“Stay on the gate. Don’t let anyone in.” Ken said to the sword-wielding goons behind his back. They nodded and left the dojo to guard the gate.
Ken then turned to Ambrose and said. “I am Ken, a user of the Reverse Tiger Blade. State your name!”
“Ambrose.” Ambrose grabbed the shortsword with both hands and put it in front of him. He then stepped forward with his right foot and leaned slightly forward. He was adding more weight to his front feet to increase the weight of his swings.
“What is the name of your style?” Ken asked with a deep voice.
“Don’t have any. As you can see, I am still starting.” Ambrose said.
Ken looked around the dilapidated dojo and scoffed. “I guess you have to start somewhere, but this is still a sad sight. Zero students, a dojo at breaking point, and a style with no name. Are you even a swordsman?”
“I have no answers to your questions. Should we start this already?”
“Very well.” Ken moved his shoulders, loosening his limbs, and then stepped forward with a long lunge. He rapidly ran across the cracked floorboards with his sword in reverse grip.
“Reverse Blade!” Ken moved his arm behind his back and then whipped his arm around with a sword in hand. His arm looked very flexible, as if it were a whip, and the sword’s blade curled slightly, as if it resembled a tiger’s claw.
“Basic Parry!” Ambrose lowered his sword and smashed it into the incoming blade. He soon noticed that it was a big mistake.
His blade got deflected by Ken’s powerful strike.
Ken crossed his arms and slashed diagonally across Ambrose’s shoulder.
“Ugh!” Ambrose staggered with a blood-gushing wound on his shoulder. He didn’t expect his parry to be defeated so easily.
“Amateurish mistake!” Ken shouted and repeatedly slashed at Ambrose with his reverse grip. 𝑜𝓋𝒩xt.𝒞𝑂𝗆
Ambrose desperately tried blocking the sword strikes, but Ken was both faster and stronger than him.
“Slow, sloppy, and weak!” Ken gracefully moved behind Ambrose and slammed the side of his fist against his exposed neck.
Ambrose’s eyes shook, and he crashed to the ground. His vision turned entirely dark for a moment before the light returned. He was knocked unconscious for a moment!
‘You can be knocked unconscious here?’ He grabbed his head as if he had a head-splitting headache. He then climbed back to his feet and saw Ken gracefully standing while natural sunlight fell on his face.
“Reverse Tiger Blade focuses on graceful fighting. Your fighting is crude and ugly to look at.” Ken said.
“Hah.” Ambrose chuckled and tightened his grip on his sword. “Your mouth is big!”
He shot forward and grabbed the sword with both hands. He then moved the sword to the side of his right shoulder and swung it powerfully across the air.
Ken stepped gracefully to the side, dodging the strike, and then pushed the sword through Ambrose’s chest, causing a big bloody hole in the middle of his chest.
“Ugh!” Ambrose coughed up blood.
[-50 HP!]
[HP: 11/85]
“You have lost. Leave Amaterasu and never come back.” Ken said. “If you ever return, we won’t spare you.”
“Hahahahaha…” Ambrose suddenly grabbed Ken by his wrist and looked at him with a bloody grin. “You wanted to see my style, right? Well, here it is.”
“Huh?” Ken frowned and punched Ambrose across the face. However, the black-haired young man continued grinning as he pushed his sword through Ken’s waist.
“Rgh!” Ken groaned in pain, but at the moment of impact, he managed to twist his waist to dodge most of the damage. The blade only graced his waist, leaving behind a bloody cut, but it was far from fatal.
Ken looked up at the young man, who had just stabbed him, and felt his body turn cold as he saw his dull eyes with a bloody grin.
‘My life sucks.
‘This is the only place that I have left, and I don’t let them take it away from me!’
Ambrose removed his grip on Ken’s waist and pulled out his second shortsword from his inventory. He crossed his swords and slashed across Ken’s chest.
Blood spewed across the dojo, splattering against the floors and messy walls.
Ken jumped backwards, distancing himself from Ambrose. Once he landed back on the floor, he touched his bleeding chest and squinted his eyes uncomfortably.
“Dual-wielding, huh. However, it ain’t the first time I am fighting someone with dual-wielding.” Ken took a deep breath and looked deeply at Ambrose.
He charged forward and slashed repeatedly, as if he wanted to murder the air in front of him. Each sword strike was powerful, accurate, and extremely fast!
“Haaaaaaaa!” Ambrose screamed and hurriedly used both swords to deflect the sword strikes as well as he could.
At that moment, Ken’s smile grew, and he moved to Ambrose’s left side and slashed through his waist.
“Ugh!” Ambrose saw a bloody cut on his wound and saw the rest of his health disappear in an instant.
Ken stopped moving and slowly sheathed his sword.
Ambrose groaned and fell to his knees. He looked at his health and saw that he only had 2 HP left.
“I changed my mind.” Ken said and touched his bleeding chest. “If you promise to pay us a fee of 1000 silvers monthly, we will let you stay here. Otherwise… we will come tomorrow to destroy your dojo and drag your body out of here.”
“Sigh…” Ambrose lowered his head and bit his lip tightly until it started bleeding. He hated this, but he had no other choice. “Fine…”
“Good.” Ken rubbed his neck. “Your dual-wielding has massive weaknesses. You are not ambidextrous; therefore, you are stronger with your right hand than with your left. Unless you fix that, your left side will always be your weakness, and it is easy to exploit.”
Ambrose looked at his sword-wielding hands and saw nothing but weakness.
“You have one month to gather the fee. Till then, bye.” Ken left the dojo, and soon the dojo and its yard were empty again.
‘What could I have done? Do I need speed after all? No, I don’t believe that.
‘I need to improve my swordsmanship! It doesn’t improve magically. The skills make me stronger, but they don’t make my swordsmanship better.
‘The class, Swordsman, made it easier for me to learn swordsmanship, but I am still barely a novice. Strength wise, I am above average among players, but I am very average with swordsmanship alone.
‘If I were fighting against any player with only swordsmanship, no skills, and equal levels, I would struggle a lot!
‘I need to improve. Improve. Improve. Improve. Improve!’
Ambrose stood up with two swords in hand. He looked at the empty dojo and clenched his swords tightly.
“Where to begin? Do I need a master? I could also watch tutorial videos about swordsmanship. If I remember correctly, there is a temple in Werherland that specializes in swordsmanship. Many thought of them as old-fashioned, but they might have something on the internet, even though that is far-fetched.
‘That place doesn’t interact with the outside world much, but I am certain that there should be some tutorial videos. I should start from there.
‘Reverse Tiger Blade… They wanted to crush my dojo and bully me because I have no strength to fight back, and they must have known about it.
‘I will return the favor… I will fucking crush their dojo instead!’