Book 1 Chapter 7: Settling In

An old man quite familiar to Z silently opened the door and closed it behind himself as he strode in.

"Dean!" Verzi, Arthur, Jax, and Page called out simultaneously.

"Hello Uncle!" Z called out with a smile and ran forward to greet the old man. The old man smiled and patted Z's head before waving for him to come and sit alongside him at the table.

"Z…I am the dean of you all, and my real name is Adimus Zorath, in public try to call me Dean Adimus at the least haha…you can call me Grandpa Adimus on the side if you would like…" Adimus's voice echoed in Z's ears but it would seem the others did not hear the same words. As if magically the words were only meant for him to hear.

"Good…I assume you 5 have become quite acquainted yes? It would seem that each of you have outstanding and yet separate directions to train in…from now forth, you 5 are brothers in arms and will train together…we haven't found anyone else here in the sea of trees…but we shall not stop searching until we arrive back at the island in the west…for now, you 5 will begin to learn from teachers as I know already some of the teachers have been secretly instructing you on the side…now we will make it official."

"Yes Dean Adimus" The 5 said in unison.

"Secondly…since you each have gone through examinations…you already know which direction you want to go in. With the fact each of you are quite exceptional, or have family that has already directed you in a certain direction…I want you to decide what journey you shall travel in time. You should understand the meaning behind those words… as for you Z, you excel in several fronts so your options are quite open…you also don't know the type of classes you can pursue, nor the types of warriors within the world and thus have inexperience to what type to choose to train towards…"

Page held a hand up, and Adimus gestured for him to speak but was however stooped to find Page didn't ask any questions but in fact handed him a paper out of thin air.

The old man raised a brow and titled his head for a second, but still took the paper from his hands.

His eyes gazed over the page, and he gave several nods before his eyes stopped on a specific line "Affinities: Earth, Water, Fire, Air. Spirit of Nature and Metal…Bamboo. Usage between elements in association with Spiritual affinity is vague, further experimentation to be understood further or later…Adept at Staff, and Likely sword."

"Eh? Why didn't you tell me these things you little shit" The dean muttered under his breathe as his gaze on Z became passionate, like his eyes were aflame.

"Z…I know what you shall train in now" Come with me, Adimus touched his shoulder and with a sad gaze Z sighed "Please go slow senior…if you whip around the ship too fast I might hurl"

The old man indeed intended to do that and laughed, "Alright…a second or two longer isn't much of a difference"

*Whoosh*

Page looked at the other 3 "I hope 5th brother doesn't get the worst of it"

The three nodded with eyes closed towards Pages remark.

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Adimus let go of Z's shoulder, letting him settle onto the deck of a room decorated with bright silver decorations and soft seated couches. It seemed to be a lounge of sorts, but with the speed that Adimus moved at Z didn't for the life of him know what part of the ship he was currently in.

"Hmm?" Two men looked up from playing a game of chess.

"Quick look at this paper before the person I took it from disperses it…little bastard has the habit of doing so" Adimus drifted at what seemed to be a slow speed but arrived in front of the two in less then an eye blink. He held the page up, and the two scanned its contents in a mere second before their eyes opened a bit.

"Oh my…" The two spoke out simultaneously.

"Yes…yes…I think the best result would be him training a couple each of his elements with you two separately…in is quite the chance for him to fit both of your requirements…how about you two stay a bit longer to teach a student of mine."

The two looked at each other for a while, before the man on the left spoke without hesitation "It will not be easy…" while the man on the right followed up with "It will also be two considerably separate concepts"

"I know…I know…just work with me on this, please give me face." Adimus smiled.

The two sighed, "fine"

Adimus waved his hand and Z floated over to the two men sitting down.

"Uh…hello seniors" He muttered out while holding his stomach.

The man on the left decisevly looked him up and down "My name is Saint Yi Bi Sha…the One hit Kill Saint. I train in the dao of the sword."

The man on the right nodded "I am Hou Zi Fa Zhang or the Monkey Staff Saint…I train in the dao of the staff and spear."

"My name is Zephyr Zhu seniors…spirit of the bamboo…I don't know if this is in relation to it, but I wish to seek your advise and become your students to learn in the spear and sword…I don't know if it is possible to have two masters at once but I promise with all my heart to work my hardest…id rather not choose between you seniors"

The two nodded while rubbing their chins, Hou nodded "Okay…ill take you as my student…Let me see your bamboo spirit"

Yi Ji eyed Hou with a glare, "Show me your spirit in the form in which it is a sword first before him…"

Hou and Yi Ji looked at each other with blazing eyes "No me first…" the two unexpectedly said at the same time.

"Seniors please hold on…" Z racked his brain while trying to think about how to give them both what they wanted. Adimus smiled and backed up a it until his butt landed on a couch far away, he wanted to see how Z handled the affairs of these two.

The two stopped arguing and both held up their hands, as if giving Z the choice between the two.

"Hrr…" Z closed his eyes and focused with all his will as he held up both of his palms.

The air in the room became stagnant, while the three men held their breathe simultaneously, "Uh kiddo wait hold on don't…" The two wanted to speak but two separate lights already appeared in Z's palms.

Adimus leapt up and rushed forwards to stop Z but watched bewildered as two separate pieces of bamboo grew from the boys palms.

A 7 segment staff grew forth and landed in Hou's hand, while a 3 segment bamboo rod landed in Yi Ji's hand.

"Kiddo…that is a really bad thing to do…" Adimus finally spoke out.

Z was sweating, "Why?"

"By forcefully…some spirits are one entity… picture it like this, if you had the spirit of a dog and everytime you summoned it a dog would appear of course…what would happen if you tried to conjure two separate dogs with the energy of your spirit? It would be like forcefully tearing your spirit in half, while trying to achieve the same result…now in some cases, some people are capable of this because it is innately apart of the ability of their spirit…but if you don't know if you can…you'd be quite litterly committing suicide by tearing your soul in half."

"Fuck…I like the balls on this kid though" Hou laughed as his gaze fell out the bamboo staff in his hand.

Yi Ji nodded while eyeing the bamboo rod in his hand.

"Blade?" Yi Ji asked after a while.

"I am sorry senior…I don't yet know how to summon that part of it…Page said after watching me and Jax spar, that I might be able to conjure it after a certain set of moves…I felt when swinging the staff, my spirit was urging me to swing in certain ways but I could never grasp it right. I only got to one move, and then lost the feeling each time."

Hou smiled "Oh my…and what move were you performing when you felt that?" He stood up while motioning with his arm to the air.

A staff of golden light congealed in his hand, with two thick cylindrical ends to it as if they were weighted. The staff body or main shaft had lines dashing back and forth like that of the scales of a dragon.

"I have the spirit of the Monkey King staff, please, show me your skill young one" Hou smiled and waved his free arm moving all things in the room to the outer most edges. The room itself was well over 30 square meters, so it was large enough for Z to move unhindered.

Z caught his bamboo staff from Hou and smiled back "Thank you for instructing me senior…I felt it when I swung overhead straight down"

With a step the bamboo staff came sailing down from overhead. Hou noted it was extremely flexible, as the bamboo staff bent slightly as it moved.

Hou merely used his staff to block it without any power, before Z had even swung the staff was already in place to meet the over head swing. Z could probably strike the three men in the room a million times, and never leave a red mark on them. For purposes though, Hou was sparring with Z and thus acted as if it was so.

"When you swing downwards is it when you strike that the feeling fades…or right before" Hou asked casually.

Z shook his head that he didn't know, Hou nodded "Then strike again…and again…and again…until you do."

*clack*

*clack*

*clack*

Z struck well over 50 times in the same manner before he finally caught the end note of the feeling from before "It is after I struck…"

"Oooh! Good, then it isn't an innate ability where you must train in certain motions to achieve power…it is part of a martial system of movement, or in other words power gained through battle."

Adimus sat back down, and with a knock on the wall a woman came in with a pot of tea for him to drink. She sat next to Adimus and kneaded his shoulders while he relaxed and enjoyed the show.

Hou nodded to Adimus, "Correct…strike again until you feel even the slightest push towards another type of strike"

Z nodded "Okay…"

*clack*

*clack*

"I feel like when it bounces back I should let it carry overhead in reverse, and then sweep from my side…"

"Hmm…a move based around the use of recoil, were getting there" Hou laughed.

Hours passed like this, until over 10 moves had been put together, Hou was astounded to find that the moves were unrelated to any martial form he knew but had a seemingly drawn together form.

As if it was one fluid movement. Each time a strike was made, the recoil would follow into a second move and thus by the tenth move Z would have spun, turned and flipped the staff countless times.

With the fact Z was an adept, he caught on extremely quickly.

"There it is…" Adimus focused his eyes, not just him but Hou and Yi Ji intently focused on the end of the staff as Z moved.

A blade of silver light slowly coalesced at the end of the staff, like the bamboo segments, from the base of the blade up towards the middle were black streaks like that of burned wood or licks of ash. The blade was like that of a spear, with symmetrical curves to its dual edged blade body. Faintly on the blades body were lines like that of bamboo segments connected but were so light that they could barely be felt.

"Interesting…stab forth little Z" Hou was very excited.

Z complied and rushed ahead before letting the shaft of the spear slide forward in his left hand while the right hand brought it forward. Except instead of going straight, the spear veered off wildly to the side and the metal blade disappeared.

Hou frowned, "What happened" he noticed a strange tremor in the air as Z was about to pierce towards him.

"Uh…I don't know…I felt like I was pushing against a bubble, I didn't have the strength to keep it steady and this force pushed the blade away." Z rubbed his head as he looked at the end of the bamboo rod which now was a staff again.

"That's it…that's an innate aspect or ability…hmm…bubble…babe, go grab two magnets from somewhere" Adimus whispered into the ear of the woman next to him. She nodded with a questioning look but got up and disappeared in a flash before returning with two strange looking rocks.

Adimus grabbed them and appeared before Z, "Take these in each hand and push them towards each other"

Z looked up at Adimus and back down at the rocks, "Uh okay" He set down the staff and grabbed the rocks before with an effort pushing them towards each other. He couldn't make them touch, but a surprised glint passed over his eyes "It was like this…this was the feeling"

"Hmm…" The rocks disappeared from Z's hands, as well as Adimus from in front of him who reappeared next to the woman on the couch as he kicked his legs up and played with the rocks in his hand.

Hou nodded to Adimus, "Interesting…you don't currently have the strength to use such an ability, but the fact it is there beyond the blade…means you have an exceptional spirit indeed…disperse your spirit of the staff, try for Yi Ji" Hou walked over and sat down with Adimus.

Yi Ji smiled to Z, "Well... you ever swing the damned thing?" He tossed the 3 segment piece of bamboo over to Z.

"Uh…no…just the staff." Z held the assumed handle of a sword in his hands.

"Let's first go over the type of sword styles…speed, strength, indomitable, swift, unpreditable…with so many different types of blades in the world, all sorts of styles are possible but the greatest aspect to wielding swords is speed and strength. Let us see if you feel for either of these…take up a stance with your legs spread equally to the width of your shoulders and feet pointed forward. Take the handle?... bamboo? With both your hands holding the top most portion of it."

Z complied and spread his legs apart, before taking the bamboo piece and holding it out in front of his chest with his hands held near the top.

"Swing down, as if a blade is there at the end of it" Instead of like Hou sparring with Z, Yi Ji was taking a different approach to his new student.

Z swung from over head downwards, but the posture didn't quite feel right.

"Not right? Put one hand near the bottom, and one at the top…swing from up above your shoulder at an angle downwards towards your left leg…" Yi Ji called out again, calm and without hurry.

Again as instructed the handle moved down at an angle, yet again, Z didn't quite feel it was right for him.

"What feels right kiddo?" Yi Ji asked calmly.

Back and forth the bamboo piece moved until pointing behind and down from the hip did the bamboo find the right place.

"Here…"

Yi Ji's eyes lit up in delight, "Unexpectedly the same… oh my…yes, I shall train this one with my utmost diligence"

Adimus smiled, "Im sure your curious why he is called the One Hit Kill Saint Z, ask him his style."

Z looked back at Adimus and then to Yi Ji, "Senior?"

Yi Ji smiled with pride, "I use the style of the quick draw one hit strike…it just so happens it would seem you feel comfortable with that same style! Hahaaa"

"I would love to learn!"

"Good…but, because of the differing styles between Hou and i…your body will go through great strain, if in the end you must choose between us do so…I would prefer you choose Hou, then lose the potential of your body." Yi Ji said very seriously.

Hou nodded, "Same goes for Yi Ji kiddo…"

Seemingly the one time they agreed was in context to Z.

Z shook his head, "I will do my utmost for the both of you"