Chapter 56 - The General Performs a Legendary Teique

  Nathan Evenhart:

  I spent a few days refleg on rofessor Adrihna had shared with me, and it affected me deeply. She had entrusted me with a secret about her species and, at the same time, about herself. It was the dilemma she faced every day when she woke up—the fear of loving something only to lose it. That was the barrier that might have beeing her from breaking through her emotional restraint. A High Elf’s emotions were locked away, and they believed themselves to be ily selfish, but in truth, that was a defense meism.

  How could a being that lived for 300 years endure a lifetime of suffering from the loss of what they had learo love? Perhaps that’s why they only reproduced among themselves.

  The truth I discovered was that a High Elf wasn’t a selfish being devoid of emotions; quite the opposite... It recisely because they felt emotions so deeply that they shut themselves off from the world. A High Elf didn’t want to be emotionally hurt because they wouldn’t know how to cope with the loss of what they loved most.

  This, in some way, was ingrained in them as a defense meism, and that’s how they lived.

  I kly what she feared going through... I had lost what I loved and lived for turies with that void that was never filled... Time is a curse when you’re left aloh it.

  I pushed those thoughts aside and got out of bed to resume my training. I didn’t want to deal with that right now; I had a new life.

  I went over to my desk and pulled out a cup that I had stored in the drawer.

  "I still have to go downstairs and visit the spoiled phoenix, or I’ll suffer her deadly hugs if I don’t make my daily visit."

  It was hard t Cyl to my room since Kinue was always wandering around the mansion, and at night, she started sleeping with Chloe.

  We had our rooms in the castle, but we spent more time here, and the little fox girl also eaying, though she didn’t uand why we kept everything dark.

  Luckily, we were allowed to light the ceiling globes because we uood the responsibility of keeping them off at night. Only our room had light, and the corridors remained dark because of the ellian. Aunt Margie taught Chloe and me how to activate the white light globe in our rooms, so we had light instead of mps or torches. We were mature enough to uand that we had to turn off the light when we went to sleep, and we were also raised not to be afraid of the dark. It seemed that this was also part of the assassin’s training. The child was supposed to grow up aced to darkness, so fear wouldn’t affect us. Not that I would ever be afraid of the dark... but I noticed that Chloe, even at eight years old, walked through dark corridors normally, something a child her age would never do alone.

  I looked back at the cup and focused.

  "If ellian do this with mana, then so I! Even without Aura, I’ll master this teique!"

  Sifu:

  I’m on my way to visit my little student—or should I call him my teacher? I feel like I've learned more about sword fighting from him than what I’m actually teag. Young Master Nathan has a ualent for battle, ae being pletely disadvantaged due to his size and the ck of strength in his arms, he’s been pensating with agility. Gradually, the boy is improving; it’s almost as if he’s trying to get used to fighting in his smaller body, as though he’s aced to being taller.

  To avoid acts... with me, I had to give the boy a knife while I used a sword.

  That’s why I had to go back to teag Kung Fu. Trying to train him with swords will only hinder his style.

  In the midst of some fights, he would make certain movements with his fists and then pin about it being a habit from the fighting style he seems to have been born knowing.

  Soon, I’ll start teag him the art of assassination, and we’ll finally be able to stop pying around and move on to the real art of battle.

  His training has been interrupted tely because he’s been fog solely on learning to “crawl” his mana, so that ter he do it automatically. But I decided to che on him and see how he’s doing.

  As soon as I open the door to his room, I see something strange. He’s standing there, staring ily at a gss cup on the floor.

  “Is this some kind of training for your Mana Gem?” I ask after watg him, focused, for quite a while.

  “Ah! It almost worked…” he grumbled. “I was trying to make the gss explode with my gaze.”

  I let out a small ugh.

  “Very funny, young master. Did you read that in one of my books from the ste?”

  “No. Most of your books are all about calming the mind. What I’m trying to do is el my killing i into the gss.”

  I scratch my head.

  I ’t believe he’s attempting this. How did he even learn about this method?

  “Did you know there was a branch of a monks who tried to master this teique? Unfortunately, it was lost long ago. You try to release your killing i, but to make it ma like this was something even my teachers couldn’t figure out. An a monk succeeded and died taking the secret with him. Although it be doh Aura, it’s not the same thing,” I expin.

  “With Aura, it would be an evolution of this teique. Trying to skip the basic step will result in a fwed teique if it’s used with Aura. You first o master it with just yaze, and only then move on to Aura.”

  Hmm...

  “That was the essence of the monk’s secret, but the teique died with him. My teachers spent their entire lives living with srying to mimic their gaze, but they never succeeded,” I say.

  “Mimic the gaze of a shey misuood… the key isn’t to imitate the gaze.”

  I let out a small ugh.

  “Those were legendary Kung Fu masters, even I couldn’t surpass them. They were only defeated because they embraced peace with a sacred vow of non-bat. You ’t simply say they were wrong; not even the best of them mastered the killing gaze teique,” I say.

  Young master, even with your talent, it’s impossible to surpass what the a monks’ anization tried and failed to achieve for turies.

  “The secret isn’t to try to imitate the animal’s gaze, but to make it fear yaze. If you try to mimic the gaze, you’ll fail. It’s simir to when a bear charges at you, and you have to stand still and wave your arms to make it think you’re bigger than it is; you hten a powerful animal. If you instill fear in a powerful animal in a situation where your death seems certain, then you’ve mastered the killing gaze,” he told me.

  What? Is he saying that’s how you master this? That ’t be possible...

  “And whiimal would you have to scare while standing before it?” I ask, ughing.

  “A tiger. You o be face to face with a hungry tiger,” he replied.

  “It’s a good theory, but as I said… not even the best monks were able to replicate this lost teique.”

  He sighed.

  “I uand, I’m having difficulty too… even though I know the fuals,” he said, disappointed, as he left the room to return to his magic training.

  I spent some time p what he had told me.

  “Sg a hungry tiger? That’s madness, even for the legendary a monks…” I say, ughing.

  I head toward the door to leave the room.

  ‘Snap’—a strange sound echoes in the room.

  “What was that?” I gnce around.

  “Cyl, are you around here?” I ask.

  I look uhe bed, but there’s nothing there.

  “Weird…”

  As I take a closer look, the gss cup suddenly shatters.

  “WHAT!?” I shout in surprise.

  I rush over to the remains of the gss.

  “Impossible… did he really mao break the gss with just his gaze?”