Chapter 129 - Artist's Duel (Part Two)

The rules established were simple. Since the basis of the slight Artist Norris faced was on his skill and, by extension, capacity to teach a student, the theme of the competition was covering the basics. The two were assigned an hour, within which they only had access to a sheet of paper, black ink, and brushes. They had to use these tools to produce a completed work within the time limit regardless of its content, composition, and so on. The goal was to determine who could display a greater mastery of artistic technique given hard limitations on what tools and resources they could use.

Jo Way didn't show any opposition to these propositions. In fact, his unusually nonchalant expression indicated that he was unwaveringly confident in his victory, which gave a few of the observers some pause, especially Artist Norris. At this point he was expecting the man to at least whine, grovel, or complain.

'Not even one word?' Artist Norris had technically stacked the deck in his favour. Everyone knew that when it came to ink painting and watercolours, Artist Norris was a leading 3-star artist. He had even published a few articles on his observations and techniques that were often used in teaching novices.

'No matter,' Artist Norris said to himself as he propped his workspace. The guild provided him with an inkstone block, water, a myriad of brushes, and a large blank sheet of paper. He then proceeded to position the items in a perfect position: the block was three hand-widths away from the sheet which was placed perfectly at the centre of his table, with the edges of the two being parallel to each other. He then moved the haphazardly resting brushes around on the brush holder by order of increasing diameter. He gently squeezed the slightly flayed tips with wet fingers to produce a clean, twirling point.

He then took a step back to observe his station. Dissatisfied, he moved closer and rotated the paper by 180-degrees and moved it horizontally to the right by a millimetre.

"Shall we begin?" Jo Way asked the three judging artists.

"Artist Norris?" One of the three asked the man with a clear tone.

"Just a second..." Artist Norris muttered. He took a step back, frowned and repeated the action of rotating the paper. He took a step back, frowned and moved the inkstone block to the left by a finger width. He took a step back, frowned and rotated one of the brushes by a few degrees on the stand. He took a step back, tilted his head and exhaled in satisfaction. "I'm ready!"

After receiving an affirmation from both sides, the judges initiated the duel with a cadenced countdown. There was no fanfare when the match started. Unlike with martial duels, there were no flashy bursts of light, emission of heat or cold, sounds of any sort, or even any drastic movements. Instead, each artist simply began their painting.

Artist Norris strafed to the left such that the ink block was perfectly in front of him. He poured a dollop of water on the block and started to grind the stone with practised elegance. As the water droplet expanded under the friction from the stone, it started to turn a shade of rich black. He placed the stone horizontally above the block and poured another dollop before repeating his actions. As he did so, a small pool of liquid black formed at the centre of inkstone. Artist Norris placed the block back on top before retrieving the widest brush from the stand. He dipped the brush at an angle into the pool and rotated it back and forth, allowing it to be fully engulfed in black paint. He lifted the brush-up vertically and held it in place, allowing excess liquid to drip off. As though it were second nature to him, he moved the brush right as the last drop escaped the tip and placed it vertically above the centre of the blank sheet.

With a confident plunge, the brush landed on the sheet of paper and started to waltz with skilful familiarity. The black ink spread majestically from the tip of the brush onto the pure white landscape, and as the brush traversed through the blank plains it delivered a continuous influx of darkness, sometimes in bulk and at other times in increments. The water soaked into the paper, carrying the dark ink along with it, depositing it as it seeped farther and farther with a gradation fading into the white.

Artist Norris was so absorbed in his work that he failed to notice the ruckus Jo Way was creating.

"I-Is that the Ink Puppet Painting Technique?"

"That's impossible! The amount of precise mana control AND predesign that is necessary to use that technique... Do you think a mere Foundation Establishment mage can accomplish it?"

"BUT LOOK AT IT! That's the very same technique!"

Kano frowned lightly before asking Keegan and Goran simultaneously, "What's the Ink Puppet Painting Technique?"

Keegan pulled his lips flatly into his cheeks as he pondered how to simplify the explanation such that a child could understand. But right as he was doing so, Goran spoke up, "It's similar to the technique you used to paint the Red Dragon Smaug. However, it is at a much higher level."

Keegan cocked an eyebrow and asked, "Does the boy know this technique?"

"Not exactly. He has used a derivation of it before," Goran commented. He then looked at Kano who was struggling to stand on his tip-toes and offered assistance, "Wait, I'll show you."

Goran lifted Kano and placed him over his shoulders so that the boy could get a clearer view of Jo Way.

Jo Way pulsed a transparent string of mana into the pool of black ink that he had formed thoughtlessly. The stink started to coagulate into an undulating blob. The blob moved like slime on top of the sheet of paper. Interestingly, not a hint of black persisted as the blob traversed a beelining path. Once it arrived at the centre, the blob compressed, flattened, elongated and expanded in an uncoordinated, non-periodic fashion. As it did so, it left marks, slashes, dots and splotches of black. The abstract puzzle it formed incrementally started to take coherent shape as this exercise progressed.

"He is using his mana to control the ink. If you look carefully, you can observe that the ink isn't drying as fast as it should when on the paper. That is because he is also using his mana to control the rate at which the colour settles. The longer the ink remains liquid, the deeper the colour becomes," Goran explained.

"The Ink Puppet Painting Technique was created by Artist Laurence. He is actually Artist Norris' Master. This technique is best applied when the artist wants to create a painting quickly. As you can see, the method is fast and efficient. However, the disadvantage is that the artist must have the exact image in their mind right from the beginning, and must be aware of what is taking form on the paper as they are doing so. A single mistake can cause the entire painting to fall apart. On top of that, they need to sustain a steady stream of mana that is dispersed at varying densities across the painting surface. It is a high-level technique that has a steep learning curve. I didn't know that Jo Way had that in his toolbox - no wonder he was so confident," Goran added.

"His use of the technique is extremely refined," Keegan chimed in. "The level of control he is exhibiting is indicative of years of experience and practice. How old is this lad?"

Goran smiled wryly as he answered, "There is just a little less than a century between yours and his age, Artist Lang."

Keegan's eyes widened in disbelief before he commented, "Artist Norris dug his grave with this one. He basically handed the lad a sword and ran straight into it."

"But Artist Lang," Kano interjected. "Didn't you say that an artist must stand their ground when someone challenges their skill?"

Keegan clicked his tongue and said, "But one must also choose their fights carefully."

Kano couldn't get his head around the hypocritical statements from Artist Lang. His confused gaze was caught by Goran who simply offered a look that indicated, 'Just let it go.'

Unsurprisingly, Jo Way was the first to finish his painting. Once the last mark was made by his now shrunken paint blob, he indicated his completion to the judges. Usually, in these duels, the time between the completion of both participants was never so exaggerated, because barely a quarter of the allotted time had passed and already one of the participants had finished their work. Artist Norris wasn't aware of this and was completely absorbed in his task. The audience and judges remained quiet to ensure that the artist wasn't disturbed. One of the judges swiftly moved an opaque cover over Jo Way's work to mask it from the audience - as custom the paintings had to be revealed at the same time.

Artist Norris took the entire hour for his work. Right as the final sand particle in the hourglass descended into the lower chamber, Artist Norris raised his paintbrush and placed it carefully on the stand.

The judges repeated the same practice and covered Artist Norris' work as well. They then moved the two occluded paintings to a raised platform and adhered it in place.

The crowd moved closer with excitement as a primed silence pervaded the ambience. The audience moved aside to let Keegan, Goran and Kano through, while unwittingly blocking out Myron who barely understood what was going on. He was still confused over how the situation turned so drastically, it was supposed to be a one-sided verbal and moral lambasting of the boy his brother was sponsoring! Observing paintings was just a cover, why were they now actually doing it?!

After the crowd settled, the judges made a move and revealed the painting simultaneously.

Then, there was only silence.