb them as well.

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Just as Aker and Vance finished a tough three-hour fight and Aker was catching his breath Caps voice called out over the speaker in the room "Vance come up to the bridge, we"re approaching our destination."

It had been a little over seven months since they left and while Aker was feeling cooped up, he was also enjoying this carefree life he had at the moment. He felt that every day was gratifying and rewarding but he also remembered the old saying "the morning sun doesn"t last all day".

Vance turned to Aker and with his trademark stoic aura called out "Are you sure that you still want to go down this path?"

Aker immediately understood Vance"s question. Vance was referencing the conversation they had as they stood and watched Alex cut down Alfred in the arena. Vance asked Aker whether he wanted to live a normal life and hope that he is left alone or a life filled with taking the world on and fighting against the heavens.

"I"m sure....nothing"s changed. I still need to pay back those people from The Pit and I want to see Alex"s face when I"m standing before him and he realizes who I am." Aker didn"t waver or hesitate in his answer. While he did find his time aboard the ship rewarding it was time go and experience the universe world by world.