20

"How are your legs?"

"They hurt but I'll survive..."

"Perfect, we'll start with your fists but first I want you to see this, I don't want you to tell me the techniques, the blows or the strategy, or the attitude, but what damage the winner receives, keep in mind that you won't know who wins so you'll have to look at both..."

A hole-graph projector showed the image of a fight club, it wasn't a Battle Suits fight, it was a poop-cleaning fight, but this wasn't what scared Mouse, he had never seen anything like that, had they also recorded their fights? Could he watch them? But Marcus's slap served to stop the boy from asking questions and focus on the video.

"Tell me kid, if the winner had to fight again, what would he have hurt..."

"His left eye looked bad, surely if he didn't have it closed it would close with a few hits, he might have a broken rib or a big blow on the right side below the arm..."

"Not bad, but why do you think he stopped hitting with both arms and started hitting mostly with the left one? Well, it's normal that you don't know, he probably had to break his hand when he hit him on the top of the head at the end of the second round."

"Break his hand?"

"Fighting barehanded is risky, Mouse, you must have felt pain after a blow, but the most dangerous are blows to the top of the head, the bone there is hard and smooth, without joints, it is easy for the bones to break when hitting, that is why I have made you lower your posture a little more, forcing you to tuck your chin in, the boys will hit you from top to bottom, which they are not so used to and you will receive a blow to that big head of yours, but I assure you that they will hurt themselves more than you. But let's not stray from the subject, I have already told you about the hand issue, now let's see if you can hit the weak points"

Marcus took the gauntlets, one he put at the height of where the eye or left side of the opponent's face should be and another lower down simulating the side.

"Now I am going to move, let's see how many times you are able to hit your blows during three minutes"

Mouse started to move and try to find an angle to attack, but the champion didn't stop moving and the boy could barely attack effectively. When three minutes had passed he had barely hit the eye twice and three times on the side, and that was despite his effort. The boy was panting from the effort.

"Now you're tired and you don't see it, but the most you usually hit is three in a row, the idea in training, since there's no time for you to gain precision, is that you can throw combinations of at least five hits, they will be fast, maybe they won't be as hard as your opponents, but if you attack damaged parts they will hurt like hell, let's watch another video"

They watched at least ten fights and the boy fought as many rounds, sometimes stopping so Marcus could correct Mouse's guard that he had lost in the exchange or to comment on the way Mouse had thrown a blow.

When they finished the boy could barely breathe, spending three minutes attacking and chasing was very different from spending only a few seconds between the opponent's attacks.

"You have courage boy, but we don't have time for your resistance to reach that point, we'll come back later and I want you to learn to pace yourself, it's better to wait and launch your attacks when you see the opportunity, keeping the attacks constant makes you lose energy and it's the same thing your rivals would do"

"Why didn't you tell me before?"

"It also helps me see your limits boy, and know how to train you, we're going to do something fun and more relaxed, we're going to see how you handle measuring the distance, stand up with your legs straight and stretch your arm"

Mouse obeyed despite his tiredness, Marcus took a kind of round gloves with which he tried different sticks of different sizes until he found one that was suitable.

"That mouse is your natural distance, and this would be the distance of most of the guys you will face who will be bigger and taller."

Between the end of the mouse fist and the end where Marcus was holding the stick there would be between five and ten centimeters.

"Now turn your body as if you were throwing a full punch and stay in that position."

When Mouse got into the position of throwing a right hook with his weight on his left leg and his right shoulder forward Marcus recalculated, this time the distance from the stick to his hand was clearly ten centimeters or even a little more.

"But this doesn't tell you anything new, if you want to reach me you would have to go under the blow, that is to say wait, because you need to move at least half a step forward, correct?"

Mouse nodded.

"Okay, I'll stay at this distance, but this time I want you to use your leg as if you were going to kick me in the stomach, you don't have to do balancing acts, I'll hold your leg when you stretch it."

Mouse obeyed and this time he could easily hit his opponent's body, with his leg extended in a kick he was the one who gained an advantage of more than five centimeters on the stick.

"Do you understand why I want you to learn to use your legs?"

"So you can hit hard and fast despite being smaller..."

"Indeed, more reach and more force in body blows, don't try any kicks above your opponent's ribs, you still have many years to be able to do that. But this is what most fighters understand by distance, but as my Master said, that is a mistake and a serious one."

"Is there another way to understand distance?"

Mouse looked at his arms and legs and Marcus' stick without understanding.

"Yes, my master said that distance was really measured by speed, if I am able to take a step or two and hit my enemy before he hits me, that is my distance, just as if I am able to retreat when I see a blow coming, that is also my distance even if it is close, that is why we are going to try to make you fast, trying to teach you to hit better, or harder or with more technique than you have would be a waste of time, correcting bad habits is enough, the rest I leave to what you learn by watching fights. But let's go step by step, in a fight you have to be able to calculate that distance, mind you, you can't stop and do stupid things, you have to get used to calculating it, for now stay still, I'll stand in front and if you think I'm at the distance, throw a punch to hit me."

Mouse did it two out of five times, the differences were subtle, a centimeter was the difference between hitting even just barely and not hitting, other times it was so close that Marcus took out one of the sticks to show the boy the danger he was in. The practice was with the arms and with the legs, knowing the difference was fundamental for the former champion's purposes.

Although it had only been a few hours of physical training and a few more of combat practice, Mouse was exhausted. In that state everything they did today would be of little use.

"We will gradually increase the time, don't worry, but for today you better eat and rest, I'll leave you the player, you'll see that there are poop-cleaning fights but also battle suit fights, I've chosen fighters smaller than their rival so you can watch the fights, pay close attention to their tactics and their way of turning their disadvantage into a virtue"

Shortly after Marcus left, his food arrived, it wasn't exactly the same grey puree from the dining room, it was a little thicker, but of the same level of gastronomic quality. Mouse ate and started watching 3D videos, it took him a while to learn how to use the device, to pause or rewind it, but in the end he spent the afternoon watching fights and practicing some of the blows he saw in the video.

Despite being tired, he didn't stay lying down in bed, when his arms hurt from imitating blows, he would place the string and practice moving back and forth under the thread by moving his shoulders.