The Flowing Arts

*splash!* *splash!* *splash!*

"Hah... hah.... hah.... boy I'm beat. That was so tiring!" Illyod screamed, lying on the ground, totally exhausted.

"hmm... a quarter past an hour, that's your limit for now huh?" Reynolds thought out loud to himself.

"hmm? what? is that not good enough?" Illyod was kind of disappointed after hearing that. He had hoped to get some praise from Reynolds but that did not seem to be the case.

"Oh! don't get me wrong. that is quite impressive, considering this is your first time trying!" Reynold tried to placate the sulky child and it seemed to have done the job, Illyod at least stopped sulking.

"So..... are we gonna go back now?" Illyod asked. He was way too tired to continue with the swimming practice. Now, all he wanted was to go home and have some rest. But he could no do that without Reynold's approval.

"Oh no! not ye- well, maybe we should go home. That's enough practice for today"

"Heck yeah! let's go home! let's go!"

"Yeah, let's go"

having concluded their practice they headed home

Illyod was tired but excited too. Today he made a lot of progress in swimming and this was his first day too! He walked on with a relaxed pace, happy with his accomplishments.

But Reynolds was far from being relaxed. He was on high alert, his eyes continuously scanning his surroundings. He was on edge.

It was only after they came out from the forest that he lowered his guard a little.

"Then, bye Reynolds! see you next time! Next time I will learn how to swim completely!"

" Hooo? are you sure about that?" Reynolds asked with a cheeky smile.

"Yup! you bet I am! just you watch!" Illyod answered back, pounding his chest with his fist. "Anyway, goodbye!" Illyod shouted before running towards his house. His hands raised high up, waving.

"goodbye" Reynolds raised his hand too, giving him an eye smile.

As he saw Illyod getting smaller and smaller, his smile faded away too. Now his eyes were sharp, his usual bright character nowhere to be seen.

"Now, it's time to take care of a few things"

........................

Reynolds was walking back to the place they were just at. He felt some mana fluctuations around there. Now, he had mastered mana rotation and Mirage walk so, he grew very sensitive to the ambient mana. He could feel the slightest of abnormality in its currents around him.

He was back at the lake, the disturbance was still there. He traced the disturbance to the back of the waterfall, somewhat further away.

He was now walking along a riverbank, the further he walked the greater the disturbance became.

" It is getting quite far from home, should I return? I don't want to risk it "

When he was considering going back, he saw something in the shrubbery.

It was coming out. Reynolds could now see exactly what it was and he couldn't help but grow a little fearful.

It was a four-armed black gorilla standing at about 2 meters. It was an absolute behemoth for the five-year-old child.

Looking down at him, the mana beast reached for his head.

Seeing the incoming palm, he pushed down his fear, now his eyes resolute, and stretched out his right hand. Small water droplets were congealing on his five fingertips. They lashed out like whips and wrapped around the beast's hand, pulling it to a side. This gave Reynolds the space to dodge and lean on his left. The beast was surprised by the sudden development. Taking advantage of that, Reynolds pulled back his left hand which was now fully enveloped in water. But it didn't stop there. The water started hardening into ice and made an ice claw.

Reynold swung the hardened hand towards the beast's abdomen and...*stab!* it connected.

"Uwaaaaaaahhhhhh!"

The beast cried out in agony.

"Tsk"

But Reynolds was disappointed. He underestimated the sturdiness of the beast's body. It was a shallow cut.

The beast finally came out of his stupor and realized that he was hurt.

His eyes went bloodshot from rage and madness. The only thing it wanted right now was to crush the puny human in front of it.

Sensing the turbulent mana, Reynolds looked up only to see two giant hands, bigger than his head coming down on him.

Reynolds quickly broke off his ice claw and retreated.

Just a moment after, the place he was standing on exploded into dust and rubble from the force of the strike of the beast.

Cold sweat ran down his back after seeing the fate of the poor ground.

"I can not afford to get hit by that, or else I will be done for"

He was a conjurer mage, he was not supposed to engage in close combat with anyone let alone a beast that was several levels stronger than he was. But he chose to do it anyway. He knew what the greatest weakness of a conjurer was and wanted to eliminate it.

For that reason, he started training in martial arts with his father when he was just 3 years old. At first, he only practised normal martial stances to get his balance right so that his body can get used to it. But, he quickly improved on it. In fact, calling his growth rate terrifyingly prodigious would be an understatement. Raymond was absolutely dumbstruck witnessing his son's improvement, scared even! to think he was his son! But at the end of the day, no one was more proud than him. He could see his son surpassing him before he even knows it.

So Raymond decided to teach him everything he knew by the time he was 5, and he was not disappointed. Reynolds absorbed everything that was thrown at him like a sponge and soon there was nothing he could learn from his father anymore. But he was not satisfied. Knowing how Kodri trained Arthur in martial arts, he was nowhere near as strong.

So he decided to integrate his own strength in his martial arts. A flowing art style that specializes in smooth, connected movements that would come down as a crushing tsunami on his enemies and overwhelm them. That would go well with his water attribute and conjurer abilities, too.

He started working on it, integrating his martial arts with long-range water magic, connecting each and every move in a delicate fashion that had a deadly effect.

He thought he had taken a step in the right direction but was still dissatisfied with the outcome at the end.

Little did he know that he had created an absolutely beastly technique that would grow along with him and be his signature fighting style in the future.

That was when the technique, "The Flowing Arts" was born.