Birds of a Feather (Part 1)

Regius lightly placed his hand on the sword on his waist, his soul weapon that he had referred to as the world sword. Rowan, on the other hand, held his own soul weapon Regius had allowed him to name it the day after his soul gave birth to it, and he had called it the sword of storms. He wielded the massive sword in front of him like it was no heavier than a longsword as he smiled at his master. Unfortunately for him, the face he looked at was not smiling and his body shook as he saw light start to spill from the sheathe on his master's waist.

In the past year, Rowan had come to understand one important thing: this master of his was one of the most stupidly hardworking people that he had ever met. An entire year ago, he had been upset when his master had said that he wasn't hardworking, but after training under his master for the past year, he understood what he meant. The past year had been nothing but lessons and application over and over again until it became second nature to Rowan.

The light that was spilling from the sheathe was compressed mana, a technique his master used to accelerate his blade to such an extreme point that everything before him was cut. This brought Rowan to the second point of the past year of training, when your master is a god who can snap his fingers and imbue your body with enough pure life mana that any wound will heal or limbs will regrow, then he doesn't care about injuring you during a sparring session. This was a lesson that Rowan had insisted on learning the hard way.

The blade began to leave the sheathe as the mana exploded with a muted hiss, his master would not bother to say the name of the technique while he was limiting his cultivation but Rowan knew this technique as his masters most favored technique a draw attack that ended many of his battles before they even started. Rowan exploded with storm steps in what the audience could only call a teleport as he vanished from his position and appeared as a bolt of platinum lightning that was directly in front of Regius. The excess lightning blasted toward Regius with his appearance, but Rowan's blade had begun to leave the sheathe.

The sword blasted out and cleaved through the platinum lightning like it wasn't even there , Rowan's mana had been cut even as the mana in the air parted like it had been cut before dispersing on the wind before the blade even fully left the sheathe. Rowan responded in kind with his own technique. His style had developed under his master's tutelage and had become a series of skills in their own right. Rowan executed one of many of these new techniques the same second he appeared from the bolt of lighting. [Bolt Chop] The massive feather great sword crackled with platinum lightning as it slashed downwards. The platinum weapon light accompanied the tip of the blade as its path coincided with the Edge of his master's sword and in the same instance that the world sword left the sheath the sword of the storm slashed down like a mighty bolt of platinum lightning from the heavens.

The blades met and mana exploded, but they both swam through the pressure bubble as they adjusted themselves and went in for the next collision. The two blades let out a mighty spark when they met and slid past each other. Regius stepped inward and slashed upward while the edge of the blade burst forth with rainbow light. Rowan executed [Sweep] and kept the blade from cutting into him. They launched themselves into a direct confrontation, daring the other party to step back.

They had their blades clash over and over again rapidly. Regius blade moved quicker than anyone could fathom for a rank five existence but at the same time Rowan managed to wield his blade with so much speed that he was keeping up which astounded the crowd even more do to its size.No one present in the crowd could fathom that a fight between rank five existences a level that most of them surpassed long ago could be this entertaining. The Two of them used their mana enhanced bodies to shuttle across the arena, dueling with blades and minimal mana. They were both using the same fighting style. They were searching for an opening in the battle. It was the way that Regius had taught him. Use mana to enhance your every action. Your slashes, your punches and your kicks use the blessing of the mana body to its fullest extent. Use mana in every action, while you use power and technique to create an opening before using a spell to inflict real damage.

The opening came when Rowan's blade was parried, and it went sliding towards the ground. His eyes had never left his master, so he was able to see the smile that creeped onto his master's face while at the same moment he realized that he had made a grave mistake, but alas, it was too late. Rowans sword was now above his head and slashing down with a purple light, the entire edge of his blade looked like a shooting star as it slashed downward but in the same opening a massive flaming purple figure had appeared behind him with a massive jagged sword in its hand that was slashing down at the same time.

Rowan caught his master's blow on the flat of the blade, but the force of the mana had blasted him backwards, and the giant figure was still slashing down with the force of a falling comet. Rowan vaulted through the air sideways to disperse the force of the blow while a platinum storm point formed in his palm. A red light swam into the storm point and it hatched like some type of egg in the same breath as a cloud that looked like it was made of flickers of flame formed in his hand. It was another one of Rowan's new techniques.

Rowan blew into the cloud right as the sword was directly above his body [Firestorm] a massive flaming tornado blossomed from the cloud before it twirled itself so tightly that it looked like flaming tentacles as they all slapped onto the blade at once. The two forces met, and the crash boomed across the arena while the two forces of flame extinguished each other. Rowan and Regius both took a breather as they stared at each other from several tens of feet apart.

Rowan had followed another one of his master's teachings to a tee. You could not counter a spell with technique alone, there were wondrous abilities like sword souls and the like that could use technique to better resist a spell, but with pure technique you could not counter the might of a spell. His master had mixed his sword soul with his spells and in the process he had created fast spells that could decimate masses with his sword in hand, a future for his own techniques that he current dreamed of.but Rowan's affinity with the sword had just been birthed and while his master had offered him the same boon, he received a leaf of the world tree focused on swordsmanship he had instead opted to learn the entire thing himself in defiance and to flaunt his own talent so at the moment he was only capable of was sword intent, but much to his annoyance it had fused with his killing intent so that when the falcon formed it was now capable of basic attacks because each feather of its wing was like a tiny blade.

The sword intent mixed with his killing intent was not at the level of stopping a spell from someone who was every bit his equal and then some, so he had no choice but to follow the teachings of his master. At any point in time when fighting a life or death battle take no chances, if your opponent manages to pull off a spell then the only way to properly defend yourself was by countering with a spell of equal or greater magnitude than the one trying to claim your life. He had taught him about scenarios in which you could use counter elements as well, but of course that had not been the case. Rowan sighed and prepared himself for the next bout when his master shook his head.

Regius waved his hand and then was sure that only he and his student could hear each other. "You once asked me what I gained from all of this, other than fulfilling the wishes of my wife. You wanted to know what else I gained, but that's only because during your lessons on laws you never stopped to ask me what my laws were." Rowan stopped speaking as Regius thought to himself he had never stopped to question that. His master told him that his storm attunement made it so that he naturally comprehended the laws of natural destruction. A product of his storm attunement. It added a destructive quality to his spells and even the sweeps of his blade. His opposition would always be slowly worn down, like a misguided rider in a storm.

Rowan kept his eyes peeled, expecting to see something that would give him a hint, and he did. Out of his master's shadow walked a massive wolf that made Rowan pause. The wolf royal blue fur along its back that sparkled like a galaxy and seemed to hold the cosmos in its eyes. It took a step left and then vanished and before Rowan could even fathom it; the mouth had closed around his body. He checked himself for wounds, but found none as the wolf obediently returned to Regius. It slid into his shadow and the man smiled and then he said something that shocked Rowan. [Creation Armament Ex Heavenly flame of the wolf..

Regius stood there as several royal blue metallic arms formed behind him, each of them wielding a blade in their hands while an armor that looked like blue metallic fur coated his body and closed around his head before becoming a form fitting suit of royal blue armor. The helmet had the ears of a wolf and the fur became a pattern on the armor while at the same time runes flashed along his armor and formed a divine ring of runes that spun behind him and fed mana into the arms as they all flexed at the exact same time.

"My laws devour and by devouring I am able to take the techniques, styles and knowledge of those devoured. It is painless and if I want it to be completely unnoticeable, it is what allowed me to reach my current heights, so come apprentice pull out all the stops and watch me grow stronger with each turn. Now come, let's get serious, and show these people that despite such insane odds, you are still the first apprentice to the god they worship.