Windfall

The Withering technique was the ability to drain the life force of a foe. In its earliest stages, this was limited to draining their stamina, but in the future it would truly live up to its namesake.

Bending his legs slightly, Thirteen cleared his mind of all thought, focusing his senses on the girl before him and her devious blade as the moment of pause came to an end.

A burst of movement! Thirteen closed the gap between them swiftly, swinging diagonally from the left, he didn't falter as his foe dodged, instead stepping forward with his right foot and continuing his assault.

Every step forward brought with it a swing of his weighty sword, and after each swing he would step again. One strike after another, he advanced, his momentum building incredibly as he found his sword lighter and lighter, never giving his foe a chance to catch him off guard with her unique swordsmanship.

Though she avoided every swing, each and every one of them affected her as she became increasingly panicked, falling further and further behind, her defense slowing after every close call, as an invisible aura emanated from Thirteen sword, sapping her strength with every avoided strike. A taxing usage of the Withering technique.

Swing, dodge, step, and swing, it continued, his speed and power building with every strike, until finally, forty-five could dodge no longer and tried to deflect the blade bearing down on her. Thirteen saw it coming, and with a fierceness rarely displayed, he aligned his edge against her smallsword, swinging horizontally from the left with all his might!

The clash was deafening, as Forty-five's eyes widened, her feet lifted ever so slightly from the ground as she was pushed backwards. With a flourish to reorient his sword, and a step forward, Thirteen took the moment her weapon was off guard to bring his sword high in a heavy, telegraphed blow.

The sword came swinging down with a gale force never before produced as Thirteen felt his blood pumping at incredible speeds, his muscles contracting with such force that it brought pain to him as he made to finish this duel in a single, devastating strike!

'Devastating? Oh no!' Thirteen shouted inwardly as he snapped himself out of it, doing everything he could to halt his sword, even at pain to himself.

Forty-five was dumbfounded as she looked to the longsword before her, felt the gale that blew against her collarbone as the blunt blade stopped before her shoulder.

'What the…?'

*clang* A sharp sound echoed.

Thirteen groaned quietly, as his arms shook and his sword dropped to the ground.

It felt like every muscle in his body was rebelling. They moved without his will, like some other force compelled them to contract with incredible force that brought him to the ground.

Forty-five began to panic, not knowing why Thirteen had suddenly fallen to the ground, curling like a prawn. "Are you okay? Thirteen?"

"I'm… fine" Thirteen growled through clenched teeth. He felt every muscle in his body undergoing constant contractions, but it didn't last long as they gradually calmed until he was left with nothing but a series of bad twitches.

Standing slowly, Thirteen directed a wry smile at Fort-five "Sorry, I need to sit for a while".

"It's fine… you won anyway?" she replied, still a bit blank on what had just happened.

Thirteen saw Nine & Ten each looking over curiously, so he gestured that he was fine as he headed toward the edge of the dojo with a hunched back.

Taking a seat, Thirteen calmed his breathing and crossed his legs, fighting the twitching to try and calm himself.

'What on earth was that?' he thought with an internal desperation totally opposite his calm facade. 'I don't feel like I'm injured, but i feel so tired. Did I do something wrong with my cultivation? Or my use of Withering? Did I injure my own life force?" Thirteen's mind grew restless with ideas of what could have gone wrong.

Only after half an hour did Thirteen's muscles calm down, no longer twitching, as the fatigue vanished. 'The endurance of a healing attribute and life cultivation are really beginning to show'.

Releasing a long sigh, Thirteen stood up once more, grasping the longsword he hadn't sheathed earlier.

'Hmmm?' He paused, looking down at his right hand grasping the sword. 'It feels lighter…'

Suppressing the ideas that immediately began to surface in his mind, Thirteen grasped the sword in two hands and began to perform the simplest practice swings.

'No way' He thought, realization dawned on him.

At that moment, Forty-five, Ten & Nine made their way over to him. ""Are you okay?"" Nine and Forty-five asked at once.

Ten simply gave a strange look at Thirteen, seeing a grin form and spread slowly into a wide smile on his face.

"I'm perfect" he replied, his mind in the clouds.

"Ah– I mean, Yes. I'm fine." Thirteen corrected, a large smile still uncontrollably plastered across his face.

"Okay?" Forty-five asked, puzzled. "So? What was that?"

Looking back to the heavy longsword in his hand, Thirteen replied with his eyes glued on its blade. "I think.. I just awoke another attribute… hehe"

"Wha–!" Ten started, as Forty-five beamed and Nine gave a small sigh.

"Wanna spar?!" Thirteen's head turned rapidly, his eager eyes almost blinding Ten as he asked.

"U-uh, sure?"

——

Standing a few paces from Ten, Thirteen desperately tried to control his excitement. He had removed the sheath from his waist. This fight would be strictly unarmed, as they both preferred.

'Ten is a strength meta… If I can clash with her directly, I can confirm that my strength has skyrocketed. If I can't… then this is going to hurt. A lot.'

Clasping a fist before his chest, Thirteen gave a small bow, as did Ten

"Ten, Strength, Qi Refiner."

"Thirteen… Healing. Body Refiner." Thirteen replied with a small pause.

Straightening his back, Thirteen readied himself for battle, trying to dispose of his erratic thoughts.

Nine and Forty-five had opted to watch their fight, rather than continuing to spar, the former of which locked a very serious gaze on Thirteen as if trying to find the magic method to a second awakening.

The fight began with Ten taking the initiative, she closed the gap between them and attacked with a very obvious, straight palm involving no deceit or technique.

'Thank you' he thought, as he replied in kind, Throwing a right fist aimed for the center of her incoming palm. Immediately, Thirteen noticed a difference as he felt the raw power propelling his own strike, as his arm rotated slightly, his knuckles aligned perfectly with his wrist and forearm.

The impact came quickly, with an audible Thud! Almost a small boom! as the air escaped their clash.

Each of them felt a great force of impact as they each stepped back.

…

"Hahahaha" Uncontrollably, he began to laugh. Ten too, chuckled lightly with a sincere smile, as Forty-five clapped and Nine simply observed.

'So I was right. Thirteen, healing and strength, body refiner' He thought to himself in glee.

Collecting his thoughts, Thirteen decided to focus on the fight before him for now.

The fight was longer than usual. Ten's Qi Art was strange and hard to predict, sometimes, when she made a strike, her figure would turn into a blurry image for a brief moment, obscuring her movements. Thirteen could never tell the type of strike she was going to throw when this happened, and so had to learn to react as quickly as possible once her form was revealed.

From their casual conversation day to day, Thirteen had learned the basics of each of his friends' cultivation arts, but they too had learned of his, as he had spoken excitedly of what it would be capable of when he could cultivate it.

So while Thirteen knew to expect this blurring effect from her early stage Phasing technique, she also knew to be careful of his Withering ability.

In the end, Thirteen managed to hold off long enough that it became a battle of attrition, which inevitably sealed his victory.

'Ten is better at utilizing her strength, but with my own endurance and the withering technique eating at her stamina, a prolonged victory is easy excluding grave mistakes.'

As the fight had dragged on for quite a while, thirteen also concluded the best way for him to use Withering.

Withering was an ability best used in conjunction with one's body and unarmed strikes. It could certainly work with a sword so long as he practiced it, but projecting it around a sword to form a type of aura like he had done against Forty-five was a death wish in anything but a single, quick duel due to the sheer amount of effort it took to maintain. He'd more likely exhaust himself than his foes.

This meant that without exhausting himself projecting that aura, he would need to make contact to drain his foe. But he found that doing so was far more effective than his makeshift sword aura anyway.

Approaching his sword and sheath, Thirteen once again attached it to his waist. There was still a great amount of time left in the day, and he wanted to acclimate to his new attribute as soon as possible. 'What better way then by playi– sparring, with friends.' He corrected his thoughts with a smile.

"You alright? Thirteen asked as he noticed Nine a bit zoned out.

"Hmm? Yeah. I'm fine."

"Well? We've been learning to fight side by side for months now and yet never actually fought each other. Want to give it a go?"

Nine gave a wry smile as he replied "I'd have loved to do so BEFORE all of that happened, but what can we do?"

Seeing Nine turn to walk away, Thirteen felt disappointed thinking he had declined, but Nine slowly drew his sword as he walked before turning to face Thirteen. "Come on then".