Chapter 6-163 - Hotfoot and Wings (2/2)

Her green eyes bored into his own. “Come at me, Master Edward, with everything you have. Don’t worry, you won’t be able to hurt me.”

He was the Powered person, but he was the one swallowing as he pulled out his new Blades against their maker, and knew he wasn’t going to be winning anything today...

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Edward let out a long, low breath as the last of the kids filed out of the gym. Thankfully, their silence didn’t end until they were out of the room and the soft ringing of the Sword in her hand was inaudible, at which time she sheathed it behind herself.

“You put on a very good show,” she smiled at him, and he could only shake his head.

As she had said, he hadn’t been able to touch her. Every move and trick he could think of, and some he even tried for the first time in some desperation, just failed. In footwork, awareness, positioning, anticipation, threat of retaliation, ability to redirect and parry, and just plain see through everything he was doing, she was leagues above him, and he was fairly certain even Master Blaze wouldn’t be a challenge for her.

Of course, she had beaten Firehair Shvaughn, the fire-wielding Warlock swordswoman of Chicago, widely considered one of the most fearsome fencers in the world. He definitely wasn’t even close to a match with her Sword in her hand.

He was definitely going to have to watch some of her matches in Green Bay after this. Well, he’d have to see what she was performing under there, as there was tons of interest in the Golden Hag, but she wasn’t known to fight in any arena repeatedly. Probably using a different name there, and maybe not even using a Sword...

“Your fundamentals are indeed leagues above me, and if you could take Shvaughn, you aren’t worried about fire at all,” he admitted, sighing and shaking his head. “That was a good lesson. You are incredible with a Sword.”

“I’m gifted, smart, and Talented with one,” she admitted with a straight face. “Being a Swordswoman is literally what I am meant to be. Perhaps, in a world of guns, that is not so lucky, eh?”

He had to laugh in agreement at that, walking over to get his jacket and cover up his ripped shirt. It was a small price for an incredible lesson in Profound Swordplay. He had been dominated entirely, while not humiliated in doing so. If the kids couldn’t tell that his life had been in her hands at every moment, he certainly was able to!

“Come, take a walk with me, Master Edward,” Sama said, heading for the door out, and he hurried after her. Getting a chance to talk with someone this skilled was an opportunity you didn’t let pass!

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“Forty, huh...” Edward stared off into the distance, hollow-eyed, as he considered his fate.

He would still be a young man by Powered standards, but he wouldn’t be young, and his best years, his drive, would be behind him. He would have lost his flash and exuberance, and he could see what not being able to progress did to other Powered, beating them down with the weight of their own inability to improve.

He didn’t want to be one of them. He... didn’t want to disappoint his dad that much.

“Progress in the Fire Dragon is very dependent on your chi. If you haven’t got the Stats to wield your Chi effectively, you aren’t going anywhere.

“Your Road to Seven or Eight is not the Fire Dragon.”

“Seven? Eight?!” He snapped his head around to look at her.

She nodded at him. “But it will take a different road than the one you are working on.”

“You’re going to have to walk away from the Fire Dragon, maybe for years. You’re Powered... you aren’t bound to what you are naturally best at. You can make yourself ‘naturally best’ at something else.”

He clenched his fist, feeling as if his entire life had been a waste, pursuing a dream that had just run into a brick wall. He suddenly knew how Master Fillmore and Senior White felt, up there calling out forms, correcting postures, watching these students who might be able to grow further than they had... and the others who wouldn’t get any further.

He was one of those students, and he had to find a way around it. He didn’t want to be one of those untalented, unlucky souls who just couldn’t go anywhere...

“The Fire Dragon is the only style that operates off Charisma. You have the cheerful free spirit of one, but you don’t burn.” At that moment, he finally realized the difference between himself and the really gifted students. It wasn’t that they were smarter than him, or harder-working.

She was right, they burned in a way that he didn’t. He just didn’t have the ego, that drive, that arrogance and pride, all emblematic of the Fire Dragon. He thought he had his own style and way... but that had been wishful thinking.

To master the Fire Dragon, you needed to burn, not to play with it...

“What style do you use?” he had to ask. “I mean, I know you’re not Powered, but you’re using the water-style lightfoot...”

“I’m a Wolverine. I use them all.” That terrifying, battle-hungry smile lit up on her face again, and he almost flinched to see it.

That wasn’t a burning smile, it fairly glowed with heat! She had it behind calm serenity and eyes like iron, but this woman was like a furnace, just waiting to erupt!

If she was Powered, he didn’t want to think how dangerous she’d be...

“There’s a Wolverine style?” he had to ask, thinking about that. Naturally he’d heard of tons of styles, but that was a new one...