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To Master the Winds

   A month has passed and I have been getting the hang of channeling the wind. 

   I have been able to recreate the same wind s***h I did with my fight with ken where I release a  blade of wind  from a s***h of my sword. However, the ones that I am currently able to create for some reason aren't as strong as when I first used it.

   Eddie speculated that because of the do or die situation it must have been a factor in amplifying my power. As of right now my goal has been to eventually get back to that kind of strength and be able to do it consistently.

   For the past month or so, Eddie has not been able to oversee most of my training. 

   I have been alone most of the time and whenever he was here, we would only spar for as long as I could before my magic gave out. 

   Constantly using the magic was extremely taxing on my body, after gathering the winds to my blade, I can only hold on to them for a small amount of time. 

The longer I was gathering them the harder it was to tame the winds, it felt as though it had a mind of its own and wants to go off in different directions. 

   Most of my training was spent with just me seeing how long I could hold on to the winds. So far, the only proper attack I could do with the wind gathered around my blade was the wind s***h, because as of right now I can only hold on to it for one s***h. 

   Eventually, I would like to try multiple different combos and successions with the wind s***h, but as of right now I have to focus on lasting longer than a minute. Whenever I would take a break, I would think of what I could name my move. 

   When I faced Ken he had his Piercing step and Eddie also had his Stockpile forms. I would spent a lot of time thinking of names for my move and run them by Eddie. All of which were either labelled tacky, cringe, or way too long. 

   One day I will come up with an awe inspiring technique!

   As I proclaim this, Eddie arrives. 

   "Listen kid, I got some news" Eddie said with a grin. 

   As you know, I have not been able to accompany you for your training. But, whenever I was away, I started doing some digging on the Head Hunter.

   A bit of snooping here and A bit of snooping there and I found out that the Head Hunter has a bunch of different bases in this town, the warehouse by the factory, he also has a cafe and a laundromat as fronts, and there is still one or two bases that I personally have not been able to locate yet. 

   But why are they so important? I ask. 

The reason why they are so important is because this is where Head Hunter stations the assassins your way. 

   As of right now I have confirmed if any of these places have people stationed but let's just assume.

    Listen kid, here is what I want you to do, gimme one more month for me to snoop around and for you to hone your magic. 

   As you are right now, you might actually die if we face off against these people as the more we go through the bigger and badder they get.

    Ken was meant to test the waters. 

Once we can map out a plan, we take the fight to them. We take the assassins by surprise so that we can have the upper hand. 

   If they have time to prepare and meet us like Ken did it would only spell trouble for us because I can't back you up in a one on one. I got some free time, 

   let's work on some combat scenarios! Eddie said with a grin.

   We spent the entire day sparring.

   Now that I'm already home and resting.

   I keep thinking about how my spar with Eddie went.

No matter how much I tried, Eddie took on the fool strength of my wind s***h. 

   During todays session I wanted to see if I could force Eddie to show me another form from his Stockpile ability, but unfortunately, my attacks weren't able to generate enough power for him to convert. 

   As I began to feel myself drift into slumber, my mind kept replaying the image of me using the wind s***h. 

   I woke up earlier than usual, whenever this would happen I would just usually use this time to scour the internet for sword techniques I could emulate and apply my magic to. 

But most of the time I would just get the same basic things you would usually find. I guess a super killer technique is only learned and mastered through time and experience. 

   The search for secret techniques however did not go to vain. While looking for anything  wind related that I could name my future techniques, I eventually came across the Anemoi, the Greek gods of the winds, one for each direction. 

   I could definitely use this! I say to myself. 

   By the time I arrive at the training grounds I was already bursting with excitement. On the way I was already visualizing the things I could do and say as I think of my newly named techniques. 

Luckily Eddie was there, today is the day I will get Eddie to recognize my technique! and also to force him to use another form. 

   Most of the first half of the training went normally, but through out each swing of my blade, as I hacked at the makeshift dummies I thought about my previous sparring matches with Eddie, and I thought about my battle with Ken. 

   The thing I thought about the most was Ken's swordplay, If I could emulate it to an extent, it would increase my power tenfold. 

I already knew how the succession went and what combos he would use as I picked it up from my battle against him. 

   As I hacked at the training dummies I visualized how Ken would attack, swift yet graceful, decisive sword strikes meant to end the fight in one go. Such refined skill that I was only able to beat because of dumb luck, with my back against the ropes I was able to manifest my magic. 

   As I finished, I began to spar with Eddie requesting him to go harder on me, so I could emulate what it felt like in that life or death situation with Ken. 

   The day's training session ended with me eating a fully powered Stockpile fist to the face. Guess I still had a lot to learn.

   A month has finally passed and with each day of that month my body grew accustomed to emulating Ken's style of fighting. 

   Gradually I was able to last longer with Eddie as I attempted recreating the Piercing Step whenever we would spar. 

   In this month, I also began to do different things with my magic other than gathering it to my blade. 

I noticed that whenever I gathered the winds, since it took such a long time to gather and control them it was taking a large toll on myself. I began experimenting with using it in small increments. 

When ever I would s***h with my blade, instead of gathering the winds around the blade and then slashing, I would instead do the s***h first and before making contact, use a small gust of wind to help propel my blade further. 

   This made my attacks quicker and much more powerful with the exact precision I need. 

   As I am right now, I am able to cleanly slice two boulders stacked on one another because of this simple yet effective trick. 

    Since it was the last day of the month, Eddie promised to go all out to further see how far I have come. 

    Also he would tell me today everything he has gathered about Head Hunter after our spar. 

Training went by quickly as I was extremely excited to gauge how well I would fare with Eddie now that I have my secret technique that I haven't revealed yet to him. 

   As we eye each other, waiting for the other to make their move,

   I took in everything, the blades of grass, the trees around us, the sound of dead leaves as they crunched beneath our step. 

    All the things that I felt with the breeze of the wind, and with this I lunged first. 

    As I began attacking Eddie, using the wind to guide my blade, I grew faster,  my strikers grew heavier. 

It was evident that Eddie had to use stockpile now in order to match my pace. 

   I was faring well, until he shouted. 

   You wanted to see second form so badly kid? 

   Well here it is! Eddie shouted. 

   All the hits he accumulated from me that made his body glow vanished and all began to gather around his fists. 

   His fists and forearms were glowing,

   "Stockpile Second form: Golden Fists" Eddie said as he began to charge at me. 

   Despite the speed I had because of the wind, each punch from Eddie began to increasingly grow faster, I was forced to go on the defensive.

   Despite using the small gusts of wind to aid me in blocking Eddie's attacks, some still managed to slip through. 

   The longer it went, the more of his punches I ate and eventually I ate a body shot that shut me down.

Dazed and in pain, I looked at Eddie. My vision was so blurry that I was seeing multiple Eddie's.

   Is this All you got? Eddie asked.

   I'm not done yet! I shout to him. 

As I begin to take my stance I look at him once more, this is the fruit of my labor, this is what I spent my time honing this is my very first technique. 

    "Blade of the Four Winds: Zephyr, the gentle breeze".