Chapter 100: Tutor Morwenna
Chapter 100: Tutor Morwenna
Her mind violently flashed back to an incredibly infuriating toxic conversation she had endured in the Keep corridors exactly twenty minutes ago.
[Flashback]
Morwenna was walking entirely down the stone hallway, carrying her clean clothes as she headed to the bath.
Eluned was floating in the opposite direction.
As they passed each other, the Goddess of Nature aggressively halted.
She looked at the Pirate Queen and offered a petty smirk.
"Enjoy your localized little guest room, trench-rat," Eluned mocked her. "Because you are never going to sleep on the primary bed with our Lord... That spot is reserved for his favorite."
Eluned didn’t wait for a response. She aggressively stuck her tongue completely out at the pirate and floated away.
[End of Flashback]
Morwenna’s fists clenched entirely at her sides.
"I will train you, Captain," Morwenna stated clearly, looking directly into his golden-ringed eyes. "But if I completely manage to knock you out during the localized training session..."
She took another step closer, entirely invading his personal space.
"I would like to sleep on the main bed completely with you and Eluned tonight," Morwenna demanded her exact operational prize. "Instead of in my guest room... I’m a bit scared of the dark."
She quickly looked away with her pale cheeks flushing again.
Honestly, Morwenna wasn’t terrified of the dark.
Five hundred years in the Abyssal Trench had beaten any fear of the shadows out of her system...
She just completely wanted to stay close to him an prove that Bitch Goddess wrong!
Silas didn’t hesitate.
"Deal," Silas agreed immediately.
Ten minutes later, the two of them were standing entirely in the massive backyard of the Warlord Keep.
The freezing drizzle was still actively falling from the Umbral Basin sky, but neither of them completely cared.
Well Silas did care.
’What the hell... why is this rain still falling? Next thing I know, it’ll be snowing...’
Silas had stripped off his heavy Midnight Carapace armor as he was now wearing basic flexible dark canvas combat trousers and a tight black undershirt.
Morwenna had changed entirely out of the bathrobe.
She was wearing the dry functional canvas shorts and the heavy leather smithing bra Thora had given her.
They weren’t holding their Tier 3 weapons either as they were each completely gripping standard training swords pulled from the barracks stockpile.
"I need to see what we’re working with," Morwenna ordered, spinning the wooden sword lazily in her hand. "Spar with me first. Come at me like you’re actually trying to kill me, Captain. Let me feel how you naturally handle a blade."
Silas didn’t need to be told twice as he violently tightened his grip on the hilt of the wooden sword and he ignited his Mythic Gold Core.
BANG!
Silas aggressively exploded forward.
His heavy boots completely tore gouges into the wet ground.
He closed the thirty-yard distance completely in the blink of an eye.
He didn’t swing elegantly.
Silas threw a heavy horizontal slash directly at her ribs, completely intending to test her physical durability but Morwenna didn’t block it.
She didn’t even raise her wooden sword.
She dropped her center of gravity by exactly two inches and smoothly swayed her upper body completely backward.
The heavy wooden blade passed exactly one millimeter over her leather bra as the air pressure rustled her dark hair.
"Too much wind-up," Morwenna critiqued instantly with her voice sounding calm. "Your shoulders completely broadcast the angle, Captain."
Silas didn’t stop.
He utilized his missed momentum, aggressively pivoting his hips and launching a rapid flurry of fast descending diagonal strikes.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
The wood sword blurred but Morwenna didn’t retreat...
She moved exactly like water.
The pirate ducked entirely under the first strike, smoothly parried the second with a tiny flick of her wrist, and completely sidestepped the third.
’She is completely reading my muscle contractions before I even swing...’ Silas thought while watching her eyes. ’The gap... the gap between us is too far.’
Silas gritted his teeth as he surged a wave of golden mana into his arms.
He leaped into the air, bringing the wooden sword down in a powerful overhead cleave meant to shatter her guard.
"Stop," Morwenna commanded flatly.
Morwenna calmly raised her wooden sword with a single relaxed hand as she engaged her passive Tidal-Blade Arts.
CLACK!
The wooden blades violently collided but there was zero shockwave and there wasn’t even a massive gust of wind.
Morwenna completely caught the edge of Silas’s descending strike at a precise angle and she instantly applied localized phantom heavy-water pressure entirely to the point of impact.
She didn’t just block his attack.
She completely absorbed the energy and forcefully grounded it directly through her boots into the ground.
Silas’s powerful strike was instantly stopped dead in the air as his entire physical momentum was completely canceled.
"Ugh..."
Silas landed in the ground and though he was not too surprised, he still was surprised.
Morwenna casually lowered her wooden sword, completely unfazed by the collision.
"Your raw physical stats are overwhelmingly terrifying, Captain," Morwenna praised him honestly, crossing her arms. "If you hit an opponent with that strike, they would have exploded into paste."
Her expression entirely hardened into a strict critical instructor.
"But your actual swordsmanship is fundamentally basic," Morwenna delivered the harsh truth. "You swing entirely with your arms and your back... You completely rely on your Core to force the blade through resistance"
Silas didn’t argue.
He lowered his wooden sword, completely accepting the critique. "So how do I fix it?"
Morwenna smiled.
"I am going to show you," Morwenna declared smoothly.
She stepped completely back, creating a twenty-yard buffer zone between them in the muddy backyard.
She raised the training sword.
"I completely created the Tide-Blade Arts over the time when I still navigated over the depths of the Astral Seas," Morwenna lectured loudly over the freezing rain. "It is split into twenty distinct forms and you are completely going to learn all of them."
She widened her stance.
"Watch my hips, Captain..." Morwenna ordered sharply. "And watch the way my sword aligns... This is the foundation of my power."
Morwenna completely closed her stormy gray eyes.
The atmosphere in the backyard violently changed.
The freezing drizzle falling from the Umbral Basin sky entirely stopped hitting the ground.
The raindrops completely froze in mid-air, suspended by a massive drop in the atmospheric pressure.
Silas’s breath was caught in his throat.
He felt the terrifying crushing weight of the deep ocean completely descend upon the courtyard.
Morwenna stepped forward.
"Tide-Blade Arts..." Morwenna whispered with her voice completely cutting through the silence. "First Form."
She swung the wooden training sword in a single perfectly horizontal arc.
VWOOSH!
The visual spectacle was amazing...
A massive terrifying wave of dark blue deep-ocean phantom water entirely erupted from the blunt edge of the wooden sword like a projectile.
The invisible wave of phantom water completely tore entirely through the air.
It didn’t just push the suspended raindrops, instead it just atomized them as the shockwave shot entirely across the fifty-yard backyard.
It completely bypassed Silas, missing him by exactly three calculated inches.
The horizontal shockwave violently slammed entirely into the massive, towering black tree completely rooted at the edge of the territory wall.
KRA-KOOM!
The massive thirty-foot-thick solid ironwood trunk sheared in half horizontally.
The atmospheric pressure of the strike left a cut so incredibly clean that the top half of the massive tree completely slid off the stump like a sliced piece of butter, crashing into the ground.
The suspended raindrops immediately collapsed, splashing into the dirt as the crushing ocean pressure completely vanished.
Morwenna smoothly lowered the wooden training sword, completely opening her stormy gray eyes.
She looked directly at her Sovereign, entirely waiting for his reaction an Silas stood completely frozen in the mud.
He loosened his grip on his own training weapon.
The wooden sword slipped completely from his fingers, hitting the wet ground with a dull thud.
Silas completely blinked with his golden-ringed eyes wide in awe.
He stared at the perfectly bisected ironwood tree.
He looked entirely back at the half-naked Pirate Queen standing in the freezing rain.
"Can I..." Silas whispered. "Can I entirely learn that?"
Morwenna didn’t immediately answer.
She stood in the freezing drizzle of the Umbral Basin, surrounded by the muddy, torn-up grass of the Warlord Keep’s backyard.
She casually rested the heavy ashwood training sword against her shoulder, letting the atmospheric pressure of the deep ocean completely dissipate into the air then she offered him a slow smirk.
Morwenna pulled her wooden blade back, completely dropping her combat stance.
"Of course you can, Captain..." Morwenna stated confidently. "However, there is a catch. In order to manipulate the atmospheric pressure and generate the phantom heavy-water required for the Tide-Blade Arts, you will need an affinity for Water magic."
Silas blinked, the excitement in his chest instantly hitting a brick wall.
He let out a long exhausted sigh.
’Every Lord in this system only gets one elemental affinity,’ Silas thought, running a hand through his hair. ’Everything I’ve done so far is just brute force and golden energy. What if Water isn’t even in my wheelhouse? I’m going to look like an idiot waving my hands around in the rain for nothing.’
He looked down at his calloused armor-plated hands, ready to accept that he was going to be completely locked out of the coolest martial art he had ever seen.
But Morwenna didn’t let him spiral.
She stepped forward, knocking him completely out of his thoughts.
"I cannot see your internal mana affinity, Captain," Morwenna explained, reaching out and gently tapping the center of his chest, right over his heart. "But my senses have been forged by centuries in the Abyss and I can physically feel the ambient moisture in the air aggressively reacting to your core... With that, I can see that you have the ability to use Water magic."
Silas’s golden-ringed eyes went completely wide.
’I have the ability to use Water magic?’ Silas thought, entirely surprised by the biological revelation.
He paused.
’Well,’ Silas rationalized smoothly, shaking his head. ’I possess a completely overpowered Mythic Gold Core. It should be expected that I can bypass standard elemental restrictions.’
He looked back up at the Dread Queen.
"Sure," Silas agreed firmly, entirely eager to test his boundaries. "How do we prove it?"
"We test it out right now with a completely basic low-tier water spell," Morwenna instructed, entirely stepping into her role as the instructor.
She stepped back, raising her hands to chest height.
"It is a fundamental conjuration spell known across the Astral Seas as Water Sport..." Morwenna explained with her lips twitching in an amused grin at the incredibly ridiculous name. "It requires a specific vocal chant to manually gather the moisture..."
"Teach me the chant," Silas demanded, looking focused.
Morwenna closed her eyes, letting the freezing drizzle wash over her pale face.
Her voice dropped into a hum that sounded exactly like heavy surf smashing against a cliff wall.
"Hear me, dark waters... Tide that swallows the sun... Crush the shore, bind the sky... Rise from the abyss and drown the light."
Silas listened close, letting his Gold Core burn the exact pitch and vibration of the syllables into his memory.
He raised his right hand, extending his bare palm out toward the empty space in the muddy backyard.
Silas took a breath.
"Hear me, dark waters... Tide that swallows the sun... Crush the shore, bind the sky... Rise from the abyss and drown the light."
As the words left his mouth, he didn’t hold back.
He shoved a surging wave of his raw mana straight down his arm and out through his fingertips.
The reaction hit with zero delay.
The freezing rain falling from the Umbral Basin sky just... stopped.
Every single drop within a ten-foot radius hung suspended in mid-air for a fraction of a second before snapping directly toward his outstretched hand like iron shavings pulling to a magnet.
The moisture in the damp air rapidly condensed, twisting and folding over itself until it formed a churning orb of water hovering just inches above his skin.