Grey Skill 20/ Aether Blades 10

When I arrived at the second platform, I moved to the center. With my eyes closed, I pictured the second djinn projection, the woman who had guarded over the keystone containing knowledge of Realmheart. I copied the stance she had used during our battle. The aether, responding to my intentions, flowed into the shape of a blade in my right hand. A moment later, a second blade consolidated in my left.

It wasn’t strenuous to hold them both, but this kind of two-weapon fighting had never been my focus. Acknowledging this fact helped me see part of the problem: I’d learned to fight with a single blade, been taught that my weapon was an extension of my arm.

One of the monsters congealed out of the void, crawling onto the platform and snarling with a mouth that took up most of its face. Yellow eyes stared at me from its shoulders, and a whip-like tail snapped back and forth.

I waited. When it lunged, I took a step back, letting its claws pass right in front of me. My swords swept across its neck, closing like shears, cleanly removing the grotesque head. The monster dissolved, and I returned to my starting position.

Even now, the way I held a sword, the way I fought, was based on the principles I had learned as King Grey. Kordri’s influence was there, too, in my footwork and timing, in mastery over the micro-movements of my blade and body in concert. But, really, I was still very much the same swordsman I had been in my previous life.