Ezra kicked back his opponents three steps and then stood up.
The opponent straightened himself and took caution as well.
Ezra just stared and exhaled, concentrating as he sought to create something.
'If I can use elements in here, then-"
He cut himself and let his blood flow.
"-it should be possible'
As the blood slid down his left arm, Ezra used his blood affinity to shape it.
Lo and behold, a long sword was formed.
He would have formed two short swords instead, but that took too much blood to make.
Then, he infused the blade with mana, bringing forth a blue outline.
'Huu' he exhaled, staring down at his opponent before getting into a stance.
'Form twenty-seven of the blade sequence'
The next instant, his body lit up with lightning.
Reaching the opponent in seconds, Ezra brought down his sword.
'Slash and flash!'
*Kin!*
The impact between scythe and sword was immense, and it only got better.
Ezra's affinity with blood was uncanny and, upon taking the first strike, he realized slashes and flashes won't go through. He had the long sword turn into twin daggers, changing forms once more.
'Form ten. Renegade Blade!'
*Kin*Ching*Kang*cling*
The daggers chipped at the scythe multiple times, but it was the daggers that faced the brunt of it, but he constantly reformed them with the blood dripping from his hands.
But his effect was achieved. Hitting the scythe so fast had it vibrating and that threw the opponent off rhythm.
'Chance!'
So, when a gap showed itself, Ezra was at the ready and plunged the right dagger into the opponent's neck.
Like so the battle ended and Ezra found himself in reality minutes later.
He looked to see his body unharmed, and sighed in relief.
For minutes, he sat and reviewed the battle over and over in his head, looking for why he, and not the opponent, had won.
It all came down to one reason.
'He was inflexible'
Ezra won by taking advantage of that.
Taking deep breaths, he reviewed the Infinite Forms once more.
Many of the forms were those he had witnessed in his past life.
Though the names he assigned were of his making.
With increased mental acuteness, he could remember the forms of all the sequences easily.
He got to work, reviewing the five sequences, Foot, Fist, Blade, Staff and Scythe.
He aimed to combine them into a single form. That would be the real 'Infinite Forms'.
How many years that would take he didn't know, but he was aiming to get as much progress as possible.
As such, he requested a mentor for himself from Bolton, who kindly turned him down, citing that the Empire would not be paying the cost for such an endeavor because they were paying the cost of his vassal's mentorship.
Saying nothing, Ezra went to the Royal Treasury instead and took out a hundred and fifty combat techniques.
The guards were alarmed and told Bolton, who simply smiled and dismissed the warning.
'So, you think you can master all those combat techniques. As expected, a child is but a child after all. Reality is ever quick to checkmate the unworthy'
Without minding others, Ezra went through the combat arts, which he did in two days.
Throughout that time, he simply folded the pages where he found something interesting so he'd come back for it later.
With all the books thoroughly screened, he slept for twelve hours to get himself back on track.
The next day, he only checked the folded pages, copying them out onto blank sheets of paper.
This took six days.
Once done, he tasked one of the guards to take it all back and began to look through those he copied down.
Taking an average of two movements from each book, he had almost five hundred movements to look through.
But if doing so would let him emerge a stronger warrior, why not?
This took a month, mostly because he went through it very slowly.
He circled any part of the techniques that caught his interest instead of cutting out any technique he didn't like.
While lengthy, this opened his mind to many things and allowed him to develop a more versatile combat style.
After that month, more than two-thirds of the techniques were dismissed.
He had taken what he wanted from them.
The next month saw Ezra dismiss two-third of the remaining one-third.
In the end, he was left with notes based on all his observations and, with it, he reviewed the Infinite Forms.
Two months went by as Ezra added, dismissed, replaced, and subtly changed the movements.
He ended up with a hundred and twenty movements, but decided that was too much to master and cut out the least useful twenty-five movements, leaving ninety-five movements.
'This took far more time than expected'
He was annoyed because of this, though he admitted that it was more than worth it.
With fleeting hope, he reaches out to Bard. Maybe he'd have something to accelerate his training, though Ezra himself didn't think such existed.
Lo and behold, Bard blew away his expectations and brought him an item.
One Ezra had seen before.
"Isn't that a combat imprint?"
"Yes, the best sort of combat imprint!" Bard implored with excitement.
"The best? What does it do?"
"Well, for others, they take you to mind spaces that teach one technique" he then pointed to the artifact he was holding.
"With this, you can practice any move you want"
Ezra's eyes lit up in surprise.
"It has no side effects?"
Bard scratched his beard in awkwardness.
"For one, headaches, daydreams and dizziness become commonplace, though that is mostly it. But-"
Bard turned serious.
"-you shouldn't use it for too long at once, else as I've also heard, you'll find time moving slowly"
Ezra contemplated.
"What do you think?"
"I appreciate this more than you can imagine"
Bard lit up when Ezra asked…
"But…why are you giving this to me?"
"Hmm" Bard looked visibly confused.
"Because you're my lord"
Ezra raised a brow.
"You're still going strong on that. It's just soul contract, should be easy for you break away from it"
"Huh? I think you're getting something wrong. Yes, I can break the contract, but the consequences would be horrendous. As you grow in power, your soul strength increases, so you can break the contract with a lesser party easily. But this also means that its power over you is more than those on lower ranks. If we do break a soul contract, our soul would be inflicted with a damage I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy"
Ezra was puzzled.
"Of course, since our souls are naturally strong, they'd heal in time, but…"
"But?"
"One would never be the same. A cracked cup might crack again after being glued back. It's exactly the same with the soul. It'll have a remnant of the injury, no longer perfect as it once was. Psychics would have an easier time penetrating the person's mind and even his life…sigh…Anyways, soul contracts are never to be taken lightly"
"I see" Ezra was introspective.
Bard words had enlightened him far more than he could know.
One thing was clear.
'I'll have to adjust my plans once more'
With that, Ezra took the combat imprint and bowed in thanks.
Then, he dropped a pile of gold in Bard's chamber, leaving the alchemist stunned not by the amount, but by the one wielding it.
—--------------
A day later, Ezra sat cross legged and infused mana into the combat imprint, a white slate with unrecognizable letters and a black back.
The next instant, he found himself in a white space.
'Hmm. Why does it seem similar to the space the scythe takes me?' he wondered.
Since he'd experienced the scythe's space, he was able to wield his subconscious with little effort.
Two short swords formed in his hands.
Ezra smiled and nodded.
Immediately, he began practicing the Infinite Forms.
Not long after, he fell into a trance as he went from a movement to another.
His mind emptied as he swung his sword, feeling himself on the tip of something ethereal yet familiar.
'What is it?' Ezra thought and increased his efforts, trying to find out.
Until, at some point, Ezra froze in between his swings as realization came to him.
Memories came to the sights, bad ones.
From his death, to the death of his subordinates, to the apocalypse and otherworld monsters.
He succumbed to despair, doubt crawling into his heart.
'What am I doing?'
Yes, what was he doing?
'Did I truly think I could change anything? H-how can I face such things?' he questioned.
'How could I even dream of facing-"
His gibber came to a halt as someone approached.
Someone he knew more than any other.
Himself!
He stepped back.
"W-what! Y-you're me!'
The other him stared him down in disdain.
"How I wish I wasn't"
"W-what?"
"You're so pathetic. What a sorry excuse. You don't expect to kill Marcus like this do you?"
Ezra clenched his fists.
"Don't insult me" he muttered.
"What? I didn't hear you"
"Don't insult me!" he growled.
"You have no idea-"
"What you have been through? Of course, I do. I'm you" other him stated.
"But that doesn't give you an excuse to give up"
"I didn't-"
"Eh? Then why are you on the floor?"
Ezra looked at himself and realized the absurdity. He stood up in a jiffy.
With his gait tall, the other him folded his arms.
"Now this is more like it. We've been through a lot, so stand proud"
"That's it? That's all you came to say?" Ezra's face went blank.
"Of course. You have the answers, you just need to look around a bit"
He vanished as soon as he said that.
Right after, Ezra felt himself squeezed to impossible proportions, only to open his eyes to the sight of his chamber.
But what caught his attention wasn't that.
Instead, it was the hazy black halo emanating from his body.
"Aura…"
