3 Eight Years, Going To New York and The Eve of War

8 years. Training, fighting...killing. My body had grown to such a level that I was impervious to most conventional weapons of my time.

Bullets struggled to break through my skin and even if they did, by some chance do it, my muscles would stop them dead in the tracks. A few years ago, when my skin hadn't been tempered to such a degree, I could still catch bullets and knives in between my muscles, stopping them, so it wasn't exactly something that has ever worried me. Conventional weapons, I mean.

I'd had people shoot at me with guns and try and stab me with knives a few years ago. Veterans from the first world war. Hardened men who'd killed and fought in one of the most brutal wars up to date.

They were an interesting distraction.

I was now fully grown as well. 195cm tall and over 150kg in weight. That's 6'5" and over 330lbs, for those who use those measurements. A truly remarkable body, if you'll allow me to be vain.

Strength, speed, durability, flexibility--my body had been molded to have it all.

Despite being of such prestigious weight, I didn't really look it. Sure, I was incredibly muscular. But I wasn't a Baki character or incredibly bulky. If I had to compare my physique to anything...it'd be a Jojo character. Similar to Dio, I guess. How is it possible to have around 150kg in weight and still have an outstanding physique? Muscle density. Over the years, I haven't just been studying martial arts. I've had many, many tutors and most of them, by my own request, were doctors and nutritionists. Or at least the 1900's equivalent. With them teaching me what they knew, I'd devised many ways to improve my body over time.

One such way was to increase my muscle density through a specific set of poses that I incorporated into the ancient yoga I did that pit my muscles against themselves and the rest of my body. By doing this, I increased the strength of my body AND the density of my muscles and bones.

Even if I didn't do anything, I was immovable by normal people. Which I didn't stop finding hilarious. Pissing some martial artist off and having them try to move me, only to have them realize how useless it was...well, it was my current favorite hobby.

What was I doing right now? Training, like always.

I was in a sauna room with heat hot enough to kill people, doing exercise. An ungodly amount of weight was spread across my body with metal plates and chains. I did poses, flexed my muscles, before practicing simple kicks and punches. In my head, I was constantly refining the process of a punch or a kick, removing small mistakes. One by one, the mistakes were falling away like the cocoon of a butterfly and it was only a matter of time before I could throw the perfect punch. Even with my talent, perfecting something so simple was harder than you'd think.

It was easy to have an overall perfect punch. But it was hard to have everything in a punch be perfect. The timing, the flow of force, the speed at which you threw it, the way you built up the force with your muscles to begin with. Perfecting all of that and perfecting it for all the many scenarios you could come across in a battle/fight...it took time. Even if you're me.

That being said, I'd made much more progress in eight years than any other person could make in their whole life even if they dedicated every day to practicing.

Anyway, I was practicing these moves and refining my body. But every once in a while, I'd stop and pour an oily substance all over my body, rubbing it in before going back to exercising. What was this substance? The liquid on the skin of the golden poison dart frog. It was quite expensive and extremely deadly. To others, at least.

My physiology offered me incredible resistance to poison and other toxins but that didn't mean it was perfect. So, I constantly added poison resistance training to my daily training. It was...productive. It also resulted in an overall stronger body and immune system.

After all, adding poisons and toxins to my body practically made it into a battleground.

And just like any battleground, whatever won became stronger as a result. My body always won, as well, so it always got stronger. The amount I just covered myself in...well, it would easily be enough kill thousands of young and perfectly healthy adults.

Over the eight years of training, I hadn't just been trying to perfect my attacks, I'd also been perfecting my defense. Through the practice and perfection of one style of martial arts.

Kaiwan Style. It's an assassination style of martial arts, so it can also pose as an offensive thing but the main reason I learnt this style was because the most extreme part of the Kaiwan Style is the hand conditioning users undergo, with users spending most of their time training their hands by stabbing things like sandbags, bamboo poles and even stone. Hand conditioning is performed every day without rest, even if the user's arm is broken or shredded. The Kaiwan Style's training does not stop at the hands and feet, however, as every joint is trained over a ridiculously long period of time; they are at times solid enough to be used as a spear and breaking them instantaneously is nigh-impossible.

This type of training interested me. The thought of being unstoppable was fun but the thought of being invincible and impervious was even better. To see despair on a person's face when they realized their attacks were useless...it interested me very much so!

But I didn't just do it to my hands or feet of my joints. I took the principles of the Kaiwan Style's training, put it together with my medical knowledge and knowledge of training, and I produced a defense training that that effected my entire body. For hands, arms, feet and legs, I stabbed my limbs through iron sand at first. Then when I got used to that it became chunks of metal. Then sharp chunks of metal. All up until now where I just pierce my limbs through solid metal.

I do similar and more specific training for my knees and elbows but for my shoulders and back, I slam myself, repeatedly, into massive blocks of incredibly tough and tempered metal. The force that's bounced back from me doing those slams/charges at full speed are what temper those parts of my body.

For example, after doing this training for about 5 or 6 years, a casual shoulder bump from me could easily tear through about a foot of steel. A full powered one...well, I don't know what that could do. I don't really know what any of my full powered attacks can do. Never really had a reason to use them. I guess I should try and check out the results sometime soon. After all, I need to know my limits if I want to be able to fight properly.

...Though learning what those limits are during a fight seems quite fun in and of itself!

Anyway, for my stomach and chest, I built a machine that slams a ball of reinforced and tempered steel, attached to an insanely tough pole, and the goal of the machine is to have it slam the steel ball into my abdominal region or my chest.

The machine, on it's lowest level, would only need one swing to thoroughly cripple a bear. Obviously, I was above that level.

Anyway, after all this training, I was most definitely impervious to most impacts. A car ramming into me would only break the car. I'd be fine. If given enough time to brace myself or dig my toes into the ground, I wouldn't even be moved by the car either. But even if it moved me it'd only be a few feet before I recovered and stopped myself.

Perks of such a superhuman body, I guess.

I'd already done my Kaiwan training for the day, so after the last of the dart frog poison was fought off by my body, I exited the burning hot sauna and took off all the training weights and devices I had to wear to get even a small improvement from my training.

Once out of the sauna, I quickly entered the adjacent bathroom and had a very thorough shower. When done with that, I exited the bathroom with a towel wrapped around my waist.

A few of the maids I passed gave me seductive smiles or coquettish winks but I ignored them. I was always up for a bit of fun as a stress reliever but right now, I had something to do. I had to go to New York. The city, not the state. I was already in the state, after all. Just in the upper half of the state, on my family's estate.

My business in New York was one of importance...the securing of a distraction. Something that could be fun for a short while:

I wanted to train up Steve Rogers so I could kick the shit out of him one day.

It would prove to stave off my boredom for a certain period of time, at least.

Boredom spawned from the fact that there were no actual people I could fight right now. If this was the MCU, I'd have to wait until the 1990's at the very least until something fun happens. If the new X-Men movies happen, then I have to wait until the 1960s. That's a long time to wait and I might as well try and find stuff to do until then.

So, I was going to go to New York, teach Steve how to fight for a year and then join the war effort when WW2 starts.

Of course I won't be joining the army in a conventional manner. I'll brute force my way into the army and kill anyone who tries to go against me. I'll scare the Army and all the people in control of America until they know to not underestimate me. Terrify them so deeply that they don't mess with me.

It's a simple idea and a simple goal. It shouldn't be too hard to complete at the very least.

Even if there are bigger players in the world at the minute, the US don't know that just yet. Nor do any of them work for America. They won't go out of their way to help them either. This could also be seen as a test: a test to see if my actions can attract some bigger fish.

Why would I want to do that? Because I need the information. If I can get someone like Romulus to appear, that means a few other things will no doubt exist.

And if I get someone I can't handle to appear? I don't care! I'll fight them. I'll keep fighting them until I find a weakness to exploit. Once I've found that weakness, I'll make sure to get as much fun out of them in terms of fighting and then I'll crush them. There's no need to be scared and fearful of people/things. Only cautious. Even then, you shouldn't let caution hold you back. Just don't be an idiot about it.

For me, the biggest problem that could come out of this isn't something I can't handle. If Romulus shows up, I'll rip him in two. If the Ancient One comes at me, I'll try and learn some sorcery (purely how to escape the Mirror Dimension and how to defend my soul/mind from attacks) and then I'd either fight her or leave and stay away and do something else instead.

You can't live your life in fear of things that CAN happen. It's only a possibility, after all.

While I was thinking all of this, I was getting ready for my trip. It was gonna be a decently long trip, so I picked some pretty informal and comfortable clothes. Not like I was meeting anyone too important either, so it's fine.

With myself dressed, I went and said goodbye to my mother before I went to the front of the estate where a driver was already waiting for me.

Then, I was on my way to New York City. How fun.