Second World

”Gramps, do you recognize the movement trick that Ironfist fellow use in this fight?” Jack was indicating the scene which at this time showed Ironfist evading his spells.

”Yes, that is One-foot Stride,” Domon answered. ”It is an extremely fast feint that makes you think he is at one place when he is actually one foot away.”

”Can you teach me that move?” Jack asked.

”Why do you want to learn that middling-level martial art?”

Mi-middling…?

”If you want to learn, I will teach you a proper one, the Eight Diagram Illusory Steps,” Domon said.

”Well… That indeed sounds much cooler,” Jack commented.

”Old man, why does the name sound a lot like that palm move you used on Red Death?” John asked.

”My name is Domon, not old man!” Domon chided. ”Their names are similar because the one who created these two martial arts was the same person.”

”Thatʼs not important. Gramps, teach me!” Jack exclaimed.

”You think itʼs easy? Well, I can show you the basics. How much you can learn, thatʼs up to you,” Domon said.

Domon walked to the center of the hall which had more space. Jack followed him. Jeanny and The Man followed as well, they are interested to learn too. Only Bowler and John who were not so keen on physical exercises stayed behind. The morning training from Domon was already hell to them.

”Hey, am I free to do whatever I want with this?” John called to Jack.

”Yeah, I gave it to you, didnʼt I? What do you plan with it?”

”Hehe, to humiliate the Corporate United, of course. Everyone will see how they and their champion got beaten.”

”Then this will be the second time you use the recording stone on them. They are going to truly hate you.”

”Nah, all they know is you are the one that recorded this. So they will be coming at you, not me.”

Jack just shrugged, he was pretty sure that guild would already be gunning at him after what he did to their Guild Headquarters.

Jack, Jeanny, and The Man stood near Domon who was currently assuming a pose. ”Watch carefully.”

The old man then stepped around in a very incoherent pattern. He even seemed like dancing. Jeanny and The Man made weird faces, only Jack continued watching with a serious expression. After Domon stopped, he stared at the three.

Jeanny and The Man turned to Jack who was still silent, as if contemplating. The Man said to him, ”As expected of Boss, it seemed that only you alone manage to grasp master Domonʼs profound demonstration just now.

Jack turned to him with a blank face, ”Not at all, I donʼt get a single thing.”

The Man struggled to keep himself standing straight.

Jack said to Domon, ”Gramps! What the hell was that just now? I only saw you dancing around.”

Domon sighed. He said, ”Take your swords out. Try to hit me.”

”Are you sure?” Jack asked.

”Have you forgotten how I still beat you last time when I was only level 19? Do you think now that I am faster I will have more difficulty?” Domon replied. He was at level 32 already after the end of the undead horde disaster. During these few days apart from training the core members in the morning, he also went out monster grinding together with The Manʼs crews. At the moment, he was level 33, higher than Jackʼs Blade Dancer level.

Hearing his grandfatherʼs confident tone, two swords materialized on both his hands. They were low-level uncommon swords, though. ”Be careful, I will be using the Formless Flowing Sword style,” Jack said.

”I wonʼt expect it any other way,” Domon said. The back of his palm faced Jack as he made a come-here sign.

With that affirmation, Jack sent a flurry of slashes using his sword art. Yet, his swords only sliced through Domonʼs after-image. Jack didnʼt expect to hit his grandfather so easily. Following the principle of his sword style, his slashes didnʼt stop, they utilized the force of their previous momentum to make new slashes, which Jack directed towards his grandfatherʼs new position.

However, these slashes still failed to hit Domon. Jack again re-directed and continued chasing after his grandfather. His slashes never stopped, they expertly danced around and slashed at Domonʼs new positions, but Domon continued to elude them. Frustrated, Jackʼs increased his speed to the maximum. Yet, all he could hit was his grandfatherʼs afterimage.

Jeanny and The Man were fascinated by what they were witnessing. Even John and Bowler had come over to watch. Jack and Domon were like two dancing partners, gracefully moving around in a weird dancing style. What fascinated them was the two never moved far away from their original clash point. In fact, they seemed to continuously move around in a small circle.

After a while, Jack finally stopped. After giving all his best, he was not stubborn enough to deny the result. He knew he wonʼt be able to touch Domon without using any skill or spell, but that would just be acknowledging that he could not hit Domon using normal means.

”Is that the eight… the eight…” Jack stammered mid-sentence.

”Eight Diagram Illusory Steps,” Jeanny reminded.

”Yeah, that!” Jack said.

”It is,” Domon replied.

”It looked completely different from the weird dance you did before!” Jack protested.

”Thatʼs because the first time, I slowed it down so you all can see,” Domon said, he then added, ”Anyone has a chalk?”

”Why would anyone have a chalk?” Jack said, but he heard someone say, ”here.” Jack turned and saw John. White chalk was in his hand which he gave to Domon.

”Where do you find that?” Jack asked.

”I brought it from the Tutorial Period,” John answered.

Remembering the binoculars from before, Jack asked, ”Exactly how many things did you bring over from the Tutorial Period?”

”Many,” John just shrugged.

Domon used the chalk to draw a large circle on the floor. He then drew eight smaller circles along the edge of the large circle. Inside the large circle, he added a few more small circles. After done drawing, he stored the chalk in his inventory. John was about to ask why he didnʼt give the chalk back but Domon had already started speaking.

”Now, watch me do it again in the slow version, watch my footings.”

He repeated the weird dance he had made the first time. Now that there was the drawing on the floor, everyone had a better reference point. It turned out that Domonʼs feet had always stepped on the small circles. He never went out of the circumference of the large circle.

While he was performing the move, Domon explained, ”there were eight base positions in this movement art. But each position had another eight variations depending on which side the opponentʼs attacks are coming from, resulting in sixty-four evasion possibilities. If you can master this art, even within this small area, you can evade all kinds of attacks sent your way.”

”Except for an AOE attack,” John countered.

Everyone ignored him.

Domon stopped. He moved away from the circle and said to Jack, ”Give it a try.”

Jack nodded and came to the circle. He placed his two feet on two of the smaller circles. Trying to remember his grandfatherʼs move, he started to try to imitate.

After a while, Bowler commented, ”I have to say, the first time I watch masterʼs Domon using the move. It looked like a weird dance, but at least it was graceful. Jackʼs one now looks just awkward.”

”You wonʼt find me saying this often, but I agree with you,” John said to Bowler.

”It is indeed embarrassing to watch,” The Man added.

Jack stopped, took out his magic staff. A rune formed rapidly and a ring of ice exploded out. Everyone hastily moved away.

”The hell…!” John shouted.

”If you people still give more bullshits, Iʼll target the one speaking personally!” Jack threatened.

Jack then resumed trying to perform the movements on the circle drawing. No one made a comment anymore.

As Jack continued to practice, Domon drew more drawings at different places, allowing Jeanny and the others to give it a try as well. John tried once, but after realizing how awful he looked, he quit.

Other core members who could enter the Guild Hall found these leaders doing weird dancings when they entered. After receiving an explanation from Bowler, they expressed interest to learn. So Domon gave them a demonstration and drew additional circles. Soon the Guild Hall turned into a dance floor where lots of people were dancing over the circle drawings.

John found it difficult to stay there seeing so much of the awkward dancing so he left.

Jack and the others spent the entire day practicing the move. Jack and Jeanny lasted the longest. They continued practicing until late at night, without a rest. Jeanny finally called it quit and said to Jack, ”you are nuts, I canʼt keep up with you. I will call it a day first.” Apparently, she only lasted this long because she didnʼt want to lose to Jack, but she had reached her limit.

Jack continued for another two hours before he finally stopped. Only Domon was left in the hall with him.

Domon gave Jack his opinion, ”You still canʼt use it in a fight, but your improvement is incredible. As long as you continued to practice, you will be able to.”

Jack replied, ”I will, but during my spare time. I canʼt just spend the day simply practicing. I still have other things to do.”

Domon nodded. He knew of his grandsonʼs talent and character.. If Jack truly put his heart into it, he would be able to learn this move in a short time.

😉