I’m often asked why I spend so much time teaching subjects other than those absolutely necessary for the average cultivator. The answer to this question is a fairly simple one; not everyone is suited the life of an ordinary cultivator and even those who are can still benefit from the other subjects that I teach. As any teacher knows many of the students that we teach don’t truly know what they want to do with their lives and even the ones who think that they do and broadening their understanding of the world can help them make a decision.
* Excerpt from Telram’s notes on teaching.
Now that the two young men had finished testing each other out they started to get serious, attacking each other with such great speed that those in the audience who weren’t cultivators could barely follow their movements and even those who were cultivators were surprised that the two young men were so fast, especially Telram who was still in the Human Realm.
Some of the villagers were aware that Warren specialised in speedy attacks, but they hadn’t really known anything about Telram’s skills so seeing him keeping up with Warren while injured was impressive to say the least.
Warren used a strange movement skill that Telram had never seen before that created cushions of air under his feet allowing him to skate over the ground with incredible speed, however this speed came at a cost. It was all but impossible for Warren to put a lot of weight behind a blow because he couldn’t plant his feet properly on the ground which meant that he had to build up a lot of momentum before he could actually do any real damage to someone as tough as Telram which was almost impossible in such a small arena when Telram was almost able to keep up with his speed and could react fast enough that he could soften the force of any blows that came his way.
However, much like Warren was unable to get a clean blow in Telram was having a similar problem. Any blows that Telram landed had the force behind them dispersed when Warren went flying away from him because of the way the cushions of air under his feet reduced friction.
The damage to Telram’s Mana Core was also limiting how well he could use many of his techniques. In fact, he was already having difficulty controlling his Dissonance Technique and eventually gave up on trying to use it because of this, choosing instead to use his Mana to enhance his physical capabilities by forcing more Mana into his cells through his Body Strengthening Technique. This was a fairly basic application for most Body Strengthening Techniques and one that was very effective when used against someone who lacked a Body Strengthening Technique like Warren.
Using his Resonance Palm Technique was even more difficult because of the damage to his Core which when combined with the fact that he only he had one usable arm meant that Telram was forced to abstain from using his Resonance Palm technique until he was certain could land a blow that would change the course of the fight. He had already shown off his Kiai Technique which gave him a ranged attacking option but using that was also difficult, so he decided that increasing his physical abilities was the best move for now.
Meanwhile Warren was starting to worry, he now knew that he couldn’t beat Telram with his normal attacks but was hesitant to use his more powerful techniques against an injured opponent. On the other hand, he also didn’t want to lose to an opponent who was both injured and weaker in terms of cultivation. Not with half the village watching.
Warren had already decided that he would support the idea of Telram and the others teaching the village kids, partially because of Telram keeping his word and actually showing up instead of chickening out like he had half expected. He was sure his mother would hate this decision, but Warren was no fool. He knew that cultivators were capable of much more than normal people and that if the village would become much more prosperous if more people could learn to cultivate, he and his father had also gone over the dangers of teaching groups of people to cultivate in their tiny little village the night before and had decided that the dangers were limited.
The problem was that Warren’s pride just wouldn’t allow him to lose this fight and he knew that Telram if he didn’t make some sort of move then he would lose because Telram could simply outlast him and strike him down when he ran out of endurance. What’s more because Telram was increasing his defences by channelling additional Mana into his Body Strengthening Technique which meant that Warren would have to use a large amount of Mana to do enough damage to end the fight which only increased the burden on his supply of Mana as he was constantly using a significant amount to keep his Movement Technique active.
Making his decision Warren cancelled his Movement Technique and sent several blades of condensed air at Telram with one hand to keep him busy while he prepared a more powerful attack with his other hand.
Telram smirked as he dodged around the weak attacks and closed in on Warren. Warren was much more skilled and used to fighting than any of the cultivators that Telram had fought during the evaluation which made fighting him even more difficult with Telram’s injuries however he still wasn’t as experienced as Telram was.
Sweat ran down Warren’s face as wind gathered around his hand and started to spin faster and faster until it formed the shape of a drill. This was almost same technique that Aran had used the first time he had taken Telram hunting with him with the only differences being the amount of Mana being used and the fact that Warren was unarmed. Telram understood that if he took it head on, even he would be badly injured. Luckily as he was familiar with the technique, he had come with a method to counter it and the grey mist that appeared when he used his Dissonance Technique to dissipate Mana based attacks formed around him as he ran forwards. It wasn’t going to be enough to block the attack though, or at least not when he was as badly injured as he was now. Which was why he wasn’t planning on trying to block the attack outright, after all there were other methods to defend oneself against a thrusting attack.
Warren swung his air wrapped fist at Telram as soon as he got in range, only for Telram to bend backwards and deflect the attack upwards with his uninjured forearm before countering with a low kick that slammed into Warren’s legs with a surprising amount of force considering the awkward position it had been thrown from and sending the young man sprawling as he lost his balance. The attack that he had prepared kicking up a massive cloud of dust as it chewed into the platform that they were fighting on.
By the time the dust cloud had cleared the crowd stared in surprise at the two young men. Telram was brandishing what had previously been his uninjured arm down at Warren as he crouched over the other boy.
The arm in question was now covered in lacerated flesh that steadily dripped blood onto Warren as Telram crouched over him and one of Warren’s eyes was already beginning to swell. Once he was sure that everyone was paying attention Telram stood back up, grimacing in pain as he did so.
“What do you say we call this a draw then?” he asked Warren who hesitated, when Telram had struck his face he had been using his Resonance Palm Technique and Warren’s Mana had yet to calm down so now that Telram was even more injured continuing the fight was going to be too dangerous for both of them.
“That would be fair,” Warren eventually agreed when he came to the conclusion that this might be the best situation that they could ask for. If Telram had won, then he would’ve lost a lot of respect with the villagers as well as exacerbating the brewing feud between their families and if he had won then his mother would’ve used it as leverage to prevent Telram and the others from teaching the village children. He knew that things had only turned out this way because Telram was injured, if he hadn’t been then he would’ve lost completely which did bother him a little.
It was commonly believed that the cultivator with the higher cultivation was always the stronger and while Warren knew that this wasn’t in fact always the case, it was still a hard thing for him to admit that he didn’t stand a chance against someone who was a whole realm below him in terms of cultivation.
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“Very well then,” agreed Henry who could see that Warren’s Mana had somehow become unstable. “As both fighters are unable to continue for now and you are both in agreement, I declare this fight a draw!”
The crowd of villagers present immediately broke into applause, some of them looked a little confused by the outcome but those who could use Spiritual Vision soon explained why Warren had agreed to call the fight a draw. Warren’s mother Polly on the other hand didn’t look impressed at all and started screeching about how Telram must’ve cheated causing both Warren and Henry’s faces to turn red in both embarrassment and anger.
“That’s enough Polly!” Henry exclaimed angrily. “Do you really think that I wouldn’t have noticed if Telram had cheated?”
“Dad’s right Telram didn’t cheat,” Warren agreed. “And what’s more if he hadn’t been injured, he would’ve beaten me easily.”
“I don’t know about easily,” Telram told the other young man as his father rushed over with some cloth to wrap his bleeding arm in. “You were actually much more skilled than most of the cultivators I’ve fought at a similar level of cultivation and if you had really wanted to you could’ve overpowered me in my current state. By the way may I ask what the Movement Technique you were using is called.”
“Uh, it doesn’t actually have a name yet,” Warren admitted turning red once more from the unexpected compliment. “I only just finished completing it recently and I haven’t been able to come up with a name that I liked.”
“Ah I see, well I don’t think I’d be able to help with that,” Telram chuckled. “I’m not that great at coming up with names myself. It’s definitely a good technique though.”
“It wasn’t very effective against you though,” Warren sighed. “I just couldn’t build up enough momentum for a strong hit.”
“Well if you knew the right technique you might not have to build up momentum to do a lot of damage,” Telram replied. “I’d suggest working on either the technique you tried to finish me off with to make it faster to use or using some sort of bladed weapon.”
“That’s a pretty good idea,” Henry agreed. The older man was surprised that Telram was giving his son advice, but he couldn’t deny that he was right either. “By the way, we should apologise; your injuries seemed a bit worse than we thought they were yesterday.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Telram shrugged. “It would’ve been much more difficult to convince people to let us teach their kids if we hadn’t provided a demonstration of some sort and I’d say that this qualifies.”
“So, you’re saying that this was all a part of your plan then,” Henry chuckled as he realised what Telram was saying.
“I wouldn’t call it part of the plan exactly, but it was always a possibility,” Telram replied grimacing as his father pulled the makeshift bandage that he had been tying around his son’s arm tight. “The idea of a school is something that breaks from tradition after all.”
“A school?” Warren asked. “Is that what you’re calling what you have planned?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Telram nodded.
“May I ask what exactly you plan to teach the kids who take part in this ‘school’?” Warren asked with an interested look on his face making Telram smile wryly at the awkward way Warren asked the question. It was pretty obvious that the other young man was interested in the idea which was probably the only reason he had agreed to the draw in the end. If he was completely opposed to it then the fight would’ve likely ended in Telram being very badly injured and he would’ve probably done even more damage to his Mana Core.
“Oh, all sorts of things. Reading and writing first, then we’d move onto numbers and some basic cultivation, after that… well I don’t really know for sure. I haven’t really had a chance to think that far ahead yet,” Telram replied. “There are a lot of things that could be useful to teach young cultivators like basic medicine and survival skills, but we’ll just have to see how things go.”
“I see, that’s fair enough I suppose,” Henry admitted. “Well I don’t see any real reason to refuse to let you create this school so let me know when you want to start.”
“Alright, I’ll let the others know that,” Telram agreed. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get this arm looked at.”
“Just one last thing if you don’t mind,” Warren said quickly as Telram turned away. “There isn’t anyone that I can spar with in the village so if you’re okay with it could we spar occasionally? Once you’re healed of course.”
“I don’t see why not,” Telram replied. “I was in much the same boat back in Palamar so that would benefit me as well, I’m sure.”
“Awesome, I’ll look forward to it,” Warren laughed happily making everyone in earshot smile. The villagers in particular had been worried that he was going to hold the draw against Telram, but it seemed like they didn’t have to worry about that. Warren was much more popular with the villagers than his mother and even slightly more popular than his father despite the fact that he had a bit of a temper, so his endorsement meant a lot to the villagers.
Telram smiled to himself as he stepped down from the arena, not only had he managed to do some advertising for his school, but he had gained a new ally and he was hopeful that he would be able to convince Warren to help out at the school sometimes. The Movement Technique that Warren had created was a very interesting and imaginative one and that sort of thinking could be very useful if he could talk Warren into teaching people.
“You idiot!” Lily hissed angrily as Telram walked closer. “What if you had messed that last bit up?”
“I actually did mess it up,” Telram admitted sheepishly. “I wanted to concentrate the Mana I was producing into a small area above my arm so that I could deflect the attack without being injured but as soon as I tried to do that I lost control of my Mana briefly which is why my arm is chewed up. Thankfully my body is pretty tough, so the wounds are pretty light compared to the damage to my other arm.”
Once he had finished speaking the others stared at him wordlessly for a few seconds with expressions that shifted freely from rage to incredulity for a few seconds before stopping on either one or the other. As one might expect the ones who were angry were Telram’s parents and the ones who were still staring at him incredulously were Gerry, Thomas and Diana.
“Your mother’s right, what were you thinking?” Aran asked angrily. He was starting to think that Telram just didn’t care about getting injured and would do whatever it took for him to reach the outcome that he desired. Little did Aran know that he was right, even the pain of destroying the bones in his arm was nothing compared to the pain he had experienced before he had been killed in his previous life and even now, he still occasionally had nightmares about that fateful night. So, this level of pain just wasn’t enough to stop him from doing what he believed that he had to do.
“Now, now you two,” Gerry said quietly. “I’m sure that Telram thought things out. When have you ever known him not to? Besides you know as well as I do that those little scratches will be mostly healed by the time, he wakes up tomorrow.”
“Well that’s true,” Aran admitted with a long suffering sigh. “But that doesn’t change the fact that he was being far too reckless!”
None of the others could disagree with that, not even Telram himself who now had an ashamed look on his face as he realised what his actions must’ve affected both of his parents when he had already recently been badly injured when they weren’t around.
“I’m sorry,” he apologised. “It’s just that making the school is something that I really want to do so I might have gotten a bit carried away.”
“I’d say that he did a pretty good job,” Diana pointed out. “He was put in a situation where he had to fight someone with a higher cultivation rank than him while injured and managed to fight him to a draw. Yes, he’s got a few more injuries but none of them are very serious. How many of us could claim the same thing?”
“That’s definitely true,” Gerry agreed. “But I would also appreciate it if you were a bit more careful as well Telram. You can’t do anything if you’re dead.”
Telram nodded in agreement, he had been relying on the toughness that his Body Strengthening Technique had given him far too much and had started to get sloppy in fights and decided to start working on a true defensive technique as soon as he had repaired his Soul Core enough. His Dissonance Technique was all very well and good, but it was a technique that Telram had come up with so that he could defeat weaker enemies without hurting them, not a true defensive technique. It could be used that way, but it wasn’t as good as a real defensive technique would be, even if he didn’t go to the trouble of actually making one and just learned an existing one. However, Telram already had a few ideas that would allow him to adapt parts of the other techniques that he had made to create another new technique that would probably be mostly based off of his Dissonance Technique.
This wasn’t actually because he thought that he could make a defensive Technique that was better than existing ones but because he had yet to find such a technique that would mesh as well with the rest of the ones that he already had than one that he made specifically for that purpose. This might not seem too important to a non-cultivator, but it was important that all of the skills and techniques in a cultivator’s arsenal were compatible as using the wrong combination of techniques could have dangerous consequences, especially if those techniques used different types of Elemental Mana.
However, Telram’s musings were cut short by the sound of someone clearing their throat and he looked up to see the large form of Dale standing in front of him. There was also a small crowd of other villagers and their families that had gathered around them.
“Well done lad, that was an excellent fight,” the blacksmith congratulated him. “Would it be alright if I introduced you to the people who want you to teach their kids now, or would you prefer to get your arm treated first?”
“Well I don’t really need any more treatment that this,” Telram replied. “So why don’t you introduce me, and I’ll answer any questions that people may have?”