Miles woke up in the back of the car with his body in pain and head aching. The blast made him lose consciousness. With that, he wondered what happened afterward.
As he got up, he looked outside the car window. A large body of water came before his eyes. He realized that the car was parked close to a lake.
It was a beautiful sight to see. The color of the lake was pinkish-orange with red-blue flowers floating on the water surface. Swan-like birds could also be seen leisurely floating on it, not minding the car in the distance.
Miles then took a look at Coin, who was placed at his side and had noticed he was out of battery. He took the watch in his hands and wondered how he ran out of juice. He then willed his armor to appear on the portion of his right arm while he held the wristwatch in his hand. After charging two times, Coin’s battery was full.
“What happened to you, buddy? Tell me everything.” Miles asked with a smile. He knew Coin finished his energy to save him.
“After you passed out, I used all the orbs on your body to place you in the car. it took lots of my energy. Since I can’t use the armor's electricity, I couldn’t charge myself. I had to drive off from the scene, so with my last energy, I drove here. Luckily, no one attacked while I was offline.” Coin narrated what had happened.
Since Coin could float in the air, he could use the orbs in Miles’s pocket and place them around his body to somehow place him in the car, but it had taken a lot of energy to do so. With what remaining energy he had left to burn, he drove away with the unconscious Miles in the backseat.
“Thanks, buddy,” Miles said and placed Coin on his wrist. He realized his wounds were dressed, and the hole in his leg was already closed. “What had happened to Ivan?” he then asked.
“He died in the explosion. His upper body was completely burned, and his head was unrecognizable so I left him there. But I found something valuable on his body.” Coin said.
“Oh,” Miles looked over the car and found another wristwatch on the front seat. “Is it his AI?”
“Yes, I already killed it. So, only the data is there. His bank account had little to no money, but there was a secret folder hidden deeply. I was able to dig it out.” Coin said.
“What is in the folder?” Miles asked curiously. Since Coin said it was something interesting, it must be something really good.
“Take a look.” Coin said, and words started to fly in front of Miles's eyes. Coin projected a text in the car. Miles looked at its title and read out loud - “Moon Essence”
“What is Moon Essence?” He asked and started to read. When he finished, he saw video records at the end and was stupefied by them. “A secret art?”
“Yeah, and it is a really good one. The last punch he hit you with is a side technique of this art. It was really a strong one.” Coin said with a cheerful voice.
Secret Arts were the fighting arts developed after the monster invasion. When superpowers appeared and hot weapons had lost their power, humans started to use the old arts. With the endless resources and great minds at their side, big families created better techniques called Secret Arts.
Cross also had one, Royal Blood, but after he failed to awaken his superpower, and Mercer forbade him to use his last name, his privilege to use this art was also taken away from him. Not that he couldn't, he memorized already and he could use it if he wanted to, but he didn’t want to anyway.
The technique in the folder was the secret technique of the Strankov family, “Moon Essence.” It was beyond good. The art allowed a person to practice to have a calmer mind all the time and have greater stamina. Only by practicing, one would have a stronger body, which allowed a person to use strengthening serum at a younger age.
But this art wasn’t about body practice, it excelled in Mind instead. Through practicing this art, practitioners would have a serene state allowing them to use mind techniques better. If it was a week ago, Miles wouldn’t know what those were, but ever since he learned the existence of energy, he also learned its branches.
Body, Heart, Mind, and Mystic. Four branches had different areas of utilization, and Mind was corresponding to mind arts!
The main effects of the art allowed people to have better control of Cold-related powers. It wasn’t strange when thinking it was a tailor-made technique for the Strankov family. But the cold wasn’t the only power it bestowed.
Every battle art would give the person a demeanor, intent, or aura. It was required to execute battle techniques. For example Moon Essence, when practiced, would give the practitioner a calm aura and optimum mind state to execute Mind techniques mixed with body techniques and several elemental techniques. After all, this art was tailor-made for cold elemental powers.
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The Crater Punch that Ivan delivered was a mixed technique. The real might of the punch came from the illusion affected the receiver's perception. The punch itself looked like an exploding meteor. At the time Miles thought the punch was too fast, but in fact, it was his perception slowed down by the mind technique, allowing Ivan to deliver the punch victoriously. If it wasn’t for his honed reflexes allowing him to pull out the shield and pinnacle-tier armor blocking most of the damage, he could have died.
The might of the punch wasn’t any less either. Although Miles wasn’t sure before, after seeing the technique, he was sure that the technique was using energy. Not like how Miles used it, but through pre-moves, the energy inside the body would be stirred and moved to the fist, and when executed, the punch would be delivered with a wisp of energy.
Miles wasn’t stranger to pre-moves. When he was small, Mercer would make him execute pre-moves of Royal Blood Art. Every set of pre-moves would make him sweat and pant like he ran a marathon. At the time, Miles didn’t know what those pre-moves meant, but only now he realized. Since humans couldn’t use energy willingly before Form-Rank, he had to make use of pre-moves to stir the energy inside his body.
“It is a good art. But since it allows a person to be cooler-minded, why did Ivan act like an insane goat? Also, he hadn’t used the Strengthening Serum, despite his body being ready for it. There must be a reason for it." Coin asked.
Miles put aside unnecessary thoughts and opened the file. Since Miles was new to the concept of energy, he didn't know how they could practice the techniques without injuring themselves. After all, Malcolm had told him that using energy before Form-Rank was dangerous. But the younglings of the Strankov family were able to use this technique. This meant that these techniques could be used without being able to control the energy.
As Miles opened the folder, there were many videos in it. He opened the first video, and an elderly man appeared on the screen.
“Moon Essence had been devised by General Strankov and scientists of the Strankov family to increase the power of our family members. By using the cold-mind superpowers, the art uses human potential to prepare the body for future serum uses, and increases the psychic powers and stamina…”
He started introducing what Moon Essence was and gave a further explanation. After which, he demonstrated some postures. When the video ended, Miles came to understand the basics.
The postures allow a person to direct the dormant energy in the body to the required pathway. And in return, art could be practiced. It also made the person have a better grasp of energy over time.
With that, Miles left the car with Coin to try out the postures. They were nothing challenging for someone at his fitness. He grasped them by watching the video twice. After that, he repeated the whole set fifty times. By the time he finished, he realized he was a little bit stronger than before. Even the fatigue he felt and the pain from the blast was no longer there.
“It really works!” Miles exclaimed and looked over his body excitedly. “I wonder if I will get in trouble if I were to practice this art?” Miles chuckled to himself and continued practicing. “I can use strengthening and mind serums more quickly, as the technique also increases the rate at which my body gets stronger!”
Meanwhile, Coin just floated over the car lazily as he watched Miles, while also correcting his mistakes. Miles was too injured because of two incidents, and couldn’t travel even with the car in case running into a strong monster. His injuries couldn’t be healed in a day or two. Coin already applied gauze to his body and fed him medicines, but the body's regenerative abilities were limited.
Lucky for Miles, he already used two Strengthening Serums increasing his bodily functions overall. He was faster, stronger, and tougher as well. As well as his healing abilities were better than a regular human. But he still needed time. He just acquired the Secret Art anyway. So, he had time to stay around and heal, while he practiced the technique to see if he could achieve anything with it.
Before Miles realized it, two weeks had passed. He stood by the lake and applied the Moon Essence. The cold-mind power, an essential component of art, was lacking, but in the end, Miles was able to achieve some results. He was a little stronger now and could feel that his stamina was better than before. But he still couldn't practice the techniques fully because he needed more time and the lack of a cold, mind-type of superpower slowed his progress.
In the two weeks he stayed at the lakeside, he fed on fishes and some other monsters he hunted. The area didn’t have any strong monsters, and Coin chose a good spot indeed because he didn’t encounter any other humans during his stay. Now that he had gotten better it was time for him to return and he had someone to see when he went back. The lake wasn’t too far from the stronghold, so he arrived in no time.
Miles removed his armor in the car and turned it into orb form outside of the stronghold walls. The car now had many scars, but it would heal itself over time.
Since orbs were the creation of nature, they could also heal themselves given time. Even though scientists still did not know why, it was a good kind of mystery.
Miles took the ivory orb with him and entered the stronghold. He had a hood over his head so no one could see his face easily. He didn’t want people to know Marooner’s room. Thus, he would never walk into his room with the armor on.
Miles started to climb the stairs but stopped on the third floor. His first room was on this floor before he moved to the fifth floor, where military special rooms were located. Normally only the ranks and commanders had rooms on the top floor, but Quinn aptly gave each of her hunting team members a room. They were bigger and safer, so Miles didn't turn down the offer.
He also had another room on the third floor, which he rented under the name of his second identity, Ezio. For convenience, he rented this room on the same floor as his previous room. This was so that he could easily switch between the two identities. Now he wanted to go to Ezio's room to hide for a while, but when he passed his old room, he noticed that a crowd had gathered there and soldiers had barricaded a door.
With a cloak over his head, Miles passed through the crowd and noticed a large dent on his old room door. It was almost half blasted. This room was under his name, Miles, so anyone with power could find it if they wanted to.
As Miles started to listen to the conversations in the crowd to try and understand what had happened, a cold glint could be seen in his eyes.