Death Flash

After briefly examining the new item I purchased, I placed it under my bed to remove suspicion if anybody were to come in. And to my expectations, not even a minute late, a knock came from the door.

'Knock Knock'

"Come in."

"You're awake! Haha! That was a great fight, that last move almost got me!"

"Thank you for the fight Rachel. I have been enlightened."

I showed a slight smile as I was indeed happy about the fight. Not only have I received rewards through the system, but I also improved my strength overall by a very large portion. Noticing my smile, Rachel came next to me and pat my shoulder as she usually does, I think it's turning into a habit.

"I didn't expect you to be this strong! Although I will admit that I wasn't trying my best throughout most of the fight, that last move was my actual strength!"

"Yes I know, that last move of mine was my full strength also. I knew you weren't trying your best which was frustrating but thankfully I got to bring out your full strength."

"Haha! My full strength isn't that! Although the Butterfly style is really exhausting and painful to use, it actually comes with a lot of power. As of now, I can use 4 out of the 10 moves of the sword style!"

Wait, that means that she was only using half of her full strength... Well, that isn't the perfect way to put it. From my understanding, that last move was her actual full-body strength but she could've used a higher output move that would probably end up damaging her body. It looks like the style she uses is very high damaging but very exhausting to utilize.

"Either way, I believe that fight was beneficial to both of us as we've been pushed to our limits and for that I thank you."

"Don't sweat it haha! I've been rusty since my mom never wants to spar with me and my father doesn't even use a sword, so thank you too!"

We both ended up speaking about other matters such as what sword style we use or how my sword was made, due to the fact that she said my sword is very well made. The night went by.

---The following morning---

I wasn't at Ake's yard as usual since today I will be trying 'Death Flash', as it is a high damaging attack that leads to an opponent's death unless I can control it. I would rather not risk destroying Ake's yard and I'm not even thinking of sparring with this move as it could end up in the death of an innocent person.

So, now I was on the shore of the island. I found a desolate place within the shore as there was garbage around this area and nobody is willing to pick it up. Using the garbage and trees on my other side, I began my practice.

I did my warmup stretches and exercises as usual and then moved on to the more challenging practices until I finally finished the training regiment I made for myself. I am really anxious to practice this skill as it will probably be my core damaging skill. I then decided to try it.

'Whoosh'

Before I even had the time to comprehend what I have done, the environment around me changed. The garbage that had been over a mile away had now shown up right in front of me. Not only that, but the garbage pile was also sliced in half throughout the entire pile and for a brief second, you could've seen the other side of the shore through the slice.

"Wo-wow..."

I was honestly speechless. I understood that this was supposed to be a very powerful skill but never did I think it'd be to this extent. I am glad that it is this powerful and that I now have a high damage skill, but throughout that entire sequence, I don't even know what I did. This is troubling as I need to increase proficiency in order to control the strength, however, I can't improve if it's too fast for me.

This also consumes a lot of stamina and grants my legs enormous pain as the fast movements were beyond their limit. After some rest, I tried again but as expected, it was all too fast for me to see. Not only that, my legs were literally too tired to walk and I had to lay on the sand for hours until I could move them again. I had no other choice but to try the phrase 'practice makes perfect.'

---A month later---

It had been a month since I first started practicing the skill 'Death Flash', and I'm happy to say that I have indeed improved in almost every aspect of my strength. I now understand the fundamentals of the skill 'Death Flash' and can somewhat see what was happening.

I have not reached a breakthrough in proficiency as it is still in the 'Basic' stage', nevertheless, I felt multiple times that I'm almost there. My swordsmanship had improved as I still occasionally spar with Rachel but no huge improvement has occurred.

After a month, I found that my current limit is 4 'Death Flashes' a day. Before it was a maximum of 2, if I went beyond that I would be really close to breaking my legs. Now, I can do 4 while only being really tired and with no huge consequences. I also noticed that my 'Death Flash' has one major flaw, its aim. As the skill has a very high damage output, it is hard to control and change its projectile to hit what I want. This is something I must improve as I might accidentally hurt a comrade instead of an enemy in battle.

The Marine Application deadline is also getting closer so I should ask Ake what I need to prepare for. I haven't received a lot of points as fighting with Rachel won't get me any points if I don't win. That being because I have already tied with her, so unless I win, I won't be getting any points from that. Apart from Rachel, there aren't many ways to attain them in the first place, doing good deeds might get me some but the most I've gotten out of helping out in the neighborhood is a couple of single digits.

I also don't want to be running around asking people if they need help, I'd much rather train and get stronger to fight stronger people which will give the most points. As for the other way of getting points... no pirate would voluntarily attack a Marine headquarters unless they were a really strong figure like that 'Red-haired Shanks' or something.

Now I can only wait for the future and see how I'll change this world. I have a new family now and although I wish to maintain my goal, I still want to protect them. Well, they aren't really the type of people to protect since they're quite strong themselves. My point is that I have things I also care about, so I must also be strong for both them and my...past family.

Looking up to the sky, Ryle couldn't help but be sort of emotional as he's changed from being a person that lost everything to somebody with an actual purpose and goal.

---A little over 6 months---