Sparring Partner

"Observe my lead foot as I do the turning side kick," Blink told his nephew.

Blink did five turning side kicks in succession.

"You can also do a turning heel kick using the same motion except you hit the target with your heel instead of the blade of your foot."

Blink also did the turning heel kick five times.

"Those kicks look really cool when you do it, Nangku."

"I said observe my lead foot," Blink sighed. "Let's do that again."

Blink repeated the demonstration.

"This time, what did you notice about my non-kicking foot?"

"You have to set it horizontally?" Hubr said thoughtfully.

"Precisely! Now let me see you do it."

Hubr tried the turning side kick, slowly at first. He looked very awkward even after doing it seventy and seven times. Blink had to force him to take a break as he was already starting to feel dizzy from turning several times.

As the turning side kick and turning heel kick (which his fellow junior disciples gave the fancy name of spinning reverse heel kick) were both very practical though slightly flashy leg techniques, Blink encouraged Hubr to practice them. He did not, however, tell the little boy that both techniques were most useful at stopping the momentum of a charging opponent, or when one is under extreme duress. He wanted Hubr to discover this for himself.

Blink also took the time to teach Hubr a few hammer fist moves. The moves will eventually form part of a movement set that Blink was still trying to put together.

When creating a movement set, Blink was very particular about its practical value in actual combat. He also wanted his movement sets to help the practitioner to gain an insight, if that were possible.

To Hubr's consternation, Blink still made the little boy hone his foundation skills. He grumbled over this part of their daily session - everyday - but obeyed his uncle just the same.

Blink would say, "Just do as I say!" And there would be no grumbling afterwards.

Blink also constantly checked on Hubr's progress with the palm techniques.

Hubr still reported to the Kasgar Martial Arts Training Center every morning despite the one to two-hour training sessions with his uncle in the afternoon.

Citing the need for rest and recovery, Blink mandated that Hubr be allowed a one-hour nap after lunch.

Of course, he also gave Hubr a few mandatory house chores which he had to do in the morning and afternoon. Hubr was required to fetch water from the river, chop firewood and scrub the floor of the common room. He happily did those chores and this change in his attitude towards house chores made his mother very happy.

As for Blink, he still did his morning runs even as he did not let up on his training on magic and martial arts. In the late afternoon, he also never missed a sparring session with Senior Brother Gart.

Senior Brother Gart had this silly idea of adding the letter H at the end of his name. He even wanted Blink to start calling him Garth and even making a fuss over it if Blink failed to pronunciate the H at the end

"I definitely stand out in a crowd, why shouldn't my name stand out as well?" he justified.

The modified name had boosted Senior Brother Gart's confidence to a level that could simply be called off the charts. However, his off-the-charts confidence did not help him win a single sparring bout against Blink.

In reality, Senior Brother Gart, or Garth, could more than capably beat Blink in a sparring bout already. It was just that he was not really fighting to win. Rather, he was sparring with Blink in order to hone a number of techniques he was trying to develop.

Blink was already able to use his "flame daggers" for a much longer duration. As to the idea of making the "flame daggers" fly, he was still not capable of it. He could, however, extend the length of the "flame daggers" by about an inch more. Blink could already wield three-inch "flame daggers" which exponentially increased his combat capability.

With his growing power, Blink confidently ventured deeper into the forest to hunt game. Every other morning when he arrived for breakfast, Blink brought home a skinned animal that could feed the family until the next hunt found itself on Magra's chopping block.

After three days of practicing turning side kick, Hubr looked a lot less awkward with the technique. However, it was still far from being usable for actual sparring.

Normally, Blink would wait until Hubr's mastery of the skill reached a satisfactory level before Blink tried to take it to the next level. However, time was a luxury that Blink could not afford. In fact, he was very much aware that he should have already embarked on his mission days ago.

For their session that afternoon, Blink made Hubr try to hit his palms with whatever appropriate technique he could use. Depending on how Blink presented his palms, there could only be usually one or two techniques that could successfully hit the target. Many times, Hubr stumbled upon the wrong technique. However, he did enjoy this mode of training a lot more than previous trainings he had with his uncle.

Blink took note of Hubr's footwork, especially with the turning kicks.

"While you are advancing towards your opponent, you could set your lead foot horizontally so you no longer have to twist your foot in front of your opponent and be very obvious.

"You can also do that while faking a kick with your lead foot.

" Set your lead foot as you bring it down, ready to strike with a turning side kick."

While Hubr was trying to implement his uncle's suggestions, somebody came knocking.

"Ah, your sparring partner is here!" Blink said, looking at Hubr.

Jogr, who was sitting in his usual spot at the corner, immediately stood up to receive the guests.

Hubr stood rooted in his spot, unsure what he just heard.

While Blink's chosen trainee and his father were exchanging pleasantries with Jogr, Blink ordered Hubr to practice on his own what he had just learned.

As soon as the guests came in the boy and his father both bowed to Blink. Blink returned their bow. He stepped forward and made some small talk with the boy's father. It was a very brief chat, which somehow left the father looking somewhat disappointed. However, Jogr was quick to smooth things out and soon led the other father to a corner of the common room.

Blink asked the new boy how he had been for the past three days.

"Do you know why I asked you to come?" Blink inquired.

The boy nodded his head but did not speak. He seemed rather shy in the presence of Blink. The size of the common room also intimidated him somehow. His family was among the poorest of Kasgar, while the family that welcomed him was the most prosperous in the village. On top of that, the head of the household was also the village chief.

Blink ordered the boy to warm up and stretch while he got back to Hubr.

"Is he going to be my sparring partner?" Hubr asked. He didn't think much of the other boy as he could not remember anything outstanding about him. Just as well, he felt good about the fact that his uncle chose someone weak so he could fully display the might of the techniques that his Nangku Kraszad had been teaching him.

Hubr knew he had become very noticeable in the eyes of Young Master Gart ever since he started receiving instructions from his uncle.

Having been reminded of Young Master Gart, Hubr wondered what the deal was with his new name, Garth, which they were all supposed to pronounce properly to the very last letter. And when some of the gutsier boys asked the Young Master about it, he was even more mysterious saying, "I'm an outstanding dude, thus I deserve an outstanding name."

Hubr was thinking of Young Master Garth's latest eccentricity when Blink clapped his hands in front of him, stunning him momentarily.

"You're getting distracted," Blink chided him.

They proceeded to make Hubr practice combinations by sparring with his palm. He also urged the boy to strike with the turning side kick every now and then.

After several minutes, Blink ordered the other boy to come forward.

"This is Zugr," Blink told Hubr. "He is eight years old.

"From now on, you're going to be sparring partners."

The two boys bowed to each other.

Blink noticed that Hubr had a sinister gleam in his eyes. He understood that because Zugr didn't seem to stand out, his nephew must be thinking he was somebody that he, Hubr, could bully around. Blink gave Hubr a very mysterious grin that furrowed the boy's brow.

He instructed the boys to use only their legs in the meantime. As they both looked very excited, Blink repeated his instruction and made sure they understood him clearly. "No punches or palm strikes but you can use your hands to block or grab each other's foot," he clarified.

At first, Hubr was very eager and tried to demonstrate all the kicks from their foundation skills training and the ones his uncle had been making him practice. He also did a few fancy kicks that Blink didn't approve of.

"I told you those fancy things don't work," Blink rapped Hubr.

Hubr quickly realized that nothing he did worked. He had already taken more than five kicks while he had yet to land one on his opponent. He also seemed to only get in trouble whenever he tried to use the turning side kick.

Having noticed his nephew eyeing him with a piece of his mind, Blink took him aside and went over the instructions he had previously given him. He emphasized upon Hubr to be mindful of how he set his foot.

The boy nodded and set out to apply what he just learned. He feinted, got himself set, spun for a kick…And found himself facing the floor.

He took a side kick to his back as he was turning for the kick.

The boy gave his nangku an accusing look.

Blink almost laughed at his nephew's wronged expression. He thought the boy looked rather cute.

"Your kick took forever to launch," Blink analyzed with a straight face. This time the boy looked very confused.

Blink smiled and called both boys over to him.

"Some techniques that look so good when you're practicing alone won't necessarily work when you're fighting a live opponent."

"What do you mean, Nangku?" The boy had his doubts. "Why won't it work?"

The other boy clearly understood Blink's words. He had been handpicked by Blink because he knew precisely what and how to adjust in a fight.

Blink explained starting with the kick they were studying.

"Take for instance the turning side kick. If you deliver it from the regular starting stance, you'd have to twist your torso to a large extent, thus you'd be easily seen through by the other fighter. But, if you set your back foot behind your shoulder, creating a slight angle, you would almost not have to twist your waist at all and be able to hit your opponent faster."

Blink's nephew had a way of nodding his head to show that he understood but actually understood only half of what he was told. He was doing exactly that at that moment, so Blink was forced to demonstrate his point to Hubr.

He ordered Zugr to stand in fighting position and be ready to evade his kick as soon as he saw it coming.

"The first kick is from the usual fighting stance. Ready? Hyaah!"

The boy was able to step back before Blink could even strike with his leg.

"Very good! Now this is the adjusted stance. Ready? Hyaah!"

Blink's foot had lightly tapped the boy's tummy before he could even react.

"Do you now understand?" Blink looked at Hubr with a doting smile.

The boy smiled back. "Yes, Nangku!" he replied happily.

Blink made the boys practice their moves for a few minutes before resuming the sparring session.

Hubr eagerly tried what he had just learned but found himself unable to connect even just once whereas he had already hit the floor thrice.

"It doesn't work!" he complained while sitting on his butt after a leg sweep took him down.

"It doesn't work yet," Blink corrected him. "You think it's easy?

"You've only been practicing a technique for about ten minutes. Perfecting a martial arts technique, like any other skill in life, takes hours and hours of practice."

"But aren't the adjustments so that I could do it faster and succeed?"

"Yes, but being faster only gives you a better chance to successfully strike and not a guarantee. And for a martial artist, a better chance means everything."

The boy furrowed his brows, obviously having trouble understanding.

The two fathers discussing in the corner laughed at the sour expression on Hubr's face.

"Why don't we let Zugr show you how it's done?" Blink proposed.

Blink ordered the older boy to attack with the turning side kick and ordered Hubr to defend or counter it.

Hubr got hit in five successive strikes.

"See? That's how it's done." Blink teased his nephew with his smiling eyes, which drew a pout from the little boy.

"Of course he can hit me with it," the boy snarled. "He's older than me!"

"Why use his being older than you by a year as an excuse?"

"But, it's true!" Hubr insisted.

"Haizt! The problem isn't with him or his age. The problem is with you. If you don't learn to accept your loss and learn from it, don't expect me to teach you anymore."

Blink had an angry look on his face, which alarmed Hubr. Even the two fathers at the corner stopped chatting.

"I'm sorry, Nangku," the boy was filled with remorse.

"Don't apologize to me! Apologize to Zugr for not honoring his victory!"

"I'm sorry Zugr. I lost fair and square."

Blink nodded his head in satisfaction. "That's better," he said. "From now on there'll be no more excuses for failure."

Blink gave the two boys a very stern look.

"Do the two of you understand?"

"Yes, Nangku!"

"Yes, Senior!"

"One more thing," Blink spoke in a strongly authoritative tone. "From now on, when I'm teaching you martial arts, you shall address me as Teacher."

"Yes, Teacher!" the boys shouted in unison. They were very thrilled by this latest announcement, and so were their fathers.

Blink looked towards the two fathers and gave them a wink just to assure them that he wasn't really angry.

From leg techniques, the two boys sparred in fist techniques next. While Hubr did much better in this round, he still lost due to Zugr's superior footwork.

Once again, Hubr showed his naivete when Blink pointed this out to him.

"What does the foot have to do with fist techniques?" he argued.

Blink patiently explained to Hubr the value of footwork. However, he seemed to have only complicated matters with his usual way of explaining things.

Jogr could not help snickering at his brother-in-law's ineffectual attempts.

Blink felt frustrated at his failure to explain something that practically every martial artist understood. Once again he resorted to saying "Just do as I say!"

For the third and last round of sparring, Blink instructed the two boys to use any technique they were comfortable with.

As expected, Hubr could not seem to threaten Zugr but kept getting repeatedly pressured.

In the end Hubr gave a very simplistic analysis of what just happened.

"It's so hard to be only seven years old." The little boy sighed deeply and shook his head.