There was a moment of shock in Tibaut when he initially saw the man but he was eventually able to force himself out of it and tried to gain some distance to assess the situation.
Unfortunately for him, as soon as he took the back step, the man was easily able to grab him by one of his hands. He then lifted him off the ground and proceeded to examine him.
Tibaut tried to fight back during all of this but it was too close for him to feel safe using a fireball and every punch or kick he threw while being held up was effortlessly blocked by the man's free hand.
While the man didn't seem to be on the offensive who knows what purpose he was examining him for? For all Tibaut knew the man before could be deciding if he should make him a concubine. However, this seemed more likely to be about his bounty.
("How the hell am I gonna get out of this? This asshole isn't even gripping my arm that hard. All he's doing is just connecting his thumb and middle finger. Yet I can't get out. I even tried pulling them apart using my other hand and it felt like I was trying to pull apart a steel ring. How'd this guy even find me anyway?")
Tibaut's now looked like he was out for blood but the man examining him couldn't care less.
("I don't how long he's gonna be like this but should I use this time while I still have it.") Tibaut then wracked his brain thinking of a way to attack. How was he supposed to attack this guy without hurting himself? Eventually, an idea came to him.
("There's no way that would work but…")
He then tested something. He produced a flame to the side of him to see how far he could use his magic. Either the man was too busy examining or simply didn't care as he showed no reaction when he produced the flame.
("Okay that should be enough distance to put it behind him but there's no way I could produce a whole fireball behind, that requires way more mana.")
He then proceeded to make a fireball behind the man, much to his amazement. Even more shockingly, the man, while in temperatures that measured in the negatives, while also not wearing a shirt did not notice the mass of heat behind him.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
("I've heard of the cold doing crazy things to people. Poor bastard, he probably just wanted to make a quick buck off of me or even worse he must have been a prisoner forced to find me. Now all the heat receptors in his body are damaged beyond repair. The worst part is he probably doesn't even feel cold right now, that's why he probably took off his shirt.")
However, just because this man was probably on his way out didn't mean that Tibaut wanted to join him. He then prepared to fire his attack when suddenly the man dropped him.
"You get a six out of ten," the man said, looking disappointed. He then threw a book towards Tibaut and continued walking into the white forest. He soon disappeared from view and his footsteps began to fade as well. It was a mystery if the man had even existed in the first place with how quickly any trace of his existence vanished.
"Huh?" Tibaut mouthed.
From the moment the man threw the book in his hands Tibaut did not move a single inch.
It was as if the man had frozen him with an ice spell.
He then produced a flame with one of his hands. "That wasn't a hypothermia-based delusion since I can still differentiate between hot and cold."
He then pinched himself. "I'm not dreaming since I can feel pain."
He then wondered if it was an illusion then quickly wondered what would be the point of using an illusion like that on someone like that in the first place.
He then calmly breathed in and breathed out a few times. He then circled around in the snow for a few seconds and then stopped. "What the fuck was that about!?"
He then quickly moved out of the area to give himself some peace of mind and he eventually started looking through the book the man gave him.
("Huh? Is this a boxing manual?") He kept turning through the pages ("Karate maybe? Is that capoeira? I don't even have an idea about that one.")
He soon came to an idea about what was in the book.
Instead of one martial art or style, there seemed to be quite a healthy amount of options contained in the book.
The only reason he even recognised some of the fighting styles in it was because of some of the fighting games he played back in his old world. The only thing he found odd about it was that there was a distinct lack of styles that were grappling or submission-heavy.
As much as he found the situation he got the book from odd, he realized that only fighting with magic was just asking to be exploited. He then threw his hands up in the air in defeat.
"Eh, who cares, I'll just consider this the god that threw me into this world giving me a freebie." He said while trying his best to put what took place in the last ten minutes in the farthest parts of his mind.
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Tibaut then thought to himself on his bed while he thoroughly went through the book. "What was that guy's deal anyway." He then gave up on trying to figure it out and started focusing on the parts of the book that mentioned ki.