The waiting period

But how could strong techniques be learned effortlessly, I may have practised it in the lobby but doing it in the real world, bringing that pure shadow storm of destruction into effect outside can't be that easy and it wasn't

' I mean thinking that I might learn it easily just because my body was born with the potential to manipulate shadows instead of being slowly adapting to that state as Rogue did does seem very very optimistic in hindsight '

But a man can hope and I hoped, it didn't come true but I still believe that I'll learn it easier than Rogue did at least

The mechanics of the technique aren't that complicated, hell it's actually quite simple to understand but just because we understand something doesn't mean that our body will be able to do it

The technique is like this, the user gathers shadows in front of their mouth and channels that shadow out with intensity onto their target

See simple to understand, take shadow, keep it focused and let it loose

' However what will stump people is not expelling the shadows from your mouth and not even focusing and making the shadows gathered near the mouth stronger, you see that's all fine but what's been bothering me is the first step '

Sounds dumb doesn't it, the man struggles with the first step while knowing he can already do the last step needed

' The shadow field is basically the second step and the shadow binding the grounded version of the third step '

The first step however is where things change you see in the lobby and the shows the shadows are instantly gathered into the dragon slayer's mouth but you see I have no idea where in the nine pits of hell the shadows come from?

I inhale and there is an orb consistent with shadows but this gathering of shadows, this instant conversion or even creation of shadows is what I struggle with

The Nara techniques extend from the user's shadow however this doesn't have that limitation, this technique much like the shadow dragon slayer art isn't dependent on shade at all. It somehow manages to create its own shade and if I can figure out how then and only then, will I be able to learn the art

And that's a question that I've been struggling with all day mentally while struggling to break the hold Ensui has on me physically, unfortunately I was not the victor in both struggles

Nevertheless, I'm growing stronger as I expected I would, this training is advantageous to me in ways that complement both my training

If I grow more proficient in the shadow bind technique the more ease with which I can gather and hold shadows when I step over that hurdle

And I didn't get a clue about what to do with that hurdle for three days but while I was trying to overcome that hurdle I accidentally found another way to break the shadow hold Ensui had me trapped in

' And I felt dumb and still do feel dumb when I think about the method '

You see chakra can be overpowered by the use of three things

1- Will

2- Control over it

3- The volume they control

And I can exert my will on the shadow twice.

Once with chakra and the other with haki, we all know the basics of armament haki and how it needs to be applied to something so I applied it to my shadows

The first time I tried this I wasn't successful at all, the shadow despite being my own felt different in a way, mayhaps it was because the shadow was not a physical property of mine but even when I was alone with my shadows in my room at night I wasn't able to apply it to my shadow.

And this trend continued till about 6 seconds ago

" What the hell was that? " Ensui snapped open his eyes as he questioned me

" Don't mind it "

" You know what... That's just fine with me "

And Ensui just catches me again with his shadow and closes his eyes again

What happened was for a brief moment I applied armament haki to my shadow and my shadow as a result became more fortified and a bit more physical I believe so instantly the connection between us broke, but it went as quickly as it came

' Guess that's another thing to grind. Unconventional and conventional '

That trend continued for two weeks where I had thanks to all the training I was doing had success in both unconventional and conventional methods of breaking the bind but still ex nay on the dragon slayer arts

Still, I was satisfied with my progress. Of course, the one more satisfied than I was Ensui due to and quoting his own words here " About time "

' I'll admit that did make me feel good '

But it was at the end of the day good progress, I had grown from wiggling a finger to only one limb unable to respond within three weeks which I am sure isn't that easy, especially when considering that Ensui doesn't hold back his strength in this

' I only overpower him with my sheer will and the limitation of the technique because while I'm getting proficient in it I'm not even close to a veterans level and my chakra is still not close to the chunin level of chakra '

And that was another thing that changed, my chakra from grade D to D+ and I'm sure that my chakra control would also follow soon enough

Yet despite my successes, I still couldn't figure out the gathering step and I was getting tired of it but then I thought I might get it if I thought about it from another standpoint, looking from another direction as it were

So I thought about the problem in the question of how does the gathering work?

' Well in the case of other dragons slayers most of their elements are accessible naturally '

Natsu is a fire dragon slayer if he wants to roar out fire he needs to ignite the air in front of him and as particles collide sparks are produced and from sparks comes fire or even from inside himself

' But that's not really applicable to me, is it? Shadows are something that can't be generated like that... At least I think they can't, god knows I'm no scientist '

Now let's look at Laxus, he is a lightning dragon slayer and like before his roar only has to excite the air in front of him

' Of course, there might be things like polarity and similar science matters but I'm pretty sure that's how it's done '

Wendy who is a wind dragon slayer also can be explained like this but then we come to the unorthodox dragon slayers

Like Gajeel who is an iron dragon slayer and he roars out iron or something as close to it as possible

' And now we see the part of creation here but still not any way of truly learning the difference '

I mean air cannot generate iron like that

Then we have the counterpart of Rogue who is Sting who is a light dragon slayer and this is kinda explainable as light can indeed be affected and manipulated by the air if needed and some part of his magic just ensures that the air is turned to light somehow

The next one is Cobra who is a poison dragon slayer who when he roars puts his fingers near his mouth and that's interesting

' Because if one is doing the creation or transformation in the orb or near their mouth then why is his the only art where an additional limb is required '

It can't because poison exists in all three matter because light, fire, wind and electricity are also some things that can't be strictly classified into just one state

' So what makes him different? What is the need for that limb '

At this point I going full in so I started breaking down that limb as well.

' The limb looks and acted like dragons would, it had scales and claws and all that '

So what makes this limb necessary for him to fire his roar, what makes him different

' Cobra was a second generation dragon slayer as in he got his powers after he was implanted with said dragon lacrima into him, but that doesn't also make sense because Laxus is also like him and he doesn't have that problem '

So if it's not the generation issue then what is it?

' You know what let's just break down the magic itself to the basics. Dragon slayers were born when dragons taught humans their magic, this was possible because both of them possessed the ability to use mana and various modes like an element drive alongside dragon force are also present in the dragon magic taught to humans and said magic also has a chance to make them dragons as from the moment they are taught their first spell by dragons a seed is born in them which ultimately results in said person becoming a dragon if they do not choose otherwise. '

So we have the same source and same method so the only thing left is the biological difference in their physiology and then once I started to think in that direction, it hit me

' Damn it!! I said the answer myself and still didn't get it! How dumb and unobservant can I get? ' The next 5 minutes were filled with similar talk because I had gotten what I was missing or at least I think I did

I said in the beginning that I would learn the shadow art quicker than Rogue did because I was born with that ability while he had to adapt to it

' And that's what matters here, the physiological adaptations a slayer undergoes when studying their dragon's arts '

Most dragon slayers have travel sickness I believe the reason for that lies in the fact they are missing some limbs and are substituting them with their magic temporarily

And that's kind of a legit theory because all dragon slayers have wings and tails and claws in their magic spells but aside from their teeth and senses there really isn't that much of a change in their physical body and we know that dragons do have all of that

So what if this travel sickness they get is because of the dragon seed inside them but the same dragon seed is necessary if they wish for the magic and this is where I'm different from them

' I'm not a genuine dragon slayer, I'm not being taught by a dragon physically or has a dragon lacrima implanted in me so what the hell should I do? '

—————————————————————

The Mc getting everything easily even with hard work seemed kinda out of the realm for me so I thought maybe I should make it a little more complicated than usual, hope you guys weren't put off by that

Anyways I hope you liked it and I look forward to your thoughts on it and all thoughts are welcome

And I thank fuchiku, Muiyuki_Snowfall, yemisi_ola, Deminister, Myzy, Lucifer_Glass, pain_zero, killersoul, Greblem, All_GoodNamesRGone for giving their power stones to the story and I really appreciate it

And most importantly I hope you guys are happy, stay safe and have a great day