Lyren tried to recall the exact word he had seen but it was like it had hidden itself. That was strange because he sure had seen it. When he thought about the word, he could feel the chill. Maybe it was fear after being struck or maybe there was something different.
That was going to wait though because if there was something he could recall, it was the sword movements. He did not have to go back and have the person slice the sword at him again and attack him with the word.
There were several things that had caught his eyes and it was about how sharp the slashes of the sword were and also clean. It was like he had actually been cutting the air instead and not through the air. As things stood, even if he tried, he could only lag through the air.
This meant that he had to swing the sword hard enough to increase his precision with the sword. He was to go ahead with the regime he had come up with of doing the downward, upwards and sideways slices with the sword.
If he could perfect the movement and have his muscles get used to this, it was going to be the perfect time to start practicing the technique he had seen. Since he could not recall the word as though it had vanished in his mind, then he was going to recreate it on his own but first, he decided to try the movements as he had seen them.
At first, he had seen two sices but now, there was a total of seven sword slices the person had done. And they had been done by using only one hand. That was understandable though. They had their bodies maxed out and it was his turn to start maxing out his.
He copied the seven sword strikes but his sword deviated so much from how he recalled them. His were slower by an even greater degree and by the last slice, his wrist hurt. This made him even more wary of the technique.
This was just a vague imitation but it had caused his wrist pain. What if he tried to perform the actual sword technique? Wouldn't he end up destroying his hands? He pushed the thoughts aside as he started doing the swings. He wanted to reduce their number so that he could do each set but he decided against it.
He also promised to take rest in between lessons.
***
Lyren had just finished doing the left side swings and his hands hurt. He could only complete two sets per day and he would move on to the next the following. During the time between the two sets, he would go to the arrays and try to study them.
And it was just like the guardian had told him. It did not take him long to actually master the patterns of the other faces. They followed the same laws as those he had been studying. With his mind's eye, all it took was a glance with it and the first and second row patterns would be imprinted in his mind.
The third and fourth row actually took some time but that did not bother him much because he was sure he could actually light them up without memorizing them by using is mind's eye. The pattern in his palm had evolved further and it had increased the number of parts he had.
Lyren had thought that with time, he would be able to pry into its mysteries but it was not going to be possible if it evolved with every pattern he learned. After working on the second face, he went back to practice his swings until he hit the targeted numbers.
***
Time passed and Lyren finally felt it was safe to continue cultivating. He skipped practice during this time and climbed the stairs to the 20th step where he spent his time cultivating. Increasing his Elyria and also increasing his control over his core.
He could feel he was going to enter the next stage soon but the fact it took him this long to finally feel the progress in his cultivation meant that the peak dam was getting wider and he would spend more time filling the dam with tap water.
He left the stairs after a while and went back to the ground and continued cultivating at a faster rate but it was still not enough. He wished the guardian would tell him a secret on how to increase the Elyria in his surrounding but as though the guardian was always listening to his thoughts, a voice drifted to his ears and this filled him hope as his eyes flashed with a white light. Determination washing over them.
"If you want the answer, then you have to light up the whole array."
This should have made him despair but he felt more compelled to work even harder. He stopped cultivating and took a walk around and started looking at the statues around. He recalled the heads he had hit and a "Tsk." Came to his mind from the guardian.
Lyren realized just how much this guardian hated to lose. That one loss was actually the sweetest victory Lyren had felt. Hearing the guardian react made him chuckle as a smile washed over his serious face.
The wound on his forehead was healing but there was definitely going to be a scar. He could not see it but who knew their body better that the self? He could even use his Mind's Eye to look at the wound as it was still part of his body.
He had done this walk several times and of late, he had been looking for the statue heads he had hit and bringing them back. He was only left with one headless statue. This one, he had hit it with so much ferocity that when he found it, it was broken into two pieces.
He wore a sheepish smile as he felt the guardian's glare on him. He picked the two halves together and took them back. Also, he had been studying the brokens statues and he had been taking a head to where it was supposed to be and placing it on them.
As for the fallen statues, he had put them back on their feet and they were all lined up for a long distance in two rows. They faced each other and each row was five meters away. Statues on the same row were a meter away from each other. He had counted over one hundred statues on each row.
There was only one statue left without a head and it was the one he was carrying, having been split into two. He placed them on the statue so that they were slightly slanting and leaning on each other for stability. He wiped a fake sweat from his forehead after his 'hard work' taunting the guardian.
He was sure the guardian wanted to harrumph but they did not want to flatter him but as though reading his thoughts, a harrumph echoed and Lyren could not help but release a chuckle. The voice had definitely fallen for his taunting.
The silence was a clear admission of defeat but so as to save the little face they had left, they just ignored him but that was also playing in his palm. Lyren now laughed and went back to swinging his sword. A sweet taste of victory swelling on his chest.
He was now doing upward sideway swings and they were harder than the downward swings for obvious reasons. He could feel the burden in his muscles reducing and his wrists no longer hurt as much when he tried to copy the slices from the technique.
Still, his swings were slow and sloppy. They were a disgrace to the original moves recorded in his mind. Still, slow progress is progress.