Arson didn’t move. Vin didn’t move. Nor did Professor Lee.
The two young men thought that the professor would come for them, but she held her stance patiently. All parties so still that all that could be heard where they stood were the distant sounds of students milling about outside on their way to other classrooms.
Students in the room began to wake up after a while, but still none of the three moved. Onlookers from both the classroom seats and the passerby’s that peeked into the room waiting on the previous class to exit grew curious, and without prompt or reasoning combat began.
All three on the platform moved at once. The movements made by one pushing the other two, and a chain began.
The three combatants moved perpetually interlinked like the gears of a clock. A punch from Vin, blocked by the professor as she kicked out toward Arson, who blocked the kick all while sending a sweep of his own toward Vin, was only the beginning of a storm of movements.
Arson’s mind was moving in overdrive to keep up as he fought. He had been inspired by both the Tournament of Scions, and his last encounter with Dashawn. His goals were simple to process mentally but far more difficult to execute physically.
Arson was trying to mix Tai Chi, Wing Chun, and the art that Dashawn showed off that Arson truly had no bases to even be trying to perform with the bare bits of knowledge he held. Yet the Flow of Will, almost felt the most natural to use when interlinking all the arts.
Should I…?
Arson began to practice the breathing technique he felt was incredibly problematic to perform when unmoving, and felt a change in his body. Felt stress melt away from his shoulders. Felt near untouchable.
His smile grew as he leaned out of the way of an impressive kick from Professor Lee, caught Vin’s wrist, and spun him toward the professor, forcing Vin to take a kick to the chin meant for Arson.
The kick was the first one landed in combat but Arson knew something had changed instantly then, almost as if both of his opponents had been holding back, and no longer felt the need.
Vin even struck out aggressively toward his master, who swept his hand aside and flicked out three quick jabs with a single arm, blocking a kick from Arson with an open hand slap all at once.
Murmurs began, and neither Arson nor his opponents were even able to hear a thing as the chatter grew all around them. A stream of the action being broadcasted onto the school’s message board was all it took to cause an influx of students to rush to see the action.
Arson didn’t know what was happening but the longer the three fought, strange instances of overwhelming intuition would flood his mind and then vanish before he could hone in on what he was sensing.
Professor Lee loosened up the longer they fought, and her speed increased to a degree that both Arson and Vin were struck twice or three times for every blow they nearly landed on the professor. Or for every blow they landed on one another.
Arson’s entire body began to warm, then go cold suddenly and then warm again. After a while longer of this, Arson felt that the moments of sensory overload or intuition were in sync with the moments when his body grew suddenly cold. He hadn’t realized it at first, but as he was struck cleanly in the chin by the professor, not only had his body went cold in the moment just before the punch landed, but his mind had tried to slow the speed of the punch being sent toward him.
He spun with the blow and was forced to backflip away from Vin, spin kicking the young man in the chest to gain distance.
Still concentrating on his meditation, Arson sank further into the skill and focused. No thoughts in his mind but movements. Self defense and survival through practiced strikes.
Then it happened. Arson felt he’d been taken back to his childhood when Professor Lee struck out toward him in the next moment. Everything slowed, his body grew intensely slow, and as he thought on how to block, a projection of his body was made within his mind, showing him what would be the most likely result if he followed through with the action.
Then he thought on what would happen if he dodged one way, then another, and another, all three options not results he liked.
Finally a counter was shown as Arson thought on how the outcome would be and this option seemed to be the best, as it would open him up to another attack in Vin’s direction, so Arson followed through.
Warmth returned to his body. Arson performed the counter as he’d seen it in his mind, and was then punched directly in the nose after he froze in surprise from the counter’s actual success.
He remembered the sensation. The warmth. The slowed perception, and also an increased sensation of danger.
Maybe I should try to…
Arson put himself in the direct line of fire in the next moment and felt the cold return instantly. Everything slowed within his closed eye dominion, and he then tried to focus on multiple options at once. Unlike the previous time the cold felt vastly more powerful, bone deep chills filling his entire body from head to toe with goose bumps.
A burst of various Arsons could be seen in the limits of his closed eye dominion, all performing various actions. Arson realized in that moment that the cold may be linked to how much danger he was in, as a kick was being sent toward his spine and another to his throat.
If he didn’t move he knew he would pay for his choice, but still waited until the last moment to act, and that was the moment that the entire level of the fight was elevated.
Arson performed a one handed backward cartwheel, rolling over the kick to his back, using his feet to kick off the punch that had been sent toward his throat.
He was once again flooded with warmth, no longer directly in the line of fire, but when the dodge had been executed, both of his opponents took steps back. All three in the ring now forming a triangle with equal distances between them all.
Time snapped back into normalcy, and Arson was once more able to hear beyond the platform he stood on.
“Yo, is he playing with them now or what?”
“What is that dude's body made out of for him to be able to stand a punch from a professor and bend like a sparking ballerina…?”
“Oh… for real…”
The flood of conversation all around him was hard to ignore now that he heard it, but Arson was still so excited by what ever it was that he’d just been doing.
“Thank you, Professor Lee, I don’t think I’ve ever been able to push myself to such a degree,” said Arson, bowing at the waist. The teacher smiled and nodded back toward him.
“Good, now I know I can take off the training wheels. Arson’s brow scrunched, but he still wore a nervous smile, fully wanting to continue no matter the level of danger he may face.
"I’m still going to rip your lips off your face and make you eat that obnoxious smile.” At that Arson turned toward Vin, eyes still closed and lifted a rude gesture toward the student he sensed never liked Arson since the day they’d met. With this combat began anew and Arson let his mind run free.
Initially, it was a challenge trying to do everything he needed to all at once. He wanted to combine all the styles he’d learned across the season cycles, but the enjoyment came from the challenge itself and not the achievement of any one thing.
At first he struggled to sense the cold sensation, and remain meditating. Then he was able to pull both tasks off easily enough, but then struggled to continually choose actions that kept him inside the fight and amidst danger at all times, and extend the cold sensation further and further.
At one point he even got so caught up in the thrill of everything his mind was doing, he nearly performed a Deep Sea Palm in Vin’s direction that would have from what the prediction showed Arson, caved in his chest completely.
Vin seemed to sense that as Arson’s hand had reached out he’d nearly almost died. A cold sweat formed instantly soaking the young man’s shirt.
“Use that fear or die boy!”
Professor Lee, was not fearful but instead showed outright exhilaration. Her own excitement incapable of being masked as she and Arson turned up the intensity again and again.
Vin was forced to take more and more riskier attempts to attack and defend, but the flow of combat was obviously more in favor of the professor and Arson.
Arson’s training as a youth with Xani was pushed forward to the forefront of his mind after the group spent the majority of the day locked in combat, and a switch was turned on as everything synced finally.
Arson’s own thoughts were shaved away, leaving only the folds of his mind and their dedications to singular tasks. Meditation, which fueled his entire being. The basics of The Flow of Will, which made his every movement as smooth and changeable as the rush of wild water. As well as a multitude of martial forms that left Arson’s every movement deadly.
…
The bail bondsman for the Augustines was confused. He stood before a jail cell, staring at a man he’d thought to be untouchable, watching a college student practice martial forms with a professor.
The sight was odd, not the oddest sight he’d ever seen, but what made the situation not make any sense for him was how the man mumbled to himself.
“I am behind bars and you play with weak cultivators,” said Alister Kim under his breath. This was by far the most sensical thing the man had stated thus far, but why he was so angry and disgruntled by the youth on screen, confused the bondsman.
“Do you know what he’s talking about Seven,” asked the bondsman, hoping the young man would know as he signed the paperwork to release his boss.
“Yeah, but trust me, you don’t want to know.”
“NO actually I would love to know, I don’t see men of his stature being bothered by anything, and when I do, I stay well informed so I never stumble into the same kind of situation myself.”
Seven looked at the small screen offered within the cell, and then shook his head. Before he spoke softly.
“The young man on screen right now is the same young man that got half our family’s compounds burned down earlier this season cycle. He also managed to somehow get our entire CityNation obliterated by a foreign realm and has turned it into an overwhelming money scheme for his friends and family. Now, Alister is in jail with his pride hurt because rather than pay him any attention after Alister’s multiple attempts to destroy that young man’s progress, Carter Gestalt would rather go to school and learn to fight better... after he just won the Tournament of Scions I should add as a side note. If you’re trying to learn any lessons from my father in this situation especially, I’d suggest not trifling with Cultivators, especially powerful ones talented enough to make you regret your actions. Again, just a suggestion here, because in their free time… they could destroy everything you know and love, potentially for nothing more than youthful boredom... how is that for advice?”
Seven looked up to see the bondsman drop-jawed, and shook his head, before he went back to signing the incredible number of electronic documents. The young man annoyed with the entire process, as normally matters wouldn’t have gotten this extreme due to Alister’s immense wealth. A wealth now frozen while his father was under investigation.
Somehow Carter Gestalt had laid traps for his father. Knowing the man’s tactics through a level of psychology and characteristics known by the powerful and the powerful alone, Carter left openings in his own foundation, just small enough to catch anyone who took advantage of the weaknesses. Flaws that in the end weren’t flaws at all, just advanced smoke and mirrors guiding Alister directly where Carter needed him to be.
“You got family problems too, I see,” said the bondsman, making Seven look up at him with a frown that could make babies cry.
“What do you think?”
…
Jasmine sat across from a very dirty man. The foreign dignitary, was confused, and had been confused since Jasmine reached out to him originally. Her offer had made him hang up on her multiple times, the man under the assumption that he was being pranked each time she called.
“You want to buy my entire planet,” asked the man, scratching his massive beard as he asked. Jasmine continued to nod.
“For this tremendous amount listed in the documentation you sent me?”
Jasmine continued to nod, wearing a massive frown at this point, wanting the meeting to be over so they could move on with the next phase of their plans. The builders had much they needed to get done if this deal went through, and Jasmine wasn’t going to take no for an answer.
“Is this a scam, I just don’t see why anyone would want to buy a planet full of trash, I barely make money from allowing other CityNations to dump in our kingdoms lands, we are just foragers…?”
“I am not trying to scam you…!” Jasmine spoke slowly and put space between each word for emphasis.
“I also work in trash. I am probably the largest recycler of goods in our entire realm layer. Do you want the money or not, I have two more planets to buy by the end of the day and for whatever reason they seem as apprehensive as you to take my large sums of money to be free of responsibility, you would think that you would be jumping for joy…!"
“I’m sorry, young lady, it's just that my entire kingdom is a dump site, I’d never thought a day like this would come in my lifetime…”
“Well… it has, now take the deal, or leave my office. The transfer will be instant and just needs your thumbprint…” Jasmine ground her teeth and waited as the man looked over the contract for the 7th time and finally shrugged pressing his finger down on the station table. His eyes immediately rolled into the back of his head and the man fainted after actually receiving the money.
“By the maiden, someone get this guy out of here and clean off my table… no wait, send in the other two dignitaries at the same time, might as well wait for them to sign too!”
This is going to be a long day…