Training to kill

…

-ONE! TWO! ONE! TWO! KEEP IT UP!

At the top of a mountain, two people were exercising.

Well, one of them was. The other was giving the orders.

A young child and an old man. The child was sweating profusely, it was very apparent he was getting worked to the bone. It didn't help that the youngster was wearing heavyweights all around his body, he also had a black mask on his face.

-...ONE! TWO! NOW RELEASE IT! The old man screamed at the boy

The kid was with his knees bent with his two fists pointed forward.

With the order, he stepped forward and punched a large rock slab... But nothing happened.

/CRACK!/

Soon, however. Sounds of rock breaking started to fill both of their ears.

From the child's perspective, you couldn't see what broke but from the master's…

-Good work today. It took some time, but you mastered it.

Compared to your "normal" time that is.

And most importantly, I didn't see the wave. His control has already far exceeded mine.

From the master's perspective, he could see two slabs of stone connected by small threads of silk. The second slab was broken into small pieces, showing the power and control of the child. Since the first stone slab was still fine.

-[Helix Thunder] is truly an advanced technique. For the wave to still show such power after crossing such a distance, it requires a lot of precision.

-Are we done for today, old man?

-Yes we are. Not only that but…

The old man approached me and removed my mask.

-You don't need these anymore.

/INHALES/

-... I never felt so good. Who knew it was so great to breathe…

-HOHO! All who used the mask said the same. But few actually lasted as long as you using the "HELLMOUTH".

As the name said, the Hellmouth was a special training mask just like the original one, whose purpose is to train one breathing rhythm.

And just like in the name, using this mask will make its user feel as if he was in a hot desert. Even if he times his breathing properly. The occasional opening of the mask to eat and drink only worsens this aspect. As every time you open the mask, you will remember what the world is like without it.

-But to think that time would fly this fast. It's almost time for Robert to come back, no? Soon you will leave with him… I never thought you would master all of our techniques this fast, much less improve some of them. Said Huang

I learned a lot, including the wonders of traditional Chinese medicine. With a bit of laboratory experimentation, I am sure this will become invaluable to me in uncovering the mysteries of the human body. Just like Kars did.

I was currently 11 years old, and today is April 24, 1928, just a few days away from Speedwagon coming to pick me up.

-...What to do now?

-Why don't you just relax a bit? You passed most of your time training. Why not explore some of our city's best features? The waterfalls and whatnot…

And I did just that, I relaxed. Since my clones did not come back yet, I had to do most of the work. And even if my body didn't get tense, my mind got pretty tired.

From having to deal with other people's schemes to simply having to figure out more diverse ways to use Hamon. Using my mental power every so often didn't help.

I was currently soaking my body in a hot thermal bath, there was a piece of wood with a teacup on top of it.

This is the life…

Silence…

I wonder how Lylia is doing. If she fails, isn't she going to bicker with me?

Forget it. She must be doing better than me.

I drank the last of the tea and left the bath.

-Now… Let's repay their hospitality.

By killing all of the vampires.

…

On a cold moonless night, a shadow could be barely seen jumping from tree to tree.

The shadow stopped on a tall branch before looking towards the East. Before it was a barely lit stone city. It was very similar to Aztec architecture, but there were some minor details that diverged from it.

I wonder what civilization they were. After wiping these vampires I will have Speedwagon excavate it properly, who knows what he will find.

This was my third day of scouting. I am not crazy enough to run guns blazing, even if they are weaker in every single aspect, they still have the numbers.

Just like Master said, their numbers have dwindled over the centuries. I barely counted a 1000. It's still a lot, but their strength is very low on average. A decently trained Hamon user could take on a few of them easily. And coupled with the golden city defenses, and the time limit(From dawning to morning) the vampires are bound to lose.

But they make for it with their vampiric beasts. But I wonder how they created those, or how they control them. If they have a stone mask, then those creatures are something to fear. But if they don't, the only way to create one would be by using vampiric blood, but this will result in the zombification of the beast, just like how normal zombies are made.

Stone masks create vampires, if a vampire creates another then the result is a zombie. Zappeli said that vampires are considered beings whose natural "flow" of energy has been reversed and perverted, and that the Ripple was created to fight against them, by allowing this "flow" to return to normal and revive the souls of vampires for a last moment before their deaths.

I can agree in a sense, but there are records that suggest a much older story. Perhaps he was referring to the current ripple. That it evolved in order to deal with the vampires created by the Pillar man stone masks. As for the "flow" part, it's up for interpretation. Vampires aren't exactly undead. They are "alive". They can procreate and they have all sorts of bodily functions. They might be undead in a "soul" kind of way. Nevertheless, I would need to use a Stand to confirm that theory.

The problem is just how many vampires there are. Most of them are zombies, those are just cannon fodder. The problem is the Vampires who have all sorts of abilities. Vampires grow more powerful as they drink more blood. Getting better control over their body and stronger regeneration with it.

(It's heavily implied but not confirmed.)

They can shoot lasers out of their eyes, have superhuman strength and agility, all of the abilities that come from their bodily mastery, and more. They can also freeze other people.

(Check the wiki for more crazy forgotten powers)

But not all of the vampires can do that. Some are clearly better than others. It's a question of their potential and the amount of blood they sucked.

Now, back to my scouting. I counted 16 full-fledged vampires. (According to their appearance, they just look odd in general). The rest are zombies. But I don't know if there are more underground. My plan is to start by eliminating the surface vampires, and seeing if I can collect some information out of them, but that is too dangerous… Yeah, better to just kill them.

I checked my tools, and everything was ready. I even set some traps in the forest. These vampires are really arrogant, they don't even set patrols. Abusing their negligence, I managed to prepare myself well.

Now I only need to wait till the right time. One hour before morning, just in case something goes wrong, I am confident on escaping and making time until the sun comes up.

From now on it's showtime. I thought as I looked at a lone vampire.

I wanted to test these...