The old man felt that Mack improved a lot already, but seeing he was still focused and absorbed in the training, he resolved to wait and see.

~punch~

Mack gave another punch, and the eyes in the puppet showed 801 points of damage.

Mack body was level five already, so he could easily get to the 500 points range if he used any kind of technique, but to reach 801 points, that required a lot of refinement.

‘I don’t think this kid will improve much more now.’

Thought Harlack, because he knew the limits of a level five body, 

~punch~

Just as Harlack expected, the eyes on the puppet now showed 800, instead of 801. Mack reached his limit.

Harlack stood up from the chair and took slow steps in direction of Mack, at each step, Mack gave another punch at the puppet.. But no progress was made anymore.

A few steps from Mack, Harlack grabbed the two swords on the ground, and threw to Mack,

[Now do the same with the swords].

Said Harlack, at the same moment that Mack grabbed the swords.

Mack gave a small nod, as if understanding what the old man wanted, and quickly got in the position for dual welding, with a reverse grip.

Holding the two swords, Mack put his left foot slightly to the front, lowered his chest, and slightly inclined the two sword handles to the front, making the tips of the swords raise a bit behind him.

[Now Start]

Said the old man, as if to confirm to Mack that what he was doing was correct.

Mack’s right foot moved to the front, but before the foot could touch the ground his right blade was already hitting the puppet

~splash~

The recoil of the sword strike made the blade hit Mack’s own right arm, and he stopped.

[That’s why I never said to you to train with a target until now]

Said the old man, pointing to the blood that fell on the ground.

Mack knew the old man had his reasons for that and waited for him to say, while the blood dripped on the ground.

[The major problem with reverse grip is not the weak attacks, nor is the shorter distance that you need to keep from your enemy, but is the recoil from the strikes]

“And why only now?”

[Because now you are ready to learn, now you can control your body properly, the best way is if you learn by yourself, but we don’t have this luxury. Time is the only thing that we don’t have right now]

Said the old man, pointing to Mack swords as if asking for one. He wanted to show Mack how to do.

But to the old man’s surprise, Mack never threw a sword to him.

“Let me try first. I think I know where you want to go”

Said Mack, entering in position of dual welding again.

Mack closed his eyes. He knew the puppet would not move, and he knew exactly where the puppet was. He had hit the same spot thousands of times today already.

He wanted to pay more attention to his own body. To the energy that was produced by it, and how his body moved.

Mack moved his right foot to the front, but this time, he put the right foot slightly more to his left, as if walking over an invisible line, with his two feet one in front of the other, the foot touched the ground, and the sword hit the puppet at the same time.

Energy got dissipated, but the sword still came to bite on his master arm, but before the sword could hit his arm, Mack let go of the handle and quickly turned his own hand grabbing the sword on normal grip, the recoil moved to his arm, and Mack twisted his body to the right using part of the recoil energy to make it twist faster.

~slash~

His left sword hit the puppet, and Mack let go of the sword in his left but kept the hand touching it, at the same time, he lowered his elbow a bit and the sword tip passed rent to Mack neck, making a complete turn around Mack left hand, he grabbed the handle again, and the right sword came slashing from Mack back in a full arc hitting the top of the head of the puppet.

~crack~

And the left sword impaled the puppet’s left eye.

Suddenly, Mack heard the sound of two claps. The old man was clapping his hands.

[Congratulations! On destroying the puppet! We only have three of them! What’s wrong with your head? Could not you hit the nose? Or the forehead? Dammit kid]

“Sorry, I got too much absorbed in the feeling”

[I can see, but the puppet can’t see no more, poor puppet, he is here to help you]

Said the old man as if lamenting the death of a friend.

Mack brows furrowed,

[What you did was good, but was still full of flaws everywhere, you need to use more the recoil energy, reverse grip is all about hit the enemy all the time, and you left a lot of space for you to die a thousand times in those 3 strikes]

“Yes, I know, it was terrible, but was the first time I did something like this. Was this what you wanted to teach me?”

Asked Mack to see if his conjecture was right. First, the old man taught to use those techniques.  It was natural that he wanted him to apply them with swords.

[Similar, but not exactly like this, as I said before, you need to develop your own style with reverse grip, lets see where this goes before…]

Mack kept waiting for the old man to finish his words, but then…

[What are you waiting for? Practice makes perfect! Go!]

‘Geez, what’s wrong with this old man’s head?’

Thought Mack while shaking his head, but already taking position for a new round of training with the single eyed puppet.

Time passed, but neither Mack nor the old man seemed to care. They could pass days without sleep or eating and still be fine, let alone a single night.

The old man looked outside the window and saw the sun peeking behind the mountains far away.

[Now, try to do the same movements while you move around the puppet. Think of this as if you wanted to guide and encircle the enemy. No one likes an enemy that keeps moving around you, not giving them chance to make their own pace]

Said Harlack without moving his gaze from the sun on the horizon.

Something was troubling Harlack, and Mack could notice, even been completely focused on the training.

Mack’s gaze quickly shifted to the old man while walking around the puppet before starting the new training exercise.

‘One day had passed, only 99 to go’

Thought Mack. He didn’t know how the test to enter the organization would be, but he could guess it would be bloody.

And they had only 99 days to prepare.

~slash~

Mack slashed the puppet torso and rolled on the ground, giving another slash at the puppet leg while rolling.

He was adapting all that he learned with Raz to this new style of fighting with the reverse grip. Some things just didn’t fit, but others fitted like a glove to this style.

Mack stood up and a vertical slash hit the torso of the puppet, while Mack turned his body and a new strike was lunged at the solar plexus of the puppet.

Mack, with his back to the puppet, one sword high in the sky and other hitting the puppet, thew himself to the front and while rolling on the ground thew his two swords at the puppet, one at the head and other at the solar plexus again.

The swords hit the puppet at the same moment that Mack stood up, touching his two palms together.

A red flash of light engulfed the entire training room and the domain runespell was activated.

Barely half a second had passed and the two swords came back, flying to Mack’s hands.

Mack jumped to the front, grabbed the swords, and slashed both at the puppet’s neck at the same time.

The noise of an egg shell cracking was heard from the puppet neck, and one second later the puppet head fell to the ground.

Mack put his two swords back at his waist bell and the domain runespell was turned off.

“I hope they have a strong neck”

Said Mack, turning his body to look at his ancestor. Maybe this old man could feel a bit more reassured seeing Mack moves using the domain runespell.

“They do.”

Said the old man, using his own vocal cords after a while. The grave and old voice seemed to pass on even more of information than those two small words.

[And now we have one less puppet. This is only the first day. If you destroy another one, I will make you pay]

Said the old man, turning his head to look at Mack.

Mack scratched the back of his own head and a small smile could be seen, at least he made the old man come back to normal again.