บท 33: The Way of Soft Strength.

"He is...me," the old man said as he looked into Zera's eyes.

Zeras stood there shocked at first when he suddenly burst into laughter.

King Atlas's great advisor was the Old cleaner of the Colosseum. Just how funny is that? Isn't he supposed to be in the palace?

Zera's laughter continued for almost three minutes non-stop, but even though he was laughing, all he could see was the old man looking at him with a blank expression.

Zera's laughter finally calmed down as he spoke to the old man.

"I'm sorry old man. But it's good to follow our dreams sometimes. 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.

"Hmm..."

Zeras thought about what he said. His mission was to defeat the false king of Atlantis which was Sammodra and it kinda fits in with the old man's objective.

So they were pretty much on the same lane. All he needed from the old man was to teach him how to walk. Whether the old man was the king's advisor was none of his business, so far he obtained what he wanted.

If the old man turned out to be speaking the truth, then he would learn an extra three or two things from him. If the man was also lying, then he wouldn't be losing anything too.

Either, he wins.

"I agree old man."

"Good." The old man said with a smile.

"What is the strongest point you noticed when you fought with Roder." The old man said as he continued paddling.

Zeras's eyes narrowed, if he was to recall a troublesome thing about Roder, then that was the strange force that accompanied every swing of his trident.

"I feel he can swing harder than he should normally be able to do. Like there's a strange force powering every one of his attacks." Zeras said to the man. It was a strange topic that always bothered him.

"That force runs through all of us. It's the belief power obtained from King Atlas's golden trident. It enforces the strike of an Athlanthean by double when he strikes with the trident." The old man answered causing a smile to appear on his face.

What the man just told him was like a racial ability of the Atlanteans. Their strength is increased by double when they fight with the tridents. It's like his own ability of Dash, which increases his speed by double when it's activated.

"But the Atlanteans have treaded down the wrong path. The way of an Athlanthean is not that of strong strength but it's quite the opposite. It's soft strength force"

"What..." Zeras looked at the old man as if he was insane. Strong strength and soft strength. Is there such a concept?

"Hold your paddle..." The old man commanded.

Zeras grabbed hold of his paddle in both hands as their tip lay resting on the water.

"Now follow my wave..." The old man said as Zeras felt him sharply inhaling before swinging the paddle backward, extremely gently, and the boat also moved forward.

He watched the man repeat the motion every three times, with each time drawing In a deep breath as he rowed.

He also dipped his paddle into the water as he tried swinging back but felt it 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 this boy, our objective is not to completely change, instead, it's to adapt..."

Zeras looked at the back of the old man who was easily paddling as his words echoed out to himself.

"It's not to change but to adapt."

Zeras dipped his paddle in the hard water as he closed his eyes and concentrated.

He could feel the water which was formerly deadly stagnant having some small areas where there were currents.

Zeras slowly dipped his paddle in, as he focused his paddle on sensing the special waves and moved in the direction of those waves instead, applying as little force as possible while ensuring the waves themselves did the work.

Slowly but surely, he could feel the paddle moving backward, as they traveled to the special wave but he would sometimes lose track of the waves and come before an obstruction.

"Don't force it to move. Don't try to brute-force your way in. Instead, follow the waves as they move. Listen to it and follow its path instead..."

That word seemed to echo out to him from an area far from the darkness as Zeras slowly concentrated on moving his paddle only in the direction of the wave.

Sometimes, he would come across block-holds as he lost track of the wave, but instead of fighting back, he would remove his paddle and try to follow another current instead.

-- -- --

6hrs later...

A young man and an old man could be seen as they both sat down on a boat, eyes closed, with a paddle in hand while driving forward.

Zeras felt the world around him disappearing with only one thing remaining and that was the waves he could feel his paddle passing by.

His muscles moved in sync with the waves, following the current, as he found strength from deep within him to follow through the waves.

Slowly, he was successfully paddling without needing to constantly remove his paddle from the water due to block-holes.

"Our objective is not to change but to adapt..." Zetas felt the word echoing out to him as realization dawned upon him.

"Struggling against the wave and he'll be expending too much energy, but instead of doing that, he could simply follow the wave, and use its current to direct himself in his direction.

He wouldn't need to struggle and waste energy, he'll simply provide a small burst and let the waves do his job.

Zeras snapped his eyes open as he took a deep breath in disbelief. There was a feeling growing in him as if he had grabbed on something, but he still didn't understand what it meant.

It was the same as the feeling of grabbing onto air. He could feel it in his palms, but he didn't understand what happened after that. He only knows it's gone.

Zeras looked at the back of the old man strangely. Now, to him, he wasn't just an old useless colosseum cleaner. Perhaps there was a possibility, a possibility of him being something more.