Improvements

Throughout his lunch, Thirteen couldn't contain his excitement, and spoke with Nine about his progress.

"Congratulations" Nine said with a small smile. "Once you've figured out each of those techniques, you should join us in the dojo before the days end. Now that private sparring is open, half of the 8th generation can be found there. I've spent most of the day sparring with Ten and Forty-five."

'Right, I haven't had a chance to spar with any of my friends except Ten before.' "Sure, I'll probably head outside for a while first, but once I'm done ill drop by the dojo." Thirteen decided, before realizing something. "Wait, you didn't spar with Four?"

"He's not there" Nine answered. "He's still outside with his helper, practicing the techniques of his art."

At that, Thirteen grounded his thoughts a bit. 'Right. I'm positive I'm one of the earliest to complete the first step in fundamental refinement, but that doesn't mean I'm the first to practice the unique arts. Many of the others don't require completion of the first step to practice their techniques, as long as they've begun the refinement process.'

Finishing his meal first, Thirteen stood. "I'll see you in a while" "See you then".

Taking his plate to the kitchen, he washed it and then left the dining hall to make his way to the practice area outside.

Once he left the manor, Thirteen was hit with a chilling breeze. 'Its getting colder by the day' He thought as he regretted not wearing a cloak.

Within the clearing were a great deal of people, both the 8th generation and their helpers.

Among them, Thirteen spotted both Four and Eleven, with the former watching the latter train.

Eleven seemed to be practicing the same sword forms Thirteen had seen him learning a week ago, only he now executed them at a snails pace.

'What is he doing?' Thirteen thought. 'At this rate he will take a whole minute to perform a few strikes.' His thoughts came to a halt however, as Thirteen noticed misty clouds gathering around Eleven's sword.

'Qi clouds?!' Thirteen thought in shock. Qi clouds belonged to the Condensation Stage of fundamental qi refinement. If one were to break qi refinement into five steps like body refinement, it would be the third. Whereas blood refinement & enrichment would count only as the first.

'Wait. That's not possible.' Thirteen began to calm himself as he slowed his breath to that most basic rhythm for sensing qi. Although he no longer needed to do this, he found it always heightened his ability to sense it.

'So that's it. The qi clouds aren't his. That snail's pace sword form isn't a combat technique, its his cultivation art. It manages to resonate with the surrounding qi and gather it in faint clouds towards the user. I assume he's able to cultivate the energy while performing those movements too.' Thirteen felt a daunting realization dawning.

'If he's able to cultivate the gathered qi clouds like I think, wouldn't that be like having all the qi of a Condensation stage cultivator to absorb? How do I outpace that?' Thirteen began to worry. His only hope was that Eleven couldn't absorb all of that energy, but just a portion. It seemed reasonable, and he really hoped it was the case, so that's what he concluded it must be.

Walking over to Four, Thirteen called out.

"This isn't like you. Why halt your own cultivation to watch his?"

"I'm waiting." Four replied curtly. "When he's done, I'm going to drag him off to the dojo and teach him a lesson."

For some reason, Thirteen felt a sinking sensation. "Why?"

"What do you mean why? Did you get hit in the head as well as the shin?" Four asked, genuinely confused.

"If it's about Nine and I, just leave it" Thirteen said, frowning for reasons he couldn't guess.

"Why? You're not the only one mad at the brat, you and Nine are my brothers!

"When Nine was hurt, you rushed to Diores to challenge him. Now even you have been hurt and you want me to sit still like its not my problem?"

Thirteen could see Four getting visibly mad, but he couldn't help but insist.

Faltering for a moment to think of a reason, Thirteen eventually gave up and spoke his intent. "Look, just… Give me one more chance. If with one more chance i cant beat him… Then fine. He's all yours." Looking Four in the eyes, he added "I want to beat him."

Four looked at thirteen for a good while with a seemingly grave expression, before suddenly relaxing his face and grinning. "Bout time. I was worried you'd keep hiding away in your room."

Confused, Thirteen tried to defend himself "I wasn't hiding! I wa–"

"Alright. He's all yours." Four stated casually, clearly not nearly as bothered by it as Thirteen had been. "I need to get back to it" He stated as he walked in the direction of shaded sitting stones where his helper, a man in his late 40s, could be found laying with his eyes closed.

After a few steps however, Four stopped and looked to Thirteen. "I'd recommend you settle this thing soon though. He's hurt at the moment, so if you want to go eye for eye, now's the time."

"Wounded?" Thirteen asked.

"Yeah, his back is all cut up. I saw it a few times when he practiced his sword forms." Four replied as he again began to walk away.

"Wounded…" Thirteen muttered. Thinking back to his own fight with thirteen, and what was done to his leg, Thirteen fancied the devilish thought for a moment before shaking it away.

'This time… I really do want to beat him at his best.

...Why is that?' He pondered.

For the next two hours, Thirteen practiced his new techniques on the surrounding trees. This wasn't something he needed Melia for, so he didn't bother finding her at the manor's center.

The Grand Life Tome taught four distinct techniques, each of which would grow more powerful and versatile as he cultivated. Lifesight was a utility technique, there was also a combat technique named Withering. Another was called Lifebringer, which for now could only be used to bolster another's lifeforce, while the fourth, Regeneration, was an always active ability rather than a 'technique' per say.

Regeneration was the ability to visibly heal from wounds. While Thirteen already had a healing attribute as a meta, according to Nicholas' lectures, meta attributes were innate changes to a person's abilities, and any cultivation art that enhanced that same aspect would always display extraordinary results in the hands of an appropriate meta.

When Thirteen was sure of his capability to activate each of these techniques, and confident in his most basic understanding of them, he decided to head to the dojo.

Looking once more at Eleven's training before he left, Thirteen noticed he had ceased gathering qi clouds to cultivate and was now practicing his sword forms in earnest. A strange tempo seemed to lie behind his wide swings, that would shift from swift to slow seemingly at random. The moves seemed to rely quite heavily on maintaining the 'smooth' property, almost like a dance, so it became quite obvious whenever Eleven found his movement impeded or uncomfortable due to the injuries his shirt hid.

Not sparing another look, Thirteen made his way to the dojo.

When he first opened the doors to the dojo, Thirteen was met with a cacophony of noise. Within the great hall were many pairs of 8th generation students sparring with metal swords, the sounds of clashing and conflict echoing loudly.

The air too became immediately denser as he entered and made his way towards the sight of his friends. Currently, Ten & Nine were engaged in a duel, the former employing palm strikes, fists and kicks, while the later defended with a sword and tried to make the most of any opportunities.

"Thirteen!" A voice called out.

"Forty-five. They been at it long?" Thirteen replied to the girl while gesturing to Nine & Ten.

"Sparring? All day. Oh.. wait, this fight? Not long." She replied, hastily.

"All right then. Want to spar? I've been sat down for a day and a half now and I'm eager to get moving again."

"Sure" She responded cheerfully. "Arts?"

Smiling slightly, Thirteen agreed "Yep"

Thirteen knew that Forty-five cultivated a qi art called the Butterfly Sword, but had no idea of its capabilities. Looking at the blade in her hand, it was quite short and thin. 'That one was called… A smallsword I think?'

Thirteen drew his blade from the waist. He no longer carried a wooden weapon, but rather a steel sword. Melia had been teaching him the longsword, and so what he held in two hands now was the very same, its tip was rounded and its edge blunt, but it was still a heavy weapon that could be very dangerous if handled poorly.

"Forty-five, agility meta, qi cultivator.' Thirteen didn't miss the new addition to the tradition.

"Thirteen, healing, body refiner."

After a small delay, Forty-five immediately began to advance on Thirteen. He didn't know much about how the girl fought, but he assumed by her attribute and weapon she would opt for a quick offense.

He was right, as Forty-five immediately opened with a thrust once she entered range. Thirteen twisted his body to the left slightly as he swept his sword to deflect her own. His weapon had much greater weight to it, easily knocking her sword wide as he made to slash at her diagonally from a bottom left position.

Thirteen however, was caught off guard when of all things, Forty-five decided to spin with the momentum! 'What are you doing?!' he thought as he made to capitalize on the situation, accelerating his own swing as much as possible.

What left him stunned though, was that before he could make contact, she was already facing him again, having stepped past his optimal range, and once more stabbing toward him.

Reining in his weighty sword, Thirteen placed the ball of his left hand against the flat of his blade and swept it from left to right, deflecting the incoming thrust, before again positioning his left hand on the end of the grip and raising his sword naturally into an ox stance.

Even as he made to shift into a downward swing, Thirteen's mind worked 'An agility meta, just like Eleven. Does this mean she can pull off things like spins? Melia always said to steer clear of spins unless you were absolutely sure your opponent's weapon was knocked far away.'

Swinging down with the longsword, Forty-five didn't try to block with her lighter weapon, instead moving backwards swiftly to avoid the blow. Thirteen then pushed his downward swinging sword into a thrust as she moved back, and was sure to make contact.

At that moment, Forty-five, as if giving up, let go of her smallsword.

*Vfffrrrr* The air buzzed.

The small sword came flying at Thirteen faster than he had seen her do before. Even more astounding, she wasn't holding it! Forty-five didn't throw the sword. It was flying at him!

Abandoning his winning strike that wouldn't make it in time, Thirteen gave all it all he had to pull the longsword back to him in time. Bending his arms and raising his right elbow high, he made use of the base of the blade and its crossguard to catch the incoming sword and push it left, as he twisted his head and body right.

His movements were incredibly swift, faster than he had ever managed to pull off before, and with it, a sting in his arms from pulling back his full strength thrust.

The smallsword was deflected, but Forty-five gave him no time to recover himself, rushing in close she released a swift leg kick with her left.

Thirteen took the hit, unable to react in time, but steadied himself well. Shifting his left hand to grip his weapon as a halfsword, he limited its reach to deal with the close quarter combatant before him, cutting up at her from the left.

As she dodged backwards, Thirteen relied on the same trick again, extending his sword into a thrust as he forced distance between them and returned to a two handed grip.

A moment of silence passed as Thirteen gradually repositioned himself to keep both the girl and her smallsword that lay a few feet away within his sight.

"I thought we were fighting with arts?" She asked somewhat sarcastically.

'Right.' Thirteen realized, his eyes widening slightly. He'd become so focused on the moment that he'd neglected his most recent achievement.

Channeling his blood and will in a very peculiar way, Thirteen felt a type of vacuum forming around his hands. With a lot of concentration, he gradually extended it along his sword. 'Perhaps a shorter sword would have been better' he thought to himself.

Luckily Forty-five simply collected her sword by hand as she waited for him.

With a breath of relief, Thirteen finished extending his Withering ability along the blade. Now he need only maintain it.

"Thank you"

"No worries." She replied briefly, before making her stance.