Chapter 67. Tried to Introduce This Gradually, But Kaela Screamed at Me With Hype
Kaela arrived first, as she always did, punctual, impatient, and carrying an energy that seemed to vibrate off the very pavement. She stopped dead in her tracks exactly four seconds after spotting William.
Her eyes locked onto him as he moved through the final, grinding closing sequence of the stone stance. He wasn’t just moving; he was anchoring himself, his weight shifting with a terrifying, grounded solidity that made the very air around him feel heavier.
"What the hell is that stance you’re doing right now, Instructor Wade...?" she demanded.
She didn’t just walk over; she marched, dropping her training bag unceremoniously by the fence with a heavy thud that echoed across the empty courtyard. Her brow was furrowed, her pupils dilated with genuine confusion.
"That’s not anything you’ve taught us before... and heck! That’s not even close to the standard forms."
William straightened up, rolling his shoulders to work out the phantom tension of the stance. His muscles felt coiled, like springs compressed to their absolute limit.
"Oh? This?" he asked, offering a deliberately casual shrug that was as transparent as glass. "Just some new stuff I picked up last night... Nothing special."
"Nothing special, my ass." Kaela’s eyes narrowed.
Over the past several days, she had developed a sixth sense for William’s particular brand of deception. She had learned the hard way that when he said ’nothing special,’ it usually meant he had discovered something that could either revolutionize their combat training or get half the class killed.
"You looked like you were trying to become part of the fucking earth itself! So show me now!"
William let out a dry, weary exhale. "Kaela, come on... We haven’t even started warmups yet."
"I’m still working through the muscle memory."
"I don’t care about warmups!" Kaela snapped, stepping into his space, her own competitive fire flaring up. "Show me first, warmups later!"
"If you’re hiding a new technique, you don’t get to keep it to yourself."
’Goddammit,’ William thought, rubbing the back of his neck. ’I should have known better than to practice something this fundamental in plain sight...’
’The moment I move wrong, they’ll smell blood in the water.’
The confrontation was interrupted by the soft, hurried footsteps of Lia, who arrived mid-exchange. Instead of acting as the voice of reason, the role she usually played when Kaela started picking fights, she immediately fell victim to the infectious curiosity that seemed to plague everyone around William.
"What new stuff?" Lia asked, her voice laced with eager apprehension.
She came to a halt beside Kaela, her eyes darting between William’s relaxed posture and the obvious intensity that had been simmering in the air moments before. "Did he find something new in the archives?"
Kaela turned to Lia, pointing an accusing finger at William. "He’s being cagey about it."
"Look at that face..." Kaela gritted her teeth. "That’s his ’I know something you don’t’ face."
She turned back to William, her stance shifting into something more aggressive, more ready. "Which means it’s definitely something cool. Or something dangerous."
"Either way, I want in."
William had genuinely intended to fold this newfound understanding into his curriculum with the quiet professionalism of a seasoned instructor. He wanted to introduce these concepts gradually, letting them marinate in the students’ minds.
But standing there, William found it considerably harder to resist the pull of an actual audience than he had expected, caught between Kaela’s relentless badgering and Lia’s sharp, analytical stare.
Additionally, he felt a traitorous, petty satisfaction in the situation. There was something undeniably gratifying about demonstrating mastery, which should have taken years, to two students who actually had the capacity to appreciate the sheer lethality of what he was showing them.
"Alright, alright, give me a break," William said, relenting with far less resistance than his pride should have allowed.
He stepped into the center of the courtyard, rolling his shoulders until they popped audibly. "Since you two are clearly incapable of waiting for the actual lesson, watch closely."
"I’ll demonstrate how these stances interface with Aetherion’s magical configurations."
He didn’t give them time to process. In one fluid motion, he shifted into Ember.
His stance became aggressive and forward-leaning; his center of gravity pushed dangerously close to the opponent to eliminate any distance. Aetherion hissed as it condensed into a single wielded configuration.
William exploded into a short combination of strikes; each slash was sharp, decisive, and utterly suffocating. He wasn’t just swinging a sword; he was denying an imaginary opponent the right to breathe, to think, to even blink.
Kaela’s eyes went wide, her jaw dropping. "Whoaaaaaa, cooooool~!"
"That’s aggressive as hell!" she shouted, pumping a fist in the air. "It’s like you’re trying to murder the air itself!"
"I like that one already!"
"It’s not about murdering the air, Kaela; it’s about controlling the space," William corrected dryly, though he couldn’t hide the smirk.
Without breaking stride, he flowed from the heat of Ember into the fluid grace of Tide. Aetherion split cleanly, the metal singing as it shifted into a dual-wield configuration.
His movements lost their jagged edge, becoming circular and hypnotic. When he swung, it wasn’t a collision; it was a redirection.
He moved in smooth, rolling patterns, his footwork bleeding away the momentum of imaginary strikes as if he were dancing through rain.
Lia’s entire demeanor shifted. The curiosity vanished, replaced by a laser-focused intensity that made her seem years older.
"Hohh... That’s the redirect technique," she whispered, her voice reverent. "The full, uncompromised version of it."
"You’re not just deflecting, but... you’re using their own kinetic energy against them."
"Basically, yeah," William said, breathing slightly harder now.
"Show me again," Lia demanded, stepping forward, her eyes tracking his every micro-movement. "But slower."
"My brain needs to map the trajectory before my eyes can keep up."
"In a second, Lia, patience is a virtue," William teased.
But he was already moving. He needed to close the loop.
Aetherion groaned with magical tension as it scaled up, the metal elongating and thickening until it settled into a massive greatsword configuration. William dropped into the stone stance.
His legs spread wide, his knees bent low, and his weight sank into the ground as if he were made of granite rather than flesh and bone. He became an immovable object.
He held the position for several long seconds perfectly still, utterly solid, a living fortress that looked like nothing in this world could budge him.
When he finally relaxed, stepping out of the stance with a grunt, the silence that followed was deafening. It lasted exactly as long as it took for Kaela’s brain to process the sheer impossibility of what she’d just witnessed.
Then, she erupted.
"Wait a minute..." She stomped toward him, her face twisted between genuine betrayal and theatrical outrage. "You have a five-mode magic sword that can transform into anything, and you apparently just learned six completely different combat philosophies overnight, and you never told any of us this was possible!?"
William blinked. "I already told you about the sword, Kaela."
"You literally watched me test it against those training dummies before."
"That’s not the point, you asshole!" Kaela threw her hands up in exasperation. "You told me it could change shapes, but you didn’t mention you could also change your entire fucking personality depending on which stance you’re using!"
"One minute you’re a raging fire demon, the next you’re a flowing river, and then you’re a fucking mountain! That’s cheating!"
"Jeez... calm down with those languages," William sighed. "Anyway, it’s not about changing my personality; it’s about matching the stance to the tactical requirement."
"That’s not the point, Instructor Wade!" she cut him off, pointing an accusing finger at his chest. "The point is you’re out here holding out on us like some kind of secret weapon cache!"
Lia finally spoke up, though her voice was quieter, more measured. "How long have you known all these stances?"
William rubbed the back of his neck, feeling the heat rise in his cheeks. "Since about one in the morning, if I’m being brutally honest."
Kaela’s mouth fell open. "You learned six sword stances in a single night of reading and then came here to just... casually not mention it until I screamed at you?"
"Do you know how insulting that is?"
"I was going to mention it eventually!" William defended himself, though he sounded weak even to his own ears. "Probably during an actual training session when it was relevant, instead of--"
"Unbelievable." Kaela crossed her arms, glaring at him with a pout that suggested she might demand extra credit out of pure spite. "You’re worse than Lia about hoarding information."
"You’re a walking conspiracy theory."
"I do not hoard information," Lia said immediately.
She didn’t even look up; she had somehow produced a small notebook from her uniform and was already scribbling furiously, her pen scratching against the paper like a madwoman. "I collect data."
"You’re literally doing it right now," Kaela deadpanned, nodding toward the notebook. "You’re hoarding data."
"This is called documentation," Lia countered without breaking her stride. "There is a fundamental difference between hoarding and meticulous recordkeeping."
"It’s the same thing, Lia, just accept it."