Senior Brother Gart's Mental Issue

Training and sparring with Senior Brother Gart in the late afternoon until dusk had become part of Blink's daily itinerary.

As for teaching the kids at the training center, Senior Brother Gart had resumed his duties as the instructor with Blink only coming around to help whenever he could spare the time.

Sparring with Senior Brother Gart had been very beneficial to Blink. He was surprisingly a superb martial artist with a very unpredictable way of fighting. He fights really well as far as Blink could tell.

Having fought the senior brother who turned out to be the fifth-ranked senior disciple in their last assessment, Blink could easily deduce that it would actually be quite easy for Senior Brother Gart to beat that other senior brother.

'But why are you not an elite among the senior brothers?' Blink wondered in his mind.

Developing a fighting style to a high level of mastery requires dedicated and almost singular focus. It was even more so with Senior Brother Gart's unique approach to fighting.

Senior Brother Gart's fighting style is almost the exact opposite of his bombastic personality. His movements were akin to a gentle brook with a few hidden depths in unexpected spots. It was a very profound way to fight an opponent. One would be lured into thinking his techniques were having an effect on Senior Brother Gart only to discover that one had been suckered into and drown on one of those hidden depths.

As Blink had always needed to fight intelligently against his stronger and faster brothers, it was close to impossible for Senior Brother Gart to lure the former into his traps. As a result, Senior Brother Gart had yet to win a single match despite ten days of intense sparring against Blink. But while he always lost, it seemed to have only made him very happy.

"A few more days and my techniques will be honed to perfection," he said all the time.

Blink tried to give Senior Brother Gart an opening to exploit. The latter immediately took advantage but, to Blink's shock, some of his moves later on had lost their initial conviction. He was either throwing punches aimlessly or trying to go for the finish without setting it up properly.

Blink swept him off his feet and knelt close to his head. He punched down towards Senior Brother Gart's face but stopped his fist an inch in front of the latter's right eye.

After picking up his senior brother, Blink looked at him curiously.

"What happened?" he asked. "Did you get distracted?"

"I don't know," Senior Brother Gart answered him honestly.

"You had successfully seized the initiative and all I could do at that point was to stay on the defensive with no chance to counter. Then you simply lost it."

"You're right. I wish I could explain it, too. I get so excited and then suddenly…"

"Maybe that's it! You get excited and you forget to play it to the bone."

"What do you mean?"

"Can't you see? When you are on the verge of winning against someone whom you probably thought you couldn't beat, you get excited at the thought of winning and your focus goes astray. That's when your opponent finds an opening that he could exploit."

Senior Brother Gart looked stunned.

"I think you're right," he said after pondering the matter over. "I may have never really thought of fighting as a life-and-death struggle."

Blink gave the matter some serious thinking. 'A life-and-death struggle…A life and death struggle,' he repeated mentally several times.

"It's too bad I don't really have the strength to threaten you with my punches and kicks," Blink muttered. "Otherwise you'd be forced to take me seriously even when I'm on the verge of losing."

Senior Brother Gart looked stunned once more.

"That's it!" he said.

"What's that?"

"You hit the nail right on the head! If I fight a much stronger opponent, the danger of making a mistake would be so grave I won't dare to celebrate early in my mind before I had even taken the other guy out."

"That's brilliantly put, Senior Brother."

"No, you're the brilliant one. All my life all I'd ever really wanted was to be counted among the elite disciples of our master. I knew in my mind that, except perhaps for the top three in my class, I could actually beat all the other fellow disciples in my class."

"I am quite sure you can easily beat that top five disciple whom I lost to a few months ago," Blink assured his senior brother.

"What do you mean you lost? I heard what happened. That silly brother became the butt of jokes among us seniors because you could have landed a crippling blow to at least four of his vital areas. You only stopped yourself short to give face to your seniors."

Blink scratched his head and gave his senior a sheepish grin.

"I know what to do now," Senior Brother Gart declared.

"Let's hear it," Blink enthused.

"In the next assessment, I'm going to challenge the third-ranked disciple and go all out and hope for the best."

"I suppose that would shock everybody. But can you pull it off?"

"I'm actually surer of losing than winning. But what the heck! We're fighters! And as such we should never be afraid to put our life on the line in the hopes of winning over a greater fighter than ourselves!"

Blink smiled at the bombastic personality of his senior brother whenever he was making a speech. Nevermind that what he just said was actually too short to be regarded as a speech.

"Anyway, I hope you continue to find the time to help me prepare for the biggest fight of my martial arts career," Senior Brother Gart told Blink seriously.

Blink laughed at his senior brother's choice of words. "So it's a career now, huh?" he said.

"Is it not? We eat, drink and sleep martial arts and eventually make a living out of it. It's a lifelong devotion that consumes a huge chunk of our daily routine. In short, a career."

'When you put it that way, I can only agree with you."

Senior Brother Gart smiled his infectious smile.

"So, you'll help me?" Senior Brother Gart asked earnestly.

"Of course," Blink replied.

"Thank you."

"No problem, Senior Brother."

They both smiled at each other.

"I bet I can kick your butt if we are to fight right now," Senior Brother Gart provoked Blink with a wicked grin.

"Bring it on!" Blink replied.

The two immediately came to blows. Anyone who happened to see them fight would easily think there wasn't much to watch. All they would see would be a lot of feints and hesitations. The striking techniques won't even be that exciting to watch: they would all be just basic punches and kicks.

In the end, Senior Brother Gart found himself outsmarted once again but never losing his bubbly outlook.