(Rodova Military Academy – Practical Combat Grounds)
Over the next week, Leo settled into a steady rhythm, focusing entirely on building his new fighting style, as he began blending his recently acquired skills with his existing techniques, slowly crafting a style that felt both natural and effective.
Having lost all memory of his previous combat form, Leo lacked confidence when facing unfamiliar opponents, as he couldn't clearly gauge his own strengths or weaknesses.
However, the more matches he fought and the more experience he gained, the more his instincts began to resurface, as with every bout, his footing grew steadier and his confidence slowly returned.
He once again began to understand the limitations of his existing core move-set—and more importantly, the best ways to apply them practically in combat.
While he had, at one point, considered his previous skills to be borderline useless, the truth was far from it.
The truth was that techniques like [Vanish], [Mirror World], and [Shadow Bind] were far from ineffective under the right circumstances, however, they simply weren't well-suited for his current opponents.
The skills themselves weren't weak. In fact, against Grandmaster-tier beasts, or an opponent that was not proficient in spotting illusions, they could be devastating.
As he could easily use [Vanish] to slip through their guard undetected, or deploy clones through [Mirror World] to create confusion, and then capitalize with [Kill Strike] to land a finishing blow.
However, all this was only useful against instinct driven creatures with low perception, and not against Rodova students and teachers, because here in Rodova, 'Perception' was a mandatory subject and every student was trained to spot deception, which made these tricks lose their unique edge.
The value of [Mirror World] was not in the increased number of bodies that were created with him spreading his mana thin.
But rather in the fact that all his clones looked, spoke and moved exactly like him, to create an illusion of there being hundreds of him, as without that, [Mirror World] was no different from the [Multi-Clone] skill, which created completely black humanoid duplicates of an individual, which could gang up on an opponent, but did not look the same.
However, that did not diminish the value of the skills themselves—it just meant that the circuits weren't the right stage to showcase them.
As while the same skills would prove extremely useful against one type of opponent, they might not be as useful against another, which was why Leo had to upgrade his old move-set with his newly learned skills, while also finding creative ways to keep his old ones relevant.
Because when layered together and used creatively, even these "less effective" skills could create decisive openings—and in a close match, that edge could be the difference between victory and defeat.
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One of the two new skills Leo had picked up was [Celestial Veil]—a much-needed defensive addition to his existing move-set, offering the kind of full-body protection he had sorely lacked until now.
At its current (Basic) mastery, the skill took just over one second to activate, and with its total duration lasting only 1.2 seconds, Leo had to time it with near-perfect precision to get any real value from it.
Ideally, he had chosen the move for spontaneous defense in combat—something he could trigger instinctively in moments of danger to block an incoming attack.
But in practice, it was still far from battle-ready.
Because not only was it nearly impossible to predict an opponent's strike a full second in advance—but the skill's mana cost was absurdly high.
At 25% of his total mana pool for a single activation, even one failed attempt would leave him heavily drained and vulnerable.
So while the skill had incredible potential, Leo knew it would take time, training, and improved mastery before it became the reactive shield he envisioned.
However, while he was still struggling with the move's activation timing, its defensive efficiency was undeniably powerful.
Capable of nullifying both physical and magical attacks—regardless of which body part was targeted—the skill's utility in real combat was unquestionable.
At its core, the technique worked by enveloping the user's entire body in a dense layer of mana, functioning almost like a layer of transparent, bulletproof glass that lasted for exactly 1.2 seconds.
During this window, any incoming strike—be it a blade, spell, or projectile—would collide against the mana veil first, where the impact was rapidly dispersed across multiple sublayers of mana that evenly distributed the force throughout the body, neutralizing damage and preventing critical injury.
As after testing it several times against even Major Hen's strongest attack, Leo realized it was practically invincible at the (Grandmaster) tier.
As none of his opponents could even scratch him with that skill active, no matter how much force they applied…. Essentially giving him absolute immunity during the skill active period.
The challenge for him now was to slowly master the move. Getting the activation time down to under 0.1 seconds at (Perfect) mastery, which would then open a whole new horizon of combat-style for him, where he could stay close and take more risks, without being afraid to take hits.
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Finally, on the offensive front, [Thousand Phantom Strikes] was a move that completely changed the tempo of Leo's combat.
Unlike traditional chain-strike techniques that relied on pure speed and stamina, this skill overloaded the opponent's senses.
Every strike he threw while it was active appeared to be ten, sometimes twenty. Not only because the skill gave him a temporary burst of speed, changing the tempo from his strikes, but because the layered illusion blurred the line between reality and falsehood.
Whenever he activated the move, his figure blurred, and ghostly afterimages rippled outward with every attack.
To an untrained eye, it looked like Leo was striking from five different angles at once, and even for trained fighters, it became nearly impossible to distinguish which blade was real and which was phantom.
And that sensory overload?
It created hesitation.
Hesitation on where exactly to block?
How exactly to counter?
And that hesitation led to panic.
And panic—led to openings.
Combined with his speed and ability to reposition using [Blade Switch], [Thousand Phantom Strikes] became a nightmare to counter. It wasn't just about hitting hard—it was about creating chaos. And Leo thrived in chaos.
Against straightforward opponents, it forced them into defensive shells, overwhelmed by the barrage of seemingly endless slashes. Against more technical fighters, it messed with their timing, making counters nearly impossible.
Even Major Hen had raised an eyebrow the first time Leo used it against him—and that was when Leo knew he'd made the right choice
As although the skill was still at (Basic) mastery, the potential it held was undeniably immense.
As Leo's mana control improved, so would the fluidity and realism of his afterimages, and eventually—he'd reach a point where even Monarch-level fighters would have trouble predicting his movements.
And that was the ultimate goal.
To evolve beyond raw strength or flashy magic.
To become the kind of fighter who was unreadable. Unpredictable.
Untouchable.
And so, with [Celestial Veil] as his unbreakable shield, [Thousand Phantom Strikes] as his chaos engine, and [Absolute Vision] as his ever-present awareness—
Leo finally began to shape a fighting style that was his and his alone.
A style worthy of a Monarch-tier talent.