Dead calm

"Wait, so what am I supposed to do?" I asked. Although I understood my grandfather's words, I did not know where to go from there.

"Idiot. I told you. Innovation is a true sign of mastery. If you can take the fundamental 10 forms and create an entirely new form yourself, only then can you say that you've begun your path to mastery." He stated.

"Ok but how do I just, create a new form? Isn't there a reason water breathing only has 10 forms? Because it's already complete." I argued 

"No technique is complete nor are they perfect. It's up to the swordsman to adapt and improve on already existing breathing styles in a way that suits them. No two people are the same, so neither should you expect that their techniques will be, even if they are both users of the same style." He lectured 

"Right. Did you make your own form then?"

"I was hoping you'd ask that, brat. Watch this" 

He shot up from his sitting position before jumping off the boulder and onto the ground. Unsheathing his sword, he looked at me with a serious expression.

"Let's try this again. Come at me with all you got kid. Try to kill me. You can go all out since there's nothing you can do to hurt me anyway" He said with a laugh 

Slightly annoyed by the remark, I drew my sword and got into a stance.

"Now watch this. This'll really blow your mind." He arrogantly added

"Don't get complain if you lose an arm or two, you shitty old man" 

Unlike last time, I didn't charge him head on.

"Water breathing, third form, Flowing dance"

I cut the distance between us in half before activating water breathing. Making use of the dance-like footwork of the third form, employing twisting and bending movements to both body and blade, allowed me to quickly close the distance while cutting down any incoming projectiles.

A gentle stream appeared, following each and every movement of my sword as I got closer to my opponent.

'I have to play it safe, there's no telling what this new form does. For all I know he can throw poison needles at my face' I reasoned

I closed the distance in the blink of an eye, my sword firmly above my head, ready to strike down as soon as I got within range.

"Water breathing, second form, Water wheel"

I wound up my attack, jumping in the air with my sword still over my head and striking with all the power I could muster.

During all this, my grandpa stood deathly still, his sword still by his side, not assuming any stance. 

'Oh shit I might actually-' My thoughts got interrupted as one of my strongest swings got deflected as though I was attacking with nothing more than a butter knife. Leaving me to fly backwards and land on my back.

"Ow" I groaned while getting back up

'How the fuck?' I re-evaluated the situation, coming up with a contingency plan.

"Water breathing, ninth form, Splashing water flow, turbulent" 

I changed up my footwork, minimizing the landing time and surface surface needed when landing. Allowing me to blitz past gramps and get behind him

"Fourth form, striking tide" 

I performed multiple consecutive strikes while twisting both my body and sword to generate momentum. I initially aimed for his right arm, after cutting that off I would redirect my sword slightly and aim for his left leg, cutting them both off in one swift movement.

Again though, my strikes got deflected, stopping my momentum and causing me to tumble past him.

'Dammit, I couldn't even see him move his sword. This is my loss, there's no way to get past that with just my sword' I thought, as an idea crossed my mind

I picked up a few rocks from the garden's floor and flung them towards my opponent with all my strength. As expected, the rocks got turned into fine dust. 

That didn't matter though as I had already used ninth form to get behind once more, with the rocks serving as a distraction. 

I used the simple but effective first form to attempt cutting my opponent's head clean off. 

This time, my attack was met with no resistance as grandpa had vanished, reappearing behind me with his sword against the back of my head.

"Crafty trick kid" He said 

"Cool move" I responded and turned around. Grandpa moved his sword from my face and towards his scabbard, sheathing it back.

"It's called dead calm. It works by stopping all bodily movements and entering a state of total tranquility. Therefore requiring immense concentration

"But numerous attacks as well as fast attacks can break through, so it's not perfect. Good job in spotting that" 

"Do you think I can learn it?" I excitedly asked

"What a child. Well actually you are a child, I forget that sometimes." He cleared his throat. " Anyway, you probably can, it's not going to take as long as it took me to create. But that's not the point, you have to create your own form, your mastery over water breathing will drastically improve then

"But if you do want to learn, I can teach you"

"Finally, you'll teach me something"

"Wrong. I simply refuse to hold your hand through even the most basic steps. And don't forget kiddo, I taught you some valuable life lessons"

I flashed him the middle finger again, which he promptly responded to by also throwing up his middle finger. 

"It means fuck you right. So ingenious, I should learn from you more often." Grandpa sarcastically remarked.

I showed him the middle finger on my left hand too.

The training didn't last long. All he taught me over the course of a few days is how to use total concentration to not only stop all my movements, but also overload the blood vessels in my hands, allowing my sword to travel at blistering speeds with a concentrated burst of power. This left me with having to learn how to perform the technique itself.

"This is yet another flaw of dead calm. Not overloading your blood vessels with oxygen decreases their speed, allowing fast and numerous attacks to pierce through. On the other hand, by overloading blood vessels, some of them will inevitably burst, drastically reducing your longevity in a fight and limiting dead calm to about 2 uses per day. 

This of course grants you an impenetrable domain, allowing you to become nigh invulnerable for a short period of time."

I asked if I could use the overload technique for other forms, but he replied that it would be a diminished return as the incremental power you achieve is not worth trading the usability of your arms.

"So overloading is useless then? What's the point if your arms go limp in the middle of a fight?"

"If you train enough, your body will become accustomed to its usage, meaning that you can use the same technique many times in a row. Take for example thunder, light and flower breathing. Some if not all forms composing these styles require some use of overloading, so through repetition, their endurance is increased, being able to tolerate more uses."

"Still useless for me" I said with a shrug 

"Shut up and go train" He shot back, slapping my upper back so hard I nearly toppled over.

"I'll kill you for real old man" I growled 

"You wish, brat"