A Master’s Lesson

"Master, wasn't we going to turn him towards the priest?" Kosha asked. He seemed a bit worried that they were going to keep fighting him.

"What for? He's done nothing wrong?" Taishu said.

"Master. He was travelling alone with a young girl. Isn't that warrant of suspicion?" Kosha asked.

"Kosha! Our blade is meant to defend people, not attack innocent bystanders," Taishu said.

"Tchh…" Kosha turned his back against them and pouted. Guess he didn't take heart to losing.

"Yeah right. You're the one who told him to attack me to begin with," Ryuma complained. He wanted to get in stance again, but every muscle he had in his upper body burned.

"Ahhh… young duel wielder. I must thank you. You taught my student a lesson I've been trying to get him to learn forever," Taishu said.

Kosha's eyes went white with anger. "Master! I could've died over a stupid lesson!"

"That's right. The best lessons learned from any swordsman is one's they could have died from. You've been too complacent with your innate talent and have neglected your physical body. Now that I think about it, this one right here was the perfect opponent to make you see that," Taishu said. He then turned to Ryuma.

"Duel wielder. What is your name?" Taishu asked.

Ryuma picked himself up fully. They seemed like good people based on Taishu's creed. Was it possible that they were trustworthy?

"My name is Erin," Ryuma said. Whether they were trustworthy or not mattered little. It should still be taboo to say.

"I don't mean the name you've given everyone at the bar. I meant your actual name," Taishu said.

Of course this man would know he was using an alias. He was aware of Ryuma's powers and where they came from.

"My name…" Ryuma hesitated for a second. "It's like I said. It's Erin," After more thinking he concluded that no matter what, his name is to be off limits even towards allies.

"Why you!" Kosha got upset, threateningly moving closer before master Taishu put up his hand to halt him.

"At ease. Our friend here has his reasons. After all, trust is the only thing in this world that must be earned,"

Ryuma was relieved that he wasn't going to push the issue. It was better this way.

"Though I do want to ask. Who taught you the blade? I would love to meet a master such as yours," Taishu cupped his chin and leaned forward in curiosity.

Ryuma sighed. "Nobody taught me. If you know I'm from topside, then you should know that we don't have a concept of a master and student relationship. We're soldiers for the purpose of fighting apparitions. Not other people. There's really no reason to teach much more than swinging the sword,"

Even as they fought each other up there to see who was the strongest, most people were graded on combat ability, physical strength, and spirit energy. Nobody was ever graded on form, or technique.

"You mean you were self-taught?" This was the first Taishu looked shocked. "This was the first time I've seen a priest with such form. I thought for sure you'd have a master, especially one that excels in the duel style you display,"

Ryuma didn't get what he was getting at. Most of it came naturally to him. As far as his strike speed, he'd have to admit, that the only reason he was so fast in his strikes was to combat Toga's physical strength. He'd practice endlessly swinging his swords in a flurry like that. He'd log in at least four thousand swings per hand before he tired out.

"Not to mention that wild dance you displayed in the end. Most impressive. How did you do it?" Taishu appeared near Ryuma in the blink of an eye. He lightly touched his index fingers on Ryuma's muscles, causing the burning sensation to increase tenfold.

"Ahhhh… please don't. My muscles are too taxed right now," Ryuma complained.

"Oh I get it. Looks like that move has some drawbacks to it. My bad. Since I've given you such a hard time on your journey, perhaps you'd like to rest with us? Taishu invited.

Ryuma looked at his own hand. He may as well. It wouldn't look good to move around wounded as he was. "Sure. Long as I'm away from here.

"Great! No need to keep things waiting then, right?" Taishu picked him up with ease. "C'mon Kosha. I think you could learn a lot from this kid,"

"Tch…" Kosha sneered but followed anyway.

Ryuma looked with wide eyes. This man is lifting him with one hand with nary a single grunt. He did it so casually, it was like he was lifting a giant bag of air.

Not only that, but the level of strength and control he exhibited stopping the match on his own. Ryuma could only imagine what he could do.

As he was getting carried, he was getting lost in his own head. He's lived his entire life in the Skylands and was told that the surface dwellers were all weak and needed their protection. How is it that he ran into two of them, one of which that could match him in equal strength, and another so strong that he was that one's master?

The surface world of Straissand didn't make any sense. Or was it that his way of thinking was the abnormal one?

Taishu found his way back to the room they were staying in and threw him on the bed. "You can rest as much as you like here. I have to know your style, Erin," Master Taishu said.

Ryuma sat up. "No need. I'm already healed. My muscles only lock for a few moments. An eternity in battle sure but I'm not out for the count,"

"You don't say… your recovery is amazing. Is that due to your spirit powers?" Master Taishu asked.

"Actually yes. Having spirit powers does heighten a priests health recovery," Ryuma said.

Kosha scrunched his face in annoyance. "You see that, Master? Even when the Skylanders fight fair, they have an overwhelming advantage in a fight with surface dwellers,"

Master Taishu held his hand up lightly. It was enough to get him to quiet. "Stop it, Kosha. You can't expect him to turn off his spirit powers just to fight you," His face darkened and his eyes melted into Ryuma. "What I'm more interested in is that technique you did. The Wild Dance you called it,"

"Oh, that one. What about it?" Ryuma asked.

"That wasn't a spirit move. That was just a normal technique used with a spirit weapon. If you were to do that with normal weapons, nothing about it would change. How did you come up with that move?"

The more Ryuma looked at him the more he could tell that this man was less interested in the actual skill, and more interested in him as a person.

"I don't know. I just moved my body. Every time I swung my sword, I prepared my body for the momentum it's going to have when I twist myself. I just continuously train my body to see how my arc range is going to happen so I can switch to my other weapons attack. I kept doing that until I got faster at it. That's seriously all it is.

This time it was Master Taishu this time who stared at the kid with wide eyes. "So your style is so natural to you, you created it yourself. Few people can do that. You're a natural genius,"

"I don't know. I think what you two can do is even more amazing. How is it that you guys have found a way to keep up with the level of priest despite having no spirit energy?" Ryuma asked. "Is the surface world stronger than I thought?"

The two glanced at each other for a brief second before Kosha spoke up. "I don't know what you're on about. Me and my Master Taishu are exceptions amongst us. There's no way your average surface dweller can deal with a priest. Even as good as we are, there's a limit to what type of priest we could deal with, and we're considered exceptional,"

Taishu nodded his head. "My disciple is right. Having speed, power, and reflexes mean little when you've got wind blowing everywhere and blocking your movements. Those spirit artes are something to deal with. My question is, why didn't you focus on that? I didn't think I'd see a priest so well versed in his sword techniques,"

Ryuma stopped and thought about it. Remembering all his classmates back when they were fighting reminded him how much they were so focused on spirit energy as a basis for who was better. When he popped up with a twenty-four thanks in part to Aeragis, he was able to floor damn near all of them with just his sword techniques alone.

"Now that I think about it. This is my friend Toga's fault. Before we became priest in training. Basically clerics. We'd gotten into a fight one time. He beat the daylights out of me. Ever since then I figured if I could never be stronger than him, I'd always be faster than him. I guess that translated into my fighting style when I finally did summon my weapon,"

As he talked, the two listened. Though Kosha tried to hide it, Ryuma could tell he was just as interested. This was the first time that he had a wholesome conversation down here about his interest.