Chapter 10: Am I special ?

Ray

"The Elthias family is one of the oldest royal families existing. And we were all this time on their territory. Its leader and strongest member is king Albert Elthias. He and his oldest son argued years ago therefore, Marshall Elthias left and then build the organization that we fought. He also confirmed that the Elthias prince cannot be dead by that attack. The prince is a power stealer as well, and one of the blessings he stole is Second Life. It saves him from certain death, but only once every month. He passed his last month drinking and sleeping with women, which means that his ability was up, to save him." I said to my group while we were heading to Elthias's capital city.

And I added: "That was the information I traded with the muscular man before I let him go, while I was under the control of my curse."

In order to hide and also to recruit people to build what I thought about when I came to this world, we decided to infiltrate the capital. Along the way, I kept feeding my body the vegetables and plants we collected. And we stopped from time to time to exercise to get used to fighting with our blessings and also to rest and sleep.

Taki

I still remember clearly the day where we started training. Ray separated us into groups of two people. Akira had to fight Maki, they both excel in the close fight, but they had their unique styles, fighting with each other was beneficial for them. Benjiro was with Selia. They were asked to gather food and furniture. Benjiro was consistently pushing his limits by trying to expand his range of sensitivity. And I was left alone with Ray.

My blessing isn't something special. I just can manipulate water. But the first thing he told me: "Your blessing is special Taki. You can become soo strong." I gave him a dump and confused face because I wasn't expecting that. He added: "I'll make it simple for you, don't worry." Then He took his sword and said: "What does it take for a sword to be a great one?" 

I responded: "The sharpness? The solidity?"

He said: "That is a correct answer, but not the best answer." He walked to a tree nearby and cuts it with his sword.

Then he picked a solid stick from the ground and cut its edges to make a wooden sword of it. He walked to another tree and said while he was preparing to do the same move he did before but this time with the stick: "The hands wielding the sword are what makes it a great one." And he cuts the tree this time with the same move and only with the wooden sword. 

I said: "Impressive, how did you do that? "

He said: "Come closer and see this." As I was walking, he continued: "Unfortunately, you cannot achieve such things just by training. In order to be talented, you need to be born gifted. Because if you are not gifted, people will easily surpass you." Ray had his hands on the edge of what's left of the lower part of the tree, and as I got closer, I noticed what he wanted me to see. The cut on the second tree was cleaner and sharper, even though the first one was done by a real sword and the second one, using a stick. I was amazed and speechless, after a brief moment of silence I said: "Does that mean I'm born to be a good swordsman?" 

He responded: "Definitely not. But you can do something even I, I am not capable of. Do you remember the first thing I told you?"

"Uuuum? My blessing is special, that is what you told me."

"In fact, it is special because It suits you. Put your hands in front of you with your palms up." Benjiro was passing by, he asked him to do the same. 

Ray said: "Don't you see the difference?" 

I was surprised, and I said: "His hands look like they are shaking compared to mine."

"Indeed, there is nothing wrong with him, it is you that has a great precision and stability on your hands and not just your hands but your whole body. Now, back to your blessing, water, the element that can take any forms easily, it can be the sharpest blade with enough precision."

"I think now I understand."

"Now, I want you to use your blessing. Imagine the sharpest blade you can make and cut that tree." And he pointed towards another tree.

I stepped towards it, took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and then a hand holding a sword all made of water appeared beside me and made the same move Ray did before, and cut the tree. I opened my eyes, and Ray was applauding me. He said with a smile: "Great job." I got embarrassed, and I turned away. 

He said: "Look at what you did."

I run towards the tree to see even a cleaner cut than the one he did with the stick.

After he taught me the basics, he asked me to keep repeating some attacks with my ability. Most of them were attacks in the form of a sharp blade. While he was spending his time training alone. He either leaves elsewhere for a moment or sits down to meditate.

After 5 days of me repeating swordsman's technics with a water blade, he asked me for the first time to fight him one-on-one. I was confident that day and, I felt so strong, I was delusional enough to think that I had a chance to win against him.

Everyone stopped to watch our fight. They wanted, first of all, to see Ray fighting and also, to see how I progressed in less than a week.

He had a bag with him this time, he puts it away, and we started. The fight started with Ray taking off his sword and running towards me. The first thing we noticed was that this was not how we are used to seeing Ray fighting. On one hand, his speed was lower, and on the other hand, he was using mainly his sword to fight and only the enhanced body blessing.

I attacked him. I summoned two long swords beside me and started to cut trees and the ground near him, while trying purposely to miss him. He smiled, and he speeded up to fade away and reappear behind me, and said: "You should not be holding back on a fight against me, unless if you are asking to..." and he attacked me with his sword to cut my long hair and my clothes and also to make a long scratch on my back. And he finished: "Die."

The attack was precise enough to just make a scratch and not be deadly, but it was sore for me, to bear the pain. I fell to the ground out of pain. The others were worried about me, Benjiro said: "It is a little bit too much for her." and Selia stepped up towards me to help. "You stay where you are!" Ray said to threaten and stop her.

He got down to my eyes level and said: "Get up, we just started."

After a lot of suffering, I got up and decided to fight him. This time I Spawned 4 water swords, I screamed and started targeting Ray and everything around him with my attacks. He said while he was dodging every single one of my attacks: "Mistake number one: you forgot the principles. You traded quantity for precision."

He jumped away out of my range and said while he started playing with his sword: "Two, you need to work on your long-range attacks." And he threw his sword towards me. I barely dodge it, and it got planted on the ground behind me. I created bubbles of water and sent them towards him. He didn't try to dodge them, and most of them missed. And the ones that touched him didn't affect him. He smiled.

I took a second to breathe, and to gain back my force, he said: "Sorry, we have to hurry, we don't have more time." I had him in my sight, and I blinked to see him suddenly in front of me. He said: " Three, you should work on your defenses. He passed me to stop smoothly behind me. He picked up his sword and spun while keeping the same momentum, to cut off my left arm.

He threw his sword away meaning that the fight was over. He sat down on the grass and said: "Now listen carefully. If you do not stop the bleeding, you will die. You need to be able to use your power in situations like this and stop the blood."

He pointed towards me, raised his voice, and said: "TAKI, it is time for you to show me whether you are special or not. Stand back up!"