"Now you try it."
Samael attempts to mimic Cain's movements. Samael, giving it his best shot, does pretty good at mimicking the movements- as good as he can do in this case. Everything leads back to what Cain said initially, his movements lack purpose or essence.
Nonetheless, Samael's having the time of his life. The movements come so easy to him, it feels as if his body already knew the movements. Cain, noticing Samael's head get unbearably large, grabs Samael's spear from nearby and happily throws it at him.
"Good job, you've learned to walk. Now try running."
Cain smirks as Samael catches to spear confident that attempting to properly hold a spear while using a movement technique will throw Samael for a loop. While Samael is very talented when it comes to movement techniques, holding a weapon while using a movement technique is a whole new set of fundamentals, especially in terms of the spear.
Samael confidently grabs the spear from the air, he looks at Cain and smirks. Samael, now on the highest of horses gets into the proper spear stance, he smiles and takes a deep breath. Time passes but to no avail, Samael is still. Cain grins at Samael, looking at him as if he won some imaginary battle.
"What's wrong, confused?"
"Shut up, I got this! Just watch!"
Samael remains stationary and swings his spear, with each swing he trys to picture himself swinging while doing the movement technique- emphasis on try, Samael actually sucks at visualizing anything. He can remember things perfectly but once it's time to visualize something that isn't a memory he's a lost cause.
After swinging his spear a couple of times he plants it into the ground, this time he attempts to do the movement technique while mimicking the stance and sensation of holding a spear- another failure. Samael doesn't understand why he's going blank, on paper it doesn't sound that hard, it's just running while swinging a spear. But the fundamentals are too different, it's like trying to sink and float at the same time. Samael sits and considers his next steps.
"If I do that this will happen… No that won't work either… But if I- Wait no my legs…. *Sigh* Ah, what the hell"
Samael snatches the spear and gets into his stance, he uses the movement technique and attempts to swing his spear while doing it. His first attempt ends in him falling onto his face, he gets up and try's again, he falls again but just a little more gracefully. With each attempt his falls turn into stumbles and his stumbles turn into small trips. It's just like before, like his body knew what to do. He grins at Cain.
Cain sits back star struck as his amusement soon turned into confusion, Cain has no idea how Samael is picking it up that quickly. Cain's confusion quickly turns into excitement as Samael's technique continuously gets more stable. Samael pauses, wind flows j to his nostrils and his body begins to relax, this is it.
The first star, a powerful thrust forward with his spear quickly followed by an diagonal slash. The second star, a swift 180 degree sweep. The third star, a flurry of thrust while doing a quick backwards maneuver. The fourth star, a swift diagonal slash while simultaneously dashing towards your left or right. Finally the fifth star, a feint attack followed by a quick pivotal movement. Samael stands there proudly as sweat drenches his body, he grins at Cain.
"Make room in your stomache, we're gonna eat great tonight."
"Don't get too hasty, we still have a route to follow. Let's get to the village checkpoint and then after that you could hunt as much you'd like."
Cain and Samael return to the campfire. As the two approach the campfire Samael comes to the realization that the wagon of boar and Excalidrakes are full. Samael kicks away the fire and mentally prepares himself to haul this wagon weighing God knows how much. A couple of miles to the village.
The trail is rough, as the two progress the trail it becomes ever more apparent why this route is rarely taken, the hills feel impossible, the terrain feels like it's meant to go against wheels, and there's always the occasional wild group of boars attacking because of the noise the wagon brings. On the bright side, the scenery is beautiful, the trail is filled with a variety of flowers and trees, the moss grows in such unique ways, and the beautiful river brings it all together, the sound of the river flowing soothes the two travelers.
Eventually the two make it to the peaceful village. The residents keep to themselves and they aren't large in number. A few fishermen could be seen conversing next to the water mill, it seems like the water mill and river are the central recourses of the village. Samael and Cain quickly locate the adventurers guild and haul their spoils inside. The two are greeted by a large tanned man with a beard and mustache, his shirt is unbuttoned enough to see his chest hair and the man's sleeves are rolled up boasting very muscular and hairy hands, he probably catches fish with his hands, frequently at that.
Samael hands him all of his quest flyers along with his adventure plaque.
"I'd like to claim my rewards and sell the excess."
The man stares at the wagon while scratching his beard.
"You might have to wait a day or two for everything to get sorted. Until then you can rest in the guild house"
Samael slowly turns towards Cain, mentally preparing himself to convince Cain to wait a day or two before departing again. But before Samael could even prepare words he spots Cain at a table endulging in alcohol.
"Yup that's our fish based moonshine, one of our specialties here Praily village, it's produced by distilling alcohol and slowly adding it to the water of our domestic Praily Carps. Once winter comes the fish release an even stronger alcohol with a fishy aftertaste from their bodies."
"Sounds disgusting, but it looks like it's strong enough to buy me two days."
"*burp* Youngins these don't understand the importance of rest *hique* savor these two days kid you'll need em!"
Samael gently removes Cain's hand from his shoulder and takes a sigh of relief.
"Ahem, anyway. Did you happen to see a kid with white hair running around here, he's on the shorter end, very loud, and has red eyes."
"Nope, but if I do I'll let you know."
Samael shrugs, he assumes Ezra is fine. He doubts anything in the forest could take down someone who uses a great power. He heads upstairs to rest. As he lays in bed his body loosens, it's been so long since he's been in an actual bed. His body rest peacefully but his brain refuses. All he can think about is the five star technique. His mind craves for practice but his body yearns for rest. Soon his eyes slowly close and he drifts off into the night.
In Samael's dream he finds himself in a bright purple room. Everything is purple and the floor has a layer of water over it. He's greeted by a tall humanoid figure. As the character moves closer Samael realizes that the person he's seeing is him. The Samael across from him throws him a spear at him.
"Let's get started."
As soon as Samael catches the spear the copy rushes towards him, the copy thrust the spear at Samael, Samael narrowly dodges it and counters by swinging the back end of his spear upwards at the copy's neck. The copy quickly pivots and uses the momentum from the pivot to perform a back roudhouse kick. He groans as he's knocked onto the floor, the water floods onto his ears and mouth, muffling his earring on one side, he tries to get but loses his balance planting his face into the water, the figure tries to say something to him but all he can hear is a loud ringing in his ear.
"Get up."
The clone walks towards Samael and helps him up, once Samael gets up the clone punches his in his stomach, the wind flies from Samael's body and his eyes widen in shock, the punch while heavy brings Samael back to his senses. As the clone follows up with another punch Samael dogdes by quickly dashing backwards creating distance.
The clone rushes towards Samael preparing a horizontal slash, Samael dodges the slash by using a sweeping technique with his spear and positions himself behind the clone the clone blocks the sweep but Samael now positioned behind the clone performs a straight kick kicking the clone away. Samael takes advantage of this opportunity and thrust towards the clone. The opposer dodges the thrust but before Samael could follow up with a diagnal slash the clone manovers to his right in a quick burst while performaing a horizontal slash. This leaves Samael with a large cut on his side.
The clone cracks his neck and lowers his posture, the two make eye contact and tension builds, with each second Samael expects the clone to rush towards him, the clone's eyes shine with a hue of orange.
"Were my eyes always that pretty?"
The room begins to morph and a familiar sensation engulfs Samael's arm. The room shifts from purple to black and flames begin to engulf the area, the burning sensation gets stronger and Samael's nose is met the smell of burning flesh. Flames begin to dance around the clone as he laughs hysterically.
"Come on now, let's make this easy."