11 Little Freak

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At some odd corner of the world, Wilson was currently walking under the sea, there was the usual non-caring expression on his face even though he was walking at what is considered as one of the 'Danger Zones' in this world. During his way here, he was welcomed by whirlpools, demonic beasts, ghosts of the cultivators who died at this very sea yet he just ignored all of them. It was like he was just walking on his yard.

It's not his fault though, it's just that he's way too spaced out that he don't have extra attention to pay for these things.

After some odd moments, Wilson showed a gratified smile.

"What a monster, it's just been 2 weeks and he's showing this much progress. He's on entirely different level compared to those little shits back home." This types of praises weren't empty, if only Sieg would know. But Wilson knew that it isn't still the time yet. It won't be for quite some time.

"What would those people who wanted to be my apprentices say if they saw his performance now? Would they still have the courage to stay? Hahaha…"

"I was just testing him out before. He unexpectedly showed his brilliance without him knowing it. The training I gave him would give even a 'Void Realm' a headache, yet he always manages to pass, be it barely."

He was truly looking forward to seeing what kind of expert he will be after a couple of years. Perhaps it would be possible for Sieg to visit him in his home afterall.

"Hmm?" Wilson averted his attention from the pagoda where Sieg is and finally payed attention to where he is. "Oh my how rude of me, I didn't intended to disturb your meal, carry on I bear no ill will."

The figure in front of him shook, it understood two things from Wilson's words.

One, is that this human wasn't paying attention to it and is only taking a leisurely stroll.

And two, this human is dangerous, very very dangerous.

"Well then, let's see what's the thing this place is hiding." Just like that, his figure blurred for a bit and the disappeared. He then reappeared at the core of the sea, where he stood in front of a huge sunken dome that looked like it is been here for quite some time.

There were no real entrances to this dome yet that didn't mean it is a hindrance for him for he can already see what's inside.

"Unbelievable! Just why in this world of all the places? You're 3rd of your kind that I saw here."

The 'thing' inside the dome shook. It's eyes nearly popped out from disbelief. It thought 'A Human? How!? And it is a very dangerous one at that!'

"It's been 90,000 years since I had a visitor! Human! Tell me your name!"

"Oh stop with your faćade you poor thing. Your kind ended a long time ago! You could tell right? I don't need to explain it."

"Hmph!"

"I'll take that as you courting death, but why should I grant you that? Do you honestly think that I don't know who you are?"

" *sigh* What does Senior want then? A man of your status surely doesn't need any of my things do you?"

"I want to give you a proposal…"

"What proposal?"

***

Last day before the deadline…

Sieg was now facing a beast wave, there were approximately 500 Dire Beasts in front of him. He saw bears, lions, eagles, wolves, and etc.

Even a Foundation Establishment cultivator's scalp would tingle from the mere sight of this. Sieg however was calm. He knew it too well this time. While they might be incarnations from real beast and mostly retain thier habits and traits, these beasts were lacking something important. That was experience.

The beast inside the array are only illusions, while they may have a huge chance of killing someone, it doesn't change the fact that they only act based from the instincts of the array. And that is to kill every one who enters. Beasts are no different from humans, they can also temper themselves using a real life or death battle if they die, that's too bad. If they don't then they would become efen more terrifying. Obviously, beasts from arrays can't do that.

As they charge in towards Sieg, they were leaving countless of dusts and uneven ground in their wake. It was truly a grand sight even though it was caused by mere illusions.

Sieg breathed in, he placed his hands on the hilt of his blade and his eyes emitted a fierce light as he charged towards the beast waves too. He activated the 'Auxilliary Trait' of his blade, as the coldness spread everywhere. The Blue Crystal wooden Blade became longer and the circular arm guard appeared. Sieg then pointed the blade forward and said:

"Imperial Dancing Blade Art First Dance: For The Light Of My Day!" Next, a fantastic scene happened. Sieg's speed reached a full throttle in just a second and he dashed through the first line of the beast wave. He was going so fast that the beast lost sight of him. The first wave of beast froze, then thier upped bodies disconneted to their lower bodies as the blood then splashed all over the place.

It was like they didn't even realized that Sieg's blade already went through them, their bodies weren't any wiser either. They didn't even realized that they died, which can still be seen on thier faces as they still wore those ferocious expressions.

The beasts behind them trembled, drenched with the blood of thier comrades, they looked at the youth with anger, confusion and fear. Even the aerial beasts halted, no dared to move it's like they're waiting for something.

Sieg looked at them, his face wearing an overwhelming fighting spirit while being amplified by the coldness of his blade. The strike earlier drained 10% of his Ki Reserves, the muscles on his legs were also hurting but he threw this all at the back of his head. He was in the middle of the fight, one carelessnes would be fatal.

Through the months of fighting these illusory beasts, Sieg developed a keener sense of danger thanks to the 'Deer Stance' and with all of these fights. He can also make accurate dodges and lessen some unnecessary movements so that he can last longer.

"What? Not coming?" Sieg taunted. His plan was already achieved, the reason why he didn't mind emptying 10% of his reserves is because he wanted to intimidate them, lessening thier morale, so that they won't be able to fight like usual.

His taunt was also another part of his plan, beasts have pride in them and it's occupying more space than thier intelligence. This would make them act recklessly and attack him mindlessly, this way their attacks would be more predictable.

And just like Sieg thought, the beasts eyes turned red making them charge at him without any remorse. Even the slightly more intelligent aerial beasts threw caution with the wind and dived towards him.

In response to all of this, Sieg merely smiled. He deactivated the 'Auxilliary Trait' of the blade to fan the flames. Then a strange glimmer appeared in his hand. The beasts heard him said:

"Gentle River Blade Art Ripple Stance: Returning Ripple"

Gentle River Blade Art was divided into 2 stances: Ripple Stance and Wave Stance. Since the technique excels on defence, Sieg really needed combat to master this technique and he needed a lot of attacks to recieve. Lots of them.

The glimmer covered the whole blade, making it look like it was covered in water. Sieg then noticed that a wolf was trying to bite his head off. The blade on Sieg's hand moved instinctively, he held the blade by the sheath and thrusted the hilt towards the throat of the wolf.

The wolf felt as if it swallowed a large fly, it body abruptly halted mid air and flew towards the other beasts beacause Sieg threw it. After doing so the air rippled ever so slightly around Sieg, causing the attacks of other beasts to be disrupted.

This is the power of the 'Gentle River Blade Art Ripple Stance'. It needed the user to successfully block, parry, disrupt an attack. After doing so, the user also need to circulated his/her Ki according to what's written on the stone tablet to release a ripple that would cause the same defence.

An example would be the wolf that Sieg threw earlier, by stabbing it's throat using the hilt of the blade, he disrupted the attack and at that same moment he circulated his Ki causing a ripple to emerge and disrupt all of the attacks around him.

Sieg then continued to defend attacks one after another. He will either block, disrupt or parry attacks using only a sheathed blade.

The beasts were getting more and more agitated, the can't land even just one attack to him. This would be considered as the biggest humiliation of thier lives. Their attack went even more frantic and desperate. Despite being pushed back over and over again they stood up without remorse, this in return made Sieg's progress in 'Gentle River Blade Art' skyrocket.

This cycle continued for four more hours.

***

"3rd Dance: Battlewolf's Fury." Sieg's whole body turned a bit illusory at this point, it was like he was weaving in and out of existence. Next he appeared in front of a beast and his right hand shook which was the one that's holding the hilt of the blade. This scenario happened all over the place and everytime it did, a beast would split in half. After a few more minutes the onslaught happened.

It was only Sieg who's left on the battlefield. He slumped onto the ground, completely exhausted, but he was smiling like an idiot.

"I did it!" He muttered under his breath.

In fact not only he did, he did so with flying colors.

'Gentle River Blade Art - Major Completion'

'Imperial Dancing Blade Art - a few threads away from Major Completion'. He can definetely do the 4th dance but in order for him to do so, he needed to advance first into 9th step. Which is not far away.

Sieg's whole body was once again covered in white light, as he teleported out of the array, he felt melancholic in his heart. This array helped him a lot. He smiled warmly as he realized that he was now back to the first floor of the pagoda.

*Clap* *Clap*

Sieg turned his head and saw Wilson, "M-Master! You're bac-ow!" He tried to stand up and salute his master but the fight really took it's toll in his body. He can only managed to look up to his master and smile sheepishly.

Wilson knelt down and helped his adorable apprentice to sit down. He popped a pill in his mouth and Sieg felt his energy rushing back to him at a frightening pace. His eyes nearly fell off from their sockets. He never expected that his master would feed him a 'Medicinal Pill'.

"Good job little freak." Wilson chuckled as he stared at his disciples adorable expression.

"Little freak?"

"Mn! You are a little freak…"

"Do I really look that bad?"

Wilson was stupefied for a moment before laughing out loud, it seems like Sieg didn't know that the word 'freak' was actually reffering to his talents, not his looks.

"Yes you do! Hahaha…" Wilson teased. Sieg can only laugh at this as well. "You rest for a whole day first. Afterwards we will begin the final part of your training." Sieg's eyes sparkled, he nodded his head and meditated on the spot.

Since he already recovered his physical injuries due to his master giving him a medicinal pill. He only needed to cure his mental fatigue, but from his past experiences, mental fatigue is harder to cure and also takes a lot more time to heal so he wanted to make the most out of the one day period his master gave him.