Offhand

Jason swung the dagger as he practiced a style, because he had mastered blade strike he was able to use the dagger to a good extent but nothing special.

Since he was making use of the dagger he thought about using it as a sidearm once he finally found himself a katana, but just in case he would try to gain proficient mastery of it. His mastery of the blade was on equal terms with Zane thanks to blade strike.

One of the main character's used a dagger in the novel as his main weapon, not only did the dagger have unique properties but the user was able to use it to its full potential, he was trying to learn a dagger technique he had seen in the novel.

The name of the technique was offhand, it allowed the user to block an attack by allowing the user see the future 0.30 seconds into the future. It required fast reaction time and good speed to counter when any attack was thrown at them.

The technique also had offensive properties, but those were weak compared to major dagger arts.

Despite the unique qualities of the technique it was easy to learn, a simple dagger technique. Not many people could use it to its full potential, the main character was gifted in that area; using a simple 8-inch dagger he blocked, dodged or countered any attack thrown at him.

Offhand was a good technique for beginners in dagger arts but many tended to ignore it as they learned the more flashy techniques.

"I really have to appreciate the flashbacks more, I always thought they were crappy and used to increase the word count.' Jason thought before realizing one major flaw.

"I have no one to attack me continuously." Jason realized before staring at the eight inch dagger in his hands.

"Then I guess I'll practice the offensive properties." Jason sighed before getting into a stance.

In these kind of situations image training wasn't just ideal.

He launched himself forward, moving in quick, eloquent steps while practicing piercing and slashing.

The key to mastering the offensive properties of offhand was developing a natural feel, almost like the feeling of a dagger just being an extension of the hand. Jason already understood that part, a weapon was an extension of the user's body, when one didn't have a weapon they were significantly weakened.

With those thoughts he tried to master the basics of offhand – quick reaction time and speed.

If in a fight someone noticed that they had been fooled by a feint they needed quick reaction time to block or at worst lessen the damage.

With a twist of his body, Jason slashed the air, if he had been in a fight someone would have lost their head by now.

He jumped backwards before charging forward again, moving his hand in a circular manner he slashed the air, almost like he was slicing someone in half.

Jason kept repeating these motions until half an hour later, his stamina was on another level and because of that despite the repetitive, exhausting motions he wasn't even tired.

…

In a strange forest with only black trees five elders from the Hachiman clan were at work – an elder from the Hachiman clan was easy to know due to the fact that they have no hair – four of them were talking while the last one diligently uprooted the trees from the surrounding.

While the other four discussed the last one uprooted the trees from the surroundings and threw them to a distant place, he was a junior elder while the rest with him were his seniors.

"Make sure you remove the gray leaves from the area." One of them said to the one working.

"These newbies, they don't make 'em like they used to." He said to the people next to him.

"I agree, back when we were junior elders we could clear a mountainside with one of our strongest skills. This one is too slow, he can't even get rid of the trees fast enough." One of the others complained.

"If only the clan head saw that, these days he's either training like there is no tomorrow or goes on business to expand the riches of the clan." Another said. "Certainly these newbies wouldn't be as lazy and work harder if the clan head supervised them."

"Look at this one, he's as slow as a starving donkey."

The elder that was busy doing manual labor almost shouted in rage, for two hours he had been uprooting the trees carefully to ensure that none of the dust generated would touch his senior's robes, they refused to use magic to cover themselves as they watched him suffer.

He made sure to use it properly as he was afraid he would get demoted if he allowed even a speck of dust to graze their white robes.

He felt like he could take on a rank 0 dungeon by himself and come out alive due to his rage!

But he forcefully calmed down, if he dared to attack them they would flick him out of existence.

All of the senior elders were hundreds of years old and have seen the face of the former clan head, they had seen the current clan head when he was a child and hence weren't to be underestimated.

Though they were on the lower side of the spectrum they had years of experience on the battlefield.

"...I would rather be training than spending my precious time making the area inhabitable for those maggots of the branch family."

"I agree, I wonder how their faces will be when they die." One of them laughed.

The elders didn't particularly like the children from the branch families because they weren't from pure blood and they were noisy, old people only experienced noisy children in their nightmares, the unfortunates one were the elders who lived it in real life.

"I find it funny that because of the dark-skinned boy the clan head decided to make it a rank-" The elder speaking got interrupted.

"Sir, it's finished."

"We've been standing here for decades, next time be faster." One of the senior elders snorted in disdain at the sight of his junior.

…

Jason slashed the air before pulling back, he let out a huff as his lungs took the air in. He had been practicing offhand since and he had gained a bit of a grasp of it, the attack properties could be significantly increased depending on the user's speed.

The defensive properties still remained elusive to him but he had gotten a slight grasp of it.

"Well, who cares, by this rate I'll get the attacking part of offhand when before we attend that 'coming of age ceremony'. Hopefully, when I fight the monsters in the dungeon I'll get down the defensive part of offhand." Jason said to himself as he entered the house.

He saw Emily sleeping in a corner of the room, she didn't cover herself and was shivering slightly due to the cold.

Jason hadn't noticed the cold because he had been practicing offhand since evening, he was naturally hot.

He carried a blanket and spread it on her, seeing her stop shivering he smiled.

Jason went to a corner of the room before lying down on the ground, his mind wandering before he finally fell asleep.

A/N: Add this book to your collections, it motivates me to write and publish!!!

Goals:

100 collections – 2 bonus chapters