The elder grinned from ear to ear while he went to set up the doll. He inserted a white crystal into the back compartment of the doll. After he was finished half of the doll’s runes that covered its body lit up. It came to life holding the sword up in ready position.
“The Sword Doll will be powered for 10 minutes. Either subdue it or survive for that long and you will pass. It’s your move now kid.”
The elder made his exit where he could oversee the battle along with Cal and Yuki. Damien stared at the featureless doll. It looked back with no emotion. Damien inched his way closer to the range of the doll’s sword. He did not want to make the first move as he had no idea what the dolls style was like.
He was more defensive-minded as that was his strong suit. All his training with Veron always ended with him being on the defensive side. He firmly believed he would be able to counter anything that came his way. He was confident in this aspect so he gladly walked into the attack range, ready for battle.
The room was so silent you could hear the doll winding up its strength. The Sword Doll creaked into motion launching a frontal attack. It pierced straight at his solar plexus, using the inherently fast attack to catch him off guard.
Damien watched its attack come and time seemed to slow down. He was able to analyze every minute detail, from the movement of its limbs, to the motion of the air. The attack that was heading straight at him, suddenly veered downward to his leg. Damien clearly saw the true trajectory. He sidestepped with ease to avoid being immobilized.
The Sword Doll tried taking the upper hand by bursting through at Damien before he recovered his center of gravity. It heaved an overhead blow down on Damien. Damien easily blocked the attack in front of his face and dispersed the blow by sliding back.
Cal and Yuki believed he was struggling right out of the gate. All he had done was defend and he was sent back a couple of feet. They protested to the Elder in charge but he shut them down.
“Stop being annoying and just watch.”
They couldn’t do anything else besides watch at this point. They could only believe the Elder had this under control.
Damien was smiling when he came to stop. He was starting to enjoy the feeling of being able to see everything clearly. He was testing out the strength of the doll and felt that it wasn’t enough to truly test him. He welcomed the doll to attack him with a barrage of strikes. Damien calmly deflected each strike with a minimum amount of effort. He would redirect the attacks by parrying the blows.
Eventually he grew bored as he was not given a real challenge. He expected more from the pinnacle of the Earth Realm but compared to his grandfather, this Sword Doll stood no chance. He finally decided to strike back and receive his ranking.
The Sword Doll pounced back one last time with no care that it had not succeeded. This time Damien had no intention of continuing this play, so he dodged the blow by a hair's length giving him the opportunity to land a strike on its sword hand. The force of the strike unarmed the doll of its only means of attack.
The sword landed by Damien’s feet where he kicked it far away from either of them. Without a moment’s rest he slashed down at its shoulder joint bringing the sword down into its chest. Half of its chest was hanging off its body, cut clean apart. The Sword Doll realized that it had been defeated so it retrieved its sword and shut down on its own.
The Sword Doll automatically started to reconnect itself back together. It was only a matter of seconds before it was back to normal. Damien wondered what kind of magical material it was made out of and if he could get his hands on some. Before he could fantasize any further, clapping was heard coming from the observatory area. The sound came closer revealing the Elder and his two friends.
“My, my, what a performance. Surely you aren’t satisfied with just this, are you kid?”
The Elder rolled his neck around and grinned slightly at him. Damien felt egged on by his comment as he didn’t even break a sweat.
“You’re right! I’m not satisfied at all!”
The Elder laughed loudly without a care at his response. In a way Damien reminded him of his younger self. He wanted to be satisfied when he battled. A boring, easy battle would irritate him to no end.
“You want to try out the Sky Realm kid? Surely that would satisfy your cravings.”
Underneath his glasses Damien’s eyes lit up. He felt raring to go to test all his skill against a Sky Realm opponent. He nodded his head determinedly while his fighting spirit grew. The Elder went on his merry way to configure the Sword Doll to the requested level. Yuki came in with a flying kick that Damien easily dodged.
“You dumbass, do you think the Sky Realm is some kind of game? The difference between Earth Realm Rank 9 and Sky Realm Rank 1 is insurmountable!”
“Don’t worry Yuki, I felt no pressure in the battle. In fact it was boring.”
“No you don’t understand anything! You start consolidating the Dao into the sword in the Sky Realm! This creates your own Sword Dao. Have you even begun doing that?”
Damien realized that he had not had any enlightenment about the Sword Dao. As a matter of fact he didn’t even know a Sword Dao existed. He started to see why Yuki was so concerned that she actually spoke up.
“It’s ready now. Fight till you're satisfied, kid.”
The Elder readied the Sword Doll with a small blue crystal. Damien felt like he had to continue with his decision now. He gritted his teeth, trying to regain the same mindset he had. He calmed his mind and walked toward the Sword Doll for round 2.
