Blood manipulation was somewhat easy to control because at the very least, you could see blood flowing and know how it works. But that isn’t the case for many other parts of my physical body.
I did try to control hormones, but since I don’t actually see them working, I couldn’t tell if it had worked or not. Which brought me to the next problem. Flow… Flow’s a bitch. I said it and I meant it.
To understand flow, flow is simply the nature of how things work. An apple would fall to the ground; a man would die after his heart stops… The natural way of how things work. That is the flow.
In swordsmanship, flow is the basic counter-attack technique of the Water God Style. And to use flow, you have to see it. I wasn’t able to literally see flow. Seeing the flow of the attack, guessing where the opponent would be, and redirecting their attacks, sure. But how do you see Flow?
I suppose saying that doesn’t make sense, so I’ll explain it differently. It’s like telling someone to see mana. I mean, I could… but if I told Paul the same thing, I could imagine his expression.
We were in a random waterfall somewhere along the way. I have no idea as to how Reida had found the place. Under the constant battering of noise of water splashing, Reida attacked, and Isolde watched as I constantly deflected and dodged attacks.
“How did you manage to learn Flow so fast? It’s only been like… three days since I taught you.”
“In what part do I look like I’m flowing?”
“Then how else are you dodging so well?”
“…”
The memories of not getting injured from the residue shockwave of a certain grumpy boss came to mind. Whatever the case, seeing how well I was flowing by dodging and countering, Reida decided that I was using flow correctly, and we settled at that.
“Can you take a guess as to what the five secret arts are related to?”
“Perception.”
“…?!”
I answered. That was my honest belief. I mean, it was quite obvious. Like it or not, a sword is still a sword, so obviously it’ll be sharp enough to cut someone down. So how is it that Water God Style users can’t attack?
Rather than saying they can’t, it’s more likely that there are no techniques made for attacking. And since it's a defensive stance, the techniques must be to support the person’s perception in order to fight against opponents that are stronger, faster, and such. Therefore…
“The five secret arts correspond to the five senses of touch, taste, sight, smell, and hearing."
Both Isolde and Reida were staring at me blankly with shock. I mean, I would be shocked too if something called the secret arts could be so easily deduced like that.
“Pft-”
“AHAHAHAHA! Ow, ow, my old back. Hahaha!”
… Or not. Isolde was giggling while Reida nearly died from laughter.
“HAHAHAHA! What? Am I supposed to interpret that my self-created Water God Style Secret Art—Deprivation Kingdom, made from the two hardest arts—is based on TASTING the opponent?”
“Pft-HaHAHAHA… How did you even come up with that, Laurel?”
… I… have been making way too many blunders lately. Perhaps I should check my fortunes from now on.
“But you’re close.”
Said Reida, after having her fill of laughter.
“It is based on the senses, just not those kinds of senses.”
We ended up discussing a little more about the five secret arts before Reida left, saying something had come up. She told me to either go to the Water God dojo in Asura or the Sword Sanctum to improve my swordsmanship in the future.
…
As of the present, I can confidently claim myself as strong. Not the strongest, but enough for me to claim that I could fight toe to toe with strong people.
One reason was my own martial progress. Setting aside magic, I am a Saint-ranked Swordsman in all three styles. Even with the sword alone, I was already among the top hierarchy, capable of clashing against those of King and Emperor rank without dying.
The reason why I’m that confident that I could actually pull that off is because my combat style was more similar to that of a beast… Well, a lot dirtier and more vicious than that of an actual beast, to be fair.
The North God Style had always been to use whatever means to survive, meaning they often win against stronger opponents through trickery. The downside is that most relied solely on trickery, and trickery can only manage to get one so far.
However, I wasn’t just tricky; I was ludicrous. I was half mad; erratic, varied in means, highly foul-played, and good at hiding as well as aiming for blind spots. You’ll find no opponent as vicious nor hard to kill as I am.
If I added attacks that affect the senses and movement, along with blood manipulation and telekinesis, as well as roaring, I could confidently say that I could catch even an Emperor rank off guard and kill them. And I haven’t even included shadow magic.
Even if I didn’t use magic, I still have aura manipulation, gained after reaching Saint rank, North God Style. when I teleported to the North. If I push it to the limits, giving up all defenses for speed and sharpness, I could fight toe-to-toe with an Emperor rank during a blood high state, eventually killing said foe.
Especially now that I managed to learn Flow—albeit imperfectly, killing me was going to be an even greater hassle. Countering does not need excessive force; that means I could max out defense, layering aura and mana together like armor intertwined with thick fat, absorbing shockwaves and deflecting damage.
That said, I don’t intend on abusing my body to fight an opponent of that realm or higher. In fact, I avoided fighting King-rank opponents. Fighting on that level depended highly on luck, and I was not someone with great fortune to be recklessly betting on my life.
“…”
It was a long and horrendous journey. Six months filled with nothing but gruesome mercenary work, assassinations, adventuring, business, and countless more… But it was at its end.
While it’s true that I slightly dread the idea of the crazy Guild Master coming along, she was, without a doubt, far more reliable than anyone else. I was without a question that going with that woman guaranteed safety; even her prices were going to be worth more than a few pairs of arms or legs—hell, even my whole body wasn’t going to be enough.
While the battle between Orsted and Hitogami had yet to begin, that was a matter of the future.
“Vast Expanse! Move out!”
“Yes, sir!”
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