Tales of The Mighty Dragonair

"I like it," Armondo kept standing in place watching Arthur hitting him while only defending. He was observing every move of Arthur until after a couple of minutes his eyes shone brightly as he laughed, "I get it, it's this simple then."

Arthur was about to land another strike over his head, yet Armondo changed his place to appear just behind Arthur. "My turn now," he laughed, enjoying this feeling of freedom he just had.

"Don't try to play with the master of this technique," Arthur changed his body to appear beside Armondo who laughed and said, "it's me who is your master, kiddo."

Armondo and Arthur kept dancing around the place for five minutes before Armondo had it enough from testing this technique. "Time to show you the difference between us, kiddo," he turned suddenly serious when he noticed he couldn't touch Arthur so far.

He sensed the deep experience of Arthur and felt slightly challenged with it. So he started to be more serious, raising the level of difficulty of this training a bit.

As he said that, he took a certain posture midair. To Arthur, he felt like Armondo changed to be a fierce eagle, eyeing him from high and waiting to assault.

"Tsk, such a mid level technique in my days," he sighed but he knew his current human strength and body wasn't enough to take such a hit directly.

Armondo then moved, and his sword started to create a gale of wind around its edge. Arthur felt the strength of this attack. "Very dangerous," he muttered while the sword started to create more wind around it as it drew closer. "Even the air is locked under it, it's slightly higher than what I used to see," he muttered when he tried to change his body using his swift legs.

"Evasion is impossible, then let's try defending," he muttered before taking another position where his legs were widely apart and slightly bent. "Best defense is a mighty offense," he clenched the sword with both hands while waiting.

This stance was new on Armondo who started to feel more curious about Arthur. Yet Arthur didn't move even when he got so near to him. "What are you waiting for?" he shouted while the distance between the two was simply lower than five meters.

Arthur didn't answer as the next moment he pushed his legs slightly upward, while no change occurred to his sword.

Yet when his legs touched the ground again, he pushed them harder to the front and this time his sword lit up with strange blue light coming from his energy.

The sword was like being on fire, and even the air around started to be heated up, rising to the higher altitude in no time.

"A strange technique indeed," Armondo said as he stood on the ground after crossing swords with Arthur while contemplating over what just happened.

When Arthur used that technique of his, and the two swords clashed, he felt a dominant force taking off his sword away from his hand!

He never felt such a way before, yet he adapted and clenched the sword tightly with his energy, stabilizing it in his hand.

But this created a disturbance in his technique. It wasn't big enough to negate it, yet it was enough to make Arthur move and wave his sword, causing a small scratch on his neck.

He touched his neck and felt his hot blood before examining it. "That kid… I never was pushed this far by a disciple in the first meeting before," he said in low tone before adding, "if I didn't adapt and let the sword go, I would be defenseless in front of his sword."

His mind was processing the fight in a much faster way than normal mages. He had the slight moment of exchange repeated over and over again until he realized something.

"It's the air, he made the air push my sword higher with it," his eyes shone before laughing, "nice technique, kiddo, I like you more."

Arthur wasn't that excited about bringing back one of his old life techniques here this time. His body couldn't handle this technique and his energy almost depleted.

The moment he reached the ground he collapsed there. He had to ingest ten pieces of meat before being able to stand up once more.

"It seems you only can perform it once so far," Armondo didn't show his concern over what happened to him before adding, "you need to take care of your body much more."

"I depend more on my dragon body," Arthur argued.

"If you want to go and win the tournament, then you need to stop depending on your dragon body."

Arthur didn't understand his meaning, so Armondo explained further, "the tournament is mostly held under special circumstances where any transformation is sealed. You can't use your dragon body except in two kinds of competitions. As for the rest, if you did then you would fail."

Arthur understood his meaning, and just nodded in understanding. "I'll try to focus on my body more," he promised.

"Swordsmen are using their swords and body to drive the sword. Techniques such as the one you pulled or the one I used have great toll over our bodies. You need to make sure when hitting your foe to not be the first one to fall."

"I want to use a strike that no foe will survive after," Arthur said.

"That's rare and risky," Armondo shook his head before adding, "you should be more realistic. What you said is the ultimate dream of any swordsman, but having a dream and reaching it are completely different concepts."

Arthur understood and nodded before Armondo gave him a small book. "Take this, I wrote down all the major techniques I have ever learnt," he paused before laughing, "and your two techniques now will be added to them as well."

"Thanks master," Arthur nodded before turning towards Cesile's direction. "Sigh, she hasn't finished the lecture yet."

Armondo followed his gaze and noticed Cesile. "Hahaha, she is a lecturecholic kiddo, good luck with that. She won't finish the lecture anytime soon."

Arthur bitterly smiled as he thought to visit other masters and learn from them before heading to Cesile. Yet it seemed he underestimated her ability to give lectures.

"I'll  go then," Arthur said while Armondo shouted from his back, "we have to spar often, I'm sure you have more to show."

Arthur was walking slowly towards Cesile's direction while taking out some meat and kept eating them.