Tale Of A Knight

When Sword Lord and Bakit arrived, Bakit did not notice there was a barrier before walking in head first and being knocked back due to the solid impact. The sensation was not unlike being slammed into a rock wall. It was clearly painful.

"No need to hurry so much, I need to give you the permission to enter first."

Master Zen now proceeded to place the palm of his hand upon Bakit"s forehead and whispered something Bakit could not quite hear.

"Ok, you can enter now"

Zenjuro now proceeded to walk through the barrier like it wasn"t there in the first place.

Bakit soon followed the suit.

Barrier apparently disguised what was behind it by showing an illusion of endless forest, but once Bakit crossed the barrier, he could see that behind it was a large plain area and there was so much beyond it that he could not see far enough.

To think Sword Lord owns such a large area…. is he some kind of a n.o.ble or royal or something?

"Master Zen, you told me you own this territory, are you by any chance a royalty? Or someone with high rank?"

"Not at all, this is the land pa.s.sed down by the Sword Lords, from one Sword Lord to the next; I received this land after my master pa.s.sed down his mantle to me."

"Is that so, I see. But is the king or the n.o.bles ok with Sword Lord having such a large territory?"

"n.o.bles would rather let me have it than let anyone else try to handle it."

"Why is that?"

"Those"

Sword Lord now pointed at what at first seemed like swirling clouds, but they were now taking on a humanoid shape, spinning quickly.

The winds were getting heavier and heavier, Bakit felt that if the air was a little faster he would end up flying.

Their lower bodies were swirling tornadoes while their upper bodies were humanoid looking but made of clouds and air.

From within the folds of their swirling bodies, Bakit could barely make out glowing yellow eyes staring at them.

"Master….What the h.e.l.l are those things?"

"Wind spirits, also known as air elementals"

"Don"t tell me…"

Now a wind spirit proceeded to send a burst of sharp wind at a nearby tree, the top of it now ended up being cleanly cut off.

"Exactly, your training involves getting towards the inner layer of this territory. There are five layers in total; each one has different type of elemental spirits, and it is your task to get towards the center while fighting off the onslaught of the elementals."

"But if those things end up landing one hit it will kill me!"

"No worrier, I have this for you to take care of this."

Zen proceeded to put a single necklace with a talisman attached to it on Bakit neck.

"I have one as well, these are magic items that protect you from being killed by wind based attacks, though it will still be very painful if you get struck by them, so don"t do that."

"That doesn"t make it any better!"

"Anyways, now you see why you had to learn how to generate and counter air slashes in the first place. I told you it was a prerequisite for your real training, and that training will start here. If you had not learned air slashes, you would be killed in an instant."

"So the reason the n.o.bles are ok with Sword Lords with having this territory is because…."

"This territory is too dangerous, even those of level of Holy Swords would be in danger here. Last thing they would want is to have immortal elemental spirits on the loose, so using this territory while making sure the barrier is active is Sword Lord"s duty."

"I see."

"The First Sword Lord had placed the barrier around the entire territory to protect people from spirits, but then he found out that the best way to train his successor is to have him pitted against spirits, so it has been the traditional way of training Sword Lords ever since."

"Was the First Sword Lord completely insane?"

"Don"t worry, you will get used to it, though keep in mind, the further you go into the territory, the more aggressive the wind spirits will become, and if you are not careful, even with the magic item on you, you might get killed."

"Thank you for the words of a.s.surance."

"Simply, follow my lead."

Sword Lord now proceeded to walk further into the territory. The wind spirits were clearly not happy; they proceeded to send waves of air at him, one after another, but Sword Lord calmly deflected all of them as he casually walked forward.

One wind spirit even sent a small tornado in Sword Lord"s direction, but it was quickly dispelled with Sword Lord swiftly cutting through it.

"This is insane." Bakit muttered as he watched his teacher cut through seemingly endless waves of air slashes, waves, tornadoes, and projectiles. Seemingly nothing could stop him.

"I guess it is my turn."

Brandishing his sword, his blade clenched tightly in his sole hand, Bakit walked forward, unsure of how far he can make it.

* * *

"Fifteen meters. I suppose it"s not bad for your first try."

Master Zen and Bakit were now outside the barrier, with completely bruised up Bakit with his back on the ground.

The talisman may have prevented the air slashes from cutting through Bakit"s body, but he could still feel the blunt impacts.

It was like being hit by sledge hammer multiple times.

He managed to counter many of the air slashes, but they kept coming at him, there was no way he could counter them all.

One by one, he was overwhelmed and then thrown back, his body limply rolling back across the ground.

The objective was to cross the first layer of this territory, the layer occupied by wind elementals. But the task is easier said than done.

"I did not expect you to be able to make it on your first try, no need to be too hard on yourself."

"It seemed so easy when you were doing it, master."

"I was trained by my master for ten years before becoming a Sword Lord, and since then I have had twenty years to hone my skills."

"That would explain a lot." Bakit muttered, his whole body now was in agonizing pain.

Maybe this is what it feels like to go through a meat grinder…

"I suppose that will be all for today. Any time you can, come here to train, your goal is simple, cross over the first layer. Afterwards, call me and you can move on to the next level."

"Next Level? Do you mean there is more than one?"

"Of course, did you think the entire training only involves the wind spirits?"

"Oh…"

"You will see when you get there. Until you manage to cross the layer with wind elementals, I shall do nothing. You already know how to handle them, now you have to learn how to apply the technique that it taught you. The more you attempt to go forward, the more experience you gain, allowing you to get stronger in the process. However, it is entirely up to you how long it will take you to cross this layer. Just so you know; it took me two years to cross this layer when I was learning from my master."

"Two years…So it takes that long huh? Wow…"

"Though I was only five years old when my master started training me, so it was only natural."

What the heck is wrong with this guy? He learned how to cross this wind elemental purgatory at the age of seven? He is a monster!

"Since I gave you my permission, you can come here at any time you wish to hone your skills. None else can enter the barrier though and the spirits inside cannot escape it either. They are effectively trapped, with only Sword Lord and his pupils able to enter and exit as they wish."

"Understood." Bakit gulped.

This training of his turned out to be far harsher than he ever thought.

Who knew his training would be trying to survive the mighty attacks by elemental spirits?