Bab 17: Artistic Conception vs Sword intent

Suddenly his sword flashed with a dazzling silver light

"Crescent Moon Sword!"

Swinging his sword in a graceful manner a silvery blade of energy shot out flying towards the oncoming blade lights

"Bang!"

The Crescent Moon Blade and sword lights clashed in the air giving off a horrifying shockwave causing both Dante and Klent to retreat several steps.

There were was a brief moment of silence where they both exchanged a fierce glare before they both shouted

"Blade Storm !"

"Crescent Moon Sword !"

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

In an instant, the two of them exchanged a flurry of blows dancing across the training ground destroying anything caught in the middle of their fight

"These guys… aren't they supposed to only be in the 2nd and 3rd layer"

"Why does the fight seem like they're in the 6th layer"

"Monsters, they're just a pair of monsters !"

Ignoring the chatter around him Dante was concentrating seriously on his fight.

Unknowingly Dante had entered that mystical state he was in last night when training the lunar sword technique.

He felt attune with his blood and mind, more than he had ever felt before, the sensation was only comparable to the rush he felt awakening his martial spirit

"Badum! Badum! Badum!"

Sounds of clear heartbeats rang out in the training ground. It seemed like thunder in Klent's ears. Not only Klent but everybody watching could hear these thunderous heartbeats.

Dante's blood was excited, circulating madly on its own. Unknown to Dante his hair started flickering between a blinding silver and its normal black

Dante seemed to see an illusion he was a giant silvery figure, standing in the void radiating a terrifying yet awe-inspiring presence that seemed to cause space itself to shake. in this vision, he seemed to be crafting moons and other celestial bodies in his hands and scattering them throughout the void like a farmer sowing seeds in the soil

At that instant, the Moonlight sword in his hand seemed to scream letting a deafening buzz.

At that moment Dante seemed to have an overwhelming understanding of moons. From their orbit to their creation even to their significance to inhabitants of the planets it orbits

Stepping forward Dante calmly spoke

"Lunar sword technique, Rising New Moon"

A violent silver brilliance exploded with Dante as the centre covering a distance of several metres as if stepping into a field of pure silver

But it didn't end there as a melodious ding rang out with Dante's body as the centre. Slowly a Cold Majestic Moon began to rise into the sky over Dante's body spreading majestic presence all over the training field. Different from his 'dragon fear' that made people hysterical with fear. This aura seemed to make you want to kneel involuntarily as if a peasant had found himself standing before the Emperor.

"No way what is this" exclaimed an onlooker

"Artistic conception, He's developed his martial technique to the level of artistic conception!"

Hearing this The onlookers were left stunned. Artistic Conception! It must be known that artistic conception was terrifyingly hard to achieve.

To achieve Artistic Conception stage of comprehension you have to have completely mastered your technique and go a step beyond that, having a deeper understanding of the technique than the creator itself, developing the technique past its ultimate stage creating a new stage past its limits.

Only extremely talented elders that have trained a technique for 40+ years and have shown extreme mastery of a technique have ever developed an Artistic Conception and Even with that, cases of artistic conception have been extremely rare in the history of the Kinsman Clan with them only being found in extremely talented members of the clan.

Hearing the talk Dante opened his eyes causing a brilliant silver light to flash out of them.

Only Dante himself knew that it wasn't an authentic comprehension of an artistic conception. Dante knew a major credit was the vision he got from his bloodline, so it was something like a half bloodline skill

Clearing his head of thoughts Dante looked directly at Klent fiercely

"Rising New Moon!"

as he spoke those words, the moon above his head seemed to shine even brighter as if it was trying to blind the world

"Strike!"

as soon as Dante said those words a

rain of beams of moonlight energy fell from the sky towards Klent.

Sensing the oncoming barrage Klent didn't hesitate

"Phantom Ghost Steps!"

instantly his figure became blurred dogging the strike of energy. But it wasn't over just yet with a wave of his hand Dante controlled the falling rain of moonlight energy towards Klent.

"Phantom Ghost Steps"

again Klent dodged the beams of moonlight energy, flickering across the training ground with a torrent of energy beams chasing close behind him leaving a wave of destruction anywhere they passed.

But under the pressure of continuously activating his martial skill, Klent eventually grew tired and failed to continuously dodge anymore

"Bang!"

A thunderous explosion rang out as Klent was hit by a beam of energy burying him in a crater of the earth

Not wanting to give up such an opportunity Dante didn't hesitate

"Strike !"

With his words, a wave of moonlight energy poured towards Klent

"Blade Storm !"

not wanting to give up Klent activated his martial skill sending out beams of sword energy. But despite his efforts, his sword beams were just being overwhelmed by Dantes stronger more numerous energy beams.

"Bang!"

Suddenly Dantes beam of energy collided with Klent knocking him off his feet. Just as Dante was about to end the fight blasting Klent with a beam of energy he noticed something strange with Klent.

He seemed to be motionless and his eyes stared blankly into the distance as if his soul had completely left his body.

Noticing Klents strange state Dante was about to end the fight in case he was seriously injured.

"Buzz!"

Suddenly there was a soft buzz, almost like a small wasp was continuously buzzing near your ear.

Slowly the buzz progressed from a soft whisper into a deafening hum and this hum seemed to be radiating from Klent.

At this moment all swords in the training ground seemed to tremble and hum. From shortswords to greatswords all swords seemed to resonate with the deafening hum

"What the –"

"Damn, my sword! "

"Someone help, my sword is out of control !"

but it didn't end there as the swords flew out into the sky dancing rounding and humming a majestic symphony as if welcoming the coming their King.

"Ahh..."

thers was a sudden sigh of relaxation.

turning his head towards the sound Dante looked to soon realise that it came from Klent

"I have to thank you Dante if it wasn't for you I wouldn't have been pushed so far and comprehended sword intent" spoke Klent stepping confidently out of the crater

Sword intent!

The onlookers were gobsmacked.

if Artistic Conception is rare but heard of then Sword Intent was nothing short of a Myth, only said to be had by legendary Masters hiding in the capital if they hadn't seen it for themselves they wouldn't have believed it, even now it was still hard to believe they had seen someone comprehend sword intent right in front of them.

"no way .. it can't be true right" exclaimed one disciple in denial

"Sword intent, legendary sword intent " stuttered another in shock

ignoring the comments from the crowd, Klent continued speaking

"Dante I have to thank you deeply for this opportunity you gave me and cause of that, I'm going to go all out from here!"

"Heres a technique I was saving for the inter-clan competition"

as klent said this he raised his sword with slow yet steady motion.

and as he did this a terrifying buzz seemed to erupt from the sword showing off his newly learnt sword intent.

"Apocalypse Sword Style! "

A mesmerising golden light congregated at the tip of Klents sword forming a dazzling scene

"Split The Earth !"

Klent shouted fiercely as he executed a ferocious chop filled with destructive malice, it was as if he wanted the very world itself to collapse in on itself . in doing this he sent out a monstrous golden beam of sword energy straight towards Dante leaving cracks in the ground as it hurtled towards Dante.

seeing this horrifying sight Dante acted too

"Lunar Sword Technique, Rising New Moon !"

The moon above him seemed to go into overdrive flashing a dazzling silver. with a wave of his hand, Dante directed his attack towards the approaching beam of sword energy.

"Boom!"

a nuclear-like explosion went off sending a terrifying shockwave out that sent the onlookers flying and cowering in retreat.

as the dust cleared all that could be seen was a massive crater and inside the crater was Dante. His clothes had been blown apart exposing his completer upper body while his hair had lost its dazzling glow appearing a more pale white than its original glowing silver.

seeing this scene Klent couldn't help but sigh

"truly a good fight, if it wasn't for my sudden comprehension of intent I would have definitely lost " he lamented

"Who said you've won ?"