A giant figure that gave off an aura of brutality and power constantly hit a metallic dummy. Sometimes with his fists, sometimes with his tail, the only thing that stayed the same was the violent momentum present in each hit, like it was an unstoppable juggernaut.
The figure's upper body was in full view. Each muscle looked perfect, each of them working in impeccable sync with one another like the cogs of a clock. The body looked like it was a statue made out of bronze, with the bronze skin color of the person punching the dummy wet with sweat which gave it a slight metallic feel.
The giant figure was obviously Amon. He'd been constantly practicing the Behemoth Martial Art for a few days now, only stopping to eat food with Lilith and spar with Michael. His progress was stunning from Sasha's point of view.
On the first day he was still a bit clunky with his movements like he was a slightly rusty robot but by the 3rd day of practicing it seemed like he'd been practicing the Art for a year or two based purely off of how smoothly each of his movements moved from one to the other.
Amon himself had found that he could run his breathing technique while practicing the technique to temper his body into the right vessel when it came to practicing the Martial Art, which attributed a lot to his explosive progress. This seemed to be one of the added benefits from the breathing technique; adaptation.
The adaptation didn't change his appearance but it changed how his body worked in some ways using his pure and dense magic power to do the actual changing. For example, the Behemoth Martial Art required a surprising amount of control to be used correctly, the kind of control Amon didn't quite have. But due to a certain nagging feeling he kept feeling, Amon tried to run the technique during his practice and felt his control getting better and better which helped his progress.
Amon increased his personal gravity and effectively stuck himself to the ground by making his body incredibly heavy, he strained his magic power a bit by also using his density magic on his arm making it much harder, he did all this before rearing back his fist and throwing a full powered punch at the dummy.
His aura exploded outwards sending black and red energy out like the waves of a tsunami. His energy seemed to be forming into two different entities but they were too blurry to see any details.
As his aura reached its peak, his fist hit the dummy sending out a deafening shockwave, his fist leaving a 3-inch deep fist indent. Amon looked satisfied with the indent he'd put into the dummy; it was a massive improvement on his first try that didn't even manage to get a single inch inward.
Amon realized he'd finally trained the Behemoth Art to the required stage to move past the training stance.
Sighing in satisfaction, Amon sat down and meditated while running the breathing technique, seeming to suck in all of his aura back into his body. It was a sort of energy recycling. It had no use in battle as it needed both a clear mind and to be undisturbed by outside influences but it was perfect to draw in any wasted energy from training. While Amon continued to recycle the energy he thought about the other book he received in the library.
Opening his eyes and letting out a breath of stale air, Amon pulled out a book from a satchel next to the dummy.
As he looked at the blood red writing on the book, Amon couldn't help but admire the power in the letters of each word, like it took a river of blood for each of them.
Amon opened the book to the same view he'd seen every time he'd opened the book the past few days. It was a mantra, written in a rough, violent way and the mantra simply said:
I am a weapon. My goal is to slay perfectly, calmly and without error. I will not think, I will not feel and I will not hesitate because I, I am a weapon.
Amon resonated with these words slightly when he looked at them but he felt like he was missing something. Something essential to practicing the martial art. Amon meditated on the mantra, repeating it in his head constantly trying to find the meaning behind it.
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Amon felt he was getting closer and closer to figuring it out each day he meditated on it.
POV Change - Jax
"Sir, but what's the difference between our class leveling system and the Bloodline Warrior's cultivation system?" Jax put his hand down as he asked a question to his teacher.
He was currently in a classroom with other "Hero" candidates. Either they had a class with Hero included in the name or their class' potential was incredibly high, just like any other hero class.
The teacher, a short, wizened old man pondered Jax's question for a while before finally answering it. "They cultivate in realms and stages, focusing on the body and their affinities. While we Classers level up and then we ascend our Class to a higher level, we focus on technique and skills with a secondary focus on the body." he took a sip of some tea next to him before he carried on "Bloodline Warriors start off much stronger than us Classers, but our growth speed is much faster than the average Bloodline Warrior as we just need to gain exp by killing things while they need long arduous training to get stronger."
Jax could sense some disdain in his teacher's words when he talked about Bloodline Warriors. Molly, who was sitting next to him, also put her hand up to ask a question. "Sir, why does it seem that everyone looks down on Bloodline Warriors?" her question surprised the old man and caused the class to begin murmuring between themselves.
Amon's mom, Beth, perked up when she heard Molly's question; she wished to know why her son had to be disdained by others.
"Well, Molly, it's because of their animalistic instincts. They seem to be more beast than human most of the time but it isn't like that with every non-human. Some are as civilized as us Humans. Elves, Cultivators and High Humans are all high-level races in terms of not having vicious instincts. However, the majority of high-ranking Bloodline Warriors have some... unsavory instincts." the disdain the old man held for Bloodline Warriors was apparent in his speech; he spoke like they were wild animals below humans.
Beth had to close her eyes in a sort of mini-meditation to calm herself; the teacher was unknowingly talking about her son while degrading Bloodline Warriors. Jax and Molly seemed quite calm but that was only to keep up appearances, deep down they were raging at the treatment their friends were getting. But alas, there was nothing that could do about it. Well, yet, anyway.
The old man seemed to remember something as he spoke again. "Oh, I just remembered, we'll be doing a training program with the Bloodline Warriors within a few days. Beware, I've heard their SS training group is full of some incredibly strong people this time. They'll currently be stronger than you but if you put in enough grinding these next few days, you should shorten the gap. Remember what I said, these people have high-ranking bloodlines, they should have some rather unpleasant instincts, so be cautious around them." The old man's eyes went incredibly serious as he said the last bit.
This seriousness caused most of the students to nervously gulp and nod, agreeing to be careful. Jax, Molly, and Beth, however, nodded with indifferent expressions, along with two others. The old man secretly nodded as he dismissed the class, those 5 who were indifferent to his pressure were really suited to be the 5 people with Hero Classes.
POV Change - Amon
"So we have to do a joint training program with those Classers for 2 weeks? Hah!" Michael snorted in disdain, a bit of his Tiger's sides pride coming through.
Julia showed the same disdain because the classers were a lot weaker than them at the moment, both physically and magic wise. The only edge they had was their technique with certain weapons and fighting styles were quite impeccable.
Amon snorted at this thought. Technique couldn't completely overwhelm pure power, and his Demon and Draconic sides thought it was silly to fully rely on it, although it was useful to supplement power.
Amon's more human thoughts came in and made his instincts quieten down a bit as he thought about who they were joining up with.
'The Hero Training Program! That's where Jax, Molly, and Mom are!'
Amon felt a burst of excitement go through him. He didn't think he'd get to meet them so soon. He looked to Lilith only to see the same excitement on her face as well. But he had found out from Sasha that they weren't the only people in the Hero Class, there was bound to be some arrogant twat in the class without the strength to back up his arrogance.
Amon saw the hypocrisy in his words but ignored it. He had the right to be arrogant, his bloodlines were both considered royalty and his power backed up his arrogance.
Amon's head slowly inclined upward, whether it was on purpose or not, only he knew.
"So, for the next few days, train as hard as you can got it?!" Sasha's face seemed to be lit up like a flame fueled by her competitive spirit. Everyone looked at her, slightly infected by her passion, and nodded enthusiastically along with her speech.
Amon soon left the nodding idiots in the living room as he walked upstairs to his room. He sat on his bed and brought out the [Slayer Martial Arts].
Yesterday he'd gotten close to a breakthrough after meditating on the mantra for the entire day and he was going to attempt to a breakthrough in the next few days in preparation for the joint training program.