The Tides Forever Strike, Never To Stop

After a while, the tornado subsided. The crowd once again became silent because nothing had happened! Many had assumed that Bastian had initiated some attack, and was suppressing Maita within the dust storm, but the duo were still standing exactly where they were before. The only difference was their expressions. Especially Maita, his expression was downcast; the crowd had never seen him like this before.

A never before seriousness appeared on his face as he gripped his spear tightly and got into a stance ready to attack. Bastian, although not as much as Maita, was serious, and took a stance with his body, jumping constantly on his toes.

Everyone was curious as to what exactly had happened within the tornado, but no one knew...except for Kenshin.

Bastian is insane! Does he not value his life? If he were to lose he would suffer a fate worse than death!

Kenhsin's expression was almost always downcast, so no one really noticed his sour look. As the duo got into position, their bodies started releasing auras that once again silenced the crowds.

Maita was the first to start, with his body as the center, an invisible feeling started radiating outwards. This feeling overwhelmed the entire crowd and completely changed the impression they had of Maita. Now they only had one word to describe him... spear!

The spear, the overlord of the battlefield, one of the most difficult weapons to master, but once mastered, it became an unstoppable force that could tear apart anything in its path. Among cultivators there is an old saying, fist like rock, sword like tiger, and spear like dragon!

The spear was viewed with awe by many, but it was only used by a few. And now at this moment, Maita's own body gave out the feeling a spear had: swift, long, and powerful! He was clearly a human, yet many lost control of their bodies and fainted, because they had the feeling of having a powerful spear pointed at them.

"Spear intent!"

Within the Cole booth, Tyson could not help but exclaim. Elisha had a rough understanding of what intent was, so when she heard her father say it, she could not help but be surprised. It was a powerful ability that was a prerequisite is one wanted to become a powerful warrior, it was what separated the wheat from the chaff. She was not really sure what it could do, but Maita's body made all of the hairs on her body stand on end.

Bastian was the target of this intent, so he felt the brunt of it. He merely grunted and swept his arms out once. Then at that instant, a new feeling flooded the entire stadium, this time Bastian was the source. Everyone looking at him felt as if their bodies were being cut by a sharp blade, and some weaker people who were closest to the arena even wailed in pain, despite not suffering a single injury.

"Sword intent, it is sword intent! Am I right Papa?" the feeling Bastian was giving of was of a sharp sword that had been unleashed from its scabbard, so Elisha guessed that this must have been sword intent. She immediately shouted her discovery, in an attempt to please her father, but Tyson did not reply. He did not even hear what she said; he simply stood up with his body shaking.

"Intent Impression, it is intent impression! This boy is a freak! Is he not a mage? What is this?"

Tyson and many other cultivators simply could not understand what was happening. Intent was the ability to make one's will tangible through the Dao. It was something only the most talented to cultivators could do. It not only showed talent, but it also bolstered the power of one's attacks by quite a bit depending on the proficiency of one's intent.

So this is the reason he went into secluded meditation, this sneaky bastard.

Kenshin could not help but grin when he saw what Bastian had achieved.

Intent impression, this boy has a frightening talent indeed. No wonder Minister Li chose him.

Kenshin smiled wryly as he looked at Bastian below. Intent was just like its name: sword intent was for swords, spear intent was for spears, etc. But if one was able to apply intent onto something else, for example put sword intent on one's arms, like what Bastian had done, then this would be referred to as Intent Impression.

This was a nigh impossible feat that only geniuses among geniuses could achieve. It was also very valuable, because it instantly converted one thing to another. In other words, Bastian's hands were now swords. They could cut, stab, slice etc.

This was why Tyson had stood up. Even he had never seen Intent Impression before, and his background was not a simple one. Elisha had no idea what intent impression was, but she did find it odd that Bastian was using sword intent when he did not even have a sword, but that was it. Someone who had never even used intent or faced it would not understand the implications of what Bastian had achieved.

Maita's expression became even more grim when Bastian released his intent. But he did not give up hope, far from it.

His understanding of sword intent is inferior to my understanding of spear intent. So this is still a battle!

Bastian had borrowed the knowledge he had gained from Kenhsin to understand sword intent, thus his understanding of the sword was weaker than it was supposed to be since this was not his knowledge. Nevertheless, Intent Impression was his achievement!

The reason Bastian had achieved Intent Impression was because it was required for the technique he was about to use. Unlike what Kenshin had surmised, this was the real reason Bastian had done closed door meditation. At the Cole family house Bastian made a discovery, and that was when using legacy techniques, his cultivation was much faster than normal.

Thus he had spent his secluded time attempting to train a technique from the Empyrean Equilibrium Void Shattering Fist. One that he had been qualified to use since he was a middle Fighter/Acolyte but had not tried to use due to his obsession with pressure magic. This technique required one to be able to use intent Impression on their hands. Since Bastian had Kenshin's knowledge, he was barely able to achieve entry level mastery into the martial technique.

Martial techniques were also divided into different categories. These were defensive, offensive, support and movement. The most expensive were the defensive and movement skills, particularly because they directly increased one's chances of survival. Offensive skills were also quite expensive; these skills directly damaged one's opponent.

Support martial techniques or skills were the cheapest or the most common. They were the kind that either fitted in none of the other three categories or were in more than one. In general, it was well known that the more uses a martial skill had, the less potent it was in one particular area. But support techniques were in turn the easiest to learn.

Swoosh!

Maita lifted of the ground and stabbed at Bastian, who in turn used an arm to parry the incredibly fast attack with his left hand. Since he was using a spear, most would expect that Maita had the advantage in terms of reach. The moment Bastian parried his stab, Maita planned on retracting his spear and stabbing out again, gaining a rhythm, but what met him when he retracted his spear was a fist, or to him it felt like the tip of a large sword.

Like his life depended on it Maita used the shaft of his spear to block. Maita was a dual earth and water specialist. Speed and strength, he had the best of both worlds, yet in this exchange he had lost in both.

Maita flew back like a bullet piercing the wind. Using his heavy spear, he managed to spin his body and used his feet to land on the wall. He bent his knees to absorb some of the impact, but it did little to prevent the damage that had already been done.

Maita was unsure of what had occurred, but the crowd had seen Bastian's silhouette suddenly speed up and strike out. A movement technique! This was what most of the people in the crowd suspected when they saw this. This was without a doubt evidence that Bastian was a specialist. But the more experienced warriors in the audience were not convinced that Bastian had used a movement technique, to them, the shift from moving to striking was too fluid.

Maita leapt from the wall like a tout spring, and targeted Bastian with his spear ahead of him.

Body Spear Unison!

Maita unleashed his own martial technique as yellow/blue qi covered his arms; he looked like an arrow that had been released from a bow, fast and accurate.

Bastian smirked; he did not even attempt to dodge this attack and met it head on. This act seemed suicidal, but purple qi filled his arms as he met the spear point.

Using the force from the collision, Bastian spun clockwise, after rotating 270 degrees, the back of Bastian's right fist, imbued with Sword Intent struck Maita's body. Maita felt as if he had been struck by a mountain, as the attack landed on the right side of his abdomen. Maita, who was supposed to have flown past Bastian, was detoured and his body produced a right angle as he was flung from Bastian. This time he could not spin and crashed into the wall, embedding himself within. Bastian did not even look back to know that his attack had landed.

It was at this point that the experts among the observers truly realized that what Bastian was using was not a movement technique, but a support martial technique. A fusion of defense, attack and movement! This was Bastian's trump card for the match. A technique from Empyrean Equilibrium Void Shattering Fist: Unceasing Tides!