Martial Demons Ascension

Rhyka hadn't planned it this way

When he first told Loretta and Rinnte to come to him he'd been half serious about opening a "dojo" He had ideas about drills conditioning exercises and slow step by step lessons He thought maybe he'd make them run the village walls balance buckets of water practice their stances until their legs shook

But after the first week he realized none of that was enough

So he changed it

Training stopped being structured drills It stopped being warm ups and stretches It became one thing and one thing only sparring

Every day As long as they could move

If they were standing they were fighting

At first it broke them

Loretta had stormed in with her dancer's grace convinced she could overwhelm him with her water flowing steps Within minutes she was flat on her back her breath knocked out her face red with humiliation

Rinnte lasted longer His fundamentals were strong his balance steady his control sharp But against Rhyka's raw instincts the way he read a shift in weight the twitch of a muscle he found himself disarmed and pinned staring up at the ceiling in frustration

They won Over and over

But Rhyka didn't let them stop

Whenever Loretta stumbled back to her feet he was already moving forcing her into another exchange before her lungs could fill Whenever Rinnte hesitated he punished him with a strike that left bruises blooming across his ribs

There was no coddling No encouragement

Just sparring sparring sparring until the three of them were panting sweating and collapsing against the dirt floor

For Rhyka it pushed him to his limits in ways he hadn't expected

He was already good better than good The "glance" had sharpened his instincts to a terrifying degree But keeping that edge honed every single day was hell on his body His muscles screamed his stomach churned and more than once he ended training by stumbling behind the shed to vomit bile into the dirt

Then the next morning he showed up again

Mask on blade in hand smirk plastered across his face as if nothing had happened

Loretta and Rinnte didn't see the vomit They didn't see the shaking hands at night or the way he collapsed on his bed half dead All they saw was that he never stopped coming Never stopped fighting

So they didn't stop either

The results came fast faster than Rhyka expected

Loretta's footwork already precise from her dancing transformed under constant pressure Where she used to stumble after a spin she now flowed seamlessly into her next strike Her kicks grew sharper her body coordination tighter She began weaving fragments of her water magic into her movements more efficiently no wasted effort no wasted mana

Rinnte's growth was quieter but just as sharp He didn't just spar he studied Every time Rhyka put him down he replayed it in his head until he understood what he'd missed His defense tightened his counters grew cleaner and his timing became brutal in its efficiency He was never flashy never showy but he stopped making mistakes

They weren't beating Rhyka everytime Not yet But they were getting closer Forcing him to work harder Making him sweat

And that was enough to keep them hungry

The change didn't go unnoticed

At first the class laughed at them Loretta with her bruises hidden under sleeves Rinnte with faint limps he refused to explain Rumors spread fast that Rhyka was using them that he was torturing them behind closed doors that they were desperate enough to put up with it

But then slowly the laughter started to fade

During regular lessons when Emmet had them spar or drill it became obvious

Loretta's strikes cut sharper faster harder The grace in her movements no longer looked like a performance it looked dangerous Her water magic followed her body like a whip snapping into place with near perfect timing

Rinnte was worse for their pride Every time he sparred a classmate they found themselves shut down Their flashy openings countered their spells read before they could finish their balance stripped from under them He didn't just win he dismantled them Calm Cold Efficient

The class whispered now in a different tone

"They're different"

"…Stronger Way stronger"

"Is it because of him Because of Rhyka"

For Rhyka himself the daily grind blurred into one long stretch of exhaustion He fought he vomited he trained again His body toughened his instincts sharpened his stamina grew

Sometimes when his exhaustion was at its worst something strange happened He would catch glimpses fleeting almost invisible of the same golden filament he'd seen in his vision The Line Martial Essence

It wasn't clear not yet But it was there Close

Every time he stumbled into bed his body aching and lungs burning he could almost see it Almost reach it

And that was enough to keep him going

For two days Rhyka sat in silence

No food No sleep Only water when his throat burned too raw to ignore His mask and blade lay set neatly beside him untouched while he sat cross legged on the floorboards of his cramped house spine straight eyes shut

At first it was nothing His thoughts wandered His body itched His stomach growled He forced himself to endure grinding his will against the small discomforts Hours bled together until time meant nothing

And then on the second night something shifted

It began with a blur in his vision subtle at the edges of his perception Then a tremor in his chest like a drumbeat echoing from deep inside his bones His breath grew heavy His heartbeat slowed Every pulse felt like it was shaking something loose in his body

Then it came

A burst of golden light exploded in the darkness behind his closed eyes

It wasn't a flash It wasn't imagined It was real solid burning so bright it seared his mind

A pillar of golden radiance tore through him surging upward and downward all at once anchoring him to the world and ripping him out of it at the same time

For an instant Rhyka thought he would be crushed His lungs screamed his veins felt like they would burst and the force dragged him upward up through the pillar into something vast and unending

And then the world changed

He saw energy

Not vaguely not as a "sense" or a "feeling" He saw it

It flowed through the world like invisible rivers twisting pulsing feeding into every stone tree and living thing Thin strands of light drifted like dust in the air thicker streams coiled underground and great currents surged in the sky Mana Pure and endless

Instinctively he understood This was the foundation of sorcery the lifeblood of all spells He had no core no channel to draw it in But he could see it Track it Follow its flow as clearly as footsteps in mud

And beyond mana there was more

Another layer

Golden

Not the currents of sorcery but something older deeper The world of Martial Essence

Here movement was everything Every twitch of a muscle every shift of weight every flick of a hand left a golden afterimage lines trailing through the air like brushstrokes of light He saw paths potential futures carved by intent The sweep of a blade carried ten possible trajectories each one flickering faintly before collapsing into the chosen strike The stomp of a foot rippled through the ground echoes of balance and momentum spreading like rings in water

Even with his eyes closed it was clear If he opened them if he shut them it made no difference the golden light remained It wasn't bound to sight It was perception itself

Then he looked inward

And for the first time he truly saw himself

Not flesh Not blood Not bone

Golden threads webbed through his body pulsing faintly Not mana channels Not anything sorcerous Something else Something purer His essence

It wasn't uniform Some strands glowed brighter denser sharper Others were faint frayed at the edges incomplete But they were there His essence existed and he could feel it comprehend it

It wasn't just instinct anymore It wasn't just an edge It was tangible

He let out a shuddering breath his body drenched in sweat his muscles trembling His lips pulled back into a grin he couldn't suppress

He had reached the threshold

The golden pillar had pulled him past his limits and now he stood with one foot in the realm he'd only glimpsed before

He didn't just see movement He saw intent

He didn't just see paths He saw every one he could take

And deep in his core he knew this was only the beginning