Chapter 25: The Master Takes A Swim
Theo held the sword with both hands and tilted them slightly. He had no idea whether he was doing it the right way. But his body moved on its own, and his instinct kept telling him this was how the blade should sit, so he didn’t argue with himself.
Across from him, the middle-aged man held his own sword in a single hand, the same katana-style blade, gripped as though it weighed nothing at all.
Golden light filtered into the dojo, sliding through the thin gaps between the columns and pooling in long bars across the floorboards.
In the silence, Theo’s senses drank in everything at once. For a moment he was overwhelmed, and every small detail that pressed into his head raised a tormenting screech. Then, almost at once, as if his body had adapted on its own, a soothing calm flooded his mind and the noise settled.
He tightened his grip on the sword, and something strange happened.
Every shift of Uthed’s muscles played out clearly in his head, and his instincts, suddenly and strangely keen, traced a path through the air before the man had so much as leaned into it.
Then Uthed moved. He burst into a violent speed, following the exact hostile line Theo’s gut had already drawn for him. A single flurry, his instincts told him: the old man wanted to bury him under it and end the spar before it had properly begun.
The problem, though... was that he was slow.
’Why is he so slow?’
Theo moved forward, trusting the pull in his gut. He was faster, and that made him a wall in Uthed’s path rather than a target in it. So he stepped into the very end of the sword’s arc, and instead of blocking, instead of doing any of the things a swordsman was supposed to do, he dropped his own blade low and drove the pommel into Uthed’s stomach.
With all the speed the man was already carrying, being struck like that cracked a shockwave into the air, and he was flung backward on a vicious gust, smashing through one of the columns, tumbling across the yard, and dropping into the green lake water.
A deafening silence fell over the dojo and the yard once the splash had faded.
Theo tilted his head slightly.
"Eh?"
’I— I, I didn’t expect it to go like that...’
It caught up with him a beat late: he had just launched a grown man twenty meters into pond water. He threw the sword aside and ran to Uthed’s rescue, and when he reached the edge he recoiled anyway, mask or not. The smell got through it.
Uthed hauled himself out of the water and crawled up onto the bank. He straightened, dripping, and stared at Theo for a few seconds. Then he sighed.
"I get it. I can see plain enough that you’ve never really held a sword before. But I’ll tell you now, there’s nothing here for me to teach you."
Theo’s shoulders sank, his expression distraught behind the mask.
"I am sorry... but I swear, I didn’t expect that. I simply followed my intuition. And you were very slow. I’m sorry."
Uthed paused and looked at him.
"You followed your intuition. I’m slow." He let out an absurd little chuckle. "Mister, don’t you think there’s a limit to how much you can make a fool of a man. Are you from the Ouroboros? I’ve left that business for five years now. Please, stop humiliating me."
He frowned and walked past Theo.
"Please!"
The shout stopped him. He frowned as he turned, but it was a different frown from the irritated one, because Theo had gone down onto his knees.
By now the yard held little but the flicker of the lights. The sky had gone dark.
"What do you think you’re doing?"
Theo lowered his gaze.
"Please, teach me what you know, and help me. I’ll pay whatever amount you ask. I only need to be able to protect the people I love, properly, with my own hands. I have truly never fought before. I moved on pure instinct just now, and whatever it is that has changed in me over the past twenty-four hours, I don’t want to lean on it blind. I don’t want to be clueless. I want to know what I’m doing, and for that I need to properly learn the sword."
He raised his head to look at the man.
"That last moment, when I was about to strike your stomach, you caught on, didn’t you. You deflected it, and only took a little of the damage."
Uthed glowered.
"I still went flying, though."
Theo chuckled sheepishly.
But the man kept frowning, watching him, turning it over.
’This is strange... he really does seem serious. Maybe he truly has never held a sword. But his body moves like it has held one for years. Could he be one of the Reawakened Heroes, the ones who get a reconstructed body? No, you have to pass floor ten to get that, and he’s never once set foot in the tower. There’s only one explanation.’
Uthed gave Theo a hostile glare.
"You. You’ve got a sword technique Hero skill, don’t you?"
Theo looked blank for a moment, then nodded.
"Yes, I do."
The man’s mouth opened, then closed on nothing.
’Jackpot. A sword technique skill, something only S rank Heroes have. Goodness, if I handle this relationship right, I could help him cultivate his abilities properly... he could become the strongest Hero in Meteor City and surpass that bastard.’
A moment later, though, Uthed frowned again.
"Hey. How come you’re F rank if you have a sword technique skill?"
Theo shrugged.
"I have no idea."
Uthed paused, staring at Theo and examining him. After a while he exhaled.
"Alright then. Stand up. I’ll charge you $75 an hour, and you don’t need to worry about paying me for the personal lessons on top of it. We can just cultivate a master-student relationship, if that’s okay with you."
Theo frowned.
"No. I insist on paying."
The refusal caught the man a little off guard. Theo even seemed faintly touched by the offer, and still he would not take it.
’Maybe I overstepped?’
He folded his hands and smiled.
"I’m sorry if I overstepped. But my lesson fees can be expensive. Far more expensive than my usual services."
Theo gave him a cocky smile.
"Don’t worry about money."
Uthed looked shocked for a moment, then he grinned.
"Alright, rich boy. When do we start?"
Theo stood up slowly and spoke with a serious look.
"Is it okay if we start today?" He glanced at the time on his mobile phone and saw that it was 7:45 p.m. "I have to start heading off now, if you don’t mind. You’ll be watching her overnight."
Uthed gave him a strange look, but agreed.
"Alright, give me a few moments to go grab my things. Ah, damn, I smell like crap. I might have to take a shower first," he grumbled as he walked away.
***
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