That terrible meeting went exactly as I expected it to, painful and dreadfully boring. The lords really aren’t respectful of the people that actually gave their lives to protect the empire. Quincy had this furious look on his face as he sulked back to his room, probably going to go read the anger off I guess.

With nothing better to do I end up walking the streets of Colonus rather than going back to my room. Lilith would probably find me there and drag me out to do training, so mindless wandering will help pass the time.

As I walk through the streets of Colonus I notice that it begins to rain, but I don’t mind as I put my armor on to avoid getting completely soaked. There’s several slash marks and bullet holes from my most recent battles. I really need to get this thing fixed soon, but I still don’t want to go see Vasavir in order to do it. Add that to the things I want to end up avoiding. It’s beginning to be quite a long list now.

“Heh, did I learn nothing from Azura,” I say to no one in particular as all I can hear is the sound of raindrops hitting my helmet.

The one thing that is a priority on my list would be getting back home, but I still haven’t made any progress on that front. The next time a dungeon pops up around here I better get on that quick.

A man wearing a thick raincoat appears before me as I mindlessly wander the streets of Colonus. He’s wearing a dark gray rain hat that makes it so I can’t see his face. The weird thing is that he’s walking around barefoot despite all this rain. If you're gonna wear something to protect you from the rain then you might as well go all the way. Just ignore it Will, you’ve met weirdos who wear pants on their head. Yet I can’t help but sense the powerful aura being emitted from his sheer presence. I feel like an electric spark went off in my head, indicating my instinct ability just went off, but I’m not being attacked. Usually at this point I’d expect someone to shoot a fireball at me or since I’m in Colonus, pester me to buy something. It’s quite the handy ability to know when someone’s trying to rip me off when buying something, but that’s irrelevant right now. I walk past the man in the raincoat with my left hand reaching into my pocket dimension to grab my parrying dagger.

“I can’t believe you’re still alive,” the man says to me as I pass.

Immediately I pull out my dagger and manage to block an incoming kick with the flat part of my blade. I retaliated by using my right hand to shoot a wind bullet at the man's face, knocking off his gray hat. He has dark blue hair with bright sapphire eyes, his round face contrasting his harsh complexion.

“I don’t really appreciate being attacked out of nowhere buddy, wait you’re-”

I recognize the man’s face, and now with that kick and his aura.

A member of the five reapers or should I say former reaper stands before me.

The master of Taekwondo: Sirius. (AKA SNICKERDOODLE)

“If you couldn’t block a simple kick like that then you wouldn’t be the man who defeated me in combat, besides in the guild I’m from that’s how we greet other members,” Sirius says.

“What would a former reaper be doing in Colonus, and did you just say guild?” I squawked.

“Come let's not talk in the rain, there’s a nearby restaurant here where I’ll answer all your questions,” he says.

I follow the man to a nearby restaurant called Wrangler’s, eventually sitting down at a booth in the corner of the restaurant. He orders a glass of Spiced Oclana Brandy, while I order a rootbeer float and a large pizza.

“So I’m guessing you aren’t here to kill me, so what do you want and why are you in Colonus?”

“I’ve heard reports claiming that Archer was dead and I wanted to confirm that for myself,” Sirius tells me.

“Yup, Akane had his dead body burned and then sliced into tiny pieces. There’s no way he’s coming back unless some necromancer finds him, then again I doubt you can bring back ashes,” I joked.

“Ah so I’m guessing she was the one who managed to kill him in the end. Good for her,” he cheers.

“Well no it was Quincy or the second hero who managed to finish him off. Even though Akane was the one who did a lot of the work. We also threw an army at him like you suggested, but he slaughtered most of them,” I informed.

“Looking back on it now, I regret not being able to assist you in that fight, but I was almost sure you would all die. What of the Man of Stone? Even if you were able to miraculously defeat Archer then there’s no way you could have beaten the man of stone. I haven’t heard a thing about him from the reports.”

“Never even saw him, by the time I got to their underground base it was abandoned. The knights did say that his plot failed in the end thanks to a respectable group of adventurers who lost their lives in the process.”

The lords did say not to talk about this to anyone, buuuuuut fuck them. Besides if anyone deserves to know the whole truth it would be Sirius.

“I see, that’s a shame that they died, but their sacrifice did stave off the end of the world for even a little while longer,” Sirius claims solemnly.

When my pizza finally arrives I notice that the pan itself is pant shaped so I have absolutely no idea how to eat this thing.

“So what did you decide to do after our match in Artry?” I asked while figuring out how to eat this pizza.

“Perhaps you can slice it down the center and eat each pant leg individually. Oh and after our match I wandered throughout Ayana for a while searching for a new purpose. Eventually while I was fishing on the coast of Ayana, I met the guild leader of the Kraken guild. She is probably the strongest woman I have ever met,” he informs.

“And I’m guessing you fought her, didn’t you?”

“Not immediately, nor did I challenge her to a fight, but things got out of hand while fishing. We managed to disturb a kraken while fishing and together we fought it off.”

“How does that even happen?” I said intriguingly.

“When you use sharks as bait it tends to attract larger prey. After seeing my strength in fighting off a kraken, she challenged me to a fight. One in which I did not win, perhaps she was even stronger than the man of stone. After that I accepted her invitation to join the guild,” Sirius updates.

“Ah I think I now know why you might be in Colonus for. Are you here to fight in the Skirmish as well?” I questioned.

“Indeed, after demonstrating my strength to the other members they promoted me to champion not long after joining. Perhaps we may fight again in the tournament,” he claims.

Gah, if my opponents are all at least as strong as Siruis then I might actually be screwed. I mean I have gotten stronger, but not to the point where I can fight reapers on my own. At bare minimum I need Nazuko to serve as a body shield.

“You know the tournament is still a month away, you didn’t need to come here this early,” I told him.

“I’ve heard some guilds are coming to Colonus early to do a bit of scouting before the tournament, but I have no need for petty methods like that. My primary reason for coming to Colonus was in order to repay my debt to you. For defeating Archer and for sparing my life during our battle.”

“No, no you don’t have to. I was kind of forced to fight Archer and I didn’t even kill him. If you want to thank someone, thank Quincy though he doesn’t even know you. Actually I’ll take some credit for Archer’s death, I mean I did slash him at the cost of breaking my arms.”

“If you would oblige me, I can repay my debt the only way I know how. I would like to teach you a few martial arts techniques, it may prove useful in the upcoming tournament,” Sirius notifies.

So more training huh, well why not. I have to stop avoiding my responsibilities eventually. I wonder if choosing to train with Sirius instead of Lilith is going to make her mad at me, she’ll probably come down even harder on me when it's her turn. Especially considering the fact that I’ve been avoiding her all day.

“I am mostly a swordsman though, can what you teach me be applied to my fighting style?” I questioned.

“I can teach you several movement techniques that easily can be applied to swordsmanship, as well as several ways to use aura.”

“Ok sure I guess,” I say, agreeing to let him train me.

We exit the cafe, coming to train in the nearby forest outside of Colonus.

All the rain has made the ground a little muddy so moving around has become quite the slog.

“There’s one aura technique I believe will assist you. It is extremely effective in dealing piercing damage against strong defensive foes. You can eventually use it with a sword but for now we’ll use our hands to perform the technique. You must use aura to create a ripple of energy inside of your body. Once in contact with your target, accelerate the flow of aura in your body to the exact point where you touch the target.”

Sirius places his hand on a nearby tree and I see the aura in his hand for a split second before the tree explodes due to a powerful shockwave.

“Whoa, aura can do that!” I say, astounded by the display of power I just witnessed.

“That technique is called an Aura Wave Explosion. If used properly it can do a tremendous amount of shock damage to a target and even temporarily disrupt one’s aura. I would like you to try to replicate that technique so I can see what we’re working with.”

I place my hand on the tree near me and activate my aura. The tree is at least a dozen feet wide so it’ll take quite a powerful explosion to knock it down.

Right now it feels like a fire that emanates from my core, what does he mean by creating a ripple? I attempt to circulate my aura throughout my body, but I can’t say it feels calm like a ripple, it's more like an unstable channel where my aura spills out to the sides. I send everything to one point into my left hand and unleash the aura. The resulting shock from the explosion leaves something to be desired. There’s a small circular hole that goes about 6 inches inside the tree.

“Huh I see, it seems you're lacking the most in terms of control, once you improve that, the power you unleash from the Wave Explosion will be much greater. First focus on containing all the aura within your own body. I didn’t tell you this before but using this technique is dangerous as you're using your aura to attack instead of protecting the body from damage.”

I spend the next half hour attempting the technique over and over again to various degrees of success. I feel like if I tried chopping down the tree with an axe I would make more progress than this.

“Ugh, I just can’t seem to get a hold of this technique. Trying to forcefully contain all of my aura inside my own body is tough. If I were a monk I bet I would have a much easier time doing this,” I complained.

“You can’t learn a technique like that in one day, if you could you’d have to have some kind of monstrous talent,” Sirius comments.

Why am I having such a hard time learning this technique, I swear I learn faster in actual combat scenarios. Lilith always said how fast I improved during a day of mock battles. That gives me a really stupid idea, but maybe it might just work.

“Hey Sirius could you possibly hit me with that technique, but do it with a much weaker version please? I just got out of the hospital and while I don’t really mind staying there again, I don’t want to actually get hurt,” I pleaded as I told him my idea.

“Are you serious? Perhaps this is a symptom of aura exhaustion,” Sirius wonders.

“No I’m dead serious, I’m not sure why but I understand an opponent and their techniques more clearly in battle,” I tell him.

“Hmm, fine I suppose I can try it, but remember after I hit you with this technique you won’t be able to use aura for maybe a minute or two,” Sirius says as he gets into his stance.

He rushes up to me, places a hand near my stomach and I brace myself for the attack. Before the attack happens I enter a hyper focused state where I can even observe the falling of raindrops. In that split second before the explosion I can feel his aura, it’s like a calm, but coursing river that then turns into a tsunami. He unleashes the wave explosion, albeit a much weaker one than he showed before.

The force of his attack is still powerful enough to knock me back a dozen feet, and I feel like I was just hit by Armstrong. I end up crashing against a tree with the impact causing all its leaves to fall to the floor. Ugh the flow of aura inside me, it feels like it's all messed up and I can’t control it at all. Damn if that was used in a real fight, just imagine how devastating that would be. I felt like I really caught a glimpse of how to perform that technique.

“I-I think I’m just going to lie here for a bit.”

I lie on the ground beside the tree I’ve been attempting to hack down for the past half hour as the rain continues pouring down.

“Hey why didn’t you use this technique against me when we first fought, totally would have screwed me over if I got hit by it?” I asked.

“Didn’t know it at the time, I only learned how to do it after training with the guild leader,” Sirius notifies.

“Oh and what’s she like, the Basilisk guild leader I met the other day doesn’t appear threatening but I’m sure he could break my neck in an instant.”

“She’s... How do I put it, terrifying yet inspirational at the same time. You’ll see in a few weeks when the tournament starts. I don’t have any other words to describe her.”

2 minutes pass until the disrupted feeling with my aura goes away.

“Alright I guess it's time to try this Wave thingy one last time and I’ll call it quits for the day. There’s this girl who I’m expecting will hit me with a wooden stick later and I can’t keep her waiting.”

I face the tree and attempt to recall the feeling I observed right before Sirius hit me with his Wave Explosion. I can feel my aura flowing, it's no longer a flooding channel but rather like a rapid river. I close my eyes to concentrate on control, circulate the aura throughout my body and prepare to unleash it. As I place my hand onto the tree trunk, I direct all the flowing aura directly to the center of my palm. All the aura rushes to the center point and is unleashed with fury comparable to Ryder’s explosions.

I open my eyes expecting to see another 6 inch hole in the tree to find a large 5 foot wide hole going through the base of the entire tree.

“D-Did I do that or are you pranking me Sirius?” I say not believing what just happened.

“Heh, he really is a monster,” he says silently.

“That’s not bad at all, you just need to increase the power a bit and you have yourself quite the deadly attack. Just remember the downsides as your aura won’t protect you when you perform the technique. Also the fact that an opponent won’t just let you touch them mid battle so you’ll have to increase the speed it takes you to do it,” Sirius instructs.

“Got it, heh heh heh, maybe I have an attack that’ll finally work on Armstrong if I pull it off. I can’t wait to test it out,” I smirked.

I say goodbye to Sirius for the day and make my way towards North Point for the daily sword training. It’s weird I don’t know why I picked up on that technique after he hit me with it.

That’s due to one of your specialization abilities, actually you’ve been using all this time without knowing. The Book of Wind allows you to understand and incorporate an opponent's tactics into your own. The moment you decided to allow yourself to be attacked you subconsciously recognized him as an opponent.

“That makes sense, I didn’t realize I’ve been doing that subconsciously. Heh, maybe I’ll go around asking people to hit me with their strongest techniques, actually I’m being stupid aren’t I Mytrhil? I don’t need to be hit with something to observe someone’s technique.``

By all means if you want to go around doing that, be my guest. It's quite entertaining to see you get flung about so often. Perhaps you’ll acquire a skill that allows you to hit idiots.

“Hey! No need for sarcasm, that’s my thing.”

You simply need to fight a large array of opponents if you wish to gain power quickly. Even losses can be highly beneficial to you if you survive.

“If I survive huh, with all the guilds that are arriving in Colonus early, it seems like a good opportunity to gain some experience before the tournament starts. I wonder how many people would agree to a spar, then again people aren’t going to use their trump cards before the tournament.”

The rest of the day is rather uneventful, just doing basic sword training with Lilith. Unfortunately tomorrow I have magic training with you know who, all I know is it won’t be the best experience. In the meantime I wonder what Nazuko and the others are up to right now. They left about a week ago and I haven’t seen them since. Nazuko said something about a herb and that I would swoon the next time I see her. She took Nerva and Ryder with her as well as abducting Remi against her will. I’m sure they’re having a blast right now.