Dreamscape

This time when he fell asleep, he found himself draw into a hazy black space. Space was a loose description, but it was hard to get a grasp on his surroundings, and this hardly seemed like it could be described as a room.

There weren't any solid walls, and there was no ground either. It was like he was just standing on top of a black haze that he couldn't see beyond. It spread out infinitely in all directions, covering everything around him. It was truly just a space surrounded by what was essentially nothing.

He could already tell that this wasn't a regular dream. Somehow he was able to clearly think and look around, even move and go where he wanted. He was in control of all of his own actions.

Normally in his dreams he just felt like a spectator, watching and doing what his subconscious wanted him to. He was always just there watching as events unfolded before him, only when he woke up after would he actually be able to think and have thoughts about what had happened.

But this was nothing like his usual dreams.

And this was made even more apparent when he took a step forward, and something changed as a being shimmered into view in front of him.

He was shocked as the silhouette of a human appeared before him, but then horns grew from the man's forehead. It soon became clear that it was that very same demonic man from his earlier nightmare, that had come to haunt him again. The man's recognizable and eye catching black sword was already in hand, but something was a bit different about it. It was a lot more see through, kind of, ghostly.

As he pondered this, without warning the demonic man raised his sword and slashed it towards Kaden.

Kaden found himself panicking as the sword came at him, clearly aiming to kill him. It was far too fast for him to react to it, and he was certain that he wouldn't be able to dodge in time.

And he found he couldn't even move, he felt rooted to the ground from the sheer might and force the demonic man projected. Just standing there, he feared for his life as the sword came ever closer, coming within inches of himself.

But then it just simply passed through him. He didn't feel anything at all except a slight tingling, and the sword moved through his body seamlessly like either he, or the sword itself, was just a phantom.

Without a shred of emotion on his face, the demonic man paused for a second, and then repeated the movement without the slightest deviation. It was exactly like before, not a single discrepancy in the action.

After being slashed through again, Kaden now stepped to the side. The sword didn't hurt him sure, but it still felt uncomfortable to stand in front of the attack.

But now he knew that it was just a loop.

The demonic man would perform his attack, pause shortly, then do it again. Over and over again and always in the exact same way, like a perfect copy.

What was he supposed to do with this? Clearly there was something more to what was happening right now, but it was just all too mysterious and impossible for him to understand.

For now Kaden just watched the man, trying to burn all the details of the attack into his memory so that he could copy it. It was clearly a very powerful attack, and maybe he could learn to do it too when he woke up.

He would be learning by watching, and then perfecting by doing.

But then a thought struck him, did he really need to wait until he woke up? Why couldn't he just learn it now?

Something about the dream made him feel in control, and he was pretty confident that he was.

So what if he simply just? He raised his hand and a sword like that of the demonic man's appeared in his hand.

Huh… It really was that simple, he shook his head, wondering why he hadn't tried that sooner.

With the sword now in hand, he tried to copy the demonic man's movements. He widened his stance and swung the sword.

But he overextended and used too much strength, so the weight of the sword along with the shifting center of gravity made him lose his balance and fall over.

In his tumble he let go of the sword and it shimmered out of view as it was falling towards the ground.

It turned out that it wasn't that easy to use a sword after all. It was quite heavy, and the further he held it away from his body the more strenuous it was to hold it. You also had to make sure to stay in control of the momentum, otherwise the sword would control you instead, as he had so clearly just experienced for himself.

For now, it was probably a good idea to hold a bit back on his power. That would at least make it easier to follow the movements.

Holding out his hand once more, a new sword appeared in it, just like before.

This time when he tried to copy the attack, he held back on his strength and did it without going overboard. He really didn't need to put so much strength into it, right now he was just trying to learn, not trying to hurt anyone.

But it didn't make it much easier and it was still incredibly hard. What he ended up doing was nothing like the demonic man's attack. The skill, ferocity, speed, and power was all lacking, in fact, every single element was lacking.

There were simply too many subtle details, that his untrained eye couldn't catch. And even if he could, this untrained body still couldn't perform the attack perfectly due to it's lack of practice.

Can't this thing go any slower? He caught himself thinking this, and just like that it happened. The demonic man abided by his will and slowed down, performing the attack in slow motion.

This made Kaden smile, he should've thought of that much sooner too. The slower movements made it a lot easier for Kaden to copy and note all the details in the attack, after all, now he had double the time to do so.

Soon he was following along much better, also performing his own attack in slow motion.

When he finally felt like he had a good handle on it all, he could speed his movements up. But that wouldn't be before he had burned it all into his very soul through arduous practice.

That was probably his best quality, he noted. When things got physically tough, or monotonous, he just wouldn't quit. He wasn't one to give up easily, after all, he had spent thousands of hours just slugging away at a punching bag by himself.

This was probably the easiest kind of practice he knew, and if he could do it in his dreams, it was just even better.

Even if he didn't have access to a top of the line dojo, it didn't matter, because he would just work that much harder to catch up to everyone. With this extra time and guidance that the dreamscape gave him, it would be much easier for him to improve.

He didn't know why, but he had already taken his space for granted. Something about it just made him think that it was here to stay. He had no idea where it came from, or how any of this had happened, but if it would allow him to train, all those things simply didn't matter.

Ever since he had seen Edward Kang being crushed underneath that Rhynehorn's hoof, he'd known that there was only one thing that mattered in the world.

Strength.

Strength was the key to everything. Power, money, fame, and a good life. If you had strength you could have all these things and even more. Why would anyone seek them individually? It was a waste of time in Kaden's opinion.

Strength ruled above all.

As he engraved this belief inside his mind, he almost felt like there was a sort of approval being radiated back at him from the space around him.

Like it was agreeing with his philosophy.

Soon, he lost himself in the endless practice, already feeling his imitation of the attack improving by leaps and bounds. And an imitation was what it was, he was still far too lacking to make it his own.

After what must've been hours, the demonic man shimmered out view, the same way that he had appeared. At the same time, he also felt the space around him begin to shrink in on him. It was like he was being told that time was up, and it was time to get out of here.

His view faded as the black haze finally closed completely in on him and he was pulled out of the mysterious space.