The next day Norfy comes over to talk after I finish up my farm work.

“You were quite impressive yesterday! A shame you couldn’t keep up at the end” (Norfy)

“At least I didn’t collapse underneath a boulder the way you did, does that happen often when you train?” (Borus)

“Only when I push myself! I haven’t pushed myself that hard in ages! I do hope you will join me again later.” (Norfy)

Norfy speaks much more elegant than I would have expected, he seems like a muscle head who boasts about ruling but I suppose etiquette is a part of that and he does with with the village chief after all.

“I would enjoy training with you again sometime, but there is a question I’ve been meaning to ask you which is part of why I approached you in the first place” (Borus)

“Splendid! What is it that you wanted to ask me?” (Norfy)

“Have you ever noticed this feeling of something flowing through you while you train?” (Borus)

“Hmmmmm…. No, I can’t say that I have why?” (Norfy)

I could explain everything to him now, but I still don’t know him too well. He seems like a nice guy but we only just really met after all. But a part of me doesn’t like seeing potential be wasted either so I compromise with myself.

“How about we spar and see if you figure it out” (Borus)

“What is sparring?” (Norfy)

“It is like fighting, but both of you agree not to take it too far. You compare fighting techniques and set a victory condition like the first to fall loses or the first person to land 5 clean blows wins” (Borus)

“What a marvelous idea! I can’t believe I never thought of it sooner, though I suppose no one could keep up with me before” (Norfy)

“It isn’t like I invented the idea, I am actually surprised you never heard of it before considering your interests” (Borus)

“Enough talking, let us try this sparring you speak of immediately” (Norfy)

His composure has broken a little as the excitement in his eyes is clear. I’m not sure if he even remembers me talking about seeing if he can figure out the flowing sensation. We head up to the mountain in case our spar kicks up debris that will harm the village, and we decide that the first to be on the ground off their feet for 5 seconds loses. Betty has also tagged along after sneaking out again.

“Will the little girl not be in danger while we fight” (Norfy)

“This “little girl” will show you a pain like you have never felt before if you belittle her again (She says this while pointing strait at his nuts)” (Betty)

“Y-Yes maam” (Norfy)

Wow, Norfy you got whipped so fast I’m surprised that you have to worry about you balls at all considering it doesn’t seem like you have any. Let’s just not talk about how she found out that a guy is very hurt when you hit them there. Some things are best forgotten.

“As you can see she can take care of herself, she can also learn a thing or two from watching others fight instead of fighting herself” (Borus)

Betty smiles when I put special emphasis on taking care of herself, she has actually managed to get some of the villagers to pay her to do some of their chores, their parents scold her saying that she should aim to be a wife instead of a maid, but they allow her to continue as they see a maid as a decent back up plan after I tell Betty to portray it that way.

“Fighting herself, but she is a woman” (Norfy)

“You say something fragile balls?” (Betty)

“N-nothing” (Norfy)

“That’s what I thought” (Betty)

I kinda ship those two. I am somewhat interested in Betty myself but watching their back and forth is very amusing.

We arrive at the mountain top and I take up a fighting stance after stretching. Norfy looks confused as he doesn’t seem to understand why I would do either of these things, but he just shrugs and nods at Betty to signal that he is ready.

Betty announces the start of the fight, and I immediately use a burst of energy to rush straight at him, he raises his arms to block but I redirect the energy mid attack to move at an odd angle and hit around his guard, he reaches to grab me but I push away with another energy burst.

He is a bit injured, while sparring with Betty I learned that attacks with energy bursts can be blocked by energy bursts as well, but Norfy still has no sense for it and can only still stand because the amount of energy naturally within him is so much higher than mine.

Despite clearly taking damage, he is smiling widely, he is clearly moving more carefully now, but in the next few exchanges it is clear that he still doesn’t understand how I am able to move in strange ways in midair, or inexplicably speed up to evade or attack. I have been avoiding grabbing him directly as he would be able to overpower me in an extended hold, but even though he cannot figure out how I use energy he has begun to learn his own stance to make it hard for me to approach, and he has been getting better and better at parrying my blows even if he hasn’t successfully countered yet.

I offered to stop when he started bleeding, but he turned me down immediately. He still has a huge smile on his face and seems to be enjoying the fight even if it has mostly been a one-sided beating. A while later I notice something, his energy has begun to flow towards whichever side of the body I approach, he doesn’t seem to understand what is happening, but he does look like he just got an idea.

Norfy freaking roars as the energy all over his body bursts all at once and he charges me. I am not fast enough to dodge in time, so I side step a little to avoid a complete collision and focus all my energy on guarding my front. Norfy crashes into me, although it is more like through me based on the way I go flying, and I rearrange my energy again before I smack into the ground hard.

Norfy is struggling to stay standing, the crazy guy managed to use everything he had at once, I tried that once and several of my muscles tore and I was bedridden for 2 days and had to tell my parents I was attacked by a wild animal. Norfy clearly took damage from using that technique but he can still manage to stay standing.

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I can also stand up after struggling, but my left wrist broke and I cough a little blood. I have some internal bleeding and it feels only a bit better than when I was hit by a truck. Norfy begins to hobble over to me, but falls over on the way. He tries to stand up again, but I manage to get over to where he is and kick him back down, before he grabs my foot and pulls me down. We roll around a bit while we are both in massive pain, before Betty declares my victory and breaks us up because Norfy was on the ground first.

It was a close win, Norfy could’ve won if the rules were different, but he looks happy to have lost and clearly doesn’t see it that way.

“That flow stuff you were talking about, it felt amazing. It is always good to feel strong, but at that moment I felt like I was surging with power. Seriously thanks for pushing me till I achieved it” (Norfy)

I take a quick glance at Betty, and while she clearly sees that that wasn’t quite my intention, we silently agree to pretend that I planned everything to happen this way.

“No problem man, I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not but you have enormous potential. Potential can be wasted though; you have to use it properly if you want to be the strongest warrior ever-“ (Borus)

“I will be the strongest ever” (Norfy)

“I didn’t say that you wouldn’t” (Borus)

“And you better not forget it” (Norfy)

“Hey Betty, I think Norfy might need to learn a lesson” (Borus)

“I’m sorry, it was just a joke, let’s not be hasty here” (Norfy)

“Ah a joke, good, it looks like I won’t have to make a mess after all” (Betty)

Norfy looks genuinely terrified, while me and Betty hold back from laughing. Betty learned how to sense energy a while back and knows how much stronger Norfy is than her, but Norfy doesn’t know that and hasn’t seen through the façade.

“At any rate just know that using that energy while training will let you get stronger faster, and that implementing it properly in fights will give you an advantage as a warrior” (Borus)

“Yes sensei” (Norfy)

“I never said I was going to be your teacher” (Borus)

“You already taught me enough to be one, the trainer hired by the village chief has never mentioned that flowing stuff and has never came close to matching me in strength in any way, therefore you are now the best teacher I’ve had” (Norfy)

“I don’t mind giving you some tips here and there, but don’t expect me to show you a complete path, basically I will have lots of things I leave for you to figure out on your own” (Borus)

“Yes sensei” (Norfy)

And so I figured that I would occasionally give advice to Norfy in my regular training regimen, but apparently Norfy told the village chief about his superior teacher, which caused his old teacher to be offended, and now me and my family have been called to the village chiefs residence.

Norfy’s old teacher goes off on a rant about being trained in the capital, being one of the best in the field, and about how no teacher could possibly teach someone anything in a short period of time that would noticeably increase their strength. And if this strange energy didn’t exist, I would completely agree with the teacher.

However, it does exist, and the fact that one of the best teachers in the capital doesn’t know this either makes him a fraud or raises some concerns about this world. The kingdom we live in is one of many, all of them fight for territory and many have similar policies where the strongest rule.

I noticed this energy because I was looking for oddities in this world, but Norfy proved that the locals can discover it mostly on their own. I have serious doubts that the major powers would be unaware of something so game changing on the battlefield. I can sense that the teacher has much more energy than any normal villager, but he is still as weak as a lamb before Betty, much less me or the monstrous Norfy.

“I am still unclear as to why me and my family were called here, I never proposed that I was a better teacher, Norfy did but that sounds like a separate problem from me and my family” (Borus)

“But that idea came from you didn’t it, I will not allow my student to be manipulated so easily by some country bumpkin that it distracts from my teachings” (Teacher)

“You certainly seem like an expert about not saying clearly what you want to happen” (Borus)

“I want to prove to my student that he is mistaken” (Teacher)

“Just fight him and get your ass whopped so we can get on with our lives” (Norfy)

“This is the kind of nonsense I am talking about chieftain, no one would believe that a mere child could defeat not only an adult, but an expert at combat! I suggest we-“ (Teacher)

“So if I beat you in a fight then you will drop the matter” (Borus)

“What are you saying my son, don’t be so reckless” (Fredrick)

“To think a child would dare to challenge me, Larpo the master of the star fist, to combat. Worry not, I will not be too harsh with the child if he wishes to be taught a lesson so badly” (Larpo)

“I wish for this farce to end quickly as well, worry not Fredrick and Dahlia, I promise that your son won’t come to too much harm right Larpo?” (Chief)

“Of course chief, you have my word” (Larpo)

The way he moves and based on his reasoning, Larpo doesn’t seem like he is faking it. He could just be an expert at deception, but that doesn’t feel quite right.

We both stretch before taking up fighting stances, I take a questioning glance and Norfy when his master stretches as he didn’t recognize what it was when I did it before, and his embarrassed look makes me believe he just wasn’t paying attention to what his teacher was teaching him.

The battle starts at the chief’s signal, and I rush right at the start without using energy techniques to see how he reacts and he is startled by even my base speed. He manages to raise his guard, but his energy moves naturally in the same way that Norfy’s did making it much slower than if he utilized it, and I can run circles around him with the difference in our speeds.

In terms of pure form though, Larpo seems to be better than me. I am able to change position and utilize energy better, but he moves much more efficiently with his physical body than I do, I am actually able to learn quite a bit watching him and thus delay finishing the fight for a while. His energy also flows faster during some of his attacks, but it still doesn’t seem intentional and lacks the explosive difference of a real burst of speed.

After I am done analyzing his fighting style, I hit his guard head on with enough strength to slam him into a wall. Like that the fight finishes in one hit. My family all have their jaws wide open, they noticed that I was able to be more energetic around the farm but I never showed off the way Norfy does. The village chief is also surprised but maintains most of his composure after a moment or two, as expected from a politician.

It is undisputed that I won the fight, Larpo now believes that I am a child with monstrous potential like Norfy but still not a proper teacher and talks about how my movements were imperfect and that he is still the better teacher, but the chief doesn’t know enough about high level fighting techniques to verify what Larpo is saying.

This is where I step in with my newly found leverage.

“Chieftain, based on our fight I do not believe Larpo is a bad teacher. Larpo has some things that Norfy could benefit from that I could not teach him better. *I look straight at Norfy now* I believe it would be best for Norfy to continue learning from Larpo even if he considers me a better teacher” (Borus)

Norfy groans a bit, and both Larpo and the chief seem to notice how I implied there were things I could teach him better than Larpo, but leave it unsaid. Larpo is still skeptical of me, but now he seems intrigued as I didn’t seek to delegitimize him. My family and I are dismissed, and I request to speak with Larpo privately before returning home.

“Mind telling me why you had a certain look after mentioning Norfy’s potential, and why after the surprise at my speed you had a look of realization?” (Borus)

“That would because after I saw your speed, I realized you must also be of noble blood and adopted in order to hide from enemy factions” (Larpo)

There is a lot I can figure out from just that statement. This means that Norfy is of noble blood, and based on the context it seems that the nobility are naturally more talented in training than the average person. This also means that Larpo is not a member of nobility, but is still highly regarded for his ability to train them. This still doesn’t explain why Larpo doesn’t seem to know how to properly utilize energy though, but I can’t just ask him that without opening a can of worms that I can’t reseal.

“Well I’m sure you can understand why I cannot say who I am aligned with, just know that I am not an enemy of your faction” (Borus)

“I figured that much out by now, but I am curious which family trusted their child enough not to tell others about their background” (Larpo)

“And I am curious as to who expected Norfy to remain hidden after yelling constantly about wanting to be the strongest ever and showing his abnormal strength to the village on a daily basis” (Borus)

“I have tried to get him to stop that many times, but he always tells me to just try and force him too, and that clearly isn’t happening. (Larpo)

I head back to my house after saying goodbye to Larpo, and while my family are all still shocked over recent events, life at home doesn’t change that much.