Even if using a different weapon than swords produced a slightly weaker version of attack than the single arc he unleashed before, it was still a fierce kind of attack.
After all the two moves he used were driven from sword based techniques.
"But the theory behind this worked best on thrown weapons… Arrows can't be held like swords. I can't stack the attacks on them… It'd be hilarious if I had to dance in front of an enemy before killing him… What will they call me then? The dancing crazy spirit master or what?"
He didn't get much disappointed by this failure. He simply tried to find other uses of what he discovered here.
After all, he didn't totally fail. He succeeded in executing his technique, but it required much more spirit power than he had.
So instead of using his spirit power while attacking with a sword, he thought about stacking these attacks over something he could throw later and sever his connection with afterwards.
Like this, he wouldn't be forced to give away his spirit power. And only his spirit power would get consumed when executing the prelaunch part of his technique.
He thought of his arrows, but he soon dropped such an idea as it looked quite embarrassing to use a funny such a way in a fight. And there was another good reason for dropping such an idea.
"If not for my sword to be a high grade one, it wouldn't be able to sustain such devastating power stacked over it…" he thought about another problem he'd face if he decided to use another weapon, not specifically arrows.
"The best is glaives and spears… I'd go for glaives. Dancing with such a ferocious weapon won't be too embarrassing. And I can just throw it at my enemy like it's a stick or something. The enemy won't ever expect such an attack to land from such a weird move…"
But he didn't have a glaive, not to mention a spear. And trying to purchase one wasn't going to be easy.
Swords, axes, sabres, knives, bows, and spears were the commonest types of weapons available in the academy, in any place in the world.
But it was known that swords, sabres, bows, and knives were cheaper than axes and spears. As for glaives, they were harder to find, and would cost almost double if not triple the standard prices of swords.
"And trying to forge one with my current limited spirit power won't get me any good grade glaive as well…" he could only inwardly sigh and push aside using such formidable technique with thrown out weapons for now.
He then started to think about another way to use such a technique with his current power. "I can try a single strike then…" as he had no other option but to use his sword for now, he decided to give it another try after modifying this technique.
The next attempt proved futile. Using just one slash wasn't enough to even trigger anything. He kept trying, slowly increasing the number of stacked slashes until he reached five.
By five, the technique got triggered. Five arcs of lightning danced across the edge of his sword. But when he unleashed one arc, he ended up in the same devastative and miserable condition again.
"It's not related to the number of stacked slashes along the sword, but to the power of each stacked slash… I have to throw it then," after many failures, he got fed up with this. The sky was now void of any darkness and there was bright light everywhere.
The day came fast and now he felt mentally tired and wanted to get a little rest. But he didn't want to call it a day before finding a way to use such a devastating attack.
The damage brought by this technique was too tempting for him to ignore. So he decided to stack not only five, but ten strikes before throwing his sword away and watch it fall on the ground.
A mighty and violent ten explosions erupted in succession, changing the entire landscape once again.
"It works!" as he guessed, throwing away his sword would yield a weaker version of this technique, but it wouldn't consume much of his spirit power.
Causing such scary explosions came at the cost of just consuming twenty percent of his spirit power. "But I'd end up without a weapon this way," he knew this might look great, yet it wasn't perfect.
In the middle of a battle, standing alone without a weapon was just like a death sentence for any spirit master.
"It's a problem for later," he collected his sword, cancelling the concealment array before taking back his materials.
After all this time, the materials looked half good as he first used them. The array seemed to struggle against something, and that accelerated the depletion rate of these materials.
William didn't find it weird as he precisely knew who caused such conflict with his array. Least to his knowledge there wasn't just one formidable spirit master spying on him, but two.
Then he returned into the building, leaving behind a totally damaged garden and even fallen parts of the wall!
The array shielded any spying attempt on the inside, and also prevented anything happening inside from leaking out.
So, when he returned into the small mansion, he found the two girls absent. He knew they were still sleeping. And so, he randomly selected a room and let his body fall over the soft bed mattress, before falling into deep sleep.
___________________
"This array… How can it be so stubborn against my spirit power!"
The two formidable spirit masters stayed their night testing and experimenting with the concealment array which William used.
Unlike what the two expected, breaking such an array proved to be quite challenging.
For such two formidable and pretty experienced spirit masters, this was something they rarely met for a long time already.
At first, they decided to test things out as they wanted to see what William was doing inside that array. However, after a few hours, they lost interest in that goal and got immersed in such an amazing feeling.