Nightmare Mythos

Clang—!

What Cesar understood when Randal said to start their lesson, he thought he was going to be receiving a brief introduction on how their course would develop over time, what he should do to achieve the desired results that Randal wanted, and all of that stuff?

But no, Randal had a very different terminology for starting things up.

'God damn it!'

Clang—!

Randal just passed him a weapon in the inventory, threw it at Cesar, and started running him down.

Whoosh—!

His movements were exact and chaotic. The technique he used on his sword was entirely different from that on his spear. It looked like both of his arms were alive and he could think of what to do while executing a series of actions.

That's why Cesar was unable to discern the attack patterns Randal moved due to how confusing his actions were.

Whoosh—!

'How in the world is he doing this—!'

To be done with the pursuit that was tilting towards Randal's favor, he sprinted at Cesar and motioned one huge attack.

With only pure physical strength, Randol slid through the ground and stretched his spear toward Cesar, who defended it with ease.

However, the spear in his hand swerved and slithered, hitting his face in the process. With just a slight movement in his grip, he was able to will the spear actions as he pleased.

Slick—!

Feeling the cut on his cheek which could've been worse if Randal hadn't rough, Cesar wanted to create a sort of distance between them since it was almost impossible to read his instructor's movement.

But before he could do so, Randal slightly threw his sword in the air before spinning his spear which then hit the sword in the air and flew towards Cesar at an explosive rate.

Tak—!

The air whistled before the sword hit the floor just right behind Cesar, who immediately stopped when he felt something rushing at him, almost threatening to end his life.

Nonetheless, that's what Randal gave to the life he had given at his weapons while dealing with Cesar. At the end of the day, he still has a duty as his instructor to keep his students safe.

"We can stop now,"

Cesar wiped the beads of sweat at his nose before sitting down on the ground, raggedly breathing. He dropped down his weapon as well while contemplating a few things inside his head.

'For some reason, this is almost equal to the most exhausting things I did in the past. It's not about physical, really. More like the constant thinking of his next movement is making my mind jumbled. I can't process it all inside my head,'

Randal grabbed the sword along the way before finally approaching Cesar and finally giving his evaluation.

"You are a very smart fighter, Cesar. Now I can see why you managed to get out alive. However, being smart isn't almost guaranteed to win a fight,"

Randal paused, "Your physical state is average but we can tweak it a little bit to make it more suitable for your style of combat. I'm sure other classes will recommend this to you as well. Too much and not too much, they will say. So exact is probably the right word."

Randal walked around the inventory around the gym and put the two swords, and a spear back in one of the available cabinets before reaching Cesar once again and continuing his evaluation.

"Your mental state is weak, however. Well, not really weak but disorderly perhaps?" Randal seated down right in front of Cesar, "You are a smart kid and because of that, you thought of many possibilities all at once to produce a result that is far better than any else of your choices. That's what I did just now,"

Randal started moving his wrist, "I give you a lot of options for my attack, and discerning it made you think it's impossible to read, right?"

Cesar was indeed thinking about that earlier which is why he gave up being offensive and tried being in a defensive strategy but it was all futile in the end.

After seeing a nod coming from Cesar, Randal then added, "But you see, there's only one option left that everyone is thinking of when dealing with their opponents. Only one; and that is to kill them. Everything after that will be just noises and distractions that will make your mind crazy,"

'Noises and distractions…'

Randal then took a pause as he observed the students around them before furthering his explanation, "That puts me to teach you this class. And this will be another thing you'll need to learn. To kill your opponent, not only you should be 'alive'. Your weapons should be as well. And do you know what makes a weapon alive, well, while watching me?"

Cesar tried to guess, "Your mind?"

Randal chuckled and gently shook his head, "No, it is how the way you handled them. It means using your grip just the way you thought without actually thinking about it,"

"My grip? Is this the reason why you're very good at wielding different kinds of weapons, sir?"

Cesar asked to which Randal replied with another curt nod. After contemplating, he continued.

"Yes, starting on our next meeting, you'll have to practice different kinds of gripping patterns at different kinds of weapons. It will be challenging. By the end of the contract I had with Arnold, you might not be able to wield as much as I do but you'll master a few some of them and not just daggers.

"We're only going for the basics so don't expect any fights like we did just now."

Randal stood up from his seat and grabbed a bandage from his pockets. Tossing it towards Cesar, he then declared the end of the class.

"You can go. For the remaining time you have, do what business you have," Randal touched the bridge of his nose, "I'll have to oversee the Facet Selections, you see. That's part of the deal,"

Cesar saw Randal leaving the gymnasium, producing a few whispers from all over the place. Since he did have something to do, he also left the area after a few minutes of digesting information from his instructor.