10 The Choice
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"Silencing Blade Art."
'What a fitting name…' Sieg thought, he was mesmerized by that blade art. The scene replayed itslef on Sieg's mind once again. He only saw the slihouette's hand shook and then everything went silent.
'So cool!' It's certain that this blade art earned Sieg's admiration but he was clear headed, there's still four more blade arts that he didn't even see yet. He will not made a decision right away just because he thought that the blade art was 'cool'.
He stepped down into the platform and went towards the next one. Just like before he raised his hand and placed it onto the stone platform injecting Ki in it. Then he saw another scene again.
It was a silhouette who is facing a huge mud golem, the golem was about 500 meters tall. The silhouette was like a dirt compared to it's size but the silhouette seemed to not care about the size difference. The huge golem was chraging towards the man, it was also hurling huge boulders to him but none of those boulders even touched the hem of his clother before they disintigrated into dust.
As the golem closed in the man raised his blade horizontally before him, he closed his eyes and unsheathed just a portion of the blade before closing it again and placing it back to his side. Sieg can swear that when the man did that, he saw a flash of light flew at blinding speed towards the golem.
The man turned his back away from the golem, and then the golem froze. Sieg heard loud cracking sounds coming out from the Mud Golem, he can't even believed that it was capable of doing that. Then webs of cracks appeared on the surface of it's skin, light flowed through then as the Mud Golem emitted a sorrowful cry before exploding, leaving a brilliant and elegant lotus on it's place.
The scene ended and Sieg learned the name of the blade art. It was the "Blooming Lotus Blade Art".
Sieg once again opened his eyes and a strange glitter appeared in them. He frowned and said "What's with the 'turning away before the monster die' attitude? Was it necessary?' He was confused, he just smiled and shook his head while also thinking that the blade sure was strange.
He knew that he wasn't mistaken when saw that light came out when the man unsheathed his blade quarter way out. That light must have wrecked havoc inside the Mud Golem and formed a lotus afterwards. Sieg have mixed feelings for this specific blade art so he stepped down and went for the next one.
***
"Gentle River Blade Art."
"Cosmic Blade Art."
"Imperial Dancing Blade Art."
Sieg learned the names of each blade art availabe and saw demostrations of them as well. He was shocked, terrified, excited, and eager all at the same time.
He knew very well that the people he saw demostrating those blade arts already mastered the techniques, and that they were using a higher level techniques, still it didn't change the fact that they made a huge impact on Sieg's life.
And now for the last time before the day ended, he was again faced with another complicated choices. All of the blade arts made an impression to him, but he knew very well that he can't pick all of them. He needed to at least reach 'Minor Completion' stage for the Balde Art he's going to pick so that he can advance his training.
[A/N: 'Initial Completion' = 10% progress, 'Minor Completion' = 25% progress, 'Major Completion' = 50% progress, 'Great Completion' = 75% progress and 'Complete Mastery' = 100% progress]
Once again, he sat down and rested. Since his master told him to replace sleep with meditation he might as well use the entire night to carefully wonder about his choice. He sat down with his blade on his lap. He closed his eyes and recalled of the scenarios he saw when he touched the stone tablets. He carefully pondered about the potential advantages and disadvantages of the tecnhniques he saw and he based it entirely on the scenes he saw. Just like that, the day passed.
***
The sun was slowly showing itself into the horizon, it was exactly at this time when Sieg opened his eyes. His eyes are sparkling, despite not being able to sleep, his energy were filled to the brim, he had to admit that replacing sleep with meditation is actually bringing him wonders. Aside from having rested quite well, his mind was also very clear. Sieg made a choice. It was a very complicated one but he finally made up his mind. He remembered his master's word again, 'There's no 'Strongest' only the 'Most Suitable'. This really helped him a lot when he was making his choice.
He stepped onto the third platform, where the "Gentle River Blade Art" was. Of all the techniques, this was the one that really left a huge impression on him.
He placed his both hands on the stone tablet and removed it from the platform. Then a slight tremor happened in the platform, afterwards the stone tablet disintigrated into motes of light which entered Sieg's body.
He then unconsiously closed his eyes and let the absorption happened. Waves of information flodded his mind and after a few minutes he re-assembled his new found knowledge, and that of course is the 'Gentle River Blade Art'.
Instead of sitting down and pondering on how to train the technique, he went onto another platform. Yes, Sieg wanted to learn two Blade Arts into 'Minor Completion' stage in just one month. To others this might be a crazy idea but Sieg wanted to test just how far he can go. He wanted to learn what are the limits of how stubborn he is, so instead of backing out from the challenge, he gladly accepted it. He even thought that if there he managed to master the two techniques he chose and there's still quite sometime, he will pick another one.
He then stepped onto the fifth platform. This is where he was introduced to the 'Imperial Dancing Blade Art'. He can still remember the scenario when he touched the stone tablet.
***
He saw a silhouette of a man, clad in golden robes. His black, foot length hair draped behind his back like a waterfall. A calm and serene aura can be sensed just by looking at the man and in fact, he was even smiling. Behind his back is a 2 meter long blade tucked diagonally, the handle was about 12 inches with coiling dragon carvings and a green gade ornament were placed in the eyes. The sheath was like a red colored ruby that shines brilliantly through the sun's reflection.
Unlike any of the other stone tablets that Sieg saw, this man was not facing a beast. He was facing a cultivator. A very powerful one at that.
The enemy cultivator attacked, his spear doubled in size and emitted a brilliant dark red light. As the enemy struck down, an apocalyptic scene happened, it was like the strike was fillied with endless cries of agony, an intense grief and an overwhelming lust for revenge can be feeled on that strike powerful strike yet, it doesn't seem to have any effect on the man that has golden robes.
He placed his left hand on the handle of his blade, his aura was released, and an oppresive might emereged. In face of this aura, all living being should kneel down. The man slowly unsheated his blade and uttered a few words:
"5th Dance: A Maiden's Tribute." As his words fell, the whole world seemed to stop. A bright golden glow appeared and formed an image of a golden serpentine dragon, who coiled itself around the man and emitted a piercing roar towards the dark red light. Then something incredible happened.
The roar of the golden dragon was so powerful that the enemy's attack vanished into thin air, the golden dragons roar didn't even seemed to meet any resistance at all. The enemy of the golden robed man stepped back, blood oozing out from the corners of his lips. The golden robed man then made another movement. As he did, the coiled golden dragon moved and infused itself to the blade, the man's voice was once again heard.
"6th Dance: From Sunrise to Sunset."
The world stopped yet again, the man raised his blade and it emitted a brilliant light like it was a sun, then he made a downward slash and the blade length seemed to have exteded by five. It went through the body of the his enemy without any resistance at all. After that the whole area around them exploded and Sieg was transferred out of the memory.
***
Sieg once again placed both of his hands to the stone tablet and removed it. Just like before, it disappeared and became a newly found information for Sieg. He did not waster anytime at all so he stepped down from the platfrom and sat down cross legged to review the informations he recieved.
"Gentle River Blade Art". According to the person who created it, the technique follows the virtue of water. He said that he entered a state of 'Deep Enlightenment' under a waterfall for 40 days, resulting the birth of the blade art.
"Gentle River Blade Art" is considered as defensive type of technique, it excells on deflects, parries, disturbance, and delicate control of the blade causing a resemblance of a gentle river. If one reached master over the technique, they will practically be untouchable since they would only deflect or even parry enemies attack. It is a life saving technique which was the reason Sieg decided to pick it first.
As for the 'Imperial Dancing Blade Art', the creator of the technique was an extremely formidable fellow. He was once a commoner who rose to the top step by step, it was said that he was an oitstanding genius as well since he didn't accepted any master in his entire life and was solely focused on persuing his blade art and providing for his family. He eventually rose into fame and built a kingdom on his own. It was also said that 'Imperial Dancing Blade Art' was the technique he made using his entire life, and was inspired by random enlightenments he gained on his journey.
These were the informations he gained when he reviewed the introduction for the techniques he picked. Now the only thing that's left was for Sieg to practice them. And he made a plan so that he can reached 'Minor Mastery' for these techniques fast and efficient.
"Master!"
***
*Roar*
A huge Polar Bear raised both it's arms, it clasped it's hands together forming a fist and smashed it towards a young man standing before it. The young man seemed to not care as he had his eyes closed seemingly thinking about something. The Polar Bear was enraged, his pride for being a Dire Beast was being stepped on by a little human. Because of this, it even added more force to it's attack causing the air to whistle. Just before the fist connected, the young man moved away and a frowning expression can be seen in his face.
Of course this was Sieg.
"Wrong! A gentle river will ripple but will never halt! Again!" Sieg closed his eyes again and walked towards the Polar Bear step by step.
This just made the bear even more enraged. As a result it raised it's left paw and swiped it towards him. Unlike before, the Sieg didn't opened his eyes, his steps also never stopped as he was still walking towards the bear, just as the bear attack connected, the Sieg made a swift motion, he grabbed his blade and thrusted it towards the bear's wrist.
As the hilt connected to the wrist of the bear, the attack was also disrupted causing the anger on the bear to raise even more. This was the 3rd time something like this happened, what's even more infuriating for the bear is that from the start of the fight up until now, it made no real damage to Sieg.
"Haha! Again!"
