Martial Arts (ii): Hidden Viper Of Buddha Hands

[MARTIAL ARTS DEFINE A CULTIVATOR, THEY SERVE AS AN IDENTITY FOR A CULTIVATOR AND THE BASIS FOR HIS FAME. IN THIS WORLD, A PERSON IS NOT KNOWN BY HIS NAME, BUT BY THE STRENGTH OF HIS MARTIAL ARTS, OR THE LEGACY OF A MARTIAL HE OR SHE IS CONNECTED TO. THIS IS A CIVILIZED WORLD, BUT WE STILL PREFER USING OUR FIST AS OUR MODE OF COMMUNICATION AND RECOGNITION. A MAN IS ONLY AS KNOWN OR RESPECTED BASED ON HOW MUCH HIS MARTIAL ART IS FEARED.]

BARTHOLOMEW ÁLÈ

"argh, fuck."

"Watch your language Alex."

"Sorry Dad."

"I'm going to contradict myself a little Alex. You should not hide your pain, but it is imperative that you're not ruled by it. By not hiding, you accept it, and let it forge you into the warrior and man you're supposed to be. But pain can also birth anger, hate, despair and fear. All this are emotions that could be quite lethal and crippling to a warrior. Now sit still, there's still more wood pieces in your arm."

Alex really appreciated the lessons from his father, they helped him understand that being a martial artist and cultivator, went beyond fighting or ascending to a higher realm. There was a philosophy within, a life, a knowledge, a Dao. And most people never really got to understand and see it for what it was.

There were too many facets and angles to cultivation, too many situations where the proper mindset and will was required to survive and to make decisions. Alex had only just started, but he was actually learning things most people took years and a couple of unfortunate situations to learn. And for that, he would be eternally grateful to his father.

But philosophy aside, Alex had to endure an hour of pain, as his father picked out pieces of wood that had gotten stuck in his body during the practice of the sky python crushes rock techniques. And as if that was not enough, he had to endure four hours of the sky python swimming in water exercise, before he had to practice the grappling technique.

To be honest it was a rather painful experience, and he had to endure it while listening to Anya quip and make fun of him during his training in the name of motivation. He had been going through this torture for the past three days, and Alex believed he was now conversant enough with the technique to move and practice another. He only had six days left for the registration, and he needed to learn another martial art to reach the requirements for the competition.

Alex did not have time to master the moves, even though he was actually fairly close. Of the twelve sets and twenty four dummies, Alex has made his way through twenty, though at the cost of a lot of pain, he was still able to crush the twentieth dummy which to be honest was quite hard considering it was wood almost six inches thick, not to mention its hardness.

"Okay it's time for bed. You need to wake up early for your training. I won't be here tomorrow though, I need to head to the market to complete some orders and get a few things ready for your journey, because I don't think you will be coming back here again. Now Anya might come over when I'm gone, so you guys should be careful how you play, I placed some condoms in your desk drawer just in case. You have to be careful you know, it is to early to be a father since you have your whole life ahead of you. Good night."

There were rare occasions when his father actually made a joke, of course he never made a joke for the fun of it, but because he saw it as a way to make light of a serious situation. Alex knew without a doubt, that those condoms were actually in his desk drawer, his Dad has been putting them there ever since he turned thirteen.

Though it was not his father's fault since it was quite natural for children, especially in the dark continent to be married by the time they hit thirteen. It would be a miracle to see an eighteen year old girl or boy in the village who was not already married, or with a child. This world forced people to mature too quickly than was necessary.

Alex made his way back into his tiny room, it was so small it only had room for a bed, a foot locker, a wardrobe, and desk that was placed beside his bed. There was barely any room for Alex to move around, but he felt at home here. Part of him might hunger for the outside world, for adventure and intrigue, but a bigger part of him loved his life here.

He loved how quaint, quite and simple it was, and if not for this competition he would probably have ended up a painter like his father and married to Anya. There was nothing to complicated about such a life except Anya would complain that she wanted more out of life, but she would stay beside him no matter what. After all she had waited this long for him to leave before she started thinking of running away. Alex sighed as he felt the exhaustion of the entire day wash over him, what ever was left to be thought about, he would do it tomorrow.

...........

In the early hours of the morning, a young boy could be seen reading a book under the glow of the shining moon. He had a little torchlight in his hand as he was focused and preoccupied with the book he was reading. This young man was Alex, and he had to choose and figure which, from the many, uncompleted and theoretical techniques written in the book was he going to learn. It took a while because honestly, some of the things written in that book was way to profound for Alex to understand at this stage of his cultivation, so he had to pay attention to the more simpler things. Eventually he settled on a technique.

[IT PAINS ME GREATLY THAT THERE WOULD BE A TECHNIQUE WITHOUT THE NAME PYTHON IN THIS BOOK, BUT THERE'S NOT MUCH I CAN DO AS IT SEEMS I HAVE RUN OUT OF PYTHON THEMED NAMES TO ASSIGN. I GOT THE INSPIRATION FOR THIS TECHNIQUE BY WATCHING A FIGHT BETWEEN A HIGH RANKING MEMBER OF THE TANMEN SECT, AND A MONK OF THE SHAOLIN TEMPLE. IT WAS AMAZING AND A SIGHT THAT HAS SHOOK ME TO MY BONES EVERYTIME I HAVE THOUGHT ABOUT IT. I CALL THIS MOVE THE HIDDEN VIPER OF BUDDHA HANDS.

THIS TECHNIQUE HAS SIX MOVES I INVENTED, AND ALL SIX MOVES ARE DIVIDED INTO THREE DIFFERENT SUB STYLES OF OFFENSIVE MARTIAL ARTS THAT CAN ONLY BE USED WITH YOUR HANDS. THERE ARE TWO FINGER MOVES, TWO FIST MOVES, AND TWO PALM MOVES. TO SUCCESSFULLY USE THIS TECHNIQUE IN ANY OF ITS FORM, YOU HAVE TO INCORPORATE ELEMENTS OF STRENGTH, SPEED, AND SPONTANEITY.

THE TWO FINGER MOVES INCLUDE (VIPER STRIKES THROAT), (BUDDHA CUTS HEAD). THE TWO FIST MOVES ARE. (IRON VIPER STRIKE), (VIPER TAKES NUTS), AND THE TWO PALMS MOVES ARE( BUDDHA CLASPS SERPENT), (VIPER EVADES BUDDHA).

EACH OF THE MOVES ARE INDEPENDENT AND IS NOT REQUIRED TO BE PRACTICED IN ANY PARTICULAR FASHION, IT IS TOTALLY UP TO THE USERS PREFERENCE. PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THIS IS AN UNCOMPLETED TECHNIQUE AND I WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY MISHAPS DURING TRAINING.]

"Wow, what a stellar member of society, this guys is a complete jackass."

"Who is a complete jackass?"

"Arggghhhhh Jesus Christ, what the fuck are you doing here this unholy hour of the morning Anya."

"I don't think your father would appreciate you cursing."

"Answer the question damn it."

"I couldn't sleep."

"So?"

"I love to watch you sleep at night."

"......"

"Anya are you in love with me?"

"...…..yes I am."

"Huh, okay then. Let's talk about that when the sun is up, I need to practice."

"Sure, okay."

This two were a rather strange pair, a girl's confession was supposed to mean something, especially her first. But this two saw and approached the world so differently that they casually brushed it aside in favor of training. To be honest it was not as if they did not see this coming, they were always together, and they knew each other so well. Even if they never spoke about it, it was an unspoken rule between the two of them that they would eventually end up more together than they already are. They just chose to go with the flow and let the ball play itself.

Alex spent another two hours studying the moves before he decided to mix it up. The finger art was a little more complicated for him as it required quite a significant amount of power to be generated from the tip of a person's hand. Both moves were made basically for piercing and slicing, and they both had to be performed really fast. It might have been a problem for Alex to practice, even with his talent, but it was no problem for Anya as she fell in love with this particular brand of moves and immediately started practicing. By the time it was noon, two of the dummies had six inch puncture and cut wounds on their wooden frame.

Alex chose the (viper evades Buddha), and the(iron viper strike). One a palm art, and the other a fist art. The viper evades Buddha was a plan move that emphasized on deflecting attacks, and if you can use it fast enough it could even become an attacking move. Using the same element of spontaneity, the user is supposed to use his palms to deflect every attack thrown at him with lightening quick precision. It was unorthodox as palm art focused more on power than speed or precision. In fact Alex had never heard of palm arts that focused solely on just deflecting attacks.

The iron viper strike was actually the most tricky of all the moves, unlike its counterpart the viper takes nuts, which was basically a carefully polished low blow. The iron viper strike was the only one that put emphasis on power, and it was done in a way Alex was becoming more and more familiar with for each day that passes; muscle control.

The iron viper strike required a build up of energy and the centering of power within the user's body. It worked similar to an ancient and lost martial art skill Alex had once heard off, (THE ONE INCH PUNCH).

Much like the one inch punch the iron viper required the fighter to gather all the energy and strength in his body, and focus it on one focal point, which was the fist. It required high grades of speed, power, muscle control and precision. But this move had the nasty effect of leaving the user open to retaliation, and unlike the one inch punch, the fighter had to focus his energy in mere seconds, which meant quite a lot of it would disperse and leave the fighter weakened. It was a one hit kill move, and if the user missed, then he was going to get his ass kicked.

Alex spent the next few hours slamming his palm and fist on the remaining two dummies he managed to save from a rampaging Anya. They were supposed to be used for his sky python crushes rock techniques, but had now become the focus of another technique. Besides Alex did not need to practice the sky python crushes rock techniques to much or he would not be able to get familiar with the hidden viper of Buddha hands.

Alex and Anya trained well and deep into the night, her mother had to come find her before she was forced to go home. But she was back a few hours later at three in the morning and a whole new wave of training began again. They carried on with this routine for four whole days, only sleeping for a minimum of three hours each. They had thrown thousands of punches, palm and finger strikes within that period of time, that the wooden dummies were reduced to splinters.

With no dummy they turned to each other, of course Anya had to hold back the strength of her cultivation realm, but it was enough for them to become conversant with their moves, especially the knowledge of how to use it in battle. And so it was with an ocean of bruises that both Anya and Alex preserved until the day of the registration.