The Final Day 2/2

Lyle looked at Jason's smug grin and the competitive fire in his eyes burned. He really wanted to go back and get a rematch but a hand stopped him from moving.

Lyle turned to see Ardem shaking his head. Instead, he handed Lyle a familiar controller. Lyle looked at the controller and a smug and evil grin covered his face again.

He waved at Jason who was still in the middle of the field and pointed to the controller.

Jason saw the controller and started to run to Lyle with all of the energy he had left in him.

Lyle grinned and ran to the outside of the field with the rest of the blue two members. He raised his finger and smashed the giant red button bringing Jason into the illusionary field.

Jason closed his eyes and reopened them to see himself in a very familiar jungle environment. Jason quickly looked around half expecting a tiger to jump out at him like last time. Nothing came out though and Jason decided to look around after waiting for a few minutes.

Something abnormal appeared in his vision later though. It was a training dummy with a handwritten sign that said (VIP, MUST PROTECT)

Jason swore inwardly and rushed to the dummy. The instance he reached the dummy a figure jumped from behind him with two daggers aimed for his back.

Jason barely had enough time to turn around and deflect Ardems attack. Ardem lept back from his failed attack and disappeared back into the jungle. Jason circled around the dummy. He already knew exactly what form was needed for this the 3rd form, the form for protecting others.

Jason looked around the jungle observing every movement from the wind rustling of the trees to the birds flying away from the large commotion he and Ardem were making.

The lessons that Ardem had given Jason was fresh in his mind as he circled around the dummy. The way that Adrem had told him the lesson had impacted him greatly it felt like he was talking from experience and he didn't want Jason to get the same fate.

So Jason's eyes burned with focused light, Ardem didn't give Jason a material skill or item like the members of his Blue 2 team but he felt like he was given a lesson that was just as valuable. A reminder from somebody who must have experienced something to teach a lesson as simple but important as that.

Jason circled around patiently, and Ardem struck at the 2nd hour. This time Ardem threw darts, that definitely was laced with something. Jason deflected the darts with his sword. But when he did that he created an opening for Ardem to exploit, he leapt in, behind Jason to attack the dummy which was his goal the entire time.

Thanks to Boops Jason knew that Ardem was behind, but he still had 3 more darts that were flying towards him. If he ran over to Ardem to block then those darts would hit the dummy and if he countied deflecting the darts Ardem would hit the dummy.

Jason's brain started to run, he needed to find a solution, he didn't have enough time to swing his sword to deflect the darts and Ardem was about to jump towards the dummy. He had no idea what he should do, it was like he was stuck in a trap that he couldn't escape.

He started to think about Ardem's lesson and a sudden thought hit him

"Does he want to teach me another lesson? "

Jason's brain started to go into hyperspeed and then the thing hit him.

Self-sacrifice, that was what Ardem wanted to show Jason, and that meant...

Jason turned his back towards the 2 remaining darts and pulled back his sword to throw.

He felt the darts pierce his back, and some mysterious liquid be injected into his bloodstream.

He threw his sword towards Ardem who was taking his sweet time to reach the dummy and it rotated and spun around Jason could only hope that it would strike true. And thankfully it did.

Jason saw for a moment his sword his Ardem, and the entire field started to dissolve. Jason thought he briefly caught sight of a smile on Ardem's usually emotionless face.

Jason had no idea who Ardem was or what his background was. He wasn't as close to him as he was with the rest of the Blue 2 team members, but he obviously had a story that was worth exploring.

Jason felt the bright white light flash over him, and he was back on the field.

Two figures were waiting for him. One was a bit like Ethan, in regular adventures garb, a metal sword held in his hands and a characteristic grin on his face. The person next to him was like a holy knight, and his dark blue sword was glowing with a green aura.

Charlie and Mark didn't give Jason a second to breathe they both launched towards him Mark took the forefront and did a simple but deadly slash at him. Charlie was right behind Mark shooting out a wind blade from his sword.

Jason immediately thought about the last two forms he hadn't used. The 4th and 5th form.

The passive form that was a platform for other skills and forms to jump off of. And the 5th form the defensive form.

Jason went into his passive form to try and block Mark's attacks.

He raised his sword and angled it to make Mark's slash slide off instead of going into a deadlock. Mark then jumped up into the air suddenly. And Jason immediately switched to the 5th form injecting mana into his arms and legs while holding out his arms to endure a heavy blow.

The wind blade collided with his sword and his entire body shook under the blow, he was fighting against it for a good 5 seconds before it finally dissipated into the air. Jason took a breath of relief. But Boops interrupted him by shouting

'JASON HEADS UP!'

Jason quickly looked up while getting back into his defensive stance. He saw Mark diving down to him with his sword outstretched.

Jason quickly tried to jump out of the way, since Mark was diving straight down, but Mark quickly changed his stance from diving down to raising his arms to slash down on him. Charlie in the back kept on chanting and using wind magic to make sure that Mark was on course.

So Jason with no other option raised his arms up to endure the heavy blow.

Mark when he was right above Jason, slammed down with his sword as hard as he could on Jason's sword. Jason's form almost completely crumbled and his feet sunk a bit into the ground.

His ears started to ring and a large headache hit Jason. He staggered around trying to moving and figure out what was going on. But it was like all of the fatigue he had gained over the week and decided to revive itself and combine into one mass attack of fatigue and pain.

Jason was on his feet but he stumbled around in a daze. For some reason, all of Jason's trainers just stood there watching him quietly.

Jason couldn't hear Boops whos voice got increasingly worried.

Jason's head started to hurt, even more, he felt like something was accepting him but he didn't know what it was. He was confused and the pain didn't help. Jason felt like screaming in pain but his experiences in life told him not too.

Jason briefly opened his shut eyes to look around him, he saw Charlie and the rest of the Blue 2 team looking at him with dead-serious eyes, even Lyle and Mark all of them were focused on him.

In Jason's brain space, in the room title the swordsmanship room. The average swordsmanship room started to transform. The rose patterns started to glow, the inscriptions started to get more clear and distinct.

The swords started to transform, one turned into a heavy sword with one pointed edge, best for frontal attacks. Other turned into a rapier a sword made for thrusting and finding and exploiting weak points. A sword much like the rapier but with a flat blade instead of the concentrated sharp pole the rapier was manifested itself. A regular sword sat on the 4th rack, and a large thick sword with almost no offensive properties sat on the 5th. Another regular sword sat on the 6th rack, but it from the look of it, you could tell that it was a solid and well build sword that withstood many things. The room itself had a beautiful red hue to it and the door had a simple rose carved into it.

Jason suddenly felt like something was trying to emerge out of his body. And he kinda wanted to yolo, so he threw away all inhibitions in his mind and let it free.

From the outside view, Jason's eyes started to glow rose red and a simple yet elegant rose manifested itself behind Jason. It shone and glowed in scarlet light and tiny rose petals flew all around Jason and the rose.

Charlie muttered to himself as he watched Jason

"the 7th form, the only one with a name, Avatar"

In the swordsmanship room in Jason's headspace, the 7th rack had a simple rose fall on top of the rack, that was it no sword just a rose. But who knows, perhaps that rose, could serve as a very important piece of the puzzle.

Meanwhile, Jason got a crap ton of notification

[Congratulations you have learned the skill (rose knight swordsmanship)

[congratulations you have learned the 1st form]

[congratulations you have learned the 2nd form]

[congratulations you have learned the 3rd form]

[congratulations you have learned the 4th form]

[congratulations you have learned the 5th form]

[congratulations you have learned the 6th form]

[congratulations you have learned the secret 7th form avatar]

[congratulations you have surpassed your limits and gained additional stats]

[you have gained stat bonuses would you like to view them?]

[yes/no]

Jason grinned and said with a loud voice

"yes"