We rejoin our protagonist the following morning, as he wakes up early.
“All that talk about Chi left me with so many questions! I wasn’t born here so do I have a spirit root? What kind of damage have I done to my meridians/ spirit root? Where is here exactly? What kind of world is this?....” thought Cade with a seemingly endless loop of questions appearing in his mind. He then noticed Alexander observing him.
“Teacher do you know a way to see how badly I may of damaged my meridians while I was training in that forest before meeting you guys?” asked Cade.
“For kids under the age of 7, as their spirit root isn’t fully formed, we can’t check them. The process would require us to send Chi into their bodies. This act could also damage them as the root usually helps to regulate Chi entering our bodies.” explained Alexander.
“Are you still mad at Aden?” asked Alexander
“I am still kinda pissed off he didn’t listen and almost got killed but I kinda understand wanting to prove your self. I know I made plenty of errors while trying to survive in that forest. All those close calls made me have to grow up quicker. I had to learn not to pick a fight I couldn’t win. Which admittedly is a lot easier when you can use Ki sense but even then you can get surprises. I had to learn to stay alert at all times. I had to learn how to control myself and my techniques. I know mentally he didn’t have prior training and that he was just overconfident. But emotionally, I was angry to the point I wanted to hit him so bad after you rescued us. It’s just confusing. I also know it’s going to take me sometime before I trust him again to hunt or do anything important.” Cade explained.
“I can understand how you feel. I fear I overindulged them when they were younger. You see their parents died 2 years ago when devils infiltrated Kingston. They were killed in front of them. The devils escaped before the city guard could rally and before I was informed. I then raised them on my own and tried my best to allow them to smile again. They just started to be able to this year. I guess in my quest to make them happy I forgot to give them common sense. This was also the first time they were out of the safety of town. We were going to the next town over to see an auction when we were ambushed by the death’s way cultists. You know the rest. So can you find it in you to forgive him? You’re the only person they have actively tried to make friends with. In Kingston they were basically seen as a way to build connections to me by all the parents. They never could find actual friends, so can you please try to get along with them.” explained Alexander.
“I will try to forgive him it just might take me some time. Even I don’t remember having friends. It sounds rough for them in Kingston is that why Elena is so quiet?” asked Cade
“Elena still has nightmares of that time and retreated inward after it. She has been getting better but socializing has never been easy for her.” said the old man.
“I will try to make friends with them. Hell I know loneliness from all my time in that forest.” said our runt.
“Good! So how are you finding the training?” asked the teacher.
“I feel like I haven’t been progressing as fast as I was in the forest. When it was just live or die situations it felt like I constant had to raise my strength. Sure my fighting techniques were more instinct then technique but it seemed to come naturally.” said Cade.
“HAHA it’s true one can get stronger in life or death situations. Hell it’s the way most fighters check or progress their understanding at all levels.” exclaimed Alexander.
“So it’s normal to feel this way?” Cade asked.
“Yes it is in a sense. Think of it this way in do or die their is no trying. So you fight with everything on the line so of course you progress faster. Another reason you might feel you aren’t progressing fast enough is that you no longer use Ki reinforcement or blasts. A beast you might of taken on before easily now constitutes more of a challenge.” explained Alexander.
“Want to here the story of my first life or death situation?” asked Alexander.
“Sure” said Cade with curiosity in his eyes.
“I’ll give you the short of it. I was 7 years old had just been tested for Chi..I was the son of a guard so I had some idea of how to fight. I had to test into a sect as an outer disciple since my root wasn’t a higher root. Then this damn young master, who was about our age, is picked to be our test. We had to fight him one on one. The fucker actually went for killing blows against us saying” Ha this is what you rabble deserve for trying to join the same sect as this young master!”. He actually killed 10 of the applicants and didn’t get punished. When it was my turn I had been beaten into a corner. Until in the critical moment, I felt myself attack him purely out of instinct. The successive blows I launched crumbled his guard and eventually left him begging for his life. Then a sect elder came to his rescue. I would of been expelled if another elder hadn’t been interested in my potential.”
“This elder trained me much like I am training you all. He believed in building some fundamentals first and then letting us build on them and experiment to create a fighting style that suited us. It’s mostly because of his hands off way of training that I could reach this stage of power. He died suddenly 5 years into my training. The other elders simply said he died of old wounds when we asked but most of his disciples could tell something was off. The atmosphere in the sect slowly became toxic for us as all the nobles and inner court disciples slowly started to try to squeeze our resources dry for their own use. We left the sect shortly after as we had lost our teacher and he was the only elder actually willing to teach us commoners and outer court disciples. We then started a small mercenary company using our skills.” Alexander explained with a look of respect in his eyes as he spoke of his teacher and a look of pain at the mention of his passing.
“There are actually people like that “Young master” out there? Man I seriously hope I don’t meet them!” said Cade.
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“NOOOO! YOU FOOL! You just jinxed yourself! You are going to keep meeting those idiots!” exclaimed Alexander sighing extremely loudly and appearing serious in his belief.(Young master Flag raised DUH DUH DUMMM)
“You can’t seriously believe in jinxes?” asked Cade.
“I said something similar before going to test at the sect. My life became an endless torrent of young masters when I was there. I pray you don’t live through that hell. Saying even the smallest wrong thing, according to their atrophied brains, ends up earning you an enemy for life. Then you have to worry about their clans if you hurt them, take an item they believe should belong to them or just court any woman they think should be theirs. The list of supposed reasons they would go after you is endless and IT MAKES NO GODDAMN SENSE! Most experts I met after leaving the sect also despised those idiots but in the lower level sects they are everywhere and it’s like they are encouraged to act like idiots. IT’S JUST HELL! YOU CAN’T REALLY AVOID THEM, INJURE THEM OR KILL THEM! THEY SOUGHT ME OUT EVERY GODDAMN DAY!” said Alexander clearly shivering from remembering those hellish days.
“I’ll be fine I won’t meet them.”Cade thought while deluding himself. He truly underestimated the power of this evil flag he had raised.
“Teacher did Aden or Elena tell you about my time in the forest yet?”
“They told me some of the story. I don’t mean to pry but I know you left out some details.”This sentence seemed to put Cade on guard.
“Don’t start worrying for no reason. You just aren’t a great liar that’s all. It’s easy to see you aren’t really comfortable lying. Hell it’s part of the reason I like you and wanted you around them. Everyone has secrets in this world. It take time for people to build trust. Just don’t hide anything that could hurt them okay.” said Alexander which caused Cade to calm down. The old man started laughing out loud all of a sudden.
“I still can’t believe my grand kids haven’t realized that belt you have around your wast is really your tail. How could they miss that? Ahahaha. Oh don’t worry I have no problem with Beastkin. They just aren’t that common around here is all. I am not going to mention it. Please don’t tell them. I want to see how long it will take them to figure it out. Hahhahah can you imagine what their reactions will be it’s going to be priceless.” said Alexander said while laughing.
“What’s a beastkin?” asked Cade sincerely. This sincere question left Alexander puzzled momentarily as he couldn’t detect any signs of deception.
“Beastkin are usually descendants from the union of beasts that had taken on human form and humans. Beasts can take human form once they reach the core formation stage which is the fourth stage of cultivation. This union ultimately resulted in the various Beastkin tribes. Their ancestors might vary from a common bear to a legendary dragon. They retain some characteristics of their beast ancestor. Like your tail which I assume is a monkey’s tail. Monkey Beastkin are rare on this continent but not unheard of so you don’t really have to disguise your tail as a belt.” explained Alexander.
“It’s not really why I keep it around me. I keep it there since if something grabs it I seem to lose strength and experience massive pain.” explained Cade.
“Oh! I see I had a lizardkin friend who told me about that. You just need to train your tail physically and practice enduring the pain. As it gets stronger it will eventually become more resilient to pain. Eventually it can become a strength instead of a weakness. You can use it in combat as an extra limb if you want.” explained Alexander.
“How did they not include that in the pod? It’s not even hard to do and the information wasn’t even given to lower class warriors. It’s a glaring weakness if you don’t train it.” thought Cade with a bit of anger on his face.
“Now that I think of it Beastkin also use a different energy. It isn’t a true energy per say. It’s an amalgamation of Ki and Chi that they call Qi. Unfortunately I know very little about how they cultivate. You will have to ask a Beastkin If you want to practice their method.” This statement by Alexander left Cade wondering how he would end up cultivating.
“OK we’ve spoken enough. Time to wake the others and start training.” said Alexander with a devious grin. He was going to run Aden through hell for last nights debacle. Cade woke them up quickly as he knew the old Tyrant was just waiting to yell out to wake them.”
“OK now that you’re all up! Start doing your basic exercises. Today we focus on other type of punches and hits!” exclaimed Alexander resuming the grinning. It was to the point that if you had to describe him in few words you could say Evil Grinning Drill Sergeant. He simply delighted in the role.
The spent the next two days travelling and repeating every move he taught them. He had taught them spear hand, elbow strikes, palm strikes, hammer fist and variations on punches from different martial arts. All the while their instructor hurled abuse and commentary on them.
“Remember to use your whole body! Your not using your hips properly! Damn did you even listen when we spoke of rotation! Visualize how your opponent might react to your attack! Start thinking of how you will chain your strikes ahead of time! No your form is all off! Repeat this attack 200 hundred times before noon!.....
This hell continued all day every day. Our instructor from hell kept on using his aura to increase the pressure on them. They were getting visibly stronger as he kept upping his aura over time.
“Tomorrow you guys will start basic sparing! You have learned mostly hand to hand combat. You will shortly learn basic dodges and parrying as we spend most of our time sparing. So get some sleep, tomorrow you get your first taste of sparing!