The silence of the slumbering city filled his mind with ease. The distant neon lights flickering below the hill growing blurry as beads of sweat trickled down his forehead and into his eye.
"Ah..."
His breath cold and white dispersed into the surrounding as his muscles arching and tensed bulged.
"10.."
Whispering softly his gazed focused on the silver blade in his hand, his palms firmly wrapped around it's hilt tightning along his muscles as the coldness of the steel penetrated his skin.
"10..."
Like a command he whispered one's more, his shoulder growing stiff, his feets tightening as he raised the blade with pure focus and discipline only to bring it down in a clumsy and awkward swing.
"....11."
Paying no hind to his imperfect swing, he raised the blade up one's more his breath growing steady and his sapphire eyes gleaming with burning determination.
"12." He repeated.
"13..14...15.."
Unlike before where he paused to caught his breath, the next three swings were done in quick succession. They were flawed, too imperfect and enough to make most swordmaster face palm but Art didn't care, he was the only one here.
Here he could cut lose, be himself, his imperfect self so he didn't care how bad his swing was, how indisciple his stance was and how tired he was, he continues to swing, from fifteen he reached twenty and twenty he reached forty and one's his body had grown hot, his muscles strained to their limit and his heart pounded uncontrollably did he stop.
"....pant...fuck..."
He fell on his butt in exhaustion, his breath erratic and his body drenched in sweat.
It's been a week since he awakened his intent and a day since he was made the gatekeeper for the upcoming rank games.
It was currently a Saturday, quite early to be excalty and he found himself on a hill side within Academia city.
He came here for two particular reason to train with the sword and also to hunt a mana beast.
"I'll rest for sometime and hunt those pricks later."
Laying his head on the soft ground of the hill, his chest began to rise and fall while his hair scattered back from his position fluttered lightly under the caress of the soft midnight breeze.
Sword training was hard, particular for him whom had no background in wielding weapons. He wasn't talented like Trish whom naturally had an affinity for sword due to her genes nor did he have time like Grim whom had trained for years to become proficient in many weapons.
Judging by how long Villier was taking to return it meant he had made contact with someone he shouldn't meaning him being the first boss was still a possibility.
Since he was the only whom knew of the future betray, Art wanted to be strong enough to kill him before he brought any harm but....
"It is true I need strength to defeat him but what if...yes that might actually work."
He wasn't much of a schemer mainly because the information he had of the games world was still not fully recovered but that didn't mean he couldn't take some free liberation.
If Villier made contact with someone he shouldn't, Art was confident he would know because his mannersim will change so if he ever did, then Art will have to take a few pages out of Grim's book.
A slow death and as Villier assistant, he was confident he could pull that off and the best part about poisoning was the ability to control it's dose hence the time of death.
"Keep it slow enough that he wouldn't die untill he pulled of the betrayal...then when his weakend, eliminate him"
Having formulate the first of two plans to deal with Villier, he realized he was being quite like Grim, making he wonder how just a few days of interaction had done this to him.
Thinking and thinking and getting nothing he soon sprang up one's he was full of energy and took up the silver blade that laid beside him.
"There should be a beast dan around here."
Surveying the forest expansion that laid behind him, he tried circulation aura throughout his body to improve his senses as his glowing gaze pierced deep through the cracks in the forest.
Taking note of the trees and their branches, the leaf filled grounds, the streams of water bodies and massive caves all ahead, he shrugged, his breath soft to the ears.
"Combat experience!"
Muttering coldly, he stepped forward commanding the golden aura that cloak his figure to die out.
He was going to hunt a mana beast that was his main objective for coming to this desolated place at this hour.
After his fight with Grim, he did a bit of reviewing and came to the realization of one major fact about him.
No it wasn't that he didn't know how to use a weapon but something even more important.
He lacked real life combat experience.
He had only engaged in spars so far and a real fight was completely different from a spar.
For instance if his fight with Grim had been real life combat, her coating wouldn't be focused on her fist but ranther her finger nails.
Real combat had two outcomes, defeat and death.
For defeat, she would have primarily focused on breaking his spirits by bombarding him with her intent.
Ultimately he would have been broken from the sheer gap in strength but unlike he spar when she gave him time to think over, she would then had focused on knocking him out before he could overcome the feelings of inferiority.
Then came scenerio two, murder which Grim was really good at.
Since she was superior but also lacking in a proper weapon, she would have used her finger nails, which would have been sharpened and enhanced by aura.
For a painless death she would have slit his throat and for a painful and slow death she would have accumulated cuts on his body and allow the loss of blood to deal him the finishing blow.
This would have been Grim combat strategic.
Ruthless and lethal.
This was something he could only predicate because he knew the character so well but living being go through something know as change and that can factor into their fighting style, making all his predication useless.
Right now he didn't need clairvoyance but his own combat sense that could only be built from real combat experience.
He needed to know how to fight, how to maintain his composure and be unpredictable to his foes and what better way to do that, than hunting the invasive species accumulating in the forest.