just puting it again because the first time I did so it was added after as an edit but I put another story I wrote a while ago up under the tittle The Cloaked Fallen.

Chapter 24: perfect integration

Aion walked towards the back to his dorm room he had just received two techniques and a new set of armor from the knight department head. The two techniques were both purely physical so training in them would be greatly beneficial.

The armor also fit he is needs, it was an improvement to his old assassin gear. Black steel plates were added al around his clothes to make it suitable for a knight.

The metal was lined with special leather on the inside and edges to prevent the metal from making any sound. The thing that bothered him were the bells on his wrists, elbows, shoulders, back, chest, hips, knees, ankles and the tips of his feet.

According to the assassin technique that he received once he could move without sounding the bells his movements would be incomparably better than any other assassin. The second technique was the Inner Spear Shooting Bow technique it actually excited him more as it focused on using the body.

Specifically the tendons and some muscles to turn his body into a spear shooting bow. If he could perfectly learn this technique then the control Aion had over his body would increase exponentially.

And with that he might be a step closer to his desired half transformation. Reaching the dorm Aion saw a rare sight, Zack seriously meditating one his cultivation technique.

“To see you doing that I don’t know whether to believe that you’r actually doing something or giving your self a good excuse to sleep.” The one who spoke first was Melli, Zack and Bar had long know about Melli and would speak to her often. Zack was startled out of his meditation.

“You know that's kinda rude and stop hiding your presence along with Aion it’s one thing that he does it for some reason but you shouldn’t go along with his plan to kill every one of heart attacks.” Hearing their exchange Aion decided to ask as well.

“Why are you suddenly seriously training?” Zack gave Aion a grief stricken look.

“Aion I always do things seriously, I just happen to do so when no one is around. But to answer you in three months the older students will have a tournament the winners will be able to join the army in a couple of small scale battles against elemental beasts.”

Aion was not aware of most of the things that occurred in the academy, he was usually out completing contracts for the assassin society or working on his soul rune technique.

In regards to the technique Aion made great progress having thought of multiple ways to increase its strength, but the actual application of these would have to wait until he completed the eighty first rune.

“Are you and Bar joining? What chance do you actually have of making it?” The one to ask was Melli in a teasing voice.

“Humph. I’ll have you know that this older brother here is one of the top archers this generation. Aside from you and Bar I also have quite o reputation.” Zack indeed had a rather large reputation but it was similar to Aion in that it wasn’t anything good.

“Don’t you know that they call me the mad archer for taking down a maddening amount of enemies!” Hearing this Bar walked out of his room laughing over the time Aion joined them, at least in their presence he returned to his old joyful self.

“They call you the mad archer because you actually threw your bow at a noble’s face then almost pummeled him to death. Who wouldn’t think your mad, it’s a wonder your still even an archer.”

Zack groaned when he heard this, that incident was precisely the reason he was not taken in as a personal student of an archer and was instead taken in by a berserker, most people thought he was an archer in name only. Throughout the room the laughter of Melli could be heard.

“Zack what do you think your chances of entering the top sixteen archers are?” The one who brought the topic to a more serious note was Bar.

“Hmm with a bit of luck on the order of the fights I should be unmatched.” The tournament was for those who reached the advanced rank or higher both Zack and Bar had entered the later levels of the advanced rank, Bar even went as far as reaching level eight of the advanced rank.

His goal was to reach the grand stage before the age of twenty and either join the academy as an instructor or if he reached a high enough level start his own mercenary group with the goal of establishing his own clan.

“Don’t be to over confidant if you have some bad luck in opponents and end up in trouble because you were unprepared you will face some setbacks.” Bar was not one to stop being diligent simple because his odds of victory were almost assured. Remembering his new technique Aion decided to ask Zack about it.

“Do the you know Inner spear shooting bow Technique?” Hearing his question Zack immediately replied.

“Yea that's how I was able to beat down that noble bare handed, why?”

“Department head told me to train in it do you have any suggestions?” Zack was surprised why would the knight department head tell her personal student to train in a technique clearly made for archers in close combat.

“Yea don’t get to caught up in the stances and forms perfect it to the point where you can use it in any situation other than that timing is important when executing the technique, stopping half way or changing the trajectory of a launched attack is incredibly difficult so time and execute your attacks with caution.”

Aion nodded and quickly went into his room after thanking Zack for his advice. This was similar advise to what his teacher had shown him years ago. The important point was to use the technique instead of having to position himself to meat the requirements of executing the various stances of the technique.

First Aion began by memorizing the two books the first one was the assassin movement technique, it consisted of various explanations of the human body and the way movement and force work together.

The Inner Spear Shooting Bow technique consisted of nine movements to strengthen and allow one to better feel their tendons and muscles followed by three movements to execute the fighting aspect of the technique.

Having memorized the two techniques Aion began going through the motions of the bow technique in order to better feel his tendons and muscles. After five hours of respected practice Aion began to feel precisely what tendon or muscle moved and how it did so.

Having accomplished this the next step was t focus on those parts of his body during normal movement, the movements he executed earlier were specially made to give one the feeling of control over his or her tendons and muscles.

Aion's goal was not to blindly follow the movements but to perfect the technique to the point where a casual punch would be predicted by others as a well executed technique. His quick success was because of the fact that he already had a feel for his body’s workings but his attempt to feel his tendons and muscles during casual movements such as walking inside his room was more complicated.

Giving up on reaching such a high level to quickly Aion resumed the movements on the book until night. Tonight he would meet his grandpa and ask about the assassin movement technique.

That night Aion didn’t get much advice from his grandpa he was only told to continue the bow technique and after mastering it the assassin movement technique would be much more difficult but if he could simultaneously perfectly integrate both techniques into his body the strength and usefulness of both would be incredible.

So following his grandpa’s instructions Aion retuned to his room and continued the movements of the bow technique. Continuing this four months passed, Zack and Bar both secured a top sixteen spot in the tournament and would temporarily leave the academy grounds for some time. Bar won third place having lost to two older students who were in peak of the human stage.

Zack however barely managed to squeeze into fifteenth place after being beaten by the person who eventually took first, it could only be counted as his bad luck.

Aion in these four months made incredible progress he could now feel his tendons, muscles, and even train them ass if he was doing the movements while sitting.

If anyone knew of his progress they would be amazed any person who was serious about the technique would only begin trying to perfectly integrate it into their body after completing the whole thing but Aion planed to completely master it step by step.

If he really wanted to he could have moved onto the next set of movements three months ago but he decided to wait until he had reached he level of perfection. Now that he was ready to start the next set of movements Aion left for the forest on the outskirts of the capital.

These attack techniques when preformed correctly should produce the sound of a bow being fired at it peak it would produce the sound of a bow powerful enough to shoot large spear. The noise would generally bother others and he didn’t feel like dealing with those noisy nobles while training.

After practicing for three hours Aion was easily able to produce the sound of a bow being fired but could not preform it to it’s peak or use it in casual movements.

But this was enough for now the other reason he came to the forest was to continue his practice of partial transforming. Having done some minor practice for the last four months this would be the first time it was his main focus since the first time he attempted it.

Aion began by rapidly changing between his human form into his crow form, following that he stayed in his human form and feathers began to sprout on his forearms and shin. Producing the feathers was much simpler now and he could even turn his nails into sharp weapons.

His end goal was to be able to use his feathers as an inner armor and wings to fly. But being able to turn his nails into sharp weapons would greatly benefit him as his hand would then truly become a spear shoot form a bow.

To accomplish this he now began to slowly change between his human form and brow form, changing slowly would allow him more time to deal the complete change but it was somewhat more difficult than changing rapidly.