Chương 72: Book 2 Chapter 24 - A Large Demonstration

Jaden had nudged his horse closer, and was listening in on their conversation. He was a few years older than Zoey.

"Have you learned any concepts?" Kiara asked him.

"Do I have to answer that, my lady?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It's taboo to ask someone about their powers and strengths," Zoey explained.

"A lot of people like to keep it secret, especially in our line of work. If your secrets get out, someone can use them against you more easily."

"Ah… my apologies," Kiara said. Jaden bowed his head.

"No offense taken, my lady."

"I'm not too worried if people know what concepts I have," Zoey continued.

"I don't plan on staying at tier 3 for too much longer. Hopefully within a year I can advance to tier 4." Jaden looked at her with a hint of envy.

"I've been trying to advance for years now. I haven't been able to figure it out yet. I don't feel stuck, I think it should be possible for me to advance, I just can't quite make it happen." Zoey nodded sympathetically.

"Forgive my lack of etiquette," Kiara said, "I don't really know what I can and can't ask about. I'll just ask whatever I'm curious about, but don't feel like you need to answer, either one of you. Having said that, what step are you stuck on in your advancement, Jaden?" He stared into the distance for a moment, then decided it was okay to respond.

"I strengthened my meridians, like Zoey mentioned, and I… I did develop a concept. But so far, I can't seem to grow my core size at all."

"Maybe you didn't develop a proper foundation?" Zoey offered. Jaden shrugged.

"Maybe, it's hard to know sometimes."

"What does it mean to develop a proper foundation?" Kiara asked.

"If you take shortcuts to advance more quickly," Zoey explained, "it can get you to the next tier faster, but can limit your future growth. For example, If you don't compress your core properly at tier 2, it can affect your ability to grow or compress your core at tier 3. It also affects how much mana you can hold in your body. A slow, thorough approach is best if you want to ensure your maximum potential."

"How do you know if you've done it right?" Kiara asked. They both shrugged. Jaden was the first to respond.

"There's a bit of guesswork. The instructors can help offer guidance at the academy, but you also just go by feel. I haven't ever felt like I was rushing things. Maybe tier 4 will be my limit though, so it's just harder to take that final step? Or maybe I truly have plateaued, I'm not sure."

"What comes after you advance to tier 4?" Kiara asked. Zoey and Jaden shared a look, each questioning if the other knew. Apparently neither of them did. Zoey shrugged.

"No clue. They only taught us how to get to tier 4 at the academy. Not many people make it past that point. I guess once we advance we'll have to figure it out on our own, or find a mentor."

"Hey," Kiara asked Zoey suddenly.

"We've got plenty of open space around us now, want to give us a demonstration of your full power?" Zoey blushed slightly, but also looked excited at the prospect. When they stopped for the night to set up camp, Zoey offered them all said full demonstration. It was getting dark out, but Zoey assured them it wouldn't matter. She moved apart from the group, giving herself enough space to not worry about hurting anyone by accident. She seemed especially worried about hurting Kiara, which Kiara got a kick out of.

Then again, she remembered how Victor's magic was able to affect her, and decided maybe it was a good thing that Zoey was giving them some space. Just in case. Zoey started with a large tornado, much larger this time, with her at the center. The wind quickly picked up speed within her area of control, and was soon whipping around her at frantic speeds. The dust from the ground around her was picked up too, giving visuals to the wind speed. It was just light enough out to see, and it was a sight to behold.

Wind wasn't her strength though. She began adding fire to the mix, until a literal fire tornado was ripping through the area around her, eviscerating all of the grass and small plants. Now Kiara knew why Zoey wasn't worried about it being dark out. This display could probably be seen from miles away at this time of night. Long, thin whips of glowing water appeared in Zoey's hands, which she used like whips. They cracked as she whirled them around herself in specific patterns.

They left massive gashes in the ground wherever they hit, showcasing their destructive potential. She showed her accuracy by repeatedly whipping the same area of ground, gouging the small ravine deeper and deeper with each hit. The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Suddenly, the fire, still spinning rapidly around her, gathered tighter and tighter, going higher into the air.

Then, it all came crashing down onto her, flowing around her head and torso, down her arm, and blasting out in the direction she was pointing. There was a lot of fire mana, and the massive jet of flames lasted five whole seconds, leaving a dark, scorched patch of earth behind that they could all see clearly the next day. The entire display lasted maybe thirty seconds, and Kiara loved every second of it.

She couldn't help but contrast it with the massive lightning bolt the bandit had hit her with on her trip to Portish. Zoey's display was far and away superior, in every way. Jaden's eyes were wide as he watched, and they got wider the longer it went. Kiara heard him whisper to himself.

"Whoa, she's stronnng." The tier 2 guards were left speechless as well, and talked about the display quite a bit the following day as they rode. Zoey was clearly proud of her abilities, and rightfully so. * Monday, Kiara returned to her sword class. The past few weeks had been busy, and she hadn't checked the leaderboard at the end of either week like she normally did. She checked it before class, finding that she had 83 points.

The bottom two in the class had 70 and 73, so even with her missed days she still wasn't in too much danger of flunking out. Her leg was still healing, and she didn't feel comfortable going all out in her personal training time, but the dueling collars limited how fast she could move during a spar, so she still participated in the spars. She had missed her second spar with Henry on Thursday the previous week, so she wasn't sure how she stacked up against his skill level now.

While watching him spar, she was able to follow his movements fairly cleanly, unlike at the beginning of the semester, when she had felt there was a massive chasm between their skill levels. Interestingly though, she didn't spot as many openings in his execution of the forms as she did when watching others do them, although some of that might be attributed to his opponents being unable to press him very well. Olga still impressed Kiara with her positioning.

It was impossible to draw an opponent into terrain they didn't want to be in, but Olga was good enough to force them backwards into it. She positioned herself properly, then pressed the attack in a way that moved the fight where she wanted it to be. A few students in the class were versed enough in their sword forms to avoid letting her push them around, and she tended to lose those spars. All that week, Kiara kept focusing on the three forms she didn't feel like she'd mastered yet, while letting her leg heal.

She continued practicing modified versions of the forms in her spars, but was getting good enough at them now that she rarely lost anymore. A few of the better students still beat her, but she hadn't tried going all out against them, preferring instead to practice what she was trying to learn. The spars offered valuable learning experience that she didn't want to give up just to win a few extra points.

It was clear at this point that she wasn't going to finish in the top two in class, or the bottom two either, so learning was the priority now. With how often she won her spars now, she didn't need to teach the beginner's class to remain out of the bottom two, so she spent that time practicing instead. She ended the week with 96 points. The following week, Kiara's leg was healed enough to use it completely, without worrying about re-opening the wound.

She practiced at full speed, relishing the feeling since she had been taking it easy for a week and a half. Partway through the week, one of the three forms she was practicing finally clicked into place. She felt the mastery settle in like it had for the other forms she had mastered previously. The following day, the other two forms followed suit. It happened at night, when she was practicing at home. She mastered the two forms about an hour apart from each other.

As the final one settled into both her muscle memory and her mental model of how the forms all fit together, she felt elated. She could flow through each form without having to consciously focus on it now, as well as transition between them all seamlessly. They all fit together into one, unified whole, each an integral part of the larger sword theory. It was like each sword form made up a segment of a circle, and the final few segments had just clicked into place for her.

She did notice, though, that the 'circle' still had holes in it. The forms she had learned were the most common, and according to Handel, a solid foundation, but were not an exhaustive list, by any means. As she continued practicing, she was able to intuit new sword forms that took principles and concepts from some of the other forms and combined them, filling in those gaps in her theoretical model.

The new forms, while being ones that helped fill certain gaps she saw in her existing framework, weren't ones that she had ever seen practiced by anyone. There were also a lot of them, although she wasn't sure if they were truly needed. The nine forms she had already mastered did seem to form a complete and unified whole, without any major weaknesses in her ability to attack or defend. Even so, she mentally listed practicing those new form combinations and principles as something she could work on eventually.

For now, she wanted to focus on mastering the terrain around her. The following week, she focused on practicing modifications to the three forms she had just mastered during her spars, and ended the week feeling good in that area. She spent her personal time practicing moving through all nine sword forms in different terrain. She got good at flowing through them while higher than her opponent, while lower than her opponent, while standing in an area with unsure footing, or on the slant of a hill.

The next week, the final normal week of the semester, she worked on forcing her opponents into different terrain types, putting her personal practice to use. She ended the 12 weeks of normal class and spars with 131 points, ranked 24th out of 30 in the class. She quickly scanned the list for the other names she had been keeping an eye on. Ron, the man who had advanced from the beginner's class with her, had 141 points. Seltzer had 162, Olga had 170, and Henry was at the top of the class with 200.

Kiara had never seen either Olga nor Seltzer teach the beginner's class, which explained their middle-of-the-pack scores. She did the mental math, and realized that if they had, Olga would likely be tied with Henry for first place, and Seltzer would be ranked fifth. She had rarely seen either of them lose, although they all did occasionally lose, even Henry. With how handily she had beaten Seltzer in their last spar though, she had high hopes for how she might perform in the class tournament the following week.

That final day after class, Kiara stayed late again to train some more. An hour into her session, Handel appeared.