The trial suddenly became of cat and mouse. In his peak state, this sort of thing would be easy for Ryu. Unfortunately, as things stood now, he was completely handicapped. His foggy Spiritual Sense which had once had a twenty meter or so range fell to the point where it stretched out barely an inch from himself. At the same time, he was completely exhausted. His muscles were screaming, and his lungs felt as though he had inhaled hot coals.
It wasn't long before the crowd's attention was trained on the image of Ryu gasping for breath. He sat on the abandoned top floor of an antique shop, trying to gather himself.
Of course, Ryu put this sort of pressure on himself on purpose. Since much of his goal here had been accomplished, he saw this trial as nothing more than a training opportunity. Still, even though he expected dual wielding would be difficult, he never guessed it would put so much strain on him.
The longer a weapon was, the more difficult the act of controlling it became. It was for exactly this reason that polearms were two-handed weapons. Only with two hands could you have the stability and power that was needed to make proper use of them.
Take, for example, the spear. A youth training in this path would spend years honing their accuracy, trying their best to gain perfect control of the tip of their weapon. A warrior who reached an almost unconscious level in the spear would be capable of piercing the same point continuously with barely a millimeter of error between strikes.
Now imagine accomplishing the same feat with only a single hand. Without the stability provided by a second hand, one needed to activate all of their focus in order to match that level of control. Then consider for a moment that they would need that level of focus not just once over, but twice!
Ryu understood this point vaguely. This was why even during his training in the beast mountains, he avoided dual wielding, instead opting to focus on one hand at a time to hone this skill. Yet, even with all of that preparation and the support of Breath of Heaven, he barely lasted a few seconds before his stamina gave out. To make matters worse, his movements were clumsy and awkward, nothing like he imagined it would be like.
Even with all of this said, how Ryu faired would have been even more embarrassing had it not been for the Kunan Clan Martial Form. This Martial Form focused on controlled speed and explosiveness. To reach that end, all of it Forms emphasized small muscles groups that were often neglected. These small muscle groups acted as the hundreds of tiny stabilizers Ryu needed to control a two-handed weapon with one. If Ryu hadn't trained in this Martial Form, not only would his attempt have ended in disaster, he likely would have crippled himself for a time.
'It seems I'm still not ready.' Ryu took deep breaths, circulating the Ice Phoenix Martial Form to soothe his aching muscles. 'I need more flexibility and stability. It seems I'll have to put even more effort into my Martial Forms.'
The soft sounds of footsteps caused Ryu's lips to curl into a slight sneer that disappeared as quickly as it appeared. There was no way Amory could have found him on his own in such a short period of time. The only explanation is that someone used the Visual Jade that was monitoring him to guess his location before sending a Qi Line message to Amory. Unfortunately, Headmaster Leopold had no cultivation to speak of, so it was impossible for him to monitor this.
Ryu's expression turned cold once more. He had only recovered to about five percent of his peak, but that was more than enough.
Sending his glaive into his spatial ring, he sprang up, shattering a window to his left and leaping atop its sill.
His hands snaked forward, snagging two relatively large pieces of glass before pushing off. He became a shadow in the skies, making it halfway to an adjacent building before the Dragon Corps warriors below even registered the sound of breaking glass.
"He's over there!" A squad captain roared. He had been placed here precisely to watch out for Ryu's escape in this fashion, so he was already well prepared.
With a thought, his archers took aim, firing a volley toward Ryu's figure.
Ryu couldn't see what was happening clearly. His senses had been dulled and his eyes were closed. But, he still had his comprehension of [Gliding Cloud Steps]. He immediately felt the shift in the wind. Although it was far more difficult since arrows were designed to agitate air as minutely as possible, Ryu had focused his everything on their existence.
His body twisted, but this time, his outcome wasn't as elegant as all those times before. While the Third Order beast leather Ryu wore had decent defense, it was also quite heavy. With Ryu's muscles aching as they were, it was difficult to ignore its stiffness.
The black leather sheered apart, nipping Ryu in the arm and both thighs, one arrow even managed to scrape along his rib cage, taking with it a trail of blood and flesh.
However, Ryu survived. The pressure he felt made his blood boil, a faint excitement overwhelming him. It was far too easy before, but this feeling, this feeling made it worth it. How long had he spent as a cripple? As a man without any power to speak of? This was true freedom, the freedom to grasp everything with your own hands, your own power.
Ryu spun in the air, the two glass shards he had taken launching outward. One sped toward squad captain's voice, and another headed toward the marksman who tore a wound through his ribcage. Ryu's strength hadn't recovered enough to use his true weapons, but he definitely had enough to make use of these two pieces of glass.
He didn't have the luxury of finding out how his attack ended. In the next instant, he had rolled onto the opposite building's roof, springing upward and disappearing in a flash.
Ryu faintly heard the agonizing screams of two men. The crowd could only take in a sharp cold breath, watching as the glass shards hit their mark. Both men lost an eye. In fact, they would have died had the glass been made of more resistant material.
The beautiful scene of Ryu escaping ambush after ambush awed the crowd. Over time, some more astute individuals began to see just how odd it was that Ryu was found so easily every time. They didn't know how the cheating was occurring, but they definitely knew that it was happening.
Unfortunately for Amory and the Dragon Corps, none of it mattered. The two-hour period ended without them ever catching Ryu.
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