Bab 28: Ice breathing
Now that I had my arm back, I could finally start properly training again.
I picked up mountain slicer and drew it from its sheath. The blade seemed to sit differently in my hands after I mastered the observation and manipulation techniques, as though it resonated to something within me. Having two arms again also helped gain back a sense of familiarity while holding the hilt of the sword.
"Yea, this is it."
I tightened my grip on the hilt, brought the blade up to my side and swung down diagonally. The blade cut through the air in the blink of an eye, faster than my eyes could follow. The force I generated was unlike anything I had ever experienced or seen before.
With one arm, I could output a similar amount of power, but without my left hand supporting and guiding the trajectory of the blade, all my swings felt unrefined and wild.
Now though, I could not only output enough power and speed to overwhelm any opponent, but I also had the control I required to properly use techniques. Though I still needed plenty of work to consistently and effectively use perfect overload while in battle, it definitely was not the end all be all of techniques, yet.
The final thing I needed was a new style. A breathing style that could accommodate my new techniques.
I knew trying to do it again would probably be a lot of work, but there were no other options.
But first, I tried using water breathing again, this time with no handicaps.
I activated perfect overload while keeping my sword to my side.
"First form. Water surface slash."
I swung the sword horizontally, seeing the current of water that was always there, but this time it was different. It was bigger, faster, and more violent than before.
But then, as the blade was about halfway through its path, the blue current fizzled out and disappeared completely.
After the form was completed, I looked at my sword with a confused look on my face.
'Obviously. This isn't water breathing anymore. The technique is originally just a swing of the sword coupled with the use of total concentration. What I'm doing is different. Damn.'
In my days spent there in isolation, I finally got around to reading about the philosophical aspect of breathing techniques, the part I always skipped. As it turned out, it wasn't just philosophy, but also a manual of sorts.
'Once a name is given to a movement or set of movements, the user has to visualize the meaning of that name. This is when a simple sword movement becomes a form and when the user of said form can see it manifest on their sword. Other people obviously cannot see it, but the size of the effect the user can see is directly correlated to the power of the technique.' One of the books read.
I felt stupid. Skipping over arguably the most important part simply because of my impatience was unbelievably childish. How could I even act like that? I wasn't actually a child anymore, yet I still acted like one.
'God, aren't I actually 30? Why am I acting like this?'
Then, as I brooded over my mistakes, my train of thought naturally led me to a question I've been avoiding asking myself.
'Well, I was 23 in my past life and I'm around 13 now… oh god. Am I going through a midlife crisis? Should I even count the years before I got reborn? Wait. Why did I get reincarnated in the first place?' I thought, my brain trying to somehow piece together the incohesive thoughts.
I mulled over that last point for a while. But no matter how hard I tried, it just didn't make any sense.
'Whatever, this is the type of question I'll never come up with the answer for.'
And so, I gave up on thinking and went back to practice.
Standing up, I activated perfect overload again and held onto my sword tightly. Taking a stance with my right foot in front, I gently raised my sword up and prepared for a swing.
Just then, I directed blood into my arms and circulated it at extreme speeds, giving me power beyond human means.
The swing was powerful, but then again, it was just a random swing that I couldn't base a technique off of.
What I was doing was akin to playing darts with my eyes closed, just blindly throwing sword slashes until something stuck. Obviously, this brute force attempt didn't work, and I predicted that it never would.
'OK, let's try it the old man's way.'
The old man for the village created a new style called lighting breathing all on his own. Apparently, it was his life's work. The best part, aside from the really impressive style he made, was that he described, in great detail, how he did so.
The main points I managed to pick out of the lengthy text were: One has to visualize the intended sword movement, then, one must link the movement to something. Be it thunder, water or grass.
It sounded fairly simple, however, it was the exact opposite.
Coming up with an appropriate 'Link' for the technique was more complicated than I had originally anticipated. First, the style will be more effective the more closely it is related to its link. The reason for this, is that the swordsman can more easily visualize the intended effects of their techniques, making them faster, more accurate, and in some cases, stronger. Therefore, the simpler the better. For example, water breathing mimics the way water moves, and thunder breathing focuses on being fats like thunder. Simple enough. But coming up with something entirely new was anything but. Factor in perfect overload and it becomes very hard very fast.
What I wanted to do for one of my first forms was simple. A rush of fast yet precise cuts designed to overwhelm an opponent with speed and numbers. For an ordinary swordsman, an attack like this would be impractical. It would waste too much stamina for very little result, not to mention if the enemy has good reactions, they can just block every attack. For me, this obviously wasn't a problem. I didn't know how fast other breathing users were, but I was confident my sword could move faster than them. I could also increase the amount of blood to my arms to turn the small cuts into large gashes.
After a few tries, I got the general movement down from what I had imagined. Now all that I needed to do was come up with a link.
"Ok, when in doubt, just draw inspiration from nature." I said, remembering a quote from my old world.
I looked outside and saw fuck all. Snow, snow, and more snow.
"Fuck it. Snow breathing? No. I hate snow."
I looked again.
"Mountain breathing? How is that at all related to my fighting style? I hate mountains too."
And again.
"Cloud breathing? Maybe."
Then I looked in the corner of the room, where some snow I brought inside and melted had turned into ice.
"Ice breathing? That could work. Alright let's try it."
"Ice breathing, first form, White Tempest."
I imagined my sword being enveloped in a sheet of freezing icy snow, so cold that the ice skips melting and becoming liquid and begins sublimating, releasing a frigid vapor that envelops the whole blade.
Then, I imagined that vapor getting larger and larger, devouring everything in front of it as I began slashing and stabbing whatever stood in front of me.
And so, like my imagination became reality, I opened my eyes to see a cold, vicious vapor enveloping my blade. I quickly activated perfect overload and started performing the sword movement.
The vapor that was draped over my sword started moving, condensing into small balls of cold air that shot out like a bullet whenever I swung my sword. From the other side, it would probably feel like being trapped in a relentless blizzard that launches miniscule snowflakes that can dig directly into skin.
Of course, the source of my inspiration was the blizzard that nearly killed me, so I guess it was a fair trade.
But regardless, I had done something impossible again. I created an entirely new breathing style.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone