I found something peculiar… a human not born and raised in the range… free-spirited if you will. He had no idea who or what we were, but he was swiftly brought into my throne room. At first, he was apprehensive, and I showed modesty, all to get answers.
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The forest turned restless as every animal within a small area woke up from their slumber. Birds flew around in circles, inspecting the area, while bear-like beings and other prey both ran in different directions - One intrigued, the other terrified. A burning smell accompanied by a faint trail of smoke rose within the sky, filtered by the canopies.
In the small clearing, Kai couldn’t take his eyes off the destruction caused by the man before him with nothing more than a low-level punch. He swallowed and slowly rose, supporting himself on Onyx.
Hideyoshi walked toward Kai and placed a hand on his shoulder, bringing him back to reality. “I demonstrated it for you,” he said with a monotonous voice, however, his pupils shone with an intrigued glimmer. “I did it slowly on purpose, I hope you learned something from it.”
Kai nodded and walked toward the tree, taking a closer look at its damaged insides, and gasped. The hole was smooth, almost as if polished by a tool, and showed no signs of burning. Turning around, he found that the man had already disappeared, gone like the wind. He gulped and bowed before preparing to sit down.
However, the low growl of a bear sent a shocked shiver down his spine, and he quickly ran in the opposite direction, Onyx following behind him. “We need to find another spot.”
“Woof!”
…
In another place a good distance away, Kai and Onyx rested on the gross. The boy had his eyes closed, sat in lotus position, and his brows furrowed, while the Obborik slept on its back.
Hideyoshi’s punch was… powerful. If he had used that against me I’m not sure I’d have a body left. Regardless… The way he used that technique was very different from me. Although they were the same movement, the result was vastly different.
He took in a deep breath and recalled what he saw. Hideyoshi didn’t use any fancy stance to plant his feet into the ground, and when he pulled his fist back, it slowly gathered mana in a typhoon-like shape. It was probably slow because he wanted me to see it carefully… The way I executed the technique was enveloping my fist with a few layers and making them rotate at the same time, but the way he did it looked more like… a drill! Of course! Kai slapped his head upon realizing this, starting Onyx awake.
“Ah, sorry…”
But it’s so simple… With that thought, his body twitched to try once again, however, he took a deep breath and recalled the rest of the movement. Whilst it was pulled back, the mana rotated faster and faster. Although it was visible to the naked eye, Kai felt the movement because of the high concentration of mana.
Following the rotation, when Hideyoshi punched, a light akin to a spark ignited the mana, causing it to glow with a bright orange hue, and it reached its target - the tree - in less time than it takes to blink. What was that spark? Could it have been a natural reaction or something he did to finish the spell? Damn it, the book doesn’t say anything about a spark…
He stood up, a determined expression donning his face, and walked toward one of the nearby trees. Taking in a deep breath, he didn’t get into a horse stance like before but simply bent his knees slightly. Clenching his hand into a fist, he began rotating his internal mana around a point in the center of his fist. At first, it was slow, like a windmill blown by a weak wind, but quickly began to pick up the pace.
In just a few moments, the mana spun with the speed of a cartwheel pulled by a galloping horse, and, feeling that this was the limit, Kai punched out. There was no spark or orange light, like Hideyoshi’s, however, the fist Kai did now and the fist he did before was different like the moon and the sun.
Clak! The fist and tree connected.
A muffled clash, followed by the rustling of leaves rang softly through the forest. Kai let out a pained grunt and recoiled, landing on the soft grass a few meters away. An excited expression decorated his face, and he leaped to his feet while rushing to the tree. There, on the rough bark, a small, circular, and smooth indent the size of his fist had formed. His eyes gleamed, and he struggled to hold back a smile.
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I did it! I did it!
Although it paled in comparison to the one Hideyoshi did, at least this time he managed to make a change in the tree. He shook his right hand, feeling a light numbness covering his fist. Taking a closer look, dark spots covered it as if his skin had been carbonized, and it was red all over, seemingly as if it were roasted over a fire.
If it were a normal mage executing this I’m afraid their entire hand would have been useless for a couple of weeks… He thought after considering the damage and the recoil. No wonder they’d rather stick to wands…
Kai clenched his fist, ignored the pain, and approached the tree again, this time with even more determination than before. Don’t fear the man who did a hundred techniques once, fear the man who did one technique a hundred times!
And so the process of punching, getting hurt, and punching again began.
The muffled hits were irregular at the start, some louder than others, some faster than others. The time between each hit varied depending on how much mana Kai used and how badly he hurt himself, however, the average was about ten seconds.
Kai repeated these movements regardless of how much he bled or how much it hurt, and with each consecutive hit the indent in the tree grew larger and deeper. Onyx sat there, watching him, his beady eyes glowing with confusion.
The boy fell once again, his hand numb, covered in scars and blood. The Obborik drew closer and took a look at Kai, then licked his wounds clean. A soft smile creased Kai’s lips, and he took to patting Onyx as a form of thanks. It was a short moment of rest he much needed, as his ragged breathing and sweat-covered body suggested.
However, it didn’t last long, as his muscles trembled, the desire to learn grew stronger and stronger with each consecutive punch. He grabbed a piece of fabric from his ring and warped it around the fist, then stood up and once again performed a ‘Flame Fist’. The attack connected, however, the cloth burned to a crisp as soon as it did, disintegrating into ash.
Kai sighed, after having been launched backward, and quickly got back up, patting his clothes. “I guess that won’t work, then.”
By this point the moon hung high in the sky, staring directly at Kai from high up. Likewise, Kai glanced at it and frowned. The sun will rise soon… His heart raced with anxiety, however he took in a deep breath and walked over to the tree again, studying its surface.
He closed his eyes and felt the indent he had created. It was smooth, not like Hideyoshi’s, as it still had splinters and holes. It’s not good enough… He recalled the middle part of the fist, where the spark ignited the mana. That must be the key… Body Mages don’t have elements, so they can’t produce actual fire, so as the book said, it’s just the mana… mana… heat… maybe… the flame was provoked by introducing a new mana thread used as a catalyst… But how come the book never mentioned it… is it maybe more like a suggestion? Incomplete? Maybe I’m just wrong? I must try it just to confirm.
Kai took a deep breath and took a step backward, then his eyes flew open. Bending his knees, a popping sound rang out as his hand clenched into a fist. Pulling it backward, mana began to gather around a central point, rotating like a drill once again, and it began to spin faster and faster. A weak gust of air formed due to the torrent of mana, making Kai’s hair move wildly about.
With a loud groan, Kai’s punch flew forward, the speed of the rotating mana reaching a pinnacle. His fist clenched even harder as he willed another strand of mana to gather where his fist would be, and, just as he expected, the clashing between the invisible energies created a spark that ignited his fist.
The mana turned orange and it quickly enveloped his entire fist. He grinned. The air surrounding him turned hot, becoming denser. Then his pupils widened, and he bit his lower lip as what he perceived to be a crazy idea popped into his mind. Without hesitation, or further thought, he took out a fire crystal from his ring and then used it to imbue the mana surrounding his fist with fire using a basic spell.
Almost instantly, a flaming tornado surrounded his entire arm, burning away his clothes, and whatever strands of hair were unlucky enough to touch it. A split second later, the fist and tree made contact.
A thunderous explosion rang out within the forest, startling Onyx and making him back away. However, before he could get too far, his beady eyes caught a glimpse of Kai, who flew through the air at great speed. The Obborik’s body glowed with a faint light, and he immediately dashed toward his companion, catching him in mid-air.
He placed the boy on the ground, his entire right arm as red as crab’s feet, and half of his clothes burned away into nothingness. Kai groaned as he stood up, leaning on Onyx for support, and he quickly swallowed a pill to help him regenerate. His crimson pupils trembled upon looking at the aftermath of the attack, and his mouth stood agape.
The tree he hit - a giant standing at over twenty meters tall and as thick as two of him - fell, breaking away twigs and causing leaves to shoot out from its canopy. However, that was the extent of the damage. Unlike Hideyoshi’s hit, which destroyed everything in its wake, Kai’s ‘Flame Fist’ solely obliterated what stood before him.
A light chuckle escaped Kai’s lips, and his eyes closed shut against his will, and then fainted.