It should have been me

The next morning, Master Huang called Riku to the drill yard and introduced him to an older pre-teen, a chunky, square-headed guy with short hair.

"Riku, this is Herman Santiago, a Second Stage Adept who also uses earth-elemental techniques." Master Huang introduced. "I've asked him to demonstrate how earth-elemental warriors fight."

"Senior Riku." Herman saluted, clasping his fist, but he moved stiffly, and something about the way he greeted Riku said that he wasn't too happy about being here.

Without another word, Herman went over to a recently set-up practice dummy and proceeded to beat the daylights out of it. He was merciless! Herman hardened his fists, his feet, and his heart and pummeled the poor dummy into oblivion and back, kicking it when it was up, kicking it when it was down, kicking it when it was in the air and when it was rolling on the ground…

He pulled bricks from the ground and threw them at it. He busted the bricks into sand and threw that in its face. He picked up the stick that had held it up, hardened it and then whacked it over the head with that now-stone club…

As a finisher, he even made the clubs tip sharp and then impaled the poor dummy into the ground with all the force and weight of a teenager throwing a tantrum. The straw dummy laid there in a pathetic state, its stuffing half ripped-out, completely defeated by the triumphant earth-elemental warrior.

Riku clapped his hands enthusiastically. "Good show! Good show!"

"Isn't it?" Master Huang nodded, beaming. "Now you fight him."

"Eh…?" Riku trailed off wordless.

Herman didn't hesitate. He leapt for Riku, fist aiming straight for his face.

"Uwaah!" Riku ducked…

[Awareness Mode activated!] System announced.

Time slowed. Riku's movements slowed too, but at least he had a little more time to think, to adjust, to respond…

[System, what would have happened if that punch had hit my face?]

[Minimum result: broken nose. Chances of immediate death: 4%. Chances of eventual death within 4 hours: 70%. Chances of Master Huang interfering at the last moment if you failed to dodge: 98%.]

Riku could see it too, as time had 'slowed'. Master Huang was on the balls of his feet, his hand all ready to make a move. But inside, Riku scoffed. [I'm not going to rely on him. This guy is starting to irritate me. Jumping at me without a warning, or even a greeting. Something is up with this guy.]

Riku lowered his shoulder, braced his feet, slipped his calves a little Life Force to boost his strength and then plowed his shoulder into Herman's chest as he missed.

"OOF!" The impact nearly knocked Riku off his feet. Shock ran all the way down his shoulder to his chest. Riku coughed, even as Herman tumbled backwards, flailing for balance.

"YOU!" Herman stomped on the ground hard, causing the bricks below to crack. Life Force ran down his legs, his hands, and his fists visibly turned gray. He lunged at Riku, both fists flailing.

Riku raised both arms, strengthening them with Life Force, hardening his arms' skin, crouching down, struggling to regain his own balance as Herman's onslaught fell on him. The first hit arrived, and the crash cost Riku the little balance he had managed to recover. Herman had struck so hard, Riku's teeth were jarred, and his shoulders felt like they were about to break. The second hit completely threw Riku's intentions of regaining balance out the window. Riku stumbled back, then went down under the third hammer-like blow.

"Stop!" Master Huang grabbed Herman's arm before he could do to Riku as he had done to the poor straw dummy. "Stand down!"

Herman seethed. Riku could see that he hadn't quite given up on beating Riku to a pulp, but at last, he settled back and stood there silently.

"What happened, Riku?" Master Huang asked. "I thought you already mastered the Stone Skin technique."

"That…" Riku grunted, sitting up. "Master Huang, I only learned it yesterday. I am far from mastery."

Master Huang frowned. "Have you learned nothing of martial arts during your years with the Xi Clan?"

"Nothing." Riku said emphatically.

"But Mu said you were already able to control your Life Force." Master Huang thought back. "And Shui was all excited about your talent in martial arts."

"Master Huang, being able to use Life Force for Spirit Smithing is not the same as being a skilled martial artists." Riku gasped.

"Well, this won't do!" Master Huang said. "You're one of my Closer Disciples now! You can't be so weak that my regular disciples could beat you up! You have to buck up and work hard, understand?"

"Yes, Master Huang." Riku managed weakly.

"Do you feel ashamed? Do you feel angry? Do you want to get stronger?" Master Huang asked. "Then get stronger! Train hard! Train relentlessly! Only then can you keep yourself safe! And maybe one day, if you're strong enough, if you train hard enough… you might even be able to take revenge for your family."

"Really?" Riku asked doubtfully. "And when might that be?"

Master Huang closed his eyes. "The Black Wind is even stronger than me. At the very least, you will need to be a Master of my level."

Riku had no idea how far away a Novice-stage guy like him was from a Master-level guy like the Magistrate, but it sounded very, very far away. Master Huang said that Herman was an Adept of some sort, right? How many stages did the Adept level have? What was above Adept?

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to withhold your exit privileges." Master Huang added. "The other four can go to town, but you have to stay here and train until you're strong enough to defend yourself. Your physical fitness, your combat experience; both of these are sorely lacking. At least your control over Inner Force seems decent." He glanced at Herman. "Right. How about we do this? You are confined to train in our Summer Courtyard until you can defeat Herman one-on-one."

Riku grimaced. "Master Huang, I'm sure that, as the Magistrate, your judgments and decisions are all very fair, very fair indeed… but while I have no doubts as to your estimates of his skill, he seems to have something personal against me. Perhaps Herman might not be the best choice in this challenge?

"Maybe." Master Huang said mysteriously. "Or maybe not."

With that, Master Huang disappeared in a blur of movement, leaving Riku with the sulky Herman.

"So how do we do this?" Riku asked.

"Simple. You come challenge me every morning, and I'll beat you to a pulp until that straw dummy becomes the envy of your daily life!" Herman snarled.

"Whoa, dude, what's your problem with me?" Riku protested. "We've never even met!"

"What's my problem? You're my problem!" Herman snarled. "The Earth Element Slot of the Five Elements Formation was supposed to be mine. The open slot for Master Huang's Fifth Closer Disciple… it should have been ME!"

With that, Herman stomped off. Riku looked at his fading back and said, "Oookay…"

So the old-time employee got passed up for a promotion because a new guy was hired. Something told Riku that a cup of coffee and some professional respect was not going to be enough to make peace with this guy. He was going to have to speak in a language he understood.

"So basically, I gotta prove that I'm better?" Riku guessed. "And likely beat him up while I'm at it."

That was the kind of world this was, wasn't it? The clenched fist was the best argument, might was right, and history was told by the victor.

"The bad news is, I really can't expect any mercy in a fight." Riku observed, comparing memories and memories. "The good news is, I don't need to show mercy either."

That very hour, Riku went to the dojo and began to experiment and train in earnest. While he'd done as much for him and System to figure out the Stone Skin technique yesterday, his efforts had been slow, cautious, deliberately designed to look minimal to hide his speedy prowess.

Today, Riku threw discretion out the window. He flat out locked the doors and went on a skin-hardening spree and to the dickens with consequences and risked complications.

Skin hardening on both hands, both arms, both feet. Muscle boosting in all parts of the body. Strengthening every muscle he could imagine needing if he braced for a tackle, with System advising him every step of the way. Hardening the skin of his midriff, his shoulders, his cheeks…

It took him all day to experiment. Riku went to take a quick bath at the washrooms at the East Wing, then grabbed some dry bread from the kitchen for dinner and straightaway went to sleep.

The next morning, his body was aching all over. Riku groaned in bed, tried to move, and found that his muscles had pretty much turned to jelly.

[Adapting Cultivation routines for physical regeneration effects... Adapting…]

Outside, Herman was yelling, shouting, calling him out and calling him names in the process, but Riku ignored the whole ruckus. He just waited until System was ready then poured his full efforts into using Life Force to heal his torn body.

The good news about healing a torn body? Healing muscles torn from strain could grow much stronger than before. The bad news? It itched to kingdom come.

Herman had shouted himself hoarse after an hour. Riku let him stomp off in a tantrum, then finished off his healing before slipping quietly out to the dojo to continue his training.

The next day, Herman shouted himself hoarse again calling Riku everything from a yellow-bellied coward to a sneaky rat. Riku ignored him, this time not even bothering to go to the dojo and deciding to experiment with skin hardening right there in his room. His torso, his chin, his neck, his face… even his scalp. Everything could be hardened…

The third day, Herman yelled until Madam Huang threw a slipper at him, and Riku stayed in his room completely covering himself from head to toe in stone skin.

"More." Riku told System. "I want more. I want skin harder than his. I want him to regret hitting me."

The color of the stone skin darkened from a sand-color to a grayish granite color. Riku practiced that in the morning, and then went over to the dojo for muscle strengthening practices in the afternoon when Herman had quit yelling. He carried weights, he climbed trees, he ran the obstacle course… he even picked up a sword and tried swinging that around experimentally. With boosted strength all of it was easier.

But of course, the next day, his muscles were all torn again. The previous Riku had been pretty much a bookworm, studying all day, only knowing the easiest, most basic forms of Spirit Smithing. Heck, the easiest form of forging a Grade-1 Spirit Sword wasn't actually forging in a sense – it was simply blessing an already forged blade. That was all the previous Riku had been able to do. In terms of physical ability, this guy wasn't much better than the ever sickly 21st century him.

The following day, he tried it with stone skin active. Doing this, he noticed, his weight had just about tripled. This time, he was completely exhausted by mid-afternoon. He couldn't even crawl back to bed.

That night, Riku slept in the dojo and was pleasantly surprised to find that he'd been able to sleep through all the way until noon. Herman's voice didn't reach him at all.

He continued to practice through the day, then went home before he overexerted once more. This time, though, the scene on the drill yard told him that it was time to end his training and go fight Herman before the yelling got any worse. Not only Madam Huang's slippers, Mu's and Ruyi's slippers and Shui's boots were there too.

Exactly seven days after his first fight with Herman, Riku woke up early and went to meet Herman on the drill yard all ready for battle.