"Come on, come on!" Damien shouted as he looked down at the arena. Sakana was panting for breath, sweaty, exhausted, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
"Have faith in him, Damien," Leaun said. Damien just nodded as he looked at the opponent. It was a shining star.
"Shall we finish this?" Alexander asked.
"We shall," Lily answered. Their voices came both out of the same mouth. Alexander drew his sword, throwing it into the air.
"GLORIA SUPERBIA!!!" He shouted as he threw his sword into the air, creating a giant blade. The blade grew in size to extremes.
"S-shit." Sakana grinned as he looked at his hilt.
"There is no way that hermit can take this." He grinned. He took a deep breath and jumped on the spot as Alexander threw the sword downward, moving it like it was the easiest thing in the world.
"Toad bubble spring!" He shot toward the wall and then used the same momentum to fly over the sword. He spun around, pointing his gaze down toward Alexander, who shrunk the sword again.
Sakana was sitting in the gardens of his monastery and meditating.
"Young Sakana. What does your mind dwell on?" The Guru asked, sitting on a nearby chair, watching the kid. He was sitting in the furthest reach of the garden with a single waterfall in front of him.
"Water Iaijutsu was put down into the scrolls of time. A power that has resurfaced a lot of times. The ten techniques of the school have always been powerful yet now I still find myself unable to draw out the power of the tenth form." Sakana muttered as he focused on his meditation.
"So you trying to reach inside yourself, finding the problem?" The Guru asked. Sakana nodded as he took a deep breath. The Guru stood up, walking with his cane over to the kid.
"The ability of the tenth form is quite advanced. Your body flows like water when you use this sword technique, making you move in extremely fast and powerful waves. Like a crushing river." The Guru said, standing next to the kid. Sakana looked up.
"You could describe yourself as the waterfall. Your power invoke a force that allows you to change the flow of the water around you. You change the flow of your body and use it to reach great speeds, but from what I understand-" The Guru lowered his cane and let it touch the water surface, making a few ripples go over the water, but as soon as it hit the ribbles from the waterfall the water surface stilled.
"You need to reach tranquility. You are so used to your body being in motion and being chaotic that you can't reach the inner peace needed for this quick slash. You need to find some inner peace even in the midst of training and in the midst of fighting." The Guru said
"Is that why he already reached it?" Sakana asked.
"Damien has reached his goal. That is true. Yet I know you can find yours. Visualize yourself, Sakana. First, you need to realize what you need to do before you can do it." The Guru said, leaving. Sakana looked at the water surface once more.
"Visualize, huh?" Sakana closed his eyes as everything faded to black. He saw a small pond in his mind. Ribbles traveling over the water surface. These ribbles were his power, his strength, but to reach the tenth form he had to stop them from moving. He needed complete clarity.
"All it takes is to calm it," Sakana said, focusing.
Sakana looked down upon Alexander.
"I can't cut him." Sakana thought as he slowly closed his eyes. He saw the pond in front of himself. The pond was shaking, and the water was spilling out. Stress, fatigue, power, uneasiness. All the emotions on his body had an impact on what was going on in this pond. He took deep. Shallow breathes as the ribbles started to calm down and then soon just vanish. The pond was completely still.
"There. I can see it now. The calmness before the storm." Sakana said as he grabbed his hilt.
"Water Iaijutsu, Tenth form-"
