CHAPTER 9 - FLAW

I heard a twig snap behind me, I quickly turned back shouting "Who's there?"

Wait wait, it's me, Micheal, I heard his voice come from the tree behind as he slowly walked out.

What were you doing spying on me? I asked staring at him suspiciously.

"I wasn't intentionally spying on you," he said, I was on my way looking for a secluded area to practice so I wouldn't disturb others and on my way there I heard some loud noises, I thought some people were sparring so I came to watch when I saw you.

I calmed down and was relieved when I heard his response, I didn't trust people that much ever since those bullies started beating me up, even after leaving for two months I hadn't completely healed that mental scar.

So I had avoided talking to some group of people, Micheal was one of the people I became friends with and that was recently so I also didn't trust him that much.

"So your training although it's really helpful has some obvious flaws," Micheal said, and since we would be helping each other in our training I'll point out the flaw.

Your technique would mostly work for people or monsters that use brunt strength or blunt weapons, you can say it's infective to those forms but it has a problem, what if the person has a cold weapon or the monster has a weapon or its body parts are even sharper than most weapon, in those fight your weakness would show easily leading to your defeat.

Your body defense isn't the only thing to be trained, your agility, reaction speed, and battle instincts should also be trained.

As Daniel heard his words he realized the shortcomings of this technique, if Micheal wasn't around and explained it to him he would have kept it as a trump card keeping it to himself and only showing it at the last moment, that would have seriously caused his death if he fought others with cold weapons or monsters with body sharper than a sword.

Both of them talked for a while, Micheal giving him a training regimen to increase his reflexes and agility, and Daniel giving him exercises that he does daily.

"So your technique is created on the possibility that you're hit," said Micheal, then what if you're fast enough to dodge those hits?

That's why you have to train your agility, because if you keep taking hits it would gradually pile up into an inner injury that could take you down.

I'm not saying it's possible to dodge correctly all the time, there are some times you have no choice but to get hit that's why I'm learning to train my body with you, and your technique is awesome its potential is massive with the redirection properties.

I imagined the possibilities of this technique in his hands, it wasn't something given to him to learn but something he created himself In less than two months.

They went their separate ways as they finished talking, with Daniel continuing his training and Micheal walking away.

He walked away with his sword as the forest resumed with the usual noise of Daniel training.

He admired Daniel, there were other talented people in the academy, but instead of training, they were just spending their leisurely resting.

If most of them were as hardworking as Daniel, he wouldn't even be in the top five strongest people in the academy.

They were just lazy thinking everything would come to them sooner or later.

He got to a quiet place far away from Daniel due to the noises, he held his wooden sword in his hands as he looked at it in admiration.

This was the sword he had been using to train daily since he was young, It was a wonder how it was still fine till now.

He rubbed the body of the sword in excitement as he was about to start his training, it had been one and a half months since he last trained with his sword.

He started by simply swinging it, just that one swing could almost cut the air, the sharp noise from the collision with the sword and wind echoing in the surroundings.

Just that simple swing he repeated that action more than eight thousand times today, his clothes were soaked as he breathed roughly.

He sat down for a quick break as he resisted taking a gulp of water, he'll only drink when he was done with training.

He got up to a tree drawing small circles on them and started thrusting his swords on the circles, he was training his aiming skills, he repeated them more than two thousand times and took another quick break.

He was done with training his sword skills for now and wanted to train his body, even though his body was gradually getting stronger what he saw from Daniel before was monstrous.

He knew he couldn't train his body to that point in this short period, but something could help him do it, the rewards from the coming-of-age ceremony.

The resources he would gain from being at the top of the ceremony would allow his body to get to that level, albeit not easy but it also wouldn't be too hard.

The coming-of-age ceremony was different each year making it hard to determine what would happen and how to prepare for it.

He had to prepare himself for the day was just a week away, he had to prepare so he wouldn't be surpassed by his peers, and winning one of the top three rewards would give him an edge against his peers.

He did pushups, situps, pullups and so much more, he used the durable vines to tie around heavy rocks and ran with them, training their stamina and strength.

He repeated the exercises as he did hundreds of them each from boredom, and after that, he started his footwork which would allow him to do bizarre movements, and move at high speeds.