Chapter 55: The Five Attacks! (1/2)

The wind whistled providing the only noise in a certain courtyard.

Jake readied himself as he looked straight at his target, a metal dummy, 50 feet away from him.

”Whew!” he took a subtle breath and relaxed his muscles, feeling the wind on his skin.

The moment the wind settled down, Jake bolted at the dummy.

Like a predator, he sprinted, his legs making no unnecessary footsteps as he zoomed past his surrounding.

His legs were the cushion, his hands were the gliders, and they did well to increase his speed.

They glowed with blue lights as Jake strengthened his physical attributes with [Spirit Essence].

Jake moved so fast that if one were in the courtyard, one would only see a rapid blue blur due to the [Spirit Essence].

Five feet away from the dummy, Jake optimized his speed, his right hand reaching for his sword, trying to grab it while in motion!

Four feet away, his hands missed the pommel of his sword.

Three feet away, he reattempted and succeeded at firmly grabbing the pommel of the sword.

Two feet away, he infused [Spirit Essence] into his hands. Using the sheath as a guide, he drew out his sword. In a blistering motion, he swiped his sword at the dummy.

One foot away, the attack embedded itself into the dummy as Jake's sword returned to its sheath.

After the attack, Jake fell on his knees, gasping for breath, as he tried to recollect his composure.

”Wrong. This is all wrong! The timing was way off. My control of [Spirit Essence] was shaky. The swiftness was inadequate. My speed was too slow. Also, my hand-to-hand coordination was subpar,” Jake criticized himself.

He stood up to check the result of his slash.

When he was dashing at the dummy, he struggled to decide on what basic sword attack he should use.

Ultimately, he chose the upward cut, aiming at the right shoulder, as that was the only one he felt comfortable using.

Don't get him wrong, Jake, despite not using any weapon in his past life, had mastered the basic moves of most weapons, including the Sword.

The problem here was the movement one second before the attack.

For the upward cut, all he needed was to drag his sword out and swipe at the right shoulder, attempting to cut off his target's right arm.

Meanwhile, for a different move like the abdomen cut or the wrist cut, Jake would need to deftly and delicately lift his sword with his fingers, and adjust his position before gaining back control of his sword.

It was like playing piano blind; it required a high degree of practice, and this was just Jake's first attempt at practicing.

Looking at the cut on the dummy's right shoulder, Jake commented, ”I thought as much. It wasn't that successful.”

The cut was a curvy arc on the shoulder, which was also quite faint, indicating the weak strength behind it.

Jake lamented on his poor first try as almost everything with the cut was wrong.

It wasn't straight and smooth as it should be. It didn't go deeper, indicating that it wasn't fatal.

Also, Jake only managed to make one cut in the span of one breath, which was quite poor.

One should know that to achieve an elementary progress stage in the technique, the user would have a total of ten slashes in one breath. Yet, Jake could only draw one!

Even at that, the slash wasn't streamlined. The purpose of a streamlined slash is to measure the speed.

A person or object could only move at its fastest speed when in a straight path!

Realizing his mistakes, Jake went back 50 feet away from the dummy. This time he was going to nail it!

After preparing himself, he dashed towards the dummy!

Once he got into an intimate gap between himself and the dummy, he lightly threw up his sword.

He spun 360 degreesOf courseght back his sword in time to slash an abdomen cut.

*Clink!*

The moment he made the attack, he made an upward cut at the left arm.

*Whoosh!*

Still, under the adrenaline rush, he conveniently made a slanted slash at the neck of the dummy.

Due to his reduced speed, he knew that was his limit and he stopped.

”Huff--Huff--- That was burning!” Jake breathed heavily.

He had thoroughly depleted his [Spirit Essence] at the last attack.

As he was still in [Realm 1], Jake couldn't permanently store his [Spirit Essence]. They would leak away after some time.

So, Jake had to be precise in his energy consumption. He had to make sure he possessed the required amount of [Spirit Essence] before an attack, or else he would injure himself.

The purpose of this was because the [Sword Drawing Technique]'s ultimate purpose is to harness a speed far beyond the reach of the human body, and even the body of cultivators!