Mixing Magic with Martial Arts

Blink sighed deeply. After two years of trying, he had finally done it!

He had noted that while he was practicing his fist techniques, the leaves on the ground around him moved about in accordance to his movements.

The first time he saw this happen was about two years ago during an early morning training session with Berge. He and Berge had been training together at early morning before breakfast for over four years.

It was actually Berge and not him who moved the leaves with her movements.

Blink was sighing because it was only this time that he was able to achieve the effect. In addition, compared to Berge, the movements of the leaves around Blink was only akin to the passing of a light breeze. Before Blink had left the Ragha Martial Arts Academy, the motions of the scattered leaves around Berge was very similar to the effect of a gale.

Berge's sharp rise in power astounded not only the disciples in their class but also their senior disciples who were instructing them. And with Blink mentoring her, the depth of Berge's utilization of fighting techniques had gained a qualitative leap that had not gone unnoticed by Master Tszarek. The headmaster openly expressed many times his thought that Berge would soon become the top disciple at the academy.

Whenever Master Tszarek stated those same observations, the other disciples looked meaningfully at Blink. As for Blink, he had always expressed only happiness for the girl who inspired him to strive to be the best he could be.

Since that day, whenever they do simulated sparring, Blink could feel the surge in power coming from Berge. It was also then that the two of them began to suspect that Blink was not improving physically.

As much as Blink loved dreaming of that scene of him and Berge trying to acquire Tukruk's blessing, he would rather avoid thinking of her if he could help it. After all, it had already been forty-five days since he said goodbye to her before the gate of their academy. He missed her more and more each day. Terribly.

Refusing to drown in his sorrows, Blink resumed his training. He practiced the first two movements which he passed on to Hubr. This time the leaves around him swirled with the wind from his arm movements.

For the third movement, Blink decided to include palm blocks that finish into a strike. With the second movement, one hand performed the block and the other hand blasted with a palm strike. In the third movement, the hand that executed the block would swiftly move for the strike. This would be followed by a flurry of palm strikes to the body and head. In addition, instead of purely stiff-armed linear strikes, some of the palm strikes would flow along a curve. This would give the palm attacks a higher chance of getting past the defense of the opponent.

Blink wanted to give the third movement of his palm technique a lot of thought. Thus, he worked diligently on it for almost an hour. He wanted to maximize the palm technique's potential to turn the tide in the practitioner's favor quickly and efficiently.

Upon deciding that he needed more inspiration to finalize the pattern for the third movement, Blink picked up the quarterstaff and did a few rounds of movements with it.

Next, he picked up Master Tszarek's sword and did several slashing and piercing motions. Once he stumbled on a combination that he felt was very practical in a real fight, he would repeat the combination over and over again. As a firm believer of the doctrine of muscle memory, Blink didn't find it boring at all to do keep repeating a particular set of movements.

Blink was still not done. He started to combine his sword movements with his palm technique. He tried a lot of combinations. In the end he rejected a lot of the ideas he initially had as he found them either lacking or impractical in an actual fight. He grinded the few combinations he found to his liking.

Sweating from all his exertions, Blink wanted to do one more thing: wield the sword while displaying his newfound magic power.

Over the past few days, Blink was able to form two-inch fire blades from the tip of his fingers. He had tested their effectiveness on the trees, which bore mute testimony through the charred holes found on their trunks.

Since he had exhausted the time limit in which he could use his newfound power before practicing martial arts earlier, Blink needed to meditate for about thirty minutes to regain enough of whatever stuff that was that allowed him to use his 'fire daggers' for around fifteen minutes. At this point, Blink still did not know what it was that made it possible for him to use 'burning hands' or 'fire daggers'.

Blink stumbled upon meditation quite by accident only three days before. He was then doing the Ragha Martial Arts Academy breathing technique when he decided to close his eyes to shake off a nasty thought that crept up his mind. His evil mind was telling him that, now that he was no longer in the academy, every guy would not pass up the opportunity to steal Berge from him. 'Five years is such a long time and loneliness desires company,' a voice kept whispering in his mind.

As soon as Blink closed his eyes and concentrated his thoughts into that area right above the center of his brows, he felt a strange sensation enter his body. He was actually just doing this to shake off that evil voice in his mind. But after just a minute of doing it, he had regained that feeling that he had whenever he had enough of that stuff that allowed him to utilize his power.

After several experiments over the next two days, he was able to conclude that the time spent on meditating would equate to half the time he could summon the flames with his hands.

Since he had no prior knowledge on this new ability that he had unlocked, and with nobody around to guide him in his practice, Blink had no idea as to his progress. He believed that he had progressed quickly enough considering that it was only the sixth day since he had acquired the ability.

In a clearing in the Kasgar forest, Blink sat down and stabilized his breathing through the technique taught to them by Master Tszarek. He then proceeded to meditate for an estimated time of thirty minutes.

He was not aware that, as he was meditating, his body was covered by a thin transparent layer that glowed as a very faint blue substance flowed along it.

After approximately thirty minutes, Blink stood up and picked up the sword of his master. Holding the sword with his right hand, he unleashed his 'fire daggers' and began to practice coordinating sword strikes with 'fire dagger' strikes.

When the 'fire daggers' had extinguished fifteen minutes later, Blink had a satisfied expression on his face.

He wondered if it were possible for him to send his 'fire daggers' flying. After all, according to Master Tszarek, that was what a true wizard would actually do.

'That would be truly awesome if I could do it,' Blink thought.

However, he had no time to try it out. He was already late for breakfast as it was, and his elder sister could easily burn him with her words when she was on a fiery mood.