Chapter 85: TALENT
Beads of sweat had begun to drop from Azrael’s head.
Even though he had increased stamina thanks to his new skill, he still couldn’t bear the consumption of swinging over five hundred times every minute.
"That’s two thousand," Azrael said through a muffled voice.
His chest rose and fell at an insane pace as he tried to balance himself.
He thrust the sword into the earth beneath him, letting it anchor his stance so he wouldn’t fall.
"Come on, don’t be lazy," Raksha said with a smile.
Unlike Jasmine, Raksha was much more lenient.
He even encouraged Azrael from time to time.
Azrael looked into Raksha’s eyes.
Raksha was currently floating above his sword.
Gravity seemed to ignore him completely, letting him do whatever he wanted with the surrounding space.
Azrael nodded at Raksha’s words, then pulled his sword out of the earth.
He continued his swings.
A hundred. Two hundred.
The numbers had begun to blur in Azrael’s mind.
But he continued to swing like a mindless zombie whose only command was to swing a sword.
Raksha smiled as he saw this.
Looking at Azrael’s frail and weak body.
’Soon,’ he mused.
Azrael kept swinging. At this point, his arm had already gotten numb to the feeling, moving by itself.
Every swing was completed without a dent in his form.
It was at this point that Azrael furrowed his brows.
Why was his arm moving by itself? And every swing was done perfectly, at the most optimal angle he could ever swing at.
Even though he did not stop, he looked at the sword, then his arm.
It was following his instructions rather than his own movements.
Although he still bore every pain and sprain that came with it, his job had become much easier now.
"Is this auto-pilot?" he wondered aloud.
But he did not think it was that one.
After all, auto-pilot only worked to protect him, not help him with training.
Raksha’s words interrupted his thoughts.
"Stop, your body has mastered the sword already," Raksha suddenly said, halting Azrael with a wave of his palm.
But Azrael did not stop.
It was not him. He just couldn’t stop.
The arm itself kept moving as if that was the only thing it had been created to do.
"Next lesson is learning to control your arm."
He looked at Azrael’s arm gently as if he had expected the result.
"This is much more difficult since your body has already gotten used to that pattern. Now you have to make it recognize when to follow the pattern."
Azrael squinted his eyes, his brows twitching at the words.
Although it sounded easy, it was anything but easy.
But Azrael tried anyway.
He tried to communicate with the arm.
At first, there was no change.
But it did not remain that way for long.
A little over a minute passed before improvements began to show.
First was the way the sword slowed dramatically. Then the breaking sword angles that did not connect with the previous ones at all.
’Such talent,’ Raksha thought as he stared at Azrael.
He did not show anything outward.
After all, he was a Primordial who had witnessed the golden era of the universe.
He had seen creatures far more outrageous. Such talent, in the golden era, could at most be considered one in every billion.
If the scale of a universe was accounted for, there should be at least a million of such talents spread around the universe.
But it was talent anyway.
’He still can’t compete with the Demon God yet,’ Raksha mused. ’The Demon God was capable of killing Tier 8 beings at Tier 3.’
Roughly a minute later, Azrael had finally calmed his arm.
Looking at the sword that followed his every thought, Azrael could not help but smile.
He swung up, his body, arm, and sword following in tandem.
The slash was made effortlessly and gently as though that was the only thing his body lived for.
’Maybe I can get myself a sword in the future,’ Azrael mused.
It was now he finally understood why everyone felt it was weird using the gist to fight.
The range and sheer ability to hit way beyond its weight were the main things.
’I can use them interchangeably.’
Meanwhile, Raksha only stared at Azrael with a gentle smile.
Maybe due to his emotions, his horn had even begun to release a dark light into the surroundings.
But it died down quickly.
’But he was able to learn sword intent in one day. That’s more than enough talent.’
"That’s all for now. I will summon you tomorrow," Raksha said, dropping from where he floated.
He walked towards Azrael steadily as if the earth itself was his pet.
"Huh?" Azrael muttered with raised brows. "I have barely spent an hour here," he said.
"In the outside world, that is over 3 hours," Raksha replied, stopping just in front of Azrael.
"Why is the difference like that?" Azrael asked with raised brows.
He had even expected the Primordial Realm to have slower time compared to the outside world.
"We don’t understand the concept of time, so while creating the Realm, God created it this way," Raksha said. "At least, that’s what everyone knows."
"Who is this God?" Azrael asked, still curious about the being.
"Sheesh!" Raksha said in a hushed tone.
"Learn to control your curiosity."
Azrael sighed.
But he did not care what Raksha had said. He was still going to find out in his own time.
"Let’s see, depending on how fast you are to grasp things, we might move to soul flames tomorrow," Raksha said, stroking his chin gently.
Then he gazed at Azrael, waiting for whatever was on his mind.
Before Azrael could voice anything, he was sucked into a wormhole of pitch darkness.
A few seconds after he left, Raksha turned away.
’He is a cool kid.’
"Is that what you think?" the voice said in front of Raksha.
He looked up at the person who had spoken.
"I greet the..."