Noting how difficult it seems to be to hurt the blade at all, Rinzen does try a few swings.
First swing, straight down from overhead, the high-stance cut, with the blade intentionally striking the ground at it's finish. depending on it's weight and cutting power, it might glide into the ground and become somewhat stuck, or it's odd shape might make it cut deep and stop shortly, making it easier to remove.
The blade smashes into the ground like a hammer on tofu, sending a pretty jagged scar upon the ground around 5ft wide and 10ft long. The blade does not seem stuck as its merely sitting on the devastated ground.
Once pried back out, Rinzen tries a horizontal swing against a few trees... all at once. Four trees are in an arced position that seems perfect for striking in one swing, and so he tries seeing how the weight assists cutting through all of them, to get a feel for the sharpness of the edge.
Logically Rinzen cannot expect a clean cut where a smooth blade would accomplish, Ushitora takes 5ft wide hunks out of the trees swung at and the top halves of the trees fly off with the momentum. Perhaps it was his lack of experience with the weapon, or his inexperience with the boost of strength to his sword arm, the trees feel awkward to swing into but the momentum seems a tad too quick and potentially unbalancing had Rinzen not grounded himself as he is.
Finally, Rinzen tries bolting up to a tree, dragging the massive blade, and cutting once horizontal, then another target to the right at an upward angle, then a third tree to his left with a downward angle, all a continuous circle and consecutive strikes, to test the mobility of the blade, and the aerodynamics of the sword.
The weight of the blade hardly affecting him at all, but the power flowing into his limbs pushed him up the tree without any effort at all. Not expecting this, Rinzen cleared the tree without being able to accomplish the first horizontal cut, the dragging of the blade having already ripped the tree with Ushitora's jagged blades like the gnashing of saw-like teeth on the tender bark of a normal tree.
Trying the attempt without dragging the blade this time, the varying angles and speeds of cutting takes awhile getting used to, and the jagged edges of the blade while seemingly not very good for aerodynamics, the mobility of the blade is still plenty fine, because the weight of the blade gives it momentum.
Content with his swings tested, he tries his most successful, useful swing against the oni-mage. "If swordsmanship wasn't your thing, Oni-Magi, then let me know so I can tone it down for you!" Still in murderously good spirits, his mood odd improving with the time spent holding this sword, Rinzen rushes Ushitora with his first certain, tested attack.
"I might be a mage, but an ogre I still am!" roars Ushitora as he meets the swing with his own blade. The shockwave of the parry craters the ground where the two stood and the force backlash sends Rinzen flying back towards a tree, breaking it and another two before the fourth stops his backward movement.
"Good one, but not good enough!" roars Ushitora as he appears instantly above Rinzen as he groans under the unexpected force of the blow, giving an overhead swing downwards crashing into Rinzen as the world turns white, grey and then black.
"Work on it more boy..." was the last sentence he heard in his mind as he blacks out.
-Gate encounter ends-
