Dawn was still breathing coldly in the bamboo forest. White mist draped the ground like a light blanket, and the silence of nature seemed to hold its breath in anticipation.
Akira stood in the middle of the arena, shivering slightly. Not from the cold, but from the adrenaline beginning to boil in his veins. His face still bore the marks of yesterday's bruises, but his eyes burned with feverish concentration.
Before him stood Hakuro. The old man wasn't holding his usual wooden sword today; he was holding a thin bamboo branch. And yet... the aura radiating from that branch made Akira's stomach knot.
"Yesterday, your eyes told me you could read the path of my sword, but your weak human body was too slow to respond," Hakuro spoke in his calm, pre-storm voice, closing his eyes completely. "Today, I will raise my speed to 10%. And I will coat this branch in 'Sword Aura' (Touki). In other words... if your body touches me and you don't dodge the strike perfectly, it won't just leave a bruise."
Hakuro opened one eye, and it gleamed with pure, cold killing intent. "It will cut you in half."
[Critical Warning!] [Genuine killing intent detected.] [Probability of amputation or death: 98%.] [Auto-activation: Survival Pulse.]
Akira's pulse raced like a drum. He didn't think twice, screaming in his mind: Activate Void Perception Eye!
In a fraction of a second, the world changed. Colors vanished around him, turning everything into shades of black and white. But, amidst this pale world, Hakuro was ablaze! The branch in his hand radiated sharp crimson lines, and the air around him rippled with blue pathways showing his intended movement before he even moved.
"I see everything..." Akira whispered, tightening his grip on his wooden sword.
Hakuro vanished. Fwoosh! The wind tore apart. In Akira's slowed-down world, he saw a crimson line shooting toward his right flank at terrifying speed. Right! Akira's mind screamed. He gave the command to his muscles to move left. But... just like yesterday, his muscles felt viscous, heavy, and slow!
Swoosh! The bamboo branch passed by his flank. It didn't touch him directly, but the air pressure coated in aura tore Akira's combat uniform and opened a long, shallow wound on his side. Blood sprayed, and Akira cried out from the burning pain as he staggered back.
[Activation: Pain Memory.] [Speed +3. Neural Response +5.]
"Too slow," Hakuro's voice echoed from behind him this time. "Great vision without a body to match is just a ticket to watch your own death in slow motion."
Another crimson line shot toward Akira's neck! This time, Akira realized the bitter truth: Even with my stats boosted by Pain Memory, I can't keep up. The distance between my brain's command and my muscle's response is longer than the time it takes for his sword to reach me!
If my body is too slow to dodge the strike... Akira thought desperately, as the wooden blade closed in on his neck, ...then I have to move BEFORE he decides to strike!
Akira bit his lip until it bled, deciding to use his new skill in a suicidal manner. Instead of looking at the "sword" or the "attack path" that appeared in crimson, he narrowed the focus of his Void Perception Eye to the absolute limit, directing it toward just one thing: the center of Hakuro's energy flow (the balance point in his chest).
[Warning! Extreme strain on the optic nerve!]
Akira felt as if a blazing needle was being thrust into his left eye. A thin line of blood trickled down from his eye, but he didn't blink. Suddenly, amidst the gray world, he saw a "pulse." Before Hakuro's foot moved, and before his sword was raised, the energy pooled in a specific point in his chest and transferred to his left leg.
"Now!" Akira didn't wait to see the attack. The moment he saw the energy flow, he threw his entire body forward, toward Hakuro's left side!
BOOM! The air exploded where Akira had been standing a fraction of a second earlier. Hakuro's attack was devastating, but it struck empty space. Because Akira didn't retreat... he advanced! He stepped directly into Hakuro's "blind spot" before the old man could even complete his motion!
Hakuro's eye widened slightly in genuine shock. He advanced toward death to dodge it?!
But Akira wasn't satisfied with merely escaping. Mid-way through his suicidal dash, he released a tiny soul shard... not at Hakuro, but at the ground beneath the old man's foot, causing a very slight disturbance in the sand's gravity!
Hakuro's foot slipped by just a single millimeter. One millimeter was enough to break his perfect stance for a thousandth of a second. Akira capitalized on this break. With a scream coming from the depths of his lungs, and in a physical contortion that nearly tore his shoulder ligaments, he thrust his wooden sword directly toward Hakuro's neck!
Time stopped. The wind stilled, and the bamboo leaves fell incredibly slowly.
Akira was panting violently, his left eye bleeding drops that ran down his chin, his entire body trembling from absolute exhaustion. Before him, Hakuro stood calmly. The old man's bamboo branch was resting a hair's breadth away from Akira's carotid artery. Had Akira moved a millimeter, his throat would have burst.
But... the tip of Akira's wooden sword... was touching the collar of Hakuro's white uniform.
A heavy silence reigned over the arena. Akira deactivated the "Void Perception Eye," and the world returned to its natural colors, just before his legs failed him and he dropped to his knees, the wooden sword slipping from his trembling hand.
Hakuro slowly withdrew the bamboo branch and looked at the spot where Akira's sword had touched his clothes. For the first time in decades, the old man let out a genuine laugh, rough and sincere.
"You ignored the weapon, and read the energy flow from its source to move before I did. Then you used a spiritual skill to disrupt my balance, and exploited the opening to launch a counterattack..." Hakuro shook his head with admiration he couldn't hide, looking down at the boy panting on the ground. "You touched me. A mere human training for two days touched my clothes. Benimaru was right... you are an entirely different kind of monster, Akira."
[System Notification:] [Survival of Advanced Level Training: Success.] [Compatibility with 'Void Perception Eye' increased to 15%.] [Passive combat skill acquired: 'Intent Path Anticipation'.]
Akira raised his head with difficulty, smiling a bloody smile through his cracked lips. "Does... does this mean... I can rest for today?"
Hakuro turned slowly toward the dojo, casting a terrifying sideways glance. "Rest? It only took you 10 minutes to touch me. We still have 11 hours and 50 minutes until sunset. On your feet, boy. Now, we raise the speed to 15%."
The smile completely vanished from Akira's face, and he collapsed face-first into the dirt, groaning in despair, while the System flashed mercilessly: [Preparing stats for more pain... Good luck.]