V2 Chapter 92
In the past two years, aside from the training course, Oriel had made for him, Cian also started his own training in martial arts again.
Not only to strengthen his physical body but also so that his current body could get used to the martial arts he knows by heart and mind. He just doesn’t want to engrave them on his heart but also his body so that it would get easier to accomplish several crafty moves with great ease.
It was still the modern martial arts, including Vale Tudo, Systema, Jeet Kune Do, Taekwondo, Aikido, Karate, Muay Thai, Kickboxing, and even some martial arts which only existed in records back in the modern world. But too many things had changed when compared to the beginning when he was still a beginner in the past, perhaps because of his current physical body.
The degree of body tempering and techniques were different, and especially, his concentration and reflexes were different.
The concentration which increased due to his own race as a Demon which was innately stronger than normal human was an incomparable advantage. Cian then started considering the body movement that rather than just strength, he must also improve his speed—faster and quicker than any beings in the world even without the help and support of mana.
Pre-attack movement, post-attack movement. The movement to enhance attack power. His steps improved, and his attack phases developed and his eye direction developed, becoming much stronger than when he was in his original body.
It was a positive change that occurred while learning every martial art for two straight years, along with the help of the skills; [Plunder] and [Chimaera] that improved his physical attributes merely by consuming powerful creatures. Even without receiving any additional skills, these benefits were already much better than Cian could imagine.
With these skills as the turning point, his physical body overcame the limit and started transforming in a blink of an eye.
In just two years, Cian’s muscles, which developed unilaterally, developed in a more battle-oriented way due to the martial arts training and the [Chimaera] skills that seemed to be inputting drugs on his body. His ‘trash’ body from before had undergone tremendous transformations. Above all, the power and durability of his muscles became stronger but the volume was decreasing little by little.
It wasn’t just something like ‘compressed muscles’ that people talked about. His body cells which were exposed to a miraculous state where it didn’t age but kept being active due to him being that of a demon and an elf lineage which slowed his aging process, was mutating due to the long period of training.
Stronger, but more efficiently in order to not become a hindrance to movement. Of course, the bones, the skin, and even the inner organs were the same. As if it knew that it would have to confront many enemies in the future, it was strongly evolving to optimize itself to battle at an incredible speed. Roughly speaking, it was comparable to a mutation that wouldn’t happen for several generations were happening in his body.
In an empty hall located within the Winter Palace Courtyard, Cian was standing with a solemn expression. In front of him was a metallic puppet wielding a single saber. However, this was not a mere puppet but a puppet made by Cian himself.
The black metal puppet he had made had over ten red dots on its body. The red dots were located between its forehead, on its throat, on its chest, on its arms, hands, back, and some other areas.
“Hoh!” Cian stayed in a sword stance, like that of a kendo practitioner in front of the puppet, took a deep breath and then suddenly stabbed out fiercely with his sword.
Hua!
The tip of the sword pierced forward, but it struck the head, roughly an inch away from the red dot. Seeing this, Cian frowned a bit. He clearly had aimed at the red dot. He couldn’t help but try stabbing three more times, but the results were always the same, slightly off.
Just like what he said before, this is not a mere puppet but a creation dummy made by a high-level blacksmith and enchanter engraved with an illusion spell. If you think you are able to accurately pinpoint the red dot, then you are greatly mistaken. Cian made it personally based on a vibrating machine doll found in the Modern Era. Classified into several levels; from level 1 to 5. Lv1, the illusion engraved in the doll will affect the naked eyes by .1 second later than normal reflexes. Lv2 was at least .2 seconds and so on. This is to test his reflexes and reaction speed.
If Cian used his [Night’s Eye] this kind of illusion would be nothing. However, Cian didn’t want to overly rely on his abilities. Not that he was the type to rely upon and depend in external power back in Earth. Over-relying on things would be detrimental in the future.
At this moment, his entire focus and concentration are at the Magical Dummy in front of him. His shirt and pants are already wet by his sweats as if he had just showered by rain.
“Prepare the body.”
“Prepare the mind.”
Cian softly muttered as if he was chanting, ignoring the rain-like drops of sweat on his face and forehead. Then, his body moved. He pierced repeatedly! Chopped repeatedly! Scraped repeatedly! Tapped repeatedly! he showered an onslaught of attacks on the Training Dummy.
This was very boring.
And very tiring.
Someone who had never trained before would never know how exhausting training was.
Tiring to the body.
Tiring to the mind.
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Someone who wasn’t sufficiently mentally resolved or who had insufficient desire wouldn’t be able to persevere. Fortunately, Cian, as a Demon had astonishing regenerating capabilities. And given his experience in all sorts of cruel and horrifying training in his past life…he was a person who would not easily give up.
“Chop, pierce, scrape, sweep, tap, cleave; these are used to attack.”
“Support, break, intercept, twist, lift, draw, and sheath; these are used to defend.”
Those words keep in swirling within his mind as he repeated all his action. After training attacking movements for two hours, he began to train defending movements for another three hours. During this time, he didn’t stop moving his feet as he darted here and there—practicing his footwork and movements.
He would never forget this even with training in weapons.
Close combat didn’t just mean standing there like an idiot, waving swords and sabers at each other. It was constantly changing positions like an unpredictable shadow. In his past life, he had done many martial arts and succeeded in many assassinations—one of the things he relied on is his speed and movement.
Move like flowing river, unimpeded and unblocked.
Fast like lightning, smooth like flowing water.
One can even say, the importance of footwork was arguably even higher than that of attacking techniques!
In this world where spirits and monsters abounded, the basics were still the same.
Footwork was one of the most important things.
Cian moved at the side as if an invisible enemy had attacked him with a sword thrust. Then he turned and attack the dummy. Each step cannot be too small or too large. It cannot be too light or too heavy either. Advance, sidestep, leap, then backward… then turn, once again advance, then sidestep then withdraw and so on.
Almost all footwork techniques relied on these basic movements.
But the differences between different techniques were like night and day in terms of skill. Some would make you move as fast as a bolt of lightning, while others would make you as agile and graceful as the wind, or perhaps as unpredictable as a spirit.
Each footwork technique had its own mysteries and naturally would have different effects in battle. As long as one had the correct timing, understand the essence of each action and movement, then, no matter what battle you are in, you would still emerge victoriously. This is also the reason why in Chinese Martial Arts, one of their valuable techniques and most focus practice was making the body extremely light in weight, by altering the distribution and flow of energy or what they call ‘Qi’
At this moment, showcasing everything he knows of and utilizing them, Cian was moving like a flash, wildly training in six basic steps. When the magic dummy moved its saber or when Cian envisioned an attack, his body would undergo various contortions to dodge them, appearing like a crazy person. But no matter what postures he used, the most important thing was that his center of gravity had to be stable, and his feet had to be stable!
The metal puppet wouldn’t get tired, delivering endless hacking blows with the saber for Cian to defend against. Cian’s body was now literally dropping water droplets—his sweat, on the ground.
“Hu!”
The sword howled.
Cian suddenly felt intoxicated. Right at this moment, his body and his sword seemed to be in perfect harmony, and he seemed to even somehow feel the ‘body’ of the sword itself, and even the wind which blew past the sword at high speed.
He remembered in the beginning when in the beginning, his physical body that was even worse than that of a corrupt drunkard with a round body even though he had a lean and slender figure. A reminiscent smile appeared on his face. Only two years passed, but it felt like a long time has passed. Especially when he felt how much experience he had piled up since he had arrived in this world.
As Cian was concentrating on his practice, his ears moved, and suddenly he raised his sword while slowly moving to the entrance of the training hall. His eyes turned cold.
Faint ripples appeared in thin air as a blonde woman with a pair of horns on her forehead and reptilian skin appeared in front of him. Her hands raised as she walked in front of Cian.
“You do know I can kill you for this, Decimo!” Cian muttered coldly. “If you don’t give me a reason for this violation, I will have your head.”
"Sorry, Master I was just curious…"
Decimo scratched her head and said in embarrassment.
Decimo was one of the [Numbers] in Cian’s [Garden of Eden] that signifies the ten most loyal and valuable members of the group.
From Primo—Cian himself, Secondo—Ruka, and the other eight members who were promoted and showed extreme loyalty to Cian among the slaves and servants he had trained.
They are considered leaders of the organization, only second to Ruka’s authority in the group. For them to have a sense of belonging and even show that Cian had valued and acknowledged their existence, they were given the privilege to know his real identity.
Cian wasn’t the least bit worried that they would betray him up until this point because, before becoming one of the [Numbers] they had already undergone many trials—one of them was a secret Capture Simulation that undergoes severe torture that anyone would surely experience what Hell feels, in order to see if they would betray the organization.
And these ten members are the ones who had passed flying colors on them.
Some even made Cian feel a bit interested.
And from what Cian knows, Decimo was the newly promoted and the youngest member after one of the Ten had died in the last mission.
Although Decimo was new to the circle, Cian didn't suspect her loyalty. Cian understands that she was really just curious. Curious if Cian could really detect their presence with their trained Concealment Skill and Magical Uniforms that boost stealth without using any skill. Though, unbeknownst to him, there was actually another reason. And that was because Decimo was mesmerized by Cian’s training that she had forgotten what she was doing.
Every movement of her master, his action and footwork had some kind of charm which grabbed attention, and Decimo was mesmerized by those scenes before she realized it. The abs and muscles that were revealed due to his wet shirt were truly perfect. His physical body, which was trained to its extreme limits to become the peak of the living, was revealed slightly.
Decimo couldn’t help but stared, captivated as she looked at that scene breathlessly.
However, Cian perfectly tuned the strength of his arms, which were trained from his two years of relentless practice, and preceded with his own tiresome training. As is, he didn’t even consider exhaustion and was giving life to his every attack, defense, and leg movements without a moment of rest.
His figure as he practices with intricate hand and leg movements that were neither overflowing nor insufficient were truly captivating– purer than anything and beautiful than the combat skills she had seen before.
It was understandable why all her sister desired their master… Decimo couldn’t help but think as such.
“Fuu……”
Cian slowly took deep breaths in order to calm himself and stand firmly. Then, he stared at Decimo, his eyes indifferent. However, since this kind of crime wasn’t that grave in any aspect, it didn’t warrant death. It will only give him a headache of losing a loyal and useful subordinate if he made a big deal out of this.
"Curiosity kills the cat, Decimo" Cian softly warned her. “This is the first and the last time you will do this, understood?”
“Yes, Master… I apologize,” Seeing Cian was not angry, Decimo heave a sigh of relief as she nodded her head.
"What about the mission I gave you?" He asked nonchalantly. He didn't persist further on this question as he returned on his practice, swinging his sword up and down.
“About that,” When Cian asked about the mission, Decimo immediately put on a stern face. "It has been completed, Master." Then, she took out several papers from the small bag hanged at the sight of her waist.
Cian received it and narrowed his eyes as he read the report.
His lips arching into a faint smile.