Blademaster Ascension

1- One Strike

It was just a few moments before sunrise, the first among the nine suns peeking from the horizon like a naughty child hiding from its mother, yet its dazzling light attracted all toward its hiding place.

As the orange glow fell on Sand town, surrounded by thick fortress-like walls, it seemed to breathe life into the seemingly ancient place. Inside the town were quite a number of buildings which radiated a strangely decayed aura; as if the passing of time has intentionally left its mark on them every single moment.

At this moment, a young boy stood behind one of these buildings, inside a courtyard where the approaching daylight and the stubborn darkness of the night clashed in a battle for dominance.

He held an wooden practice sword in his hand and stared at the large dummy in front of him hanging from a metal pole.
The dummy showed signs of falling apart any moment from being hit repeatedly.

The golden light of dawn slid through the cracks between the old, decayed fence. A couple of broken rays fell on his sweaty cheeks and his eyebrows creased at the warm sensation.

"When waves encounter an obstacle's edge, they bend slightly, flowing at a new direction; the force applied behind a sword strike, can it bend like that?
It sounds impossible. Waves and force are completely different concepts. How can I make sheer physical force act like waves?"

He took a step back and stared at the dummy. After a moment of silent observation, he swiped his sword in front of the dummy extremely fast, splitting the dummy into two.
However the boy's mood didn't improve.

He took out a small diary from his pocket and opened a page. There were sketches of a man hitting a target with his sword just like the boy did previously. But the man in the sketches obviously produced different results.
"Why does the author insist that it's possible to bend force? How come I can never do the same thing as the guy in the sketch? What exactly am I lacking?"

He mumbled such sentences as he slowly walked out of the courtyard and walked on the brick road that snaked its way through the seemingly ancient town. Despite the time being quite early, the town was already bustling with many people minding their own business. The boy's strange attire and the sword in his hand raised no curiosity among them; as many other kids around his age did the same thing and the townsfolk  were no stranger to it. It was standard practice for the younger generation to carry their practice weapons and armours all the time.

"Hey, Rowan! Wait up!"
A loud voice from the other side of the street startled the boy and he whipped his head around to see who called his name. A rather chubby boy around his age was running as fast as he could with his meaty legs. The scene was undoubtedly intimidating to any onlooker and everybody shifted away hurriedly from his path to prove that fact.

"What's the rush? The second sun hasn't risen yet. We've got a long time before the drill starts," the boy said in a puzzled tone.

"I haven't practiced the sword moves teacher Jordan told us to. Man, if he starts examining our postures today or tells us to give a demonstration then... then..."
The large boy's eyes teared up as he relived his past memories of numerous punishments, most of which clashed with his five routine meals, intentionally done so by the cruel teachers.

Rowan's mouth twitched involuntarily as he patted the large guy on his shoulder, which was the highest point of his body he could reach with his small physique, and urged him,
"You laze around a bit too much dreaming about royal delicacies these days, Isa. Come on, I'll show you the postures again. It won't take too long if you concentrate on it instead of food."

The two boys ran along the road and a minute later reached a moderately large field where various assortment of weapons, shields and exercise materials were placed on the ground methodically. The field was still devoid of any participant of the drills. They had plenty of time to make the large boy grasp the key factors in the particular sword move.