The Experiment Continues (7)

Standing in front of the other, both sides stood still for a moment before Cyrus moved unleashed a swift blow towards Ares. The moment Cyrus started his swing Ares was already moving to block, with his own weapon reaching the area where his opponent planned to strike before his weapon even arrived.

"The reaction speed of an undead is immense when properly used, quite the advantage but…" thought Cyrus as he futilely changed his downwards slice into a thrust which turned into an uppercut.

Each move he made was easily read and countered perfectly by Ares, yet this was when the undead found himself to be in trouble for his opponent enacted his plan.

Systematically taking apart the defense of Ares, Cyrus began mixing in feints into his moves all the while watching how the undead reacted to every move he made.

"It appears that he still understands what a feint is, but he reacts instinctively to any stimuli before he can correct it. Having reflexes that are too fast seem to be a disadvantage if not trained properly" remarked Cyrus as he feinted another blow, turning a thrust into a disarming strike that took the undead's hand along with the sword he was holding.

"It seems you remember all the basics of the swordsmanship you were taught but have forgotten or are unable to recreate all the intricacies you may have learned before. This is a blessing in disguise, as your current form is far superior to the previous in terms of pure combat potential. If you had remembered everything perfectly then we would have had to take the time to unlearn all the useless habits before we could make new ground."

"First let's see if we can fix your reflex problem, as even though you are an undead and could technically just trade blow for blow there are some attacks you may not wish to receive" explained Cyrus as he took his stance once more.

Again and again Cyrus started with the same pattern, attacking with telegraphed and obvious moves and then slowly obfuscating them behind clever footwork and feints. At first Ares fell for each and every trick and trap, no matter how small or large they were. Eventually, however, he began to pick up all of the simpler tricks of slight adjustments and obvious feints.

After an hour of intense sparring that focused purely on technical skill, Cyrus halted the practice and made his final observations.

"The level of learning was extremely swift, but it reached a wall quickly due to this speed. It is clear that the soul itself is extremely adaptive, even when undead, but there seems to be other limitations. To confirm I suppose I would have to visit Ares directly again, but that can come later."

Once more the two stood across from one another, both armed with a sword in hand, with Cyrus saying

"I have seen the limits of your technical skill, which is barely better than a beginner, but your rate of improvement is astonishing despite the wall blocking you from advancing any further. Once we learn how to remove all the barriers in your way, I can make a decent swordsman out of you yet. For now, however, let us test the full monstrous capabilities of your current form. Same rules as before, but this time hold nothing back."

The two stood across from one another, much like before, but the difference in the air might as well have been the difference between night and day. A menacing aura emanated from Ares; such a feeling would have made lesser men flee in terror. Equally so from Cyrus a small but powerful energy wrapped around his right arm and left leg, forming the powerful Vita Coil that was about to taste its first real combat test.

As if there was a decided upon time beforehand, both sides moved into action at the same exact time. Initially Cyrus had planned to do much the same as before, take advantage of the obvious flaws in the sword play of his opponent, alas, this proved to be a neigh fatal mistake.

The power, and by extension the speed, of Ares had increased significantly as his orb like eyes glowed in ferocity. His sword looked as if it blended into many swords at once as it arrived at the lower end of Cyrus' sword in less than half a single breath.

The fight almost ended in a single move, but with a somewhat clumsy activation of his right arm's Vita Coil Cyrus was supplied with just enough force to alter the momentum of his swing to properly receive the strike. He then used his left leg as a counterbalance, ending up having to activate the coil in that one as well to provide a strong opposing force to stop him from being forced to the ground.

"That was new" gawked Cyrus as the two resumed a neutral position.

Thrice more they engaged in a similar exchange, the first being a single tense exchange much like the first but the next two becoming more complex.

The second time Cyrus managed to fend the first blow off without his coil, saving the precious few charges he had, but was forced to use it the next time their swords met.

The third time Cyrus lasted a grand total of three blows before getting through the next three by burning the last of his two charges.

The fight was ended with the living opponent being disarmed, his sword clattering to the ground a short distance behind him.

"Impressive" began Cyrus aloud, "while your technical skill is a complete embarrassment you more than make up for it with inhuman speed and force. As expected of an undead I should say, but I have seen undead fight before more than once. None of them were as proficient as you were at this stage of development, mostly relying on their ability to trade every blow to win through attrition. I wonder what has changed, an in-person interview is required I would say."

With such words said, a mask was taken off his face and an ethereal black fog erupted from his shadow that connected dove into Ares' eye sockets straight into his glowing 'eyes'.

Eventually finding himself face to face with the more human form of Ares, the dark Cyrus conjured a seat and sat down in front of his servant.

"How was your first taste of combat? You were able to beat the mighty mage who killed you at first, has your pride grown?" queried Cyrus.

"I would not dare to think such thoughts Sir Mage" began Ares, awkwardly trying to do some kind of formal bow.

"But…the feeling of fighting itself…oh, it was good. At one point in my life I was obsessed with combat you know. Every time I grew in power or skill I got a rush unlike any other, but eventually the growth slowed and I grew bored. This new form of mine though, hahaha, I could entertain myself for awhile at the very least."

"Good. Now answer me a few questions. Firstly, what do you think is limiting you from improving your sword techniques? The rate at which you improved at first was astonishing, if you were alive I would have thought that Mundus bestowed upon you the gift of sword mastery. Yet you hit a wall almost immediately, why?"

Ares awkwardly scratched the back of his head for a moment before he answered,

"Well its simple actually. When you talk to me here in…my soul world as you call it, everything is as clear as day. But when it comes to the world outside, everything is different. I don't see the world like I used to, everything is sensed instead in one giant mess that I have to decipher. Its hard to get all the small details because of this, but I think I should be able to figure it out as time passes."

"Why do you think that? You displayed absolutely no improvement in terms of technique during our entire session after all once you first hit a wall" stated Cyrus.

"You see, uh, it is not me that is limiting my improvement technically but I think the level of control I can exert over my body is what is actually doing it. When you began to feed me that whatever you gave me, everything was very…blurry I guess you could say, but the more you gave me the clearer it became. I think that is what I need, just a whole lot more things to feast on" explained Ares as best as he could.

Digesting this information, Cyrus easily crafted a few theories based on the firsthand account of his creation.

"It is obvious that you no longer possess the sense organs you had previously. The information that you are receiving is all from a single source, your soul. For you, the soul is not hidden within a secure mortal shell but is exposed to the world. Essentially it takes the place of all your previous senses, but all compacted into one. Seeing as I am quite alive still, I cannot assist you in deciphering all of it so you will have to work on that yourself. But in regards to keeping you well fed, I am sure I can come up with a few ideas that will satisfy you."

"I look forward to it sir mage. The stronger I am the more of your enemies I can kill" said Ares graciously.

"That goes without saying, now onto my final question: How did you exhibit such power and speed in the first place? That is most unusual for an undead, at least from my interactions with them so far."

"That one is simple, its an idea I had from watching you do all that soul manipulation stuff. I wondered if I could do that too, manipulate my soul that is. So I kinda did just that, err, I cant really explain it but I just did it. When I thought about it the way to do it the method just popped out to me, like how I can manipulate these…"

"Soul leashes" interrupted Cyrus.

"Yes, yes. Soul leashes. Its all instinctive if I can think about it properly."

"So you are using your own soul as a source of power, does it replenish though? You are already decaying just by having your soul exposed from its mortal coil, wouldn't using it as a power source rapidly increase this decay thus making my efforts in creating you go to waste?" asked Cyrus in an accusatory tone.

"No no, I would never waste your efforts sir mage. It definitely does replenish. You can think of it like emptying out a cup of water, I can refill it easily if I want to but it takes time to. The decay is different, it is like making the cup itself smaller" explained Ares.

"Is that so? An unexpected find then, although I will have to test if that is the case with things that are still alive eventually" said Cyrus, ending in a murmur as he mentally jotted down several more experiments that had to be undergone.

"All right, that is all I had to ask."

With that said he stood up from his conjured seat and allowed himself to be dragged out and back into his own soul world like a fish being yanked out of a lake by a fisherman's line.