Blademaster Ascension

7- The Marsh

Rowan moved in the air with supernatural fluidity, slashing out with his hand at blank space. His body moved relentlessly, attacking, stepping back, attacking, dodging, manoeuvring unpredictably on his feet.

When one fought against a stronger opponent, every opportunity counts. Without a weapon, one can understand what they are lacking in; even a small knife, a tiny nail could be used to damage the enemy whilst empty hands could only punch and grapple.

This way, Rowan could see the importance of his sword. When he punched the empty air, he visualized what a sword style strike could have produced in the same time. When he stepped back, he understood how a sword would help him counter enemy attacks instead of a backstep.

As he prepared to strike with a combo against his imaginary opponent, a humongous roar shook the eastern side of Sand town. Rowan frowned and stopped his practice.

The first few days, the monsters that attacked the town were mostly familiar to townsfolk. The town was on the edge of the Rushmoore desert, being the last piece of civilization at the west side of the Holy kingdom. It would be considered a backwater place by anyone. But the situation was slowly getting out of hand as more and more unknown monsters  started appearing.

While the town wasn't exactly alienated, the nearby localities maintained a thin relationship with their town only because of business opportunities. Sand town needed massive supplies of daily necessities every year and the need could only be met by exchanging with the neighbouring towns. However, the sudden ferocity of monster beasts had escalated so quickly that even the nearest town, namely marshwood, stopped their usual supply of foods and other daily necessities. The two town had a distance of thirty kilometre between, which was rife with monster beast habitats. Currently, that particular route was a path which everyone would avoid at all costs.

The city council members were besides themselves with worries. At this pace, the townsfolk would have to rely on meat to fill their belly in near future and considering how dangerous the monsters had become, it would be a death sentence for anyone who lacked hunting skill or didn't have someone to rely on. The old and the young denizens of Sand town were already aware of the situation. The atmosphere was stifling, as if at any moment, something may explode.

The past few days, Rowan hadn't dared to go out. The monsters always attacked unpredictably, as if watching out for the best opportunity all the time. Dozens of battle experts had died in the last three weeks. The town's morale was running low.

However, not everything was depressing for Rowan. He had finished consuming the monster flesh from the night-wolf and his stats had undergone a shocking change. In fact, he could feel it within himself. His body was much stronger than before, his heart seemed to beat with extraordinary force, his bones felt hard enough to punch through wooden walls. Of course, when he actually tried doing that, his hands swelled up like balloons.
However he wasn't discouraged. After absorbing all the meat, he had been convinced that given time, he could survive this eclipse.

He had kept his transformation a secret. He remembered the incident with the bunker and had no desire to tell anyone about this matter. However, the doctors looked at him suspiciously when he went to the hospital yesterday to get his bandages off. To their astonishment, Rowan's wounds had healed in half the time they had predicted. The current Rowan was fit as a horse and seemed even healthier than before to them. After giving a half-assed excuse, Rowan quickly convinced them not to look into  on the matter too deeply.

Rowan hadn't wasted the last month while staying inside his home. In his fight with the night-wolf, he had been able to use the strange sword style from the diary because of the temporary raise in his stats. Although, he could barely produce satisfying results, it had helped him immensely at that time.