Child of Destiny

...…

"Good skills are sometimes useless when they are not being used right," said Faker while preventing Shin from drawing his sword with his right hand. And right after that, he quickly swung his other hand, which was holding a dagger.

Fortunately, Shin managed to recover himself in time and immediately hopped backwards, dodging the sudden strike while also trying to put some distance between him and Faker.

But even if he successfully dodged that attack, he was still put in a tight spot because Faker suddenly made an immediate follow-up.

Right after Shin dodged the previous attack by hopping backwards, Faker suddenly threw the dagger that he was holding and sent it straight towards Shin's face. And since Shin was still in the air due to the backward hop, dodging the incoming dagger became quite hard for him.

Even if he could do a midair jump through the 'Mondi's Jump' legacy skill, he knew that Faker was quite aware of it, especially when he could see that the latter was closely watching his next move.

"Tch!" Shin could tell that he couldn't dodge towards his left and right, he chose to avoid the incoming dodge on his current spot instead.

With that thought, Shin still chose to use the 'Mondi's Jump'. But instead of moving sideways, he jumped slightly upwards before doing a spin-roll midair. Due to that, he was able to dodge the dagger successfully. Then he quickly forced himself to land on the ground right after avoiding the dagger.

And when his feet finally touched the ground, he hastily planned to hop away from Faker for a moment. But before he could even do what he was thinking, he suddenly discovered that he was unable to move his body.

"What!?" Shin was still confused at what had happened when he saw Faker waving his right hand downwards. And right after that, he suddenly felt that there was something falling towards him.

And when used his 'Sensing Circle' to see what it was, he discovered that it was Faker's other dagger that was tossed earlier.

Well, it was actually not a big deal even if he was hit with either of the daggers if they were just some normal attacks. But kept having a feeling that he couldn't get hit by either of them or else things would become messy. With that, he was forced to remove the status effect with one of his CC-removing skills.

'Extra Skill: Swordsman Resolve'

And right after that, he quickly took a couple of steps backwards to barely dodge the falling dagger. But before he could take a sigh of relief, Faker suddenly appeared right in front of him while catching the dagger.

Then Faker used the momentum of his charge to continue moving forward. At the same time, he kept his right hand extended so that he could have a thrusting posture while coming after Shin.

Fortunately, Shin was already expecting the follow-up attack this time and dodged it by using the 'Void Steps' elemental skill. He chose this skill instead of the 'Moonlight Steps' because he didn't know if Faker could stop him in his incorporeal form or not; nevertheless, it was before to become a little cautious this time.

With that skill, Shin was able to teleport himself away from Faker. And the moment he appeared a few meters away, he immediately assumed a battle position, signifying that he was ready to attack if ever Faker appeared in front of him once again.

But this time, Faker did not come after him. Instead, he just slowly walked towards his other dagger and picked it up from the ground. Then he looked at Shin and said. "The series of Skill under your Class Fighting Style might be strong and deadly; especially that it has a very quick attack."

"Maybe it is not as flashy as the other Class Fighting Styles that I have seen. But its deadliness doesn't lose to them. It was quite easy to notice that they were going to use that kind of skill due to the special effects that they have."

"But yours is quite different since your Class Fighting Style Skills don't have much special effects that you are going to use those skills, you are just going to sheath your sword before you are going to use it."

Then he paused for a moment and tried to see Shin's reaction before continuing. "But that was also the fatal flaw of your skill. Maybe it's quick and has little effects to signify that you are going to use the skills, but what if you can't pull that sword out from its sheath? How are you going to attack if that was the case?"

Shin was taken aback that Faker was giving him some lectures. From what he heard from Lawless and the others, this guy rarely did something like this. So, he was quite confused at the current situation.

But that was not important at the current moment, they are currently in the middle of training, so taking some advice would not hurt him; especially when Faker's words were all within a reason.

In fact, he was already aware of the fatal weaknesses of his Class Fighting Style since his battle against 'Vega' in the Shunkai Forest, which further gave him enough understanding about the sword-drawing skills.

He discovered that there were two major ways to use the sword-drawing skills. The first one was to get near your opponent as soon as possible while attacking with it while the other one was to move away from your opponent so that you could gain enough space to draw the sword.

The former needed the wielder to have a very quick speed for it to be executed since it was meant to get the target off-guard. It was a quick attack meant to execute the opponent for as soon as possible.

On the other hand, the second method needed the user to have a keen sense of distance. For this method, managing the distance between the user of the style and the opponent, was critical. Especially since it was a method that focused on counterattack.

Being already aware of this, Shin already did a lot of training so that he could become more familiar with these two methods. Whether he was fighting a player or battling a monster, he was always making sure that he was using the two methods.

And since he had already gone into a lot of battle, he already had enough experience at using the methods. Which also made him believe that he was already quite familiar with them. But just earlier, Faker showed him how foolish that belief was.

It was useless to have a quick speed to get near your target if the opponent had enough reaction speed to respond to your attack and prevent you from drawing your sword. And it was also quite useless to have a good management of distance if your opponent was fast enough to close that gap and did not want to give you enough time to pull that sword out from its sheath.

From Shin's understanding, these were the things that Faker wanted to convey with that brief exchange earlier. And if he was right, the latter was also saying that the skill set that made him the famous 'Nameless Swordsman' was also the same skill set that indicated his weakness.

With those thoughts running inside his mind, Shin squinted his eyes as he was trying to figure out an answer for a quite difficult question.

...

Meanwhile, Lawless and the others were already done consolidating the things that they just learned and were now observing the fight together with Arthur and Leonard.

Right now, Arthur already removed the visual of his helm and was currently stroking his chin while observing Shin closely. "Maybe those skills are strong in front of the others, but in front of a real expert, those were just your fatal weakness."

At the same time, Leonard was also anticipating how Shin would respond to his current problem. "So, what are you going to do now, Shin Bro? Abandon the idea of keep using those skills that make you both strong and weak, or persist on using them and continue to suffer some setbacks."

Hearing those words from Leonard, Arthur agreed while adding. "Not only that, he also has another problem that needs to be solved as soon as possible."

"Having two sets of battle styles may increase the number of his cards during battle. But that will also make his real battle style to become a mess. Even if he says that he is able to manage it, there are still some cases where he will unconsciously get confused on which style he is currently using."

Leonard nodded his head but he still refuted a little. "Remember, he needs to have two identities."

Arthur smiled bitterly before saying. "Yes, we understand that. But it doesn't have to be this 'different'; he will get exposed sooner or later. And given how cunning Big Sis is, I am pretty sure that she already has some suspicions. What she only needs now is a solid proof to prove those suspicions."

"And once that time comes, what is he going to do? Continuing using two sets of battle styles? That will only make himself a player with a lot of cards but hasn't truly mastered anything. If he persists on going this way, then he will not be able to find his real battle style and is going to get stocked in a bottleneck."

Then he paused his words for a moment and squinted his eyes before saying. "And that wall will surely be a tough one to overcome."

Hearing those words, Leonard unconsciously said. "But what if he managed to master both."

Arthur suddenly shook his head the moment he heard that and said. "That is pretty much impossible. Even that greatest player of all time once said. 'No man can walk more than one path in his life. Because if he does, he will continue getting lost along the way and will be unable to find his true destination'."

"In fact, I actually tried doing that before. Given that I am a 'Martial-Art Prodigy', doing such a feat is not a problem to me. But as I walked down on multiple paths, I kept having a feeling that there was something missing in it. So, I abandoned the other paths and walked on a path that suited me the best."

Leonard knitted his brows and asked. "So, it is really impossible for Shin Bro to continue on what he is currently doing?"

After getting asked once again, Arthur suddenly raised one of his eyebrows and said. "Actually, there was another path that can save Shin from getting lost. And given that it is him, I am sure that he can see it too. It's just-…"

He trailed his words a little and looked at Shin with a pair of meaningful eyes before continuing. "I'm just not sure whether he is going to choose it or not. Especially since it is a very rough road to take."

...…