"Damn it," Kevin cursed as he blocked a charging boar with his knife. He was currently practicing dual wielding, as Keith had advised him, that it was the best way to train with a soldier's blade.
Bam! The boar slammed its trunk against Kevin's knife, sending him flying into a tree.
"for fuck's sake, what's your deal? Give me a hand!" he snapped at Keith, who was chilling up on a branch.
"It's just a boar. You've got this," she said, barely glancing in his direction as she checked her watch.
'Ugh, this bitch,' he thought with an annoyed sigh as he pulled himself up from the ground. The boar, a bit wobbly from their last encounter, was getting ready for another round.
Not wanting a repeat of that shock, he zigzagged his way toward the boar, which was lumbering back at him.
With determination in his eyes, Kevin zigzagged his way towards the wobbly boar as it lumbered back towards him.
As the boar charged, Kevin waited for the right moment. Just as the beast lowered its head, preparing for another collision, Kevin lunged to the side. The boar's tusks grazed the air, missing Kevin by inches.
In one fluid, almost theatrical motion, Kevin swung his knife, aiming for the boar's side. He felt the blade connect, and the boar let out a pained squeal as it stumbled to the side.
Not willing to let it escape or face another attack, Kevin let out a battle cry and leaped at the wobbly boar. He drove both knives into its eyes. The boar's skin and fur was tough, and his hand still trembled from the previous collision. If it weren't for the sharpness and durability of the Werdian blades, taking down this black boar would have been a lot more challenging.
"Not bad," Keith remarked, jumping down from the tree, and continued, "These purple beauties are really something; they cut through its skin like butter."
"Yeah, yeah," Kevin replied, not particularly interested in her compliment, still seething about her not assisting him.
"Why so angry? Did the baby hurt his hands? Does he need Mama to make the pain go away?" She teased him further upon seeing his irritation.
"Shut up, you muscle head bitch. If I knew you slave me like this, I wouldn't have agreed to come with you," Kevin grumbled. This was already the fifth boar he had to hunt today, and to make matters worse, Keith had chosen this monster for his training and a mission she had accepted from the Cultivations Association branch in Vidar Forest.
"And why did you even choose these sturdy bastards to hunt? Couldn't you have picked something easy to kill?" Kevin asked with annoyance as he began to extract the teeth and skin the boar.
"Well, what can we say? Their hide fetches us quite a buck," Keith replied, squatting near the boar's body and joining in on the skinning process, as the hide was the most valuable part. "And I am not a muscle head." She added.
"But you're a bitch." Kevin said with a chuckle.
Spending some time with Keith, Kevin had gotten to know her better and could banter with her without reservation.
"You have a good grasp of the knife, and you can handle common slashes and stabs, but you won't become proficient until you start using the true techniques of the soldier's blade," Keith explained as she quickly skinned the boar. "There are a total of 12 moves in the soldier's blade in and one they gave you have only four and when you master them all four fully, you can learn advanced moves from the Cultivations Association. But they check first if you've mastered the basics."
"So, the one I'm practicing now is incomplete?" Kevin asked, his eyes widening in surprise.
"Yeah, it's not like you can't get your hands on the complete set. It's quite easy to obtain since many cultivators use it and have mastered it to varying degrees," Keith replied. She continued, "I, myself, have mastered the seventh move and am working on the eighth. In total, there are twelve moves, and there's a myth that when someone masters all twelve to perfection, they become eligible for the thirteenth move, which can cut mountains and rivers in half with a single slash."
"That sounds amazing. But where can I learn the first move? There's nothing about it in the file the Cultivations Association gave me. It just includes an hour-long video of some old men practicing fighting stances with a blade, nothing about the moves and techniques," Kevin said, looking confused.
"That's because you haven't seen it clearly. Let me show you," Keith said, getting up. "Watch closely."
Facing a nearby tree, she wielded her knives. The knives were about the same length as Kevin's and came in a black-silvery color. She began slashing at an incredible speed, and Kevin could see her movements matching those of the old men in the video but considerably faster.
What was even more astonishing was that she was standing about two feet away from the tree, and the tree trunk was still getting chipped away by the wind created by her slashes. In just 20 or 30 seconds, the tree trunk was covered in two to three inches of chipped wood.
"That was amazing!" Kevin exclaimed.
Keith smirked and said, "This move is called 'Armor Destroyer.' the first move of the soldier blade. It's used to slash through a sturdy opponent's defenses, like this bear's armor, but it consumes a lot of stamina. However, the consumption decreases as you train it. Now, it only takes a bit of my stamina, and what's more, this move doesn't use qi, so you can keep slashing at your opponent if you have very good stamina."
"To master this, you need to perfect the stances shown in the first five minutes of the video," Keith explained, sheathing her blade. "Once you've learned the first move, the others will become much easier to grasp."
"Now, before we proceed, let me ask you one question," Keith said, her expression serious as she looked at Kevin. She inquired, "Do you know the purpose of the soldier's blade?"