It was back to business the next day.
Epona rose from her bed and blocked the hot desert sun from her eyes as she stepped out her tent. She went and knocked on Lamb’s tent, he already left.
Lamb rose early, drank a large bottle of water, skipped breakfast and headed straight to the training grounds. It was hotter today, so he found a nice shaded patch in the training grounds, away from the sun.
After warming up, he picked up where he left off. He continued practising kicks against a large tree, as that at least had some potential for producing results.
He decided that until he saw some results, instead of dividing his focus between multiple different techniques, he would only practice one kick, and one kick only.
“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” — Bruce Lee
If Lamb could kick even 10% as good as Bruce Lee, then he might do pretty good here. He settled into a loose fighting stance, hands open, and started doing front foot left turning kick - kicking with the left in front, it wasn’t as powerful as a kick with the rear leg, but it was Lamb’s fastest and most trusty kick. It was also his favourite kick— nah, who was he kidding, every kick was his favourite.
He tried focusing his qi into his feet the best he could with each kick, kicking as hard and as fast as he could, with a pitch perfect snap each time.
He kicked the tree for 5 hours. Finally, he had achieved harmonious kicking convergence. His muscles had the technique locked and loaded in it’s internal memory banks, and he was able to snap the kick perfectly, making maximum impact with the front ball of his foot each time. And finally, after five hours of nonstop kicking, backed by 10 years of continuous daily practice, Lamb was finally able to dent and gash the tree with each and every kick. He didn’t care that it was a only a small dent, what he cared about is consistency, and he finally achieved it.
‘Was this my qi strengthening my body in order to damage the tree?’ He thought. He kept kicking for another 20 minutes, leaving kicking dents in the tree with each strike.
“Lamb,” Epona said from beside him, he looked over, completely unaware of her presence. She infused her blade with red poison magic, and slashed it against Lamb’s tree. It left a gash where it struck. She pointed, comparing the mark she made on the tree to one Lamb made “That’s from my blade, your kicks are hitting like metal weapons.”
Lamb decided to take a short lunch today. He didn’t want to burn out and eating a small lunch should help sustain him to train more. He got several large bags of breads, cured meats, cheeses and fruit. It cost one silver, and he had enough to last 2 days. He shared with Epona has they found a nice shaded bench to sit and eat.
Epona wished they had some Danish blue cheese. She made Lamb promise to come visit Denmark sometime and try some of their bitter European cheeses. Lamb made her promise to try some Gwong2dung1 style hot pot, she agreed so long as he promised it wouldn’t be spicy.
They went back after lunch, this time Lamb stood in the open gravel field part of the training grounds. He stood in the gaze of the hot desert sun, he only invested 7 points in environmental resistance, he needed to practice acclimating his body to the harsh desert climate.
He continued practising left Dollyeo Chagi, this time visualizing an imaginary opponent, and kicking the air as hard as he could. He imagined concentrating the qi to his foot, and launching out his qi as he snapped his leg. He felt something bottling up beneath his foot, as he practiced again and again— he was so close, he just had to get the right feel.
Suddenly something clicked and a spark lit inside him. He could feel something burning inside his core. It was his qi energy, and he wasn’t imagining it. He took a rooted stance, focusing the energy to his legs, down to his left foot, he snapped his leg as hard as he could, making a pitch-perfect snap, a small burst of blue energy shot out from his foot.
He repeated the turning kick, focusing his qi, then shooting the energy out of his foot. He had to snap his leg at a slightly different frequency then when hitting the tree, and it worked. It wasn’t exactly a sound frequency, but Lamb always imagined hitting a vocal note when practicing snapping kicks. With his qi, a specific ‘frequency’ was required in-order to snap kick a tree hard enough to dent it. A different ‘higher frequency’ was required to shoot energy from his kick.
He ran over to the nearest unoccupied tree and took a wide rooted stance, he hopped in place psyching himself, he blasted the tree with a kick, a small qi-blast shot out of his foot and hit the tree, it left a small gash where it stuck the tree. It wasn’t a very big blast, but it was a projectile nonetheless, and it left a smoky mark against the tree.
Lamb continued practicing his two ‘qi skills’ against the tree. First a snapping a left turning kick empowered with qi, he named it ‘Earth Qi’.
Earth Qi: the art of physical qi-enhanced strength attacks.
Followed by ‘Heaven’s Qi’.
Heaven’s Qi: The art of projectile qi attacks, shooting qi blasts, and missiles.
The sun was setting as Lamb continuously practised heaven and earth against the tree, focusing on perfecting the techniques with his left leg. He had attracted a small crow of curious onlookers. They watched this guy from yesterday, who practiced nothing but physical attacks, and here he was shooting burning light blast from his kicks and sending chunks of wood flying.
“What kind of magic is that?” Naseer, one of the onlookers asked.
“It’s not magic,” Epona replied, “He’s just kicking really hard.”
Several people tried slapping the air or swinging their weapons as hard as they could, trying to shoot burning light blasts of their own, to no effect.
“Only he can do it,” Epona gloated to the crowd, “he’s with me, I am the leader of Team Swordless!”
The crowd was not every impressed. The guy only had one move, the range wasn’t very far (the blast was only an arm’s length), and it wasn’t very powerful. The crowd dispersed and went about their business, the sun was setting and the weather was cooling, it was dinner time.
The streets were busier today, with a lot of new players. Loud music filled the streets as the sun set, several street corners got sectioned off as designated party areas. People laughed, danced and drank as they let off steam and a cool breeze blew in from the west. The streets filled with alcohol and tobacco smoke. Additionally, there were plenty of other stimulants floating around. It’s only been a few days, how did drugs get here so quickly?
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
The two had a small dinner in the cafeteria, not going crazy like they did yesterday. “Can you help me practice sword fighting with my sais sometime?” Epona asked after dessert, swashbuckling against imaginary opponents in the air.
“Of course,” Lamb had an idea, “say… our bodies will naturally heal up, after just resting in our tents right?”
“Don’t you mean… —sai…?” Epona asked.
Lamb made no response.
“Get it Lamb? —Sai…” Epona giggled, sticking out her prongs.
“Hello? Voice lady? Can I join a new team?” Lamb asked, looking up, waving around.
“Nooo…” Epona wept. “Anyway, go on. What were you going to sai?” She asked, emphasizing the word. Lamb groaned in pain.
“So our bodies will naturally heal and restore energy after resting right?”
“Yup, that’s what our guide told me.” Answered Epona.
“Let’s test it. How about tonight, before going to bed, let’s practise fighting all out. We’ll use our powers and everything, we’ll fight until our health reaches 50%, and then we’ll go to bed.” Lamb suggested.
Epona thought on it.
“That’s a good idea actually. I’ve been to scared to go out and actually fight real monsters, so I haven’t really used my powers in combat yet, this could be good training.” Epona finished her dessert, “But I must warn you, my blades are very sharp, and very hungry.”
“Your blades may be sharp, but you have to cut me first.” Lamb replied.
They decided to walk around town for a bit before duelling. They quickly veered towards a large gathering of people dancing and drinking in the streets. They joined in, sharing some drinks with their fellow players. The new players they met were really friendly. Epona asked them what their powers were, they lit up, each showing off their armour and weapons. One of the players just got back from killing a large rodent creature in the ‘marsh lands’, and showed off it’s looted cadaver. They all spoke different languages and yellow subtitles appeared translating each other’s speech. They played around with Epona’s sais, and let her try out their wind sword. They laughed when Lamb told them he didn’t have any weapons, thinking it was a joke. Another one of their friends had a giant spiked railgun, they tossed it over to Lamb to try out.
Later, they met a couple of really intoxicated dancers, who insisted on buying them drinks. Epona and Lamb could never say no to free drinks, they drank a few cups, which wasn’t the smartest idea since they were planning to fight later.
Lamb even joined in on the dancing, Epona shook her head, she was not a dancer.
Lamb downed one more drink, and stepped into the training grounds, Epona followed, twirling 2 large sharp sais. A small crowd followed them and cheered as they leaned against the outer border of the training ground and watched.
“Woooh!” Naseer shouted, eager to see some action. He wanted to see what the shorty foreigner who only knows how to kick could do. ‘Surely he must have some super secret spells up his sleeves, surely he must have something more than just kicking and punching.’ Naseer thought.
Naomi and Jezebel, the two dancers who bought them drinks, also watched along with several of their friends. Jezebel had one regular left arm, and the other one was a giant mechanical scorpion arm, yet it did not affect her dancing in the least. It’s a shame she didn’t choose the ‘Steamworld’ server, that place was abundant with ‘machine metal prosthetics’, and she would’ve had an easy time finding gear shops and mechanics.
Lamb squared off 20 yards from Epona. “We’re just practice fighting,” Epona shouted at the beefy robed guards, who gave no response in return. Naomi and Jezebel started dancing next to one of the mean looking guards, sandwiching him, the guard kept his eyes on Epona and Lamb.
“You ready?” Epona called.
Lamb closed his left fist, covering it with an open right hand, and bowed in a martial salute of ‘challenge’.
Epona summoned a pair of sais and threw them at Lamb, infusing them with poison at the same time, the blades propelled towards Lamb in a straight line.
Lamb sided stepped and dodged, turning this body sideways becoming a smaller target. He did some infusing of his own, infusing his left forearm and hand with qi. Epona threw some more blades at him, as she ran around him in a circle. Lamb deflected them, the blades falling harmlessly around him. He bent over and picked one up as Epona reloaded, summoning more sais.
Lamb sprinted forward towards her, clutching his sai in an icepick grip. She ran backwards throwing more blades at him as she retreated. Lamb batted them away easily with her own blade. They were both had a wicked smile on their face.
Lamb got to within his optimal range, Epona lashed out slashing and stabbing with twin sais, she was laughing in pure joy— and a little healthy amount of terror. Lamb swung back using his single blade, first defending using a tight icepick grip, then switching to orthodox grip: bladed prongs facing his opponent.
Despite the lack of any formal training, Epona was a natural knife fighter and had natural fighting reflexes. This sparring match was awakening something inside her. She loved roleplaying games; she loved cathartically fighting through the characters she controlled. But here she was, trying to stab her friend in real life, in real combat. Wait… was Lamb her real friend? Whenever she opened up and relied on others in the past, they always abandoned her, making her feel worthless and betrayed, was Lamb just waiting to do the same? They’d only known each other for 2 years, and only ever talked online before. Was this really his true colours, or was he waiting to take advantage of her trust like everyone else? Epona shook her worries aside and focused back to the present, they were in a face-off and she was losing.
She feinted low and attacked right, but he could tell she was bluffing, parrying her strike and riposting with a counter strike to her shoulder. She fought back unfazed, it was frustrating, she kept swinging but none of her hits went through, Lamb dodged and parried all of them, her hits barely missing him by an inch. She realized this was the difference between someone who’s never fought before and someone who practices every day.
Lamb slashed at her face, it was a distraction. He stepped forward and kicked low, sending his leg forward in a stomp kick to her shin. The kick made her back off, momentarily stunned, Lamb decided to try something:
Using his free hand, Lamb punched downwards with his right fist— in a straight punch. He used heaven’s qi as he snapped his fist, shooting a blast hitting Epona in the leg. She collapsed on one knee, as she rose, Lamb snapped a crescent kick over her head, she felt the force of the kick like a big gust of wind, snapping her face to the side, parting her hair.
“Crap,” Epona grumbled, “I’m dead.”
The crowd roared in cheers and applause. Naseer whistled and screamed. He flipped a small coin purse at Jezebel, her mechanical scorpion arm snatched it in the air, trailing acid. Naseer bet 5 silver on Epona, he lost money, but that was one hell of a fight, “Mr. Chunky can move!” He remarked to Jezebel in Farsi.
Lamb closed his right fist, covering it with an open left hand, and bowed in a martial salute of ‘respect’. To quote a very wise philosopher…
“R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Find out what it means to me…”
Meeting up in voice chat, and playing co-op with Epona, was a highlight of his week Lamb often looked forward to back on Earth. But those gaming sessions couldn’t compare to this, they weren’t piloting digital characters on a board anymore, they were the characters. They were fighting with real weapons and he was shooting real energy blasts, and this wasn’t a game, this was real life. He could not contain the smile on his face, “Good fight,” he replied tearing up.
Epona got up, face flush with emotion. She turned her back towards Lamb, brushing ‘sand’ from her eyes.
“Can you keep going?” She asked, composing herself, hopping in place in a loose fighting stance, “round 2?”
Jezebel tabbed Naseer on the shoulder, dripping acid on him. “Ough…” he moaned.
“Double or nothing?” She asked in accented Farsi, raising an eyebrow.
They did a lot of experimenting, they fought 3 more rounds, until they both felt well under half health. They couldn’t see how much healing health they had left, but felt their healing reserves deplete with each major hit they took. Epona finally managed to hit Lamb with her poison debuff, her first time ever using it on an actual living being. The poison left Lamb sluggish and weak for 50 seconds, which was a long time in a fight. He tried kicking Epona as hard as he could, but instead of breaking bones, it only left a small bruise. That debuff was scary stuff.
The two of them could barely stand after, they needed help from Naseer and Jezebel to make it back to their tents before collapsing. Naseer and Jezebel complimented them on their fighting and suggested they go out to the ‘marsh lands’ some time. Lamb was too gassed to reply, he just raised his hand in thanks.
He felt born again. They were going all out, the thrill of martial combat, this was what Lamb was here for.
Epona clutched her sai as she lay in bed, infusing it with poison. She remembered the cathartic joy of combat. She didn’t know she had this savage side to her, it reminded her of being a kid and the first time she got on a horse. She thought horse back riding and gaming would be her only hobbies in life, she may have awakened a third.
chapter end