Two sect guards wearing deep blue robes stood near the stone archway. They kept their hands resting on their sabers while monitoring the courtyard.
Solomon wiped a bead of sweat from his chin and adjusted his grip on the practice weapon. He stepped forward to initiate the eighth sequence of the Azure Crane Blade.
The technique required the practitioner to link thirteen distinct movements together within a strict window of time. Each individual step functioned as an independent strike.
Stringing the forms into a continuous flow demanded perfect spatial awareness and precise body positioning. The momentum from a parry had to translate directly into a forward lunge covering exactly three feet of distance.
Solomon snapped his hips and brought the training sword around in a sweeping arc. He seamlessly carried the remaining force into a reverse thrust. The blunt tip stopped a fraction of an inch away from the training dummy.
