The frost troll rushed toward the Knight, who remained perfectly still until the last couple of seconds. When the Troll was mere feet away, it swept out with its enormous ice club in a devastating arc.
The Knight instantly stepped back, allowing the ice club to miss him by an inch. Before he then rushed forward with his sword, he turned into a blur as he chopped down.
The sword slashed into the frost troll's chest before even more slashes came down on the troll. Each slash connected with the Troll's massive form, the extended reach of the blade allowing strikes that should have been impossible. The sword began to glow with an inner light as it carved through ice-hardened flesh and bone.
Blood sprayed in crimson arcs across the blue petals as the Troll staggered, then collapsed with a crash that shook the ground beneath Reinhard's feet.
Then, in the next second, more Frost Trolls emerged from the meadow's edges. Reinhard saw three frost trolls appearing with an icy mist trailing from their forms, and then it was four of them, and then now six.
He watched the six of them moving towards their Knight with their weapons raised and them roaring at the Knight.
The Knight surged into battle, each step leaving phantom silhouettes hanging in the air behind him. He rushed between the trolls, Zenuken slashing through flesh and bone. The blade's edge opened mouths across blue-gray skin that splashed out with blood.
Some trolls crumpled instantly while others swayed and roared as they ignored their wounds to keep attacking. With every successful slash, the glow around Zenuken intensified as if it craved violence.
The Knight moved from opponent to opponent with his sword, chopping, slashing, and hacking into the bodies.
Then five more Trolls appeared before they rushed from different directions, trying to surround and overwhelm him. But then the Knight spoke a single word that seemed to resonate through the dream itself.
"Ragnarok."
The Zenuken blade blurred through the air faster than the eye could follow. Instantly, fifteen separate sword slashes appeared around the incoming Trolls. It wasn't slashes after slashes but one that came all at once from thin air.
The attacks came from impossible angles, some from above, others from the sides, and some seemed to be emerging from within the creatures themselves.
The Trolls didn't even have time to scream. They simply knelt to the ground, panting and bleeding from wounds that appeared without warning. Their weapons clattered to the ground as their strength fled them, as they bled.
The Knight walked calmly toward the defeated enemies, Zenuken still glowing in his grip. But as he approached, one more Frost Troll materialized behind him. This one, larger than the others, appeared with its ice club already descending toward the back of the Knight's head in what should have been a killing blow.
"Drasil Step."
The words carried power that made the air itself shimmer. A blue-white ripple swept through the ground like water disturbed by a thrown stone. Time seemed to shift around the Knight, slowing to an almost complete stop, and the descending club crept downward at an extremely slow pace.
The Knight then stepped casually to the side, then brought Zenuken up in a perfect diagonal cut that opened the Troll from hip to shoulder. Only then did time return to its normal flow, and the beast collapsed in a spray of blood.
The Knight moved to the remaining wounded Trolls, ending their suffering with precise strikes that found vital points, from a slash, chop, and splitting them.
When the final frost troll was cut down, the knight continued walking and slowly faded away. Reinhard found himself trembling as Zenuken materialized in his own grip. The sword shook in his hand with the knowledge of what it could accomplish.
The same Trolls that had attacked the Knight suddenly appeared around him, their roars filling the air as they charged with weapons raised. Reinhard's body shook with a mixture of curiosity and anticipation, but he didn't move from where he stood.
As the first Troll reached him, time seemed to slow as he whispered the words. The Drasil Step ability activated with the same blue-white ripple across the ground. In the three seconds that time was slowing down, Zenuken turned into a blur through the air as he slashed into multiple Frost Trolls simultaneously.
The blade began to shine with that familiar inner light, growing brighter with each successful strike. He could feel the sword was becoming increasingly familiar to him and easier to handle the more he swung it.
When time returned after three seconds that felt like minutes, Reinhard found himself moving with a faint smile. Reinhard charged at the trio of Trolls blocking his path, his blade Zenuken slicing through their fur and tough flesh with terrifying ease.
Five more Trolls approached from his side, trying to surround him just as they had the Knight. But Reinhard had learned from observation. Without looking, he thrust his sword behind him, feeling the blade punch through the chest of a Troll that had been attempting to strike him from behind.
He turned smoothly around the dying creature, using its massive body as a shield while the other five closed in. When they were close enough that he could see the rage burning in their blue eyes, he spoke the word that had been burning in his throat.
"Ragnarok."
Zenuken moved faster than Reinhard could see as he began hacking, chopping, and slashing out with his sword. Instantly, fifteen simultaneous slashes appeared throughout the group of enemies, each one finding vital points with devastating precision. A troll's throat opened in a scream while another's back was severed with a crack.
A third lost three fingers and its weapon in the same instant. Behind him, the wounded creature's chest erupted as invisible blades found lungs. The meadow's blue petals trembled from the bodies dropping to the ground one after another.
Then came their massive clubs, landing on the grass and making it shake even more.
Reinhard stood in the center of this with a smile while Zenuken was still glowing in his grip, but way duller than before.
The rush of delight coursed through his veins like fire, but his expression was still calm. He had replicated what the Knight did and fully grasped the skills of his Beast Spirit, Odin. The sword felt like it belonged in his hands, as if it had been waiting for him specifically.
Reinhard let out a chuckle that grew into something wild and exhilarated. The sound echoed across the battlefield as he dropped down to sit among the blue flowers, then lay back to stare up at the brilliant stars wheeling overhead.
The starlight seemed to pulse in rhythm with his heartbeat, and for a moment, he felt connected to something vast and ancient.
But as he lay there among the petals and the cooling bodies of his enemies, reality began to reassert itself. The edges of his vision started to blur, the stars began to dim, and the sensation of the sword in his hand grew fainter.
The dream was ending.
Then everything froze before instantly shattering into a thousand fragments.
Everything faded into darkness.
Reinhard's eyes snapped open to find himself back in his narrow academy bed, morning light filtering through the tall window.
But the memory of the dream remained crystal clear, and more importantly, the knowledge of how to use those techniques felt as real as if he had been training with them for years.
He sat up slowly, flexing his fingers as if he could still feel Zenuken's weight in his hand.