Pure annihilation,

That was what Moyo suffered at the hands of ajax, despite whatever upgrade or improvement he thought he had made by gaining his tempered titan shield body, Moyo was totally decimated. To call it a fight at all was a joke, every bone of his body was broken over and over again, skin tore, jaw dislocated, he was beaten to unconsciousness and beaten back awake again, his skill titans’ wrath ensured whatever damage he got at the hands of ajax healed at a ridiculous rate, the skill leveling up consistently in the space of an hour till finally ajax stopped.

As Moyo groaned on the floor, feeling the pain recede, he couldn’t help but look at ajax in shame, ajax hadn’t even been using his blade properly, all he did was pummel at him with the katana wrapped in some sort of dark aura that ajax had explained was the physical manifestation of his battle intent and to make matters worse, he hadn’t used any skill or movement, all he had used to beat Moyo to an inch of his life was his physical strength, a dull blade, and his wit.

Moyo stared at the broken katana across from him, he had thrown the katana one time in the battle in frustration at ajax, whose face darkened in turn and had begun to literally beat Moyo all over his body with the wrath of a katana master to drill in him the error of his ways,

“Those who follow the path of the katana die with their weapons in their hands, the next time you throw your weapon away again, I would rip your head from your body, regeneration or consequences be damned,” he said in a bone-chilling voice as he watched moyo heal back from looking like pulp of mashed bones and skin,

And Moyo believed every single word he had said, the look in Ajax’s eyes as he said it cemented the words in his heart,

From then onwards, despite the brutality of the beating he had taken, he held on to the katana, even when he passed out and woke up again, it was to see the broken katana still clenched tightfisted in his right hand. Wincing from the memory of that time Moyo sat up, his clothes had been torn in places by ajax slapping him around like a piece of ball, and notifications dinged at him to respond to. Holding his head as a bone in his skull snapped back into place, he groaned again,

“This lesson was necessary for you” ajax said as he stared at Moyo, eyes hard like concrete,

“Despite whatever strength you have gained right now, you are nothing but fodder, an ant beneath the feet of those higher than you. The more you advance, the bigger the gulf between you and the next stage of advancement. A fledgling might survive an encounter with an initiate, especially if they were close to advancing into the realm of an initiate, but a fledgling against an acolyte isn’t a battle, it’s a death sentence” he continued as Moyo listened in rapt attention,

“Then again in your case, with the kind of build you have, you could take quite the beating and grow stronger, monster that you are” ajax chuckled to himself,

Moyo tried to speak, clearing his throat as he coughed out blood and bits of bone, wincing to himself,

“Why do you call me a monster?” he asked quietly,

“because of what you would become should you survive up to at least advocate” ajax said, sighing as he saw the look of confusion on his disciples’ face,

“right now your body is still young, malleable, adapting to the status of strength and the powers of regeneration, but what happens later when you can withstand the power of a mountain shattering technique with nothing but a dull ache and bruised skin that healed back in a flash? when you can battle an opponent and steal their blood as you fought them, prolonging your endurance till your enemy collapses out of blood loss or lack of endurance?” he explained,

With the kind of beating he had just collected from ajax, if all foes were as strong as him, Moyo seriously doubted his rate of survival, the look of despair must have shown on his face as ajax laughed,

“Set your mind at ease disciple, you can hardly find a person of higher level fighting someone below their stage of advancement. It is mostly frowned upon in the entire archailect as a whole, although at the initial three stages or levels it is rampant as those who just got into their strengths would desire to show off their skills, but then again, if you want that sort of explosive growth you just got with your body tempering, those are the kind of fights you should be getting into” ajax said smiling, eyes bright,

It hadn’t gone past Moyo to realize his master was some sort of crazy battle freak,

Ajax sighed and stood up,

“now, tell me what you noticed as you fought me,” he said,

Moyo felt his knee joint pop back into place with a wince as he stood up, he had noticed something in the air as they had fought, some sort of sharpness that seemed to want to cut him to shreds,

To reap him,

Explaining it to ajax got a nod of confirmation,

“What you just experienced was my battle auras dominion over the concepts of cutting, in other words, a blade” he explained, once more producing his katana from his back,

“Watch disciple, and ingrain the feeling into yourself, if you are to gain this skill you must understand but a fraction of what you’re about to see” ajax said as he faced the sealed-off mouth of the cavern they were in,

With one swing of his katana, Moyo could feel a sort of sharpness to the air, shivering as he caught a glimpse of something flash towards the rocks and slice them into two in one swing, there was no resistance, no sound of a weapon hitting a rock or the likes, just a cold feeling of dread and the inevitability of the strike,

Staring in wonder at the result of the attack, Moyo turned to look at ajax,

“What you just saw was an attack on the path of the reaping katana, it added a concept of death and blades to that attack, fusing it in one skill and delivering it, there can be no dodging, no avoidance, for it carries the intent of death with it” he explained,

Placing his katana back into the sheath that hung on his back, ajax continued,

“If you are to follow the path of the katana, your core would need to refine aether or aether shards considering your level into battle intent or as we call it where I’m from, ki. However, I won’t or rather cannot teach you how to tap into the concept of death, I can only teach you how to refine aether shards into ki in your core we’re about to build” ajax said,

“why?, I can pretty much see my enemies dying as I slice them can’t I?” Moyo asked,

Chuckling ajax replied, “if it were that easy, then every blade wielder in the archailect would be a one-man reaper of souls, but concepts as you’ll later learn are based entirely on an individual, it is why there are as many paths as stars in the sky disciple”

Moyo nodded, he just had to conceptualize his opponent dying from a stroke of his blade, it was a goal worth chasing,

“enough about concepts, they are not something you can gain right away, it takes time and dedication and at least reaching the initiate level” ajax said, “now we need to get you a core, one that contains ki, and for that, we would need to gather aether shards, normally fledglings who follow the paths of someone greater than them are given aether shards at least of the rare tier, in which they would be sworn to the service of the path master they followed till they can produce the same rarity of such level” ajax explained,

“Except, of course, most don’t live to attain such level, they either die on the path to advancement or die by infighting or something. You, however, have the very absurd luck of having surplus legendary aether shards to create an aether core, I’m beginning to become wary of these fortunate circumstances of yours, for when the piper comes calling, the price might be too large to pay” ajax said rubbing his beards,

“that’s why I need to get stronger, strong enough to stand up to the weight of the price, and if need be, cut it down, a stepping stone on my path to advancement,” Moyo said, eyes alight as he stared at ajax who grinned,

“Indeed, now, you would need to enshrine that moment in which you saw my blade move, the feeling of sharpness, and do you know the best way of replicating that feeling?” ajax asked as he grinned at Moyo who felt a chill pass through him,

“Another round of battle?” Moyo asked, dreading the reply as ajax laughed,

“Yeah, but not against me, it’ll just be a case of me bruising you around, leveling your titans' wrath skill. No, what you’ll be fighting would be them” ajax said as he let out a burst of intent towards the now split entrance and a screech replied his flair of power,

Moyo recognized that screech, the cry of a rucar queen, but this time he felt a thrill run through his body, he anticipated the fight this time, that is until a whack on the head by ajax brought his sense of humility back to him

“don’t be daft, you can’t take on the rucar queen now, or have you forgotten you are still level 2 and she’s level 40, you would be squashed like a bug. No, what you would be fighting are the drones, my battle intent is holding the strongest of the hive at bay, you would be fighting those from level 2 to 10, again, prepare yourself” ajax said as Moyo heard the familiar ding of his notification, a reminder that he hadn’t checked, bringing it up

Skill titans’ wrath (r) level 40!

Moyo made a silent promise then and there not to engage ajax in any battle for the foreseeable future should he have a say, Was the reward worth it? yes, could he go through the mind-boggling trauma again? he highly doubted it.

“I will let them in in sets of twos, after a battle I would once again demonstrate the movement and you would go into battle again and keep replicating it till you obtain the skill of blade of the reaper” ajax said, throwing another blade at Moyo,

“oh and a swordsman knows better than to let his blade break in battle, lose this blade and there would be no more blades for you, now, begin!” ajax said moving to a far corner with a tap of his foot,

Moyo so desperately wanted that skill, but for now, he focused on the two rucar drones both level 2 that flew straight into the room. With a burst of speed that surprised he himself he blasted forward, blade raised and sliced down in an arc with all the force he could muster,

The rucar drones didn’t see it coming, one moment they were alive and the next they were dead,

Level up! level 3!

10 common aether shards obtained!

Moyo grinned back at ajax who appeared in his front in a flash and whacked his head again, adding another level to titans’ wrath,

“Idiot, anyone with sufficient strength can wield a sword and slice anything, you need to cut them without the blade touching them, cut them with the intent of the finality of the blade cutting through anything, only then can you take your first step on the path, now watch, idiot of a disciple” ajax said, showing his blade again,

Moyo sighed and watched again…