POV: Gal Farion
"Stop."
With but a word, Gal Farion, this generation's Sword God, ceased the battle that he was spectating. The remaining combatant stood tall with their wooden blade lowered while their downed opponent remained on one knee as they were stopped in the midst of making a sloppy comeback. The philosophy of the Sword God style was for victory to be earned by landing the decisive blow first, and Gal wasn't going to stomach the pathetic sight of his own sister make a fool of herself again.
"The terms of the match were that the first to fall on their back would be deemed the loser. Thus, Ghislaine is the victor and Mila is the loser!" His words echoed through the main hall room of the dojo, the Space of the Present.
None dared to question his word, not after the countless fools who were sent either packing with their tails between their lacks or stuffed into a casket once he first acquired his title of Sword God. Now his word was law, and his disciples would follow it to the Tee, lest they have the actual strength to combat him on his decision.
"Now both combatants, meet in the middle and exchange the customary sign of reconciliation." Both his apprentice and sister crossed the hall's distance to meet each other in the middle.
"Well fought." Ghislaine grunted and bowed her head in respect while Mila simply looked away with a sneer.
"Tch!"
"Mila…" Gal's tone was low as his touki flickered out in warning.
"Y-Yes, br-I mean Master." The young woman righted herself and bowed her head at Ghislaine. "Congratulations and well fought."
Gal sighed and waved the two of them off. With the floor clear, he checked through the windows and verified the time of day. The sun was still fairly high, so it was barely past noon. "Alright then, guess we'll have time for one more match…" His eyes fell on each disciple that filled the sides of the dojo's halls. This year, they had a total of 53 prospective swordsmen and swordswomen attending with 8 in the Intermediate rank, 15 in the Advanced rank, 28 in the Saint rank, 1 in the King rank, and 1 in the Emperor rank.
Unless they were a swordsman who had caught his eye or they were a child to a student, Gal accepted no beginners from the outside. He already had enough to deal with by sorting out those worthy of his attention in his own dojo, he would not stomach to train any poor sod that just stumbles in without the necessary resolve to teach themselves.
His personal apprentice Ghislaine was the exception. That wild child that he stumbled upon while traversing through the wilds of the Great Forest was a fun little experiment that he did to stave his boredom once the stream of challengers wishing to defeat him and claim his title died down. That ferocious thing was far from the hardened and disciplined swordswoman that he's spent beating into top form today.
The Beast tribe was a secluded race what with all of the slavers literally hanging on the outskirts of their forest and grabbing up any man, woman, or child that they can get their hands on. It was such a waste that their kind produced such strong and agile warriors who weren't even trained in any of the sword styles. So, with that thought in his head, Gal allowed his desire to cut down the Dragon God to take secondary priority and basically kidnapped the feral and abandoned Ghislaine from the wild.
Then from there, he went through a tedious year and half teaching her the human tongue and how to hold a sword. It took literally starving her of food for 2 months to even get her to comply to any of his orders.
She wanted to eat? Well, then she had better learn to grip her sword correctly.
She wanted to take a piss? Well, she had better tell him that with her words than through body cues.
Gal did not allow the feral child to do anything until she submitted to his teaching, and once he had returned to the Sanctum after a year and a half, Ghislaine was now properly a decent Advanced rank swordsman at 11 years old. He didn't know whether to credit such a feat to her natural strength and instincts due to being apart of the Beast tribe or his phenomenal skills as a teacher, but he chose to believe more in the latter than the former.
News of his new apprentice spread through the dojo like wild fire and many were enraged to have lost out on the chance to learn under his tutelage thanks to some random beast tribe girl. Gal relished watching Ghislaine blow away her challengers to teach the uppity and arrogant disciples a humbling lesson AND to further subject Ghislaine to more arduous training. Though out of everyone in the dojo, Mila Farion, his younger sister was opposed to Ghislaine as his personal student.
Gal wasn't blind to it. Mila had gotten it into her head that she deserved the role as his apprentice in some deluded sense that he'd prepare her to become his successor as Sword God. Foolish. Her skills and dedication toward the blade were admirable as she placed more effort than a majority of the others in the dojo but she was naïve and conceited like the recently promoted Sword King Timothy Britts.
Dedicating you're all to the sword in only the bare minimum that any prospective swordsman should follow, not the end goal. Without the will of character or even a personal desire, a swordsman's blade will hold no "weight".
Gal would have hoped that Mila's subsequent losses to Ghislaine would curb her unearned arrogance, but it would seem that he'd need something more to get it through her thick head.
Hmm…
"Next match will be Timothy Britts against Ghislaine. Two of you get on up here now." Both disciples complied but Gal didn't miss the twitch on Timothy's brow. Heh, good. He was getting complacent lately and having to face a Sword Saint like Ghislaine who just went through three back-to-back matches seems like a slap in the face to him.
Luckily Ghislaine knew better than to throw a fit after he'd beaten all pretense of defiance out of her ages ago. With the pair getting in position on the main flooring of the hall, Gal would have called for the match to start until he felt the presence of something walking through the halls of his Sanctum.
"Now what's this?" He's never felt something with this much pressure before, not since his tussle with the Dragon God when he was just a fresh Sword Saint. If he wasn't informed of their arrival beforehand, then that would mean that those two Sword Saints that he left to guard the entrance either bit it or were soundly defeated. Not like it mattered, he would spare no sympathies for the weak and should they be alive, he'll punish them by sticking them into the Hall of Broken swords for a whole week.
"M-Master?" His disciples were frightened as their expressions conveyed the appropriate response to his sudden release of killing intent through his touki. While the weakest of them were struggling to remain upright in their seiza position, a few were just left sweating and able to withstand his little show of strength to the stranger that dared to enter his sanctum with such disrespect.
"Looks like we've got ourselves a visitor." His grin turned fierce as the light sounds of footsteps approached the hall and emerging through the sliding front doors was a black-haired man. Gal would even dare say that he was his age mate in his mid-twenties. Also, that tail of his meant that he was from the Beast tribe too.
Not that it mattered, he's dealt with many small fry his age that couldn't hold a candle to his own strength. Now he didn't sense any hostile intent from the man, but he still did barge into his domain, so Gal chose to deepen hostility within his touki just to catch his measure. Most would be out of breath and screaming at this point as their eyes would be dyed in fear and hopelessness.
But this man remained upright, no beads of sweat fell from his brow and his posture remained straight and confident. Gal's touki was like a wild snowstorm and yet the stranger stood amidst it, no worse off than his struggling disciples.
"Interesting…" Gal's grin grew. "Good day, stranger. What brings you here to my domain?"
"…" The man took a glance around the entire hall, his eyes trailing past the forms of every disciple struggling to withstand the killing intent that permeated the atmosphere. His eyes soon fell on Ghislaine for a split second before locking onto Gal's. Gal considered the stranger lucky for being the first bit of intrigue that stumbled across his dojo otherwise he would have cut him down for carelessly taking his eyes off of him.
"I'm here to learn the art of Sword God style and become a ranked Sword Emperor." Was that it?
"Haa…is that all?" Gal had expected more than that. Obviously, any no-name would at least be content with becoming a Sword Saint, but what he could glean from this bloke's measure so far had led him to believe that he was here for something more.
"Yep." The bastard had the gall to smirk at his exasperation. "After all, I'm not here for your head, Sword God. This is all to prepare myself for my true end goal, I intend to use you a stepping stone for that and that alone."
"Oho…" Gal huffed in a mixture of amusement and anger. He raised a hand to calm the few disciples who spat and chewed the stranger out for his disrespect. He was not so weak to even need their pointless support. "So I'm not even in your sights? Then enlighten me, pal. Just who do you have on your sights that would eclipse the Sword God himself."
"It should be obvious. You are the 6th strongest in the world, my sights are on the 2nd strongest in the world, Gal Farion." Gal's eyes momentarily widened. Hold on, was this bastard really aiming for-! "I intend to hone my skills and become a swordsman who is ranked as an Emperor in the schools of Sword God, North God, and Water God to surpass Orsted, the Dragon God."
…
…
…
…This guy was actually serious.
This wasn't the bravado of some rando who just wanted to talk big. His eyes belied no false intent to impress upon him and neither were his steadfast words used to convince himself that he could do such an impossible task.
It was a simple declaration and vow to accomplish what many would consider an irrational goal.
"…hehehe…pfft! Ahahahahahahahahaha!" It was absurd, he didn't think he'd find such a like-minded soul amongst the rabble who came to learn his art for such vain or boring reasons.
"M-Master, he's actually laughing?"
"No way…"
Slapping his lap, Gal tried to contain his giddy laughter but just couldn't. This was just so refreshing for him that he couldn't help but get it out of his system. "Gahahaha, I-I see! Of course you'd see someone like me as a stepping stone! It makes so much sense. Compared to that damned Dragon God, I'm nothing more than just small fry!"
However, he's seen fools who were so adamant about their dreams that they've died due to their own inefficient strength to back that mettle up. His touki intensified as he ceased his laughter just throw the full weight of his touki at the man. Now the likes of Ghislaine and Timothy, his few strongest disciples were on their knees struggling under his power's weight. "But its easy to talk big, ya know. You dogs or should I say monkeys…" His insult didn't bristle the man. Good, he's not a hothead like Ghislaine and Mila. "With bigger barks than bites are in no small number in the real world. So can you honestly say that you can accomplish such a lofty goal?"
The young man took a deep breath, clenched his fists, and exhaled…
FIGHT!RUN!FIGHT!RUN!FIGHT!RUN!FIGHT!RUN!FIGHT!RUN!FIGHT!RUN!FIGHT!RUN!FIGHT!RUN!FIGHT!RUN!FIGHT!RUN!FIGHT!RUN!FIGHT!RUN!FIGHT!RUN!FIGHT!RUN!FIGHT!RUN!FIGHT!RUN!FIGHT!RUN!FIGHT!RUN!FIGHT!RUN!FIGHT!RUN!FIGHT!RUN!FIGHT!RUN! FIGHT!RUN!FIGHT!RUN!FIGHT!RUN!FIGHT!RUN!
*THWACK!*
*THUD!*
Gal steeled himself before he drew Nodobue ("Windpipe"). He was reminded of that one time…fallen into a heap amidst the white snow with his blade broken and will completely shattered. The gold sanpaku eyes of a being whose strength and speed far dwarfed his own. A being who could execute a perfect Longsword of Light with just their bare fucking hands.
That being was the Dragon God and he was a complete monster.
And it just so happened that there was another monster in their midst with an aura more potent than his own. Yet once Gal collected himself to cautiously feel it out, a pit had begun to grow in his stomach: Just how much touki did this guy possess?
The urge to just face and cut down such a tantalizing foe overwhelmed him, but no. Not yet. If he were to do so, he may yet deprive himself of a worthy adversary. Worse of all, he'd be like that meathead apprentice of his who lost out to her primal urges and charge the stranger with a full powered Longsword of Light.
Which made the fact that the stranger intercepted her attack, stole her wooden sword and struck her at the back of her neck with outstanding speed.
"So that's what a Longsword of Light looks like." Gal scoffed at the nonchalance of the man, who tapped the wooden sword against his shoulder. He worriedly looked down at his apprentice then back to him. "So, uh…will she be fine?"
"Hah…" Gal groaned. "She'll be up in the morning. Believe me when I say that she's one of my more hardheaded students." He turned to smirk at the newcomer. "Let her stay there and reflect on her actions. It'll prove a good reminder about not falling to your baser instincts."
"Okay." The man shrugged. "So, where do we go from here? Do I need to further prove myself or was my display proof enough."
"Hm…" Gal restrained himself from downright challenging the man. He wanted to see just what he can do in an official match. "Already, I can deem you a Sword Saint." That earned the angered clamoring of his disciples in the hall.
"Nonsense!"
"This monkey gets to just become a Saint for showing up?"
"He's undisciplined and untrained!"
"Master, please reconsi-!"
"Quiet." Everyone in the room fell silent at Gal's command. "You lot have respectively earned your ranks, but don't be so blind to your own pride not to see it. This guy just defeated Ghislaine with one stroke after she struck first. Could the majority of you say that you could have done the same?"
Shame and frustration spread across the faces of his disciples like a wildfire but none more than the likes of Mila and Timothy. Timothy especially because his rank up to Sword King was because he faced the likes of Mila and won instead of Ghislaine, who was in the midst of Mating Season to participate. Neither Mila or Timothy had yet to defeat his beastkin disciple in single combat yet.
He sighed and shook his head. Eyes falling back onto the stranger, still looking down at his beastkin apprentice, Gal smirked as detected the very same interest that most of his male disciples held for their fellow female disciples. Desire. He wasn't so weak as to rely on tactics such as this to corral a new potential student but it was good to know for the future that Ghislaine's troubling Mating Season brawls would be under control with this guy around.
"Now can I have a name to a face so I may dub thee, ya intruding son of a bitch?" He gruffly laughed.
"Michael Abbot." Huh, a second name for a beastkin that wasn't from the Dedoldia or Adoldia? Weird but Gal wasn't going to question the already odd monkey beastkin lest he be here all day.
"Then stand tall and proud, Michael Abbot. On this day, you have rightfully earned the rank of Sword Saint. Besting that idiot apprentice of mine was proof enough." Gal lazily rested his chin against his fist. "However, I believe you said that you wouldn't be satisfied until you've earned the rank of Sword Emperor, is that right?"
"Yeah, but I'm not in any rush to earn it. I simply wish to learn more about the Sword God style. It's techniques, it's history, and philosophy." Huh, so he was one of those, eh?
"That's it? You'd be set if you just learn the technique, ya know…" Gal spoke, waiting to hear his answer.
"Please…" Michael rolled his eyes. "If doing the techniques was all it took, then anyone would be Sword God. No, I intend to learn more than the physical and fashion the Sword God style to a weapon that not even Orsted with his vast knowledge of the style could ever come close to comprehending."
Gal's grin widened. "Good answer." Gal's eyes fell to Timothy and Mila. "You hear that you two? That answer was a ten times more satisfying than your own during that promotion match. Hell, I'm even tempted to demote you Tim just from comparing your sad ass answer to his."
Honestly, Gal just wanted to promote someone to a Sword King that day, so he let Timothy's answer of "To put my all into my blade" pass. A swordsman was supposed to do more than learn the art for the sake of it.
"Tch!" Timothy gritted his teeth and glared at the man, who seemed unfazed by Gal's "cute" disciple's enmity.
"Fine, if you don't seek to rank up then lets move on to another trial. I will pit you against a few of my most skilled students and see just how capable you are." Gal snapped his fingers and pointed to the collapsed Ghislaine. One of his disciples dragged her out of the way and he dissuaded them from dragging her to her room just to teach her a lesson for not evaluating her opponents strength before pouncing them.
"Tim, you're up. Since Ghislaine is out of commission, Michael will be your opponent. Don't go easy on him, ya hear?" Gal said that last part while looking at Michael.
"Gladly, master." Timothy deeply bowed.
"I wasn't talking to you, kid."
"Grgh!" Gal's grin grew wicked as Timothy gritted his teeth.
The two men got in proper position in the middle of the hall, Gal questioned just what kind of shit that Michael was pulling. One second the outsider was unsure of "how" to even get into position but after watching Timothy's movements, he began to move with the practiced ease of a taught disciple. Just what kind of talent does this kid have?
"Are both combatants ready?" The Sword Saint in charge of refereeing the match exclaimed. Once the two battlers nodded, the sword saint waved down their arms. "Begin."
*THOOM!*
*WHAM!* *THWACK!*
*THUD!*
In a second, the match was decided. Timothy the first to strike with a Longsword of Light but his blow was predicted by his opponent, he swayed his body one side to evade before targeting Timothy's wrist and mercilessly striking the back of the brown-haired swordsman's nape.
'The Light Reversal technique? No, it couldn't be. That wasn't the stance at all. So, his physical speed and reaction time is that good?" To execute the Light Reversal, you'd need equal or more speed than your opponent along with the reaction time to predict the technique. This guy shouldn't even know it and yet he still intercepted a Longsword of Light. "That's some raw talent right there."
"Sword King Timothy Britts is unable to battle and thus the match goes to Sword Saint Michael Abbot." Gal called it. "Congratulations, Michael Abbot, you have proven yourself worthy to advance to the Sword King rank for besting your better in combat."
"Wha-? No, I did this because I thought that-!" Hah! So Gal could get a reaction out of the guy. At least he won't be a stick in the mud like the others.
"What? You said that you wanted to take your time to become a Sword Emperor, and that's fine. Yet you didn't say anything about NOT wanting to advance to Sword King early." Gal smirked while the monkey beastkin grimaced.
"That's…" The man groaned. "That's fair…"
"Good." Gal nodded and just could see his other disciples seethe in anger and jealousy of this newcomers fast climb up amongst their ranks. A fun idea came to Gal, one which will soothe tensions and train his newest student. "And with your new rank comes a new opportunity for the rest of this lot. With an official second Sword King, you all can impose a challenge on him. Any who can beat this big guy will have my word that they can advance to the rank of Sword King."
"Wa-Wait, hold on a minute…fucking what?" Michael gaped, taking notice of the hungered looks being sent his way by every student in the hall.
"For the duration of his stay, you can challenge him to your heart's content. That is whenever I don't take him aside to do some training of course." Gal stretched his arms and began to walk out the hall. "I'mma just go out for a little stroll, it'd be a waste spending this beautiful day inside. "You all have fun, and Mila!"
"Y-Yes, bro-I mean Master!"
"Show him to his room when you lot are done." Gal waved at her over his shoulder as walked past Michael and clapped his shoulder. "Thanks, pal. I've been looking for a proper motivator for these dull halfwits for ages. Show them a good time, okay?"
"Are you serious right now?" Michael deadpanned.
"Yup. Good luck and be back here tomorrow before sunrise, lest I have to drag you out of bed and have you run around the Sanctum in the nude until noon." Gal laughed and once he shut the doors to the hall behind him, all hell broke loose for his newest apprentice facing the collective might of the Sanctum at once. "Looks like these coming weeks won't be dull anytime soon."
Having a second beastkin disciple who actually showed more promise than Ghislaine was going to be a blast train especially since he actually shared the same dream as his. "Heh, Emperor in all styles of swordsmanship. Well, at least he's thought that far ahead…"
Gal decided to help out a kindred soul hoping to cut down Orsted on a whim by supporting this dream of his. "Tch, I hate having to ask for favors but…perhaps I could see about getting in contact with that frigid old hag in Asura. The hard part is finding an actual North God swordsman who isn't poorly ranked."
North God users were a dime a dozen as ANY adventurer that can hold a sword can become a practitioner of the style. It didn't help that the ranks were inconsistent as hell due to the style possessing no singular institution or dojo to teach it.
Kalman III fucked off somewhere in the world as some random adventurer and hasn't been seen since.
So that meant Gal would have to do his own research to find someone that can help.
But here he was getting ahead of himself when he should be enjoying his day off. "Perhaps I should clean my sword collection…ah, I'll have to give the kid one for reaching King rank don't I? ...Well, its not like he's in a rush to get one so I'll leave that for later. Now…let's start this walk…"
"CHILL! CHILL! ALL OF YOU COME AT ME ONE AT A TIME! H-HEY WHAT THE HELL!? WHY ARE SOME OF YOU USING ACTUAL SWORDS!? AT LEAST GIVE ME THE CHANCE TO PULL MY OWN OUT!"
Yeah, Gal could get used this type of energy in his dojo.
POV: Michael
"Here."
"Thanks…" I groaned as I tossed my shit to the floor of my assigned dorm and hopped into my new bed. Mentally exhausted with the clusterfuck that Gal Farion put me through.
"Breakfast is before sunrise and the male dorms are set to be separated from the females. The Sword God doesn't care if you guys wanna fuck the female disciples, but he expects you and your partners to be up twice as early in response for distracting yourselves. Got it?"
"Crystal…" I grunted.
"Hmph. Then rest, you…bastard." Mila Farion, Gal Farion's sister (so that's her name, canon doesn't really elaborate beyond that) and Sword Saint slammed my door shut. Like everyone who stepped up to face me, she was one of the few who kept getting up. Now she was sporting a large number of bruises that marred her beautiful face.
I offered to heal her with my "magic" (Ki), but she denied my "pity" in favor of completing her assigned task of leading me to my room.
It was clear that she was pissed with me, but I didn't fail to notice her interested glances being shot my way. So, the Zenryoku Zenkai lure was a smashing success and that meant that Ghislaine was hopefully under it's effects as well after she bull rushed me to release some of my hostility through my Ki and Dragon Aura.
Now that I'm a Sword King, I'm essentially so close to fulfilling a part of my goal. Gal was a dick for pulling what he did since with the whole Sanctum ganging up on me, I had to struggle to dampen my power to a level just low enough that I wouldn't accidentally kill the other students.
"Not that it freaking matters, it is practice." And what glorious practice it was just to battle and experience the varied styles of the Sword God technique with each different disciple. Along with acquiring Longsword of Light by just seeing Ghislaine and Timothy execute it against me, I can now essentially do the varied stances that each disciple in the sanctum is capable of executing.
"I'm such a cheat, but a cheat is necessary to make it ahead of the big players here…" I grunted and sat up. "I wonder how Irene will handle her stay at Ranoa's school…" She'll probably be famous over there by using her knowledge of Fairy Tail's vast array of magic tools to incorporate them into this world.
As for my clone who was starting an adventurer's party with Paul, well, I'll just check in once in a while.
For now though, I have some priorities to accomplish.
Learn Sword God style and hopefully the other styles. Proclaiming to surpass Orsted and meaning it was a way to get myself in Gal's good graces as he went above and beyond to help Eris become a Saint in the North God style and experience the Water God style just to face Orsted. So naturally, I don't have to go out and search for masters of the other styles myself.
A great success.
So with that out of the way, I'll get to indulge in a new hobby that popped to mind once I caught a glimpse of Gal's own sword from earlier once I released my killing intent.
"I wonder if there's a blacksmith around the Sanctum." Learning the trade of Smithing and crafting my own blade.