Tale Of A Knight

As Mekros"s apprentice, I still have three days free per week to myself. Mekros says that one day of training has to be followed by a single day of rest. I will have to disobey that because my new teacher asked me to come by when I am free. He even told me of a specific location-apparently he owned land under his own name. Specifically it was an area with countless dead trees, gra.s.s that reached the height of a grown man, and a river nearby. It looked like the place wasn"t taken cared of for a long time.

"Oh? So you really came, huh?" Sword Lord said casually.

"Yes, Master Zen."

"Master Zen, I like the sound of that!" Sword Lord was sitting on top of an enormous boulder from which he proceeded to jump down towards the ground.

"Before we begin, you should know that the type of training I give is not going to be simple. If under any circ.u.mstances you want to stop being a disciple under me you are free to go."

"Understood" I nodded.

"Very well then. First I shall explain to you what exactly I will be teaching you. The craft I have true mastery of is simply Swordsmanship, nothing else."

Seeing that I looked confused, he continued.

"Swordsmanship is not as simple as many like to believe. Progress requires a lot of hard work and determination. If you lack either then you will never get stronger. As for how I am going to teach you- I believe learning with your body." He now took two wooden swords out of his backpack. Unlike Mekros"s wooden swords that were shaped like double sided swords, his wooden swords resembled a katana, in a sense a bokken.

He tossed one of the bokken to me which I caught with my right arm. He gripped his own sword with his left hand.

Now he stepped away about fifteen meters away from me.

"Apprentice, I shall attack you from here. Do your best to defend yourself."

I wasn"t sure what he was doing. He was too far away. There was no way for him to attack me other than throwing his weapon at me.

Then he swung his sword.

What I felt after a split second was the sensation of being hit across my body, hard. I ended up being thrown backwards, clutching chest in pain.

"I did say to defend yourself, did I not?"

"Master! That"s just not fair! Using long range wind magic in order to enhance your swordsmanship!" I asked Mekros how a swordsman can deliver a strike without touching the faraway target, the simplest way was to use wind magic in conjunction with swordsmanship for devastating effects.

"You seem to have the wrong idea, my disciple" Master Zen pointed at his neck which now I saw had a black collar on it. "This is a mana cancelation collar. While I wear it I can"t use mana, much less magic."

"Are you telling me that was not wind magic but just the power of your swing?" This teacher of mine is unbelievable.

"In a sense it is just air moving due to my sword swing, transferring the force into it. No magic involved. Just plain air pressure. I was trying to make it as weak as possible so that it wouldn"t cause too much damage to you." No kidding, he was actually going easy on me. "I asked you to stand far away for exact same reason."

"What would happen if I stand next to you when you swing the sword?" I curiously asked.

"Well…" Sword Lord swung the sword with his left arm. There was a large tree five meters to the left of him. Now the top half of the tree ended up being chopped off and fell down. "If my weapon was sharper the cut would have been cleaner." This guy was too humble. He is without a doubt a monster. "Well then shall we continue? Defend yourself!"

He unleashed a barrage of air slashes one after another. I jumped, ducked, and generally tried to avoid the slashes, to no avail. Even if I avoided the slashes, the shock wave through the air threw me completely off balance. Then I was. .h.i.t straight on with an air slash, causing me to flip over in air before falling face first into the mud.

"Avoiding them will not do you much good. The only way to stop it is to counter it."

I see, so I have to counter….that.

He proceeded to slash the air three times in a span of a second, unleashing three air slashes at me which felt like I was rammed by dull spears. Panting for breath and beaten up, I stood up again.

With the bokutto in my hand, I will have to block his attacks.

Seeing my stance, he unleashed another air slash, aimed at my chest area.

This time I blocked it.

But instead of stopping it, I was pushed back by the force, throwing me down on the ground. Apparently just blocking it will not help me at all.

"You can stop them only if you apply equal or greater force into your swings, otherwise they will continue with their trajectory." Sword Lord said calmly.

Needless to say, it was the most painful training of my life.

"Don"t think too badly, you did rather well for your first lesson."

"How exactly I did well, master. As far as I know I was just a hitting sack for your sword" my entire body and head was covered in bruises. This teacher, he does not take it easy at all.

"You learn with your body. If you don"t want to receive damage you block with your own strength."

"But if I don"t have that kind of strength?"

"Then you have to obtain it. And by strength I don"t mean physical strength, of course that would help as well. You have to develop your own technique."

"Can"t you just teach me a technique?"

"No, you have to develop it yourself. Trial and error that is how you are going to improve."

"Could you tell me why your former student quit?"

"I just gave them the same training I gave you today, nothing more."

"I see" Bakit now knew why this guy never kept an apprentice even though he was so famous, he was simply too much. But Bakit knew this was an opportunity too great to pa.s.s up.

"I guess I am going to get smacked a lot in the future then." Bakit remarked.

"Provided that you will keep coming to the practices, no?"

"I will come. I definitely will come." Bakit replied.

"Hm, that is surely surprising. All of my other apprentice candidates ran away after the very first practice, they looked scared. Hey, Lad, aren"t you scared?"

"Not really."

"Good to hear." The truth is, Sword Lord was not very good at holding back, so every time he trained someone, he tended to go way overboard. He could control himself and make sure his sword slashes wouldn"t cut anyone, but the impact was still very strong. In a sense long distance air slash from him felt like being hit by a spear with a dull tip. And that is how much force he is applying from long distance, Bakit couldn"t imagine what could happen to an opponent that came too close or if Sword Lord was not wearing magic cancellation collar on himself.

"Still, Zen Sensei, it is surprising that you use your left hand for swordsmanship instead of your right."

"Oh that? I can use both hands to wield swords, but I must say I prefer my right hand."

"Then why did you use your left hand all the while training me?"

"Well, you see…" He took the wooden sword with his right hand and gently swung it. The vibration could be heard through the air for a moment, then a sound of impact from very far away, on the side of a mountain where gigantic trees were.

One of the gigantic trees that were about hundred meters away from us now toppled over and fell. They approached the tree and the place of the impact matched the mark of the wooden sword.

"No way…."

"Yeah, if I were to use my right hand while sparring with you, even with a wooden sword, I am afraid you would be killed."

Bakit gulped "Understood."

"Still it is good for reference, is it not?" He swung the sword downward with his right hand again at a tree near him. The tree was gigantic, but the moment the wooden sword collided with it the wood ended up being completely pulverized. It in a sense reminded Bakit how a watermelon could explode after hitting it with a club.

The chips of wood were everywhere, but no tree in sight anymore. It literally exploded. Only a stump remained in its place.

"Well, that"s that I suppose." He took a single chip of wood and used it as a toothpick. "Come by again next time, I will be here to train you."

"Yes, Sensei" Bakit bowed and left.

After Bakit left, Sword Lord wondered.

"He really is a strange kid, he clearly saw how much our power difference is, but there was no trace of fear in him. That"s good. Only someone who can suppress his fear can walk the true path of a swordsman." The people he tried to recruit as apprentices before failed due to feeling terror at how powerful he was, they couldn"t take even single dull air slash before running away. Just when he thought he that none would be willing to be his apprentice, this kid shows up, practically out of nowhere. When he first saw him, Sword Lord was not impressed. His abilities were all below average, he could tell as much. But then, while fighting the plant monster, Sword Lord caught a glimpse of the true character of the lad. His eyes had no fear in them, only a fighting spirit, and no trace of terror or self-preservation, just a man calmly facing his opponent. He accepted being Sword Lord"s apprentice even though the training regimen would be extremely harsh, and unlike his other former pupils, he didn"t quit, he insisted at learning more from him.

"Well, I suppose weird people sure are stubborn when it comes to doing what we want. But I am the same way; I guess that is why my teacher chose me as his apprentice." In his mind, Sword Lord was glad to have finally found a worthy apprentice.