Phantom Strike, the legacy of wood.[not exactly a training thread but it kind of is.]

[Wadatsumi Tsunami]

For Wadatsumi Tsunami it was a day unlike any other, she was hear now in this open field to learn the dynamics to her most intriguing but utterly fearsome technique. Wadatsumi Tsunami over the years never really learned much about sword fighting as much as she did unsheathing and sheathing the blade itself. And with time, the talent grew until she had this unique and exotic attack. It was neither named, or thoroughly examined which is why she was here today, to test this, and improve upon this turbulent all or nothing strike.

It all fell down into this principal, perception and intuition are essential in the attitude of destroying the enemy. And because of this a difference was understood by Wadatsumi Tsunami. One must be utterly resolved to cut the enemy down with one fluid strike. And slashing itself can be equated to simply tapping the enemy with your sword. Slashing an enemy is based upon a lack of skill and little belief in your own ability. Cutting is proper form and determination to follow through with your commitment to kill your adversary.

This meant to Wadatsumi Tsunami that becoming one with your attack was key to success. She believed firmly that you could never hope to attain perfection if you could not go into an attack and destroy the enemy by becoming one with that attack. She believed you needed to continue on, never hesitate, and you must be relentless in your conviction. It meant that Wadatsumi firmly believed that you must continue in with your attack regardless of the attitude of your enemy.

It was the epitome of a monumental battle, a symphonic epiphany of realization to understand just how inspiring two warriors going into combat really was. Both flying into each other, both delivering an attack, however the one who hesitated for even just a fraction of a moment was the one whom was slain. This was the ideology and fundamental of Wadatsumi Tsunami's perception of a duel of between two warriors who were adamant in following through with a single blow to the very end. It took will power to overcome the physical restraint of fear and self doubt, which is what this one move meant to Wadatsumi.

Her principals had been the difference between victory and defeat against Mizushin Junzo. It was because of this, what one would assume to be a two bit chump who had no class or style had the ability to overwhelm and seize a victory right from the hands of seasoned and better trained warrior. It left a bitter reminder to Mizushin, that no one stops seeking true mastery in there dedicated art.

Now it was time to train, and what type of training did Wadatsumi Tsunami have in mind? It was not something stupid like blocking and attacking, she already knew that if she swung her sword into someone it would cleave into there flesh and hurt; allot.

No what Wadatsumi had in mind was something a little better, something to raise the bar and her standards. She was going to train in power cutting, and this would be accomplished by delivering powerful strikes into the trunks of small trees. But why the trees? Why not mats and bamboo? It was simple, the thin trees were tough and hard to cut into, if Wadatsumi could train herself to slice through a young tree with just one blow. Imagine how easy it would be for her to simply saw clean through flesh and bone with scalpel like precision.


Wadatsumi already had her weapon of choice close at hand while she spent her time in search of trees, and in time Wadatsumi found just what she was looking for a good sturdy looking tree in which to try and send her magnificent and bedazzling elven steel blade into. While the weapon was in its sheath, Wadatsumi quickly unsheathed her katana and struck the tree. Much to Wadatsumi Tsunami’s surprise and dismay the katana only imbedded itself less then an inch into the tree including the bark. It was then that Wadatsumi realized that this was going to take allot more then dreams and wishes. But at least an inch was a start.

Wadatsumi’s first lesson was going to be how to transfer force and power through body and into the sword itself. But for now, Wadatsumi needed to concentrate on trying to wedge the katana blade out of the tree trunk.

[Wadatsumi Tsunami]

Finally Wadatsumi Tsunami had freed her katana from the trunk of the sturdy tree. She already knew if she continued trying to wallop the tree she was not going to get anywhere, thus she sheathed her sword and decided to exercise for a while. To help strengthen her arms and back.

Getting down on her hands, and stretching her feet out, she began to do some push ups on the ground. Wearing her armor, and her weaponry to add some weight on her. It was not that hard, however each time she did a push up she could feel the weight and strain of her armor. It was up to Wadatsumi Tsunami to decide when to stop, however she was not going to stop any time soon. She would only stop until she exhausted and could not do anymore, thus this would continue for a long time. Maybe the rest of day, she did not expect to become super tough because she did some push ups. But she did want to strengthen her arms and back to deal with the stress from delivering a true blow in which you become one with the attack and one with hitting the enemy. There was a great deal of stress in doing this, considering she would eventually need to learn how to breeze through metal armors and weapons.

But for now these simple push ups would be the first of many steps needed to ready herself for slicing through that rather thick tree in one blow.

[Wadatsumi Tsunami]

The day had past and Wadatsumi had found herself sleeping belly up until the feint touch of sun beat down on her face signaling the rise of another day. She felt exhausted, and tired to a marginal degree however she would continue her training until she felt she was good enough to take on that sturdy tree trunk. Getting back up on her feet Wadatsumi found some less thick younger trees in which to practice on.

Getting into a proper stance she closed her eyes and breathed in taking a swing at the tree, her katana this time found itself imbedded at least 2 inches into it this time including the bark. She would continue hacking and slicing into this tree, this would help her body overcome her blade repelling and bouncing off, it would also help her strengthen her arms and back even more. Each time she progressed and hacked a sapling tree down she went on to another as the day progressed Wadatsumi Tsunami found herself able to cut more deeply into the younger trees as she learned how to properly cut into them, technique was starting to be forged as she was learning how to use the blade to help cut for her. And in time she would be finding herself taking the much smaller youngling trees down more fluidly without much hassle or mess. It would continue like this throughout the entire day, each stroke each cut was bringing her one step closer to her goal, she felt like paul bunyon but she could feel herself becoming stronger becoming more in tune with her weapon of choice and learning how to properly power cut by pulling the katana from the sheath into the young tree's.

[Wadatsumi Tsunami]

As the day had started to wear down Wadatsumi Tsunami had found herself able to cut through these thin young trees without much effort. Each strike wisped from the sheath and into the bark and sawed its way through like a scalpel to flesh, sometimes she was able to hack clean through a 4 or 5 inch thick tree trunk with but one strike. At more frequent times however it Wadatsumi Tsunami needed to make a few strikes like 2 or 3 but as this was the case she was also learning how to become more accurate with this one strike at an alarmingly fast rate. She needed to learn precision. And each time she had to slice into the trunk she needed to make sure that her sword was aligned with the hacked up piece of trunk that had been stricken previously, if she wished to advance to another tree. It was moving like clockwork, and in time trees kept falling down the younger sapling trees found themselves tumbling down. It was kind of interesting, such a fantastic strike designed by the one and only Wadatsumi Tsunami.

But this little sea elf, needed to stop and call it quits for today even though she felt herself progressing and getting one step closer to her goal of being able to cut through a solid foot thick tree in one blow. But for now she would need to rest and regain her lost stamina for tomorrow; tomorrow the training would get much tougher.