Finally time for some training. There will probably be some action scenes with Azul/Snow in the upcoming chapters. Also a little mystery at the end of the chapter.

H.F.

---

When Snow and Xivar was walking towards the back of the orphanage building, Xivar decided it was time to tell Snow what was really going on with the 9 lives orphanage.

He had already decided that he wanted to teach Snow some basic stances, as he was still too young for cultivating and he had yet to reach the age where it was possible, to lay his foundations.

Snow might have amazing potential with a great muscle density from a young age, but that could be ruined by limiting his growth with weight training, and other hard physical exercises.

Sword stance might be draining on the muscles, but it was more like training specific muscles. But most of all it was the mindset.

Stances followed different ideas. Some stances were had an emphasis on aggression or defences.

Others were more defensive but which focused on a hidden aggressiveness like countering.

If a swordsman held enough power he could even be ranged by combining his sword qi with a magical element. This would allow the practitioner to shoot out ‘beams’ of condenses qi and magic.

The drawback of this stance was sadly range. The magical elements of the beams would over a certain distance disperse. Limiting the overall damage dealt considerably.

Practitioners can then cultivate their sword qi, to be sharper. This is because sharper qi will also condense the magical element into a denser concentration, Making it fly further before dispersing.

This stance was usually practiced with large weapons as they can contain a lot more sword qi.

Another very interesting stance is the art of the draw. This was the stance Xivar had chosen to teach to Snow. This was because Snow already had an impressive muscle density and therefore strength. But he also had the potential for an amazing agility and flexibility.

He looked like a tiger type beastkin, and had the muscles of a tiger. He might also have the potential for quick attacks with lightning fast reaction speeds.

Xivar considered the sword qi projection stance. But Snow had not yet reached enlightenment about him prefered magical element. Early practice was therefore useless, as he had to start all over if he choose to practice in the wrong element.

Snow and Xivar now stood before the pond at the back of the orphanage building.

“I am going to teach you the basic about the ‘art of the draw’” said Xivar in a quiet voice.

Snow asked curiously “What is the art of the draw?”

“The art of the draw, is a very special stance. The stance is called art of the draw, and that is how you open when encountering an opponent. But a common misconception is that the draw is the killing stroke, that is not true unless the opponent is not able to defend. The art of the draw is to amass Sword qi in the scabbard of the sword, and then use the scabbard as a fulcrum to gain increased speed and power when swinging at the opponent.” Said Xivar as he moved at little away from Snow, Suddenly a weird scabbard appeared in his hand.

He pulled out the sword stuck in the scabbard, the blade of the sword was a very dark gray nearly black and the blade itself was fairly long. While the handle had space for two hands.

He said to Snow, “I am going to show you just this once the first stroke of the Art of the draw.”

Xivar used a piece of cloth to connect the scabbard to his belt, and placed his right hand on the handle and his left to hold the scabbard in place.

Xivar bent his body slightly. His eyes went sharp and extruded killing intent.

Snow stood at the side, looking like he always did when the practitioners were training.

Xivar used his left thumb to knock the sword about a centimeter out of the scabbard.

He made the first stroke, and with amazing strength and speed, the blade simply flew out of the scabbard, it made an elegant slash in the air.

Snow couldn’t see the blade at all, but it seemed to cut the air as it traveled on it’s path.

But, Xivar didn’t stop there, after his first stroke he pulled his left hand away from the scabbard and moved it to the back of the handle. With a continuous movement he made a downward slash.

At the end of the downward slash be bent his knees. He then bent his body and used the explosive strength of his legs to make a slash from the bottom left to the top right.

He wiped the blade after he was done, with the piece of cloth connecting the scabbard and his belt. He then sheathed in before storing it away again.

Snow wore a slight frown as he thought about what he had just seen. Some might think what he had just seen, as something basic, but that wasn’t true in the slightest.

Xivar had beads of sweat on his forehead when he told Snow to comment on his stance.

Snow was thoughtful for a while before speaking, he had a slightly raised voice, and smile on his lips. “You told me that the first stroke of the draw is not the killing stroke, so i figured that it had some other purpose, otherwise you wouldn’t need to prepare for it. I can’t really comment on the 2nd and the 3rd stroke, but they each seemed to build on body weight and leg strength.”

Xivar had gotten a wooden sword out of nowhere and decided to whack it on Snow’s head, though with much less strength than previously displayed.

“Your description was not entirely wrong, but there is so much more to it. It’s true that the first stroke has some other use, other than being a killing stroke. But the purpose of this slash is fundamental in the art of the draw. You are correct, but the purpose is simply to break the stance of the opponent. That is why you gather so much power for your first slash, you have to overpower your opponent otherwise you’re dead.” Snow frowned again, he had understood that his description wasn’t wrong it just didn’t do the honors of the stance. He understood from his grandfather's speech that he even simple could be unimaginably profound.

Xivar continued “The art of the draw, can consist of any number of slashes, how you perform them is something that you yourself have to comprehend, as you’ve figured out yourself they all have something to do with utilizing the body. I will give you one final hint to the stance, the rest you have to figure out yourself. The power output of this stance is everything, if you can defeat an enemy in two moves, you should. Even if it means spending much of your power, the stance loses its advantage over the other stances the longer the fight lasts, This is also something you will figure out as you cultivate it. Good luck.” Xivar finished before throwing the basic wooden sword and scabbard at Snow.

Snow caught the equipment as if it was the most fragile of glasses.

He had not been allowed to perform martial movements before, and not it was finally his turn!

Snow did the same thing as his grandfather had done before, he fastened the scabbard to his pants as he wore no belt. he sheathed the sword in it, before trying to mimic his grandfather's stance.

He thought carefully about what he had seen and heard from his grandfather before trying to swing his blade.

After a while he took his final stance before executing his move. His scabbard was steady and he had an iron grip. The sword moved out of the scabbard and flew through the air, though not as steady or as powerful as his grandfather's.

He failed as he tried to perform the downward slash the sword somehow flew from his small hands, and flew into the pond. Snow could see with his sharp cat like eyes, that the sword was flying towards a carp. He flew towards the swords with all his might, but he had put too much strength into the sword, and the aerodynamics of the sword was simply superior.

Even if it was a wooden sword, it was still decently sharp and could seriously harm the weak fish.

Even if Snow wasn’t that old yet, he was still powerful for his age, and could probably match an 8 or 10 year old in natural brute strength.

A shadow quivered in shade of the large oak tree, before a hand reached out and grabbed the wooden sword in mid air.

The one who caught the sword was Grim, and he had somehow teleported from the shade of the tree, to the pond in a flash.

Grim just stood there silently, looking menacingly at Snow. Who both felt ashamed and scared.

Grim began moving towards Snow with steady steps, before raising a hand over Snow’s head.

Snow was deadly afraid, he had faced the punishment of his grandfather and didn’t know what to expect from such a cruel looking being.

Grim began petting Snow. He patted Snow’s head with his thin and leather covered fingers, before handing the wooden sword back to Snow.

Snow just stood there silently, he was shocked. He never knew that the menacing being called Grim, who looked like a skeleton could be so ‘gentle’.

Grim turned and moved back into the shade of the Oak tree, after which he disappeared again.

Snow definitely wanted to know more about Grim after this encounter. It was only then he noticed that he had peed in his pants.

It must’ve happened when he recalled his punishment with his grandfather.

Before running off to change his clothes he made a deep bow towards the shade of the oak tree.

A voice erupted from the shade “be careful in the future...”

Snow hadn’t expected an answer to his bow, and nearly stumbled.

---

A month had passed since Xivar had shown Snow the art of the draw.

In this period Snow had meticulously trained with all his heart. He had achieved some slight progress in the following slashes after the first stroke. But he still couldn’t connect them together.

He could make an okay slash between the first stroke and the following downwards slash.

But this was only because he had seen his grandfather perform it before.

Snow stood beside the pond, he wasn’t facing the pond after the incident, as he didn’t want to accidentally hurt the carps. Even if he had gained experience in the stance, he wasn’t confident in it yet.

He had just finished an hour worth of practice, and the sweat seemed to drop of his small body. He sat down on the grass, gazing at the carps in the pond.

A wind tickled his ear as it brought a whisper from his grandfather “I’ll come check on your progress in 5 minutes, you’ve better have made some serious progress.”

Snow was a little afraid, if he had enough progress to satisfy his grandfather.

As if as his exhaustion had disappeared he stood up and he took the same stance as he had done for the past month.

He needed to impress his grandfather with his work.

Xivar had seen Snow’s progress over the past month, though he was surprised by the remarkable progress, it still didn’t live up to the potential Snow had. He knew that Snow needed a motivational factor in his life, otherwise he would never reach the top.

Xivar had an idea, but that was for later. Now he wanted an excuse for training Snow hard. Even if he wasn’t 5 years old yet.

Xivar knew that beastkin could train from a really young age. But something had stopped Xivar from making Snow train, first of all he needed to figure out what type of beastkin Snow was, and secondly he wanted to make some kind of bonds that connected Snow to the 9 lives orphanage.

Though he hadn't achieved both of them, he had still made a child-parent connection with Snow over the years.

He also wanted Snow to settle down his rebellious nature, so he wouldn’t be so ‘free’.

He had done this by not allowing Snow to move out of his chambers most of the time. This made Snow accustomed to being in the same place for a large amount of time. The same could be said about the whole area of the orphanage.

This isolation method had not only helping him shape Snow, but also let Snow respect him as a result of his punishment.

It was especially clear, when you looked into Snow’s bloody red eyes. Before the punishment, they would waver and sometimes show hostility when looking at certain people. But now they seemed strangely calm.

It was not that Snow was aggressive or the likes he was actually extremely peaceful. it was just like his appearance didn’t match his behavior, he might not have noticed it himself. But it made other pretty fearful of him. There is also the fact that he let’s out faint killing intent whenever his eyes show hostility.

Xivar that now was the time to begin Snow training, and what better way to start than introducing it as a motivational factor hidden as a punishment.

He knew, he could make requirements, Snow couldn’t live up to but still increase his effort in training the sword.

Xivar wanted Snow to want to avoid the punishments by improve his cultivation in the sword. Of course Xivar wouldn’t let that happen, as he wanted to lay the foundation for Snow through punishments.

Xivar thought of the most grueling training he could think of and grinned. Clearly he was satisfied with himself.

---

Snow was still practicing his stance. He tried to comprehend the moves, and which muscles to use at the right times. He still couldn’t use sword qi at all. It was not that he didn’t know what it was used for, he simply didn’t know what it was and how it worked.

Snow was just about to draw is sheathed sword when his grandfather came around the corner of the building.

He calmed his stance as he waited for his grandfather to arrive.

When his grandfather came, he just stood at his side and said “Show me your progress.”

Snow thought that his grandfather sounded rather cold, but couldn’t figure out why.

Snow took his stance that he had done hundreds if not thousands of times before. He grasped his wooden sword hard.

He moved his right foot forward and made the first upwards slash. He connected it seamlessly into the downwards slash, but he stumbled a bit when he bent his knees and therefore failed his upwards slash.

Xivar raised an eyebrow as he looked at Snow. Snow had been able to connect the first two slashes flawlessly in such a small amount of time. He felt a little bad about the punishment he was about to give to Snow.

Snow was very glad he had finally been able to accomplish a huge obstacle and felt proud.

Xivar then opened his mouth, while showing a fake frown “What, was that it?”

Snow stood still in a moment of shock, he hadn’t expected his effort to be in vain. His face went red in embarrassment and anger. He was embarrassed that he thought his stance was anything worthy of praise and angry at himself for not trying harder and being proud over a small feat.

Xivar felt a little bad but continued “The first and second slash are the hardest to comprehend, but I didn’t expect you to not have accomplished the third slash. This deserves a severe punishment, I really didn’t expect you to fail me on the first assignment I gave you.”

Even if he hadn’t given Snow an assignment, he expected Snow to know what he was talking about. He had given Snow the basics of a stance and told him to comprehend them. Of course Snow had shown great effort, but it was far from enough.

Xivar looked at Snow was down, he saw that Snow was making strange faces. He didn’t really care too much, as he knew that the effort he would put in, in the future would be vastly superior to the one had put in until now.

Xivar took 4 black bracelets out of nowhere and a belt like object. He began speaking “Equip these bracelets like this, and put the belt on.” Xivar showed Snow how to equip the bracelets. There were one on each wrist, and one on each angle.

Xivar then picked up Snow and threw him in the pond. Even if the pond wasn’t that large it was still around 6 meters in diameter and 2 meters deep. This depth was more than enough to drown Snow.

Snow had learned to swim a bit, when he had taken a dip in the pond in the past. But this time something was different.

A strange pulling force came from his wrist, angles and waist. He looked at his hands in panic, the bracelets had blue runes spinning on them. He tried to pull them off while struggling in the water.

But it was like they were welded together.

The pulling force of the rune covered equipment increased.

Snow struggled in the water, he could barely lift his small hands as his body weight seemed to have increased dramatically.

Normally he would have been able to just stay at the top of the water and breathe.

But the rune covered equipment kept pushing him under the water. The more effort he put in the more his body weight increased, it kept him on an edge of drowning and surviving.

Snow looked over to his grandfather, who seemed very pleased with himself. As their eyes met, he could see the astonished look on his grandfather's face.

Snow could feel himself becoming angrier and angrier, he felt, he could burst at any moment.

He didn’t know what was going on, but he felt like an urge to attack his grandfather, even if he didn’t want to.

Though he could feel it became easier and easier to combat the increasing weight. He still became angrier and angrier.

Suddenly, he felt a sharp increase in his body weight, and he looked towards his grandfather who had his right hand raised in a strange hand symbol. He had a slightly worried look on his face.

Even if Snow was mature for a 4 year old, he still felt the despair of facing a battle that just couldn’t be won. He began drawing in huge amounts of water.

It was not as if he blamed his grandfather, he knew that he required punishments for his failed efforts, and he knew what to expect if he failed.

Snow gradually felt his head became lighter, while the rest of his body became like a solid block of lead.

He couldn’t win this war against the water, and he felt himself sinking.

Before his limbs stopped functioning he made a slight sound above the water “I am sorry…- Blob...”

Even if it wasn’t Snow’s fault, he still felt embarrassed by failing.

Xivar heard this and was just about to move out, when the shade under the Oak tree quivered and grim appeared, he quickly grabbed Snow out of the water as if he was a sack of potatoes. The flames in his eye sockets turned golden before speaking in an incredibly eerie and cold voice “you’ve better tone down your ambition Xivar!”

Grim then threw Snow unto the grass in the shade of the Oak tree.

Snow vomited out water like a fountain before going completely unconscious.

Xivar made a slight sigh, before moving to the side of Grim and patting it on the shoulder, saying “I am sorry, I will be more gentle in the future.”

Xivar might have been a little reckless (RECKLEZZ!) when he saw that Snow’s eyes were extruding a terrible killing intent, and that his hair was flickering with a strange blood color at the edges of his hair. The white ‘tattoos’ on his body also had a flickering blood color at the edges.

Even a being such as Xivar was slightly disturbed by the sight, it might have been a natural reaction to just kill off a dangerous being when he had the opportunity. Even if he regretted at the last moment, Grim was still faster than him, and had saved Snow in the nick of time.