Chapter 80: Arc 2, - 58: Before the Storm
"Ha... Can this be the rest of today's training?" Jotou sipped her tea, water rippling with paint next to her.
"Perhaps when you've earned it," Master Tensuo smirked.
Jotou rolled her eyes, the sword handle next to her was still recovering from the handprint around it. Sweat patted out by a towel, "Then what are we waiting for? I prefer to relax at the end; if I take breaks in between, I'll procrastinate."
"Hm, it's good to have spirit, but taking a break can help you rethink the things around you; including your strategy to fight."
Jotou scoffed, "I seem to do that better under pressure."
Master Tensuo laughed. "That you do. I'm happy you stick to your principles. You still have a long way to go in your training, but a novice is more deadly than a master.
It's harder to counter a novice who cannot be predicted than someone well-trained with a limited set of combat styles."
"You're telling me I'm better now than if I trained more from now?" she raised a brow.
"Not exactly, just more difficult to counter. The way I have trained you, you're not learning any past techniques, you're making it up as you go; your own fighting style.
I've merely taught you the basics and you're the one building it out from the foundations. I hope this style sticks with you; so that during any encounter, you will be as unpredictable as a novice yet as deadly as a master."
"Don't get comfortable with any one combat style and keep changing it... Ai, ai, ai... Sounds easy enough, no pressure," her eyes glazed over before they widened.