Fight

"I will teach you how to fight."

This sentence resonated with Aster. Up until now, he has relied on brute strength and his skills to fight. He never really learned how to properly fight.

The weapon mastery abilities help him learn how to use weapons, sure, but that doesn't mean he can fight.

A low sword mastery means he would just be swinging the sword like a madman but high sword mastery means the ability to use a sword well and perform moves. Sword strikes such as vertical cut down, vertical cut up, horizontal cut, diagonal cut, thrust and the likes of it.

Being able to properly execute these moves doesn't mean he could fight well. He needed a teacher to teach him how to properly weave these sword movements into a deadly sword dance with little to no openings to endanger himself.

Unfortunately, he was sure that he wouldn't have the luxury of getting a teacher thanks to Blake. He would have had to depend on long, arduous fights to hone himself.

Now, he had an opportunity to get a teacher and a pretty damn good one at that.

He has seen how she gathered, condensed and shaped her aura to become a claw to attack him. That's a feat worthy of a Warrior Aura Master.

Aura master is someone who can manipulate their aura. It has necessarily no ties with cultivation. There are 4 stages to the journey of an aura master.

The first stage is Apprentice aura master. They can use aura to reinforce their bodies. Aster is technically a self taught Apprentice.

The second stage is Warrior aura master. They can give shape to and weaponise their aura. The woman is a warrior from what Aster has seen so far.

The third stage is Sage aura master. They can use their aura to reinforce other beings or equipment. They can use their aura to heal or weaponize it like a warrior and destroy their opponent from within.

The final stage is Saint aura master. They can forcefully tinker with the amount of aura their soul can produce. If they want, they can go super saiyan and produce a dozen or maybe even hundreds of times more aura than they typically have although it would be their end.

Aura is derived from willpower so as long as one possesses the determination and the perseverance, they can reach the peak of aura master.

Mages, though, aren't so lucky.

Mana is derived from the concept of imagination so all sorts of mind blowing feats are possible for mages but those who can accomplish those feats are rare. Why?

Because magic needs talent.

Magic in essence is the ability to manipulate elemental particles.

Once upon a time, the Divine and the Demonic took pity on humans so they asked for their siblings to bless humans. The primordial gods, who were young and weak due to just being separated from chaos, couldn't do much. The elder gods were also weakened. All they could do was give slight affinities towards their own domains.

These blessings were not enough to guarantee human survival so the human population was on the verge of extinction since their creation. So they reproduced a lot.

On very rare occasions, the fetus inherits both blessings from its mother and father which stacks up. If this happens for a few generations straight, a rare genius is born.

The geniuses could control the elements, use aura and mana so they were strong. Although they were amateurs compared to older, stronger races like demons, angels, elves and dragons and the like, they managed to survive and grow stronger due to their soulguides.

Those gifted ones became the pillar of humanity. Humans flocked to those people to get under their protection hence kingdoms were born.

Because of the endless potential magic has, it's very difficult for it to be classified. One person might suck at using elements but he might have affinity to something else entirely.

Aster had forgotten what the classifications were but those don't matter now.

Following his silence, the woman urged him to answer.

"What are you staring at? Do you accept my proposal or not? I'm doing you a favor since you proved to be entertaining and you saved my daughter and all but if you're going to keep staring at me like a freak then-"

He was compelled to say yes but he held himself back.

He desperately wanted to use [True sight] to confirm this woman meant what she said but he didn't want to.

Maybe it was respect or maybe he didn't want to know what atrocities this woman committed to end up on this island.

"I- I accept." He said

'I'm confident I can take her down with my current attributes and skills. I'm not the same dude I was half an hour ago so let's see how this goes.'

The woman's eyes brightened up "Excellent! Then let me teach you how to weaponize aura!" She clapped on his right shoulder.

Electricity traveled through his body, shocking him frozen.

"Heok!"

The woman facepalmed then broke into a grin.

"Didn't know you were so sensitive."

Aster would have blushed if his face had a bit more skin on them left.

With his enhanced senses, he was able to see the woman more clearly. Her skin was spotless even with the telescope like eyes Aster has now. Her face was perfectly symmetrical and her hair was a shade of gold that he has never seen before.

Not to mention, she was in his absolute sense zone so he could tell her sizes and height pretty well.

He took a moment to process this information.

'Damn perception attribute. Why did I increase it so much?' He screamed inwardly.

Aster was starting to revert back to his old self. The Aster who used to be a lazy bum, not the Aster who has been tampered with the lives of thousands of sinners. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done.

'If we spar, I will punch her jaw off. Shame on her for touching a 15 year old!'

"I have circumstances…" He told the woman.

She giggled a bit. "The circumstances of never seeing a beautiful woman like me being next to you? Poor guy."

'What a shameless woman. I had the sympathy to spare you since you had a literal child you have to take care of but now?'

"My name is Auryon, if it isn't too late for introductions."

He opened his mouth to speak but then felt a change in the environment.

The air pressure, the change of wind current, the slight increase in temperature and of course, the hissing sound.

He wouldn't have felt all of this if he hadn't cranked up his perception attribute to 600.

He activated [Whirlwind] and quickly pushed Auryon before sprinting to the opposite end.

BOOM

Something landed in front of Aster, creating a big crater.

It oozed evil miasma and assaulted Aster's aura cloud. It had pale skin riddled with scars, pitch black eyes and two stumps on its forehead.

He furrowed his eyebrows. He recognized this thing.

'Carl the fricking demon. Didn't think we would meet so soon.'

"We can do this the easy way or the fun way." Carl hissed and revealed his scaly wings.

"You can either come with me or I will break all of your bones and tear apart your limbs and take you back."

"Nah"

Aster calculated his chances against the greater demon. The result was-

[[Battle cry] has been activated]

[[Whirlwind] has been activated]

[[Strengthen [EX]] has been activated]

[[Sprint [EX]] has been activated]

[[Dash] has been activated]

[[Bloodlust [EX]] has been activated]

[[Intimidate] has been activated]

[[Great strike] has been activated]

[[Vital strike] has been activated]

[[Taunt] has been activated]

[[Berserk [EX]] has been activated]

An overwhelming win for Aster.

***

Feedback is appreciated as well. It would help me improve and make this novel easier and more enjoyable to read.