"He is...me," the old man completed, looking right into his eyes as he spoke.
Zera stood there, shocked at first, before bursting into laughter.
King Atla's great advisor was the old cleaner of the Colosseum.
Just how ridiculous was that? Isn't he supposed to be in the palace?
Zera's laughter continued for almost three minutes, nonstop, wheezing until he finally slowed down and turned back to the old man.
He beheld a blank expression.
"I'm sorry, old man."
"But you know it's a good dream at least."
"Dreaming to be the King's Advisor isn't a bad thing, I'll say," Zeras said, but all he got from the old man was a smile.
"Whether you believe it or not. I don't want Sammodra to become the next king of Atlantis."
"So I want to train you to stop him." The old man said, looking at Zeras with a serious expression.
Zeras thought about what he said.
His mission was to defeat the false king of Atlantis, Sammodra, which fits in with the old man's objective.
So, they were pretty much on the same lane.
But he didn't need some old cleaner to train him.
He just needed to learn how he walked like that.
Whether the old man was the king's advisor or not was none of his business; so far, he obtained what he wanted.
If the old man turned out to be telling the truth, he would learn an extra two or three things from him.
If the old man were lying as well, he wouldn't be losing anything either.
Either way, he wins.
"I agree."
"Good." He said with a smile.
"What is the strongest point you noticed when you fought with Roder?" The old man asked while paddling.
Zera's eyes narrowed on the question.
"If he were to recall a troublesome thing about Roder, it would be the strange force that accompanied every swing of his trident."
"I feel his swings carry more power than they should."
"It's almost like there's a strange, unseen force that powers every one of his strikes."
He replied.
It was a strange topic that always bothered him.
"That force runs through all of us."
The old man began,
"It's the belief power obtained from King Atlas's golden trident."
"It doubles the strength of an Atlantean's strike when he strikes with the trident," He completed.
What the man just told him sounded like an Atlantean racial ability.
Their strength doubled when they fought with the tridents, just like his own ability, Dash, which doubled his speed when activated.
"But the new generation of Atlanteans has tread down the wrong path."
"The way of an Atlantean is not about brute strength, quite the opposite, even. It's soft strength force."
"Is...Is there such a thing?" Zeras mused confused
Brute strength and soft strength.
Is there such a concept?
"Hold your paddle..." the old man commanded.
Zeras grabbed hold of his paddle with both hands, its tip resting on the water.
"Now follow my wave..." the old man said.
Zeras felt him sharply inhale, then swing the paddle backward, extremely gently, and the boat moved forward.
He watched the man repeat the motion every 3 strokes, each time drawing a deep breath as he rowed.
He also dipped his paddle into the water, trying to swing back, but it felt heavy even with his increased strength from leveling up.
It was almost impossible.
"Breath in before swinging. Don't apply force. Try to sense the water current and flow with it."
"Remember...don't apply force. Just flow with the current."
Zeras looked at the back of the old man, who was easily paddling.
'Don't apply force. Just flow with the current.'
His words echoed in his mind, prompting him to dip his paddle in the water, whilst closing his eyes.
With deep focus and concentration, he could feel the water, which had been deadly stagnant, with small areas of current.
Zeras slowly dipped his paddle, focusing on sensing those small areas of current and moving with them, applying as little force as possible while letting the waves push his paddle back.
Slowly but surely, he could feel the paddle moving backward as they traveled along with the special wave, but he would sometimes lose track of the waves and come up against an obstruction.
Then, he tried to push through, only to be halted.
"Don't try to brute-force your way in. Follow the waves as they move. Listen to it and follow their path..."
That word seemed to echo out to him from a place far from the darkness of his closed eyes, and Zeras quietly concentrated on moving his paddle only in the direction of the wave.
Sometimes, he would encounter blockages when he lost track of the wave, but instead of fighting back, he would remove his paddle and try to follow another current.
-- -- --
6hrs later...
A young man and an old man could be seen sitting in a boat, eyes closed, paddles in hand, moving forward.
Zeras felt the world around him disappearing, and the only thing remaining was the waves he could feel his paddle passing by.
His muscles moved in sync with the waves, following the current, as he drew strength from deep within to ride through them.
Slowly, he was successfully paddling without constantly removing his paddle from the water because of blockages.
'Don't apply force. Just flow with the current.'
Zeras felt the word echoing out to him once more, and a quiet realization hit him.
'Struggling against the wave will expend too much of my energy. I should follow the wave instead, using it to direct my movement.'
'That way I wouldn't need to struggle and waste energy. I'll provide a small burst and let the waves amplify them.'
Zeras snapped open after that thought, inhaling and exhaling.
There was a feeling growing in him, as if he had grabbed on to something, but he still didn't understand what it meant.
It was the same as grabbing at air.
He could feel it in his palms, but he didn't understand what happened after that. He only knew it was gone.
He looked at the old man's straight back, and his heart shook slightly.
Was he really just an ordinary Colosseum cleaner or could he be more.