??: "The names Tenjedra, though if you're in my class, you'll refer to me as Master. got it?"

  Adav was stunned by the series of event that just unfolded. All he expected was to enlist for the army then work on training with the other recruits. Now he's suddenly face to face with his fathers master.

  He stared at the old man in front of him. If he's his fathers master, then could he also be marked? But no obvious marks were visible, but the fact that he's also wearing clothes that cover most his body doesn't help.

  Adav: "You're fathers master?" he couldn't help but ask.

  Tejendra: "Looks like your no good father didn't even bother telling you about me. And yes, I'm not marked if that's what your look wants to ask"

  He then looks to Garjan

  Tejendra: "Am I right that you're leaving this kid to me? I'll kick him out if he doesn't impress me"

  Garjan: "Don't worry, in a way he's like his father. I'll be going now"

  Garjan waves as he leaves the place, leaving Adav with the old man.

  Tejendra: "That brat. Hey kid, since he's brought you here, you should know how to use Lightning style right?"

  Adav: "Just the basics"

  Tejendra: "Basics!?" he shouted in disbelief. "What the hell was your father doing"

  Adav got irritated from this

  Adav: "Listen, if you're not gonna teach me, I couldn't care less. But don't you mock father" he warns, gripping his sword.

  Tejendra: "Spare me the lecture kid. I've known your father for far longer. Besides, since Garjan saw something in you, I'm not gonna toss you out just yet. Sen, get ready, you'll be sparring with this kid here"

  From the crowd, a young adult, maybe a few years older than Adav came up. He wore a confident demeanor, and from the way the rest of the class gave way to him, he must be one of the best in class.

  Sen: "Really master? I'll spar with him, but should I hold back? He may be Ashan's son, but he's just a kid who knows the basics" he says while looking over Adav

  Tejendra: "I'll leave that to your discretion" he says as he makes way for Adav to enter the room, tossing him a wooden sword

  Adav: "So I'll just have to beat him?" he asks as he inspects the wooden sword. It was similar to the ones he used in the past, and compared to the makeshift sword he used against Garjan, its structure and durability was much better.

  Tejendra: "If you can. Now stand in the corner and wait for my signal" he says as he takes a seat.

  The two contenders make their way to the vacant space in the room. It was a spacious area, giving more than enough space for multiple sparring to happen. The two takes their positions in a marked spot, the distance between them roughly 10 steps apart.

  Sen: "Sorry kid, not to brag, but I'm one of the best here. I've already learned all the advance techniques, so if you give up now, that'll spare you the pain"

  Adav: "..."

  Adav ignores Sen's ramblings. instead he readies himself, using one of the basic stances, sword up and ready to dash. The simplest move, yet the one he's honed in the mountains, trying to reach the movements his father performed.

  "Ready-"

  Adav hears the loud voice, in his mind he begins to recall that sensation, the last strike he delivered to Garjan. It was a move he did in desperation, but also to maximize as much force he could with what little energy he was able to gather.

  "Set-"

  Unlike Garjan who was testing him, the opponent here may beat him quickly, that's why in order to surpass that difference in technique, he'll need to take the first hit. His energy starts pooling at his legs, the rest to his arm and sword.

  "Go!"

  His body is launched with as much force his leg could handle. Sen who was expecting a novice did not expect the level of speed Adav started with. But even so, with the trajectory of his swing being telegraphed, he knew how to handle it. Raising his sword-

  As Adav swung his sword down, he focused as much energy into a single point of his sword, any other energy available was to push his arms to swing faster and stronger-

  *Boom

  A sound like thunder exploded as the two swords met. Sen who was not prepared for such impact was thrown back, his sword, which wasn't coated as much, broke in half. Meanwhile Adav stood there, his sword still intact, and he- still standing while breathing heavily has kept his ground.

  Needless to say, it was a shocking sight and the whole class was speechless.

  A while later, sounds of laughter could be be heard from the master of the room.

  Tejendra: "Hahaha, well played. I see why Garjan thought you could make it here-" he said while walking to Adav, but then stopped in front of him

  Tejendra: "But besides your energy control, you're lacking everything else. Sen, you still alive?"

  He shouts, turning to the student that was just blown away. Despite the scene and his tattered shirt and a bit of blood on where he was hit, he stood up nonchalantly.

  Sen: "Still here master" he says in a relaxed tone

  Tejendra: "After this class, you're to run 20 laps. That will be for underestimating your opponent. Now get ready again, this will be the last round" he says as he walks back to his seat

  Sen: "Ugh you're cruel master. I'm already a mess from that attack" he complains as he gets another wooden sword.

  Sen: "But if I lose here again, you might make it worse~"

  Adav readied his stance once again. The fact that he's still able to go meant that he was still able to react to the attack at the last moment, reinforcing himself with his energy.

  Sen: "Sorry for doubting you kid, you're definitely something. So now, I'll be doing this seriously"

  He says as he remains in his stanceless pose.

  Adav takes the same stance once again. For now, even if he is prepared, it doesn't mean he can still catch up to his speed.

  "Ready-"

  Once again, energy flows into his legs, then to his arms and sword. His sword raised up high

  "Set-"

  Envision his fathers movements-

  "Go!"

  Adav, like a bolt of lightning, quickly lessens the distance between him and Sen. His movements even better, as it's the third time he's done this, he has refined himself much more. As he closed in, he swung his wooden sword once more, and like before, Sen seems to be raising his sword to block it once more

  *Boom

  An explosive shockwave erupts, but this time, none were thrown back, and Adav sensing the difference, quickly jumps back to assess the situation. But he didn't get much chance as Sen's sword was now slashing down on him.

  *Clang

  Their wooden swords meet. Despite both being wooden, the sounds the two weapons made were akin to steel, with the coating they've applied with their energies, its durability is now even stronger.

  Sen: "I was waiting to see if you'd do things differently-"

  He spoke as the two clashed. This time, Adav couldn't replicate that thunderous blow with the interval of their attacks getting smaller and smaller.

  Sen: "Is that move the only thing you know?" He spoke as they clashed.

  For Adav, the movements of his sword is becoming smaller and smaller, the opponents moves were not faster, but somehow it's leading his sword to areas with less openings. Adav with his heightened mind was able to identify the issue, yet-

  *Slash

  He wasn't sure how to get out of this predicament. Every move he makes can be read through, attempting to escape leaves him open, the only thing he can do right now is defend. It's like fighting Garjan again, though this time the opponent was less refined, yet the results are the same.

  Sen: "Sorry, but this is my win"

  He taunts, with the gap in skills made clear, Adav's mind raced. His enemy knows all the moves of lightning style, and any improvised strikes would be easier to deal with so-

  Adav dives in the slashes, using his energy to coat where the slashes are predicted to land. With him suddenly closing the distance, the usefulness of the sword decreases, forcing Sen to step back-

  *Bam

  Adav takes a kick as Sen uses him to jump back.

  Sen: "Of course you'd try that if nothing else work. Now what?"

  With the small distance made, Adav leaps back to increase the distance and give him time to think. What can he do now that he is thoroughly outclassed. Is there something he has advantage over him? Right now, nothing comes to mind, and that is all the more pronounced as Sen chases after him

  He looks around desperately, anything in the environment? No. Anything he has with him? No. Brute force it like last time? No. Use energy absorption? No.

  Frustrated, Adav had admitted that right now, there's no way he can win. He has a slight edge in speed, but it only matters when running away. So now, what he can do is-

  Adav stops running and faces Sen once more

  Sen: "Oh? you thought of something-" He smiles as he goes for the strike. Adav watches closely, blocking it as it came, then proceeding with a counter, watching how he reacts. Then he tries attacking the same way he did, see how he blocks it.

  At this point, Adav decided to try and copy Sen's movement. With energy absorption, he's confident that he can outlast anyone in a measure of endurance.

  *Bam

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  *Slash

  Yet, copying what he does isn't enough. Knowing when to use them is also essential, thus he still gets struck, even more compared to when he's just defending

  Sen: "Seriously? Learning on the go? If this was a real sword, you'd be long dead you know"

  Adav: "Shut up, this aint a real fight either" He snaps back. As he slowly finds certain moves familiar, able to deal with it much easier

  Yet blow after blow, his focus slowly starts to falter as his energy runs dry. Even with energy absorption, the pace he can do it is nowhere fast enough. Until finally

  Adav: "damn..."

  He falls to the ground.

  Tejendra: "Enough, that's it for the test" he bellows after watching the whole thing unfold.

  Truth be told, he had expected it to end much sooner. With Sen's advantage in experience and technique, Adav had no way of hitting him, which was the case, but even so, finding various ways to try and adapt showed Adav's drive to do this which he is impressed by.

  Sen: "He's a scary one master. I bet he went up a rank with the things he copied from me" he says as he passed by Tejendra then to his seat.

  Tejendra: "Don't be absurd. He only copied the movement, no foundations or purpose behind them" he said as he shot down his claim. He has watched Adav make use of Sen's move, yet they were only a shallow imitation right now, nothing compared to the actual move.

  Tejendra: "Need a hand kid" he says as he approached Adav.

  But to his surprise, the kid stood back up on his own, despite him running empty just a moment ago. "was my estimates wrong" Tejendra chuckled to himself, thinking that he must be growing old for making such a mistake.

  Adav: "So, am I getting kicked out?" he says as he glared at Sen, who in return just shrugged.

  Sen: "Hey, you already won the first one, so I had to win that next one"

  Tejendra just laughed, patting Adav on the head.

  Tejendra: "Don't worry about it too much kid, you've definitely passed, but temporarily for now. I'll keep you here to teach you a bit beyond the basics, but after that, I'l need you to do something"

  Adav: "What? another fight" he replies as he readies his sword.

  Tejendra: "A lively one aren't you. No, right now you need to rest. I don't know how you're able to get up after all that, but proper rest is still needed. For now you can sit at the side and observe the class, after that, I'll tell you my condition"

  With that, Adav nodded hesitantly. At least he wasn't kicked out, so he still has some more opportunities so see the advanced lightning style combat.

  As he watched, he noticed that the flow was more or less the same as his father did in the dojo. The very fundamentals first and foremost, for the class that's already past that, they still did their drills before moving on to the more advanced moves, which in themselves weren't that complex.

  Sen: "Simpler than expected right" he says to Adav as he sits next to him

  Sen: "Well if the move itself is hard to do, all the more in actual combat right?" he says as he makes a big stretch.

  Tejendra: "Hey Sen, who said you're done!? You still got those laps, start running"

  The master calls out to Sen, stopping him from slacking off.

  Sen: "Give me a break, I fought a lot from the fight earlier you know" he complains, but gets up nonetheless to do the laps.

  Tejendra: "And you kid, I also want you to think about why you lost earlier"

  The master yells to Adav as Sen leaves. Adav was already thinking about this, far earlier even just after the fight, yet what he could conclude was simply Sen being better. Perhaps because he knew more moves meant that he had a counter for everything sent to him.

  After a while of pondering, he wasn't really finding anything beyond his initial thoughts. At that point, he hears the master-

  "Alright, now lets do some sparring. Adav you'll be facing me. The rest, find someone suitable to practice the lessons today"

  After announcing this, the master turns to Adav.

  "So, do you have an idea on why you lost?"

  Adav wasn't confident and just gave out what he was thinking. The difference in techniques, gap in experience and options made it so that all he knew had a counter. To this, the master was silent for a while.

  "Good but not enough. A 5 out of 10" He declared as he hands Adav a new wooden sword as he himself takes a stance.

  "Try sparring with me, but lets take things slow" the master continues, raising his sword. "Let's see if you'll be able to find the right answer here"

  Adav raised the sword given to him. He was already tired and his scars hurt from needing to use it to gain some energy to be able to move again, if he could, he'd rather not, but the fact that he could gain some kind of insight from the wall he's stuck with, means another step to getting stronger.

  Underneath his handguards, his scars pulse as they scream in pain. Once more, gain energy in exchange for pain. He wasn't sure how frequent he can do this, but with this, marks the third time he's used this in one day, the most he's pushed himself.

  The master on the other hand is shocked from the kid who by all means should be unable to move, slowly glow with energy.

  Tejendra: "Hold up kid, I said let's take this slow, so its fine if there's no speed or power behind it" he says. Whatever the kid is doing, I doubt it's something safe, since if it was, he'd have used it in the earlier fight more.

  Adav abruptly stopped absorbing energy from around him. In a way bringing relief, but also a shame since he was determined to test his limits. "Alright, so I just show how I'll attack?"

  The master nods, and with that confirmation, Adav takes his stance and brings an overhead swing. The same one he's started with in the past two fights. The master considers showing him other openers, but right now, that isn't the focus here-

  *clack

  The attack is deflected down, then without pause, the master quickly rotates his blade to be facing Adav, who pulls his sword back to defend. In a single move, the master switched from defending to attacking, and here Adav without knowledge on how to deal with such attacks, makes use of his sharpened senses to evade and block.

  Tejendra: "And then you'll strike from the side-"

  *clack

  the two swords meet again, once more the way the master blocked Adav's sword, in one fluid motion it was made to be on the attack again, forcing Adav to step back to gain time to defend.

  Adav: "How-"

  The two continue to exchange blows, but for Adav, the way the exchanges happened, the more he feels like he is being cornered once again. Like against Garjan and Sen, somehow he's feel like defending is the only thing he can do.

  Adav: "Damn it-"

  He still can't tell what's happening. At the very least, it's as if they're able to tell where he's going to attack. Though that much is obvious, since he only knows the basics-

  Tejendra: "Feel free to use the moves you've imitated earlier, I can assure you that only knowing the basics isn't the problem"

  Adav feels frustrated, as they sparred, he's already been hit multiple times. If this was a real fight, he wont last a minute. What is it then that he lacks? Envisioning his fathers fight once more, the sheer speed and power is all he can remember. Is it those? Then more finer control of energy-

  Tejendra: "If you're copying your father, I suggest not doing that. His level is not feasible for you as you are right now"

  Adav: "What do you know!" he snapped, gritting his teeth he makes use of energy to gain more speed-

  Tejendra: "If you've seen him at his peak, you'll only see him using a single move to finish a fight"

  he began lecturing, while also seemingly increasing the pace that he fought with.

  Tejendra: "Didn't he at least teach you defensive moves? If you act in the basis of finishing a fight in a single hit, you're done when that doesn't happen"

  Faster and faster. Adav didn't sense any coating so the old man may literally just be increasing his pace rather than using energy.

  Tejendra: "The amount of soldiers coming here after seeing him in action, then dying quickly also because of him being their model"

  Adav tried his best to focus, the old mans move, even with the pace increasing, the actual movements he's making is actually lowering. More precise such that his every attack is blocked and countered at the same time-

  *Bam

  Adav was hit on the head, lost his balance and fell on the floor.

  Tejendra: "Ah, sorry, lost my cool there. Remembered some unpleasant memories"

  Adav: "tch. So is that it? Learn defensive moves?" he responds grumbling as he holds his head.

  Tejendra: "You can say that. Honestly there's a lot I want to point out, but for now, don't copy Ashan, at least until you're as good as him. For now, you're going to relearn all the basics here. And since everyone else is already well past that point, you're going to work twice as fast if you want to catch up"

  Adav could only nod. Reflecting on himself, it's true that all he's ever learned till now were the moves he saw his father do, anything else he's taught him before were thrown. Whatever defensive moves he did was out of instinct. And now, with the people he's had trouble with were those he cant deal with with the first strike.

  Tejendra: "Anyways, that's all for today. You can go rest somewhere, then tomorrow, training starts"

  He says as he turns back to the class which was still sparring with each other. Adav called out, though he knew he needed rest, but-

  Adav: "I came here also to enlist in the army, where do I do that?" he asked

  Tejendra: "Ah right, Garjan did say that. For now, I wont allow you to until you learn the basics. Until then, work hard here" he said as he waved him off to continue the class.

  Shocked at this turn of events, Adav decided to retire for the day. He had wanted to complain, but after getting beaten so thoroughly twice in that place, all he could do for now was to bear with it. Soon, he'll learn the basics once more and he'll be able to compete in their level.

  He was about to go looking for a nice spot like a cave for sleeping in the surrounding terrain till he realized that Garjan gave him the keys to his unused room. So with that, he goes in and luckily found a dusty bed.

  "much better that needing to make myself a camp" he mutters as he starts dusting the bed. A while later with it good enough for sleeping, he crashes out on it. Immediately falling asleep due to all the built up exhaustion.

  With this, his day ends.

  The next day, as the sun rises, some of the students arrive at the dojo, only to be met with an unexpected scene. The master, who normally has been hands off in training has now been taking part in sparring. Mostly to the new student Adav, whom he was teaching the basics to, but every now and then, he'd take up sparring against the more advanced students such as Sen.

  This morning was such a case. No one knew when the two began, but from the earliest student that arrived just moments after the sun rose, the dojo lights were already open and Adav and the master were already in the midst of a lecture via sparring.

  This in itself didn't disrupt the classes too much as once most of the students arrived, the usual class format would begin, and Adav will be resting while observing the class. On such times, he'll watch the students intensely as they spar, in days where no sparring is being held, he'll disappear from class and return by evening to spar with the master.

  Adav himself didn't interact much with the rest of the class, mostly keeping to himself by the corner. When some try talking with him, he'll respond, but his interest seems to lie solely on training. Sen has invited him out on multiple occasions to join with the class, but all were denied, and at some point, the class in general just stopped trying to talk to him.

  Beyond that, as the days passed, he has also started to join the sparring match outside the master. The class, as expected, found him strong in terms of raw power and speed, and the technique he was lacking on the first day he arrived, is quickly improving at a monstrous rate, reaping the awes and envy of the class.

  For Adav, none of the feelings of his classmates even reach him. From the 2nd day, he has once again dedicated himself fully to training. It was the same essence as the one in the mountains, but with the guarantee of a safe place to train, eat, and rest, he has managed to put in even more time to training.

  In class, he'll arrive before the sun rises and spar with the master to remember the foundations he missed. In class, he'll watch intently how the other students move, how to they defend, are there any moves he can use right now and such. With what he then learns, he practices it after class ends.

  On another matter, with the limit on how much energy he can absorb, this has been another thing he has been testing. Before and after class, and if class wasn't interesting for him, he'll be out meditating, relaxing his body as he absorbs the energy from his surroundings. Naturally the pain came through the entrances he's set, but with continuous use of it, the pain while not disappearing, was becoming more and more bearable.

  Once the master allowed him to spar with the other students, he's able to ascertain the things he learned, how well he can make use of them depending on the opponents style of fighting. This wasn't an easy slope to conquer, as with his sparring, the master has not allowed him to make use of energy, making sure he is able to win through technique alone.

  Such restrictions annoyed Adav as it also caused him to lose even more, especially to those he's certain he can beat easily. But gritting through it, after days of training, by the end of the week, he is able to compete, although still disadvantaged, against most of his peers. But even so, with this-

  Tejendra: "For todays sparring, Sen you will face Adav. Like before, feel free to go all out. And Adav, you may use your energy for this one"

  At last, a rematch. Last time even though both won a match, Adav was severely outclassed, but now, things will be different. Adav thought as the two takes their position. For the rest of the class, who should be sparring with their partners, couldn't help but watch.

  Compared to Sen who was a given to be one of the best in class, with his ability to quickly pick up on the lessons, Adav was in contrast a beginner but with monstrous stats and insane amount of energy. Although they have seen him hone his techniques, it was in the lens of being unable to use energy to supplement it, but now that those restraints were gone, could he actually fare against Sen?

  Sen: "Hey guys, mind not staring. All this pressure might make me lose my nerves" he says chuckling as he readies himself. He too was unaware how much Adav has grown in the past week, but he knows what he's learned, and through those, he should still have the upper hand.

  "Ready-" the masters voice cause Sens thoughts to focus.

  "set-" Adav takes his stance, a rather stanceless form with the sword loosely at the center. His arms and legs aching as he starts absorbing energy even before the fight

  "go!" the distance between the two vanishes as both charges straight to each other.

  The overhead strike that Adav normally starts with now began with it turning quickly into a thrust. With the difference in their reach, he'll need to move as fast and as far as possible- Yet the blade is brushed aside by Sens own sword, his speed not stopping, he strikes Adav with the pommel to the head once the distance has become one where using the sword is difficult

  Adav barely dodges, taking a step back just in time, but with this, Sen takes the initiative and pushes, turning the counter to an overhead strike-

  *clack

  Adav deflects it to the side, giving himself the opportunity to attack once again. Unlike before, now he knows option to quickly change from defensive to countering. The two swords clash, even with the option to take the offensive, Sen steadily took it back with his own counter, this time avoiding using too much overhead that can be deflected as before

  Of course, that wasn't the only situation he's learned to counter, slowly but surely, the clashes between the two has changed from being one sided to a more give and take. In majority of this, Adav is still getting hit, but the amount of moves Sen can make has decreased significantly. It wasn't simply the moves Adav learned, normally there are limits to how fast your sword can travel, say from a downward slash to defending an overhead strike, but with Adav's energy boosting his speed. With this, even with knowing a few defensive options, it's effect greatly increases his proficiency.

  Sen: "This is seriously bad" he mutters as he strains his focus. It wasn't like sparring with anyone in class, but with a version that can move much faster and react much quickly. The usual methods wont work to finish the fight, so he's been improvising, skipping certain moves to adapt to this new kind of enemy.

  Tejendra: "Oh, can it be that Sen too is learning from the Fight? Maybe I should have each one of you have a turn at this" he laughs, rejoicing at not just Adav's growth but how he too is pushing Sen to improve. In contrast, most of the students just shudder at the idea.

  Sen wasn't always the way he is right now, before he used to train diligently, wanting himself to be someone renown, like one of the marked. But around those times, the war with the north has began and with it the opportunity to prove himself in the field.

  He knew himself to be strong as in his area there wasn't anyone he cant beat in a one on one, but once in the field, time and time again, he has had to face death, whether close calls himself or with people he knew. There, the concept of a fair fight weren't dictated by any rules but by who won, so anything goes. Numbers, poison, beasts, dirty tactics, anything was fair game. There his mental image of the strongest was twisted and shattered.

  His approach to fighting too changed. It didn't matter how good you are, a single mistake can end you. He was still continually learning to fight, but an approach in his ideology changed. Study the enemy, move to make them move in the way you do, trick their minds, and so on. Of course most of these he doesn't apply to training in the dojo, but the way he fights, he fights like adding shackles to his opponents. Knowing as much with lightning style as he can, he knows how to make people move in the way he wants, with this he has reached the best in class, yet has to receive praise from the master.

  Regardless, with finding this method, his attitude too has grown to appear lax, since in the dojo, he already knows every option his opponent can do, so defeating them has been a simple puzzle. Yet now, with the appearance of Adav, all conventions has been thrown out. At first he was shocked, but with his basic way of fighting, he was able to take control as he used to, but now-

  Sen: "Damn it, making me actually think in the middle of a fight-" he makes a force grin as he shifts his well used tactics. In a way, his view here was not like a puzzle but a race, he has all the techniques but the opponents absurd stats makes it possible to brute force his way with what little techniques he does know.

  Yet even if he appears like he's having a hard time, the truth is not so pleasant. With slight adjustments to his moves to include getting hit, the advantage in knowledge has bared its fangs on Adav once more. He was still able to go on the attack, but even these were now controlled in a way that his best moves were ones that can be dealt with.

  For most of the class, it seems like both are fighting evenly, but Adav knew he's facing the same wall again. Even with all the moves he's learned, it wasn't enough to surpass this obstacle. For now he's still fighting well, but soon, even with him constantly absorbing energy, will run out at the pace this is happening. Yet since he does have a decent amount, the decision he makes to breakthrough this scenario is-

  *Boom

  His next attack creates a small shockwave. Not as strong as when he did it before, but strong enough to create a bigger opening for him to strike. But the momentary stagger wasn't enough to finish the fight and Sen quickly recovered, yet-

  *Boom

  His next attack also created a small shockwave, pushing Sen further back, making that opening even wider.

  Adav: "haa!" he goes in with a slash, Sen this time goes to deflect-

  *clang

  The two swords part without any reaction, catching Sen off-guard. But with his sword just parried, a slash would take too much time-

  "Hya!"

  Adav launches a kick as he twists his body towards Sen, an unconventional scenario which he has been practicing. The kick was far from polished, meaning its impact or power was far from being effective, but the speed he's unleashed it is good enough to stagger unarmored targets.

  Sen: "Hck-"

  Sen clutches his stomach which was hit. It was brief, but the momentary pause gave Adav time to take up a stance and unleash a powerful strike, this time far more refined than before.

  Adav: "haa!"

  Adav dashes as he swings his sword-

  *Boom

  A much more powerful shockwave is shot, shocking the class as it was like an actual thunder that boomed. Yet what shocked them even more was the final result-

  Sen: "And that's two to one" he says, his hair ruffled and he was breathing heavily. He had his sword over Adav's face, who on the other hand was still holding his sword, yet his arms were trembling. The dojo uniform provided was bleeding by his wrist and feet area despite the lack of sharp blades used.

  From the last attack, Sen has already faced the move multiple times to know its range, thus stepping back to dodge was the easiest choice compared to taking it. The move itself was far more powerful, but with all its speed and power, if one knew how far it could go, then they can simply evade.

  Plus with the bleeding on his scars, Adav knew he's pushed himself too far today. In the middle of a fight, he couldn't regulate his absorption as well and has opted to grit and fight, yet in that last moment as he let a surge of his energy flow, the counterflow of his own has clashed too much resulting in his entrances rupturing.

  The result was him unable to properly hold on to his sword due to the pain. This was made even worse by the loss in such a simple way.

  Tejendra: "Alright, that's it for the round. The rest of you, back to your own training." He announces as he walks to the two.

  Tejendra: "Good work both of you. Adav you can end the day now, and spend tomorrow recovering alright?" He says as he looks at his bleeding arms and legs. "The day after, I'll let you enlist for the army" the master announces, finally allows him to join the army.

  Sen: "Though there's nothing much happening with the army with the truce right now, so it'll be more or less the same thing besides whatever enlistment test they have these days" he says as he takes a set.

  Adav knew of the temporary peace right now, yet confirmation of his enlistment still meant a step closer to his goal, thus even with the loss today, it still ended with something good. He thinks as he nods. He'll need to actually rest right now, with his entrances bleeding, he dares not to absorb from outside, so a natural rest is in order.

  Sen: "By the way master, I think I'm also done for today" he says as he leans back to rest by the wall.

  Tejendra: "I'll allow it, you've worked hard this time too"

  Sen: "Nice! You said it master, no take backs~"

  Adav watches as Sen runs out of the dojo, as if he wasn't that spent at all.