Teachings and beatings

𝑳𝒍𝒐𝒚𝒅

Once I finished my work out, I immediately headed to Instructor Alarics place to know what's happening.

I knocked on the door but no one responded back.

"Cadet Lloyd, I'm here as you've requested, Instructor Alaric."

I knocked again. This time the doors opened without anyone visible in the first room. I came in and bowed, when I didn't hear or see anything around for a while I stepped a bit further and peeked into another room. What I saw amazed me. Instructor Alaric was holding out his arm, and a glowing runes could be seen on multiple spots on his forearm area. From something as simple as a square which is the same square I've seen countless times on the Training Halls referees palm, to very complex vision of something I'd describe as a split hexagon connected by four directional arrows.

Next to him was a boy who by appearance couldn't be more than 1 year apart from me, covered by a 3 meters wide barrier from all directions. The inside of the bubble was very fogy and the space in it seemed to crumble upon itself. His eyes very closed and he looked very concentrated, almost too much. If I had to guess, Instructor Alaric probably cut his consciousness off from the rest of the world so he can meditate in peace. On his lap was sitting a short sword that gave off a feeling like its blade reaches the skies, like it's length is just an illusion.

"Boy, I remember telling the Laurifel girl to send you here after lunch. "

"I sincerely apologize, Instructor Alaric." I replied with tension in the air.

"Well it doesn't matter now that you're here anyway. Come here let me show you something "

Suddenly, I was right in front of Instructor Alaric.

His left palm wrapped around my neck like a binding loop that cannot be snapped while his other hand was still held out towards the boy with all the glowing runes. He let go a second later and I felt a very tight yet non-existing feeling on my neck. Like it could get snapped instantly and he sighed.

"Sorry not sorry. You know, have to take measures. I don't take pleasure in restraining kids who lived one thousandth of my life so this is only in case you'd try to leak this stuff out. "

"Um, I'm not quite comprehending what just happened.. " I said, visibly frightened by his sheer power.

"In simple terms, You spread what I said, your neck boom. You comply, you live."

...

He proceeded to tell me about my roommate and what situation we are all in.

'So to summarize, Ithel has a gravity Aspect Core which is nearly impossible to find even in the middle realms and I need to get something that he prepared that would let me absorb Ithels sudden break outs without alerting anyone before he gets the power under control.'

"So the core that I'll get will give me some power to absorb his attacks?"

"Yes and no. Unfortunately, you'll get a rune on you drawn by me soon that'll attract all unintended gravitational outbursts into you as long as you are close to Ithel. "

"I still don't understand why me in particular?" I replied with a very confused tone.

"Well first of all you are his roommate and will be together with him until you graduate which I think you will, you only seem to care about getting stronger so this goes both ways and because you're already this strong without a core. Anyway the transparent core will be our best bet right now, if it doesn't work out you can still have a nice six to eight percent quality one with my help. Either way, I'm now gonna give you a certain "Reflex Ball"."

He put a similar barrier to the one Ithel has around me and inserted a rubber ball the size of a fist into it.

"There's gonna be two things that will happen from now on until you receive your core, after that we're gonna increase the difficulty by a little. It's a nine out of ten chance for the ball to randomly try to hit you at a speed of someone who did their first full body cleaning with a body core, you may dodge this if you can predict its finish line or block it. The second one out of ten chance option is that the ball might expand and envelop you, becoming a force similar to Ithels outbursts. When this happens you can only endure this. Don't worry though, it will only be about 20% of the original.

This will teach you both instinctive dodging and blocking. And you might get more effective at predicting an attacks path and being able to deal with surprise attacks that land on you."

I was partially excited for the future and partially filled with dreadful anticipation and anxiety about what might happen.

During the next week I spent at Alarics place, he beat some techniques into me, most of which were formless and based on giving me as much fighting experience as he could force into me in such a short amount of time. It was completely different from what we've been taught for our entire lives. When teaching martial arts, almost everyone would focus on teaching flashy techniques and forms while what Alaric taught me was more akin to knowing how to move in certain scenarios and where to attack during the moments my opponent is open.

In the meantime when we weren't sparring, or rather me trying to get a single attack land on Alaric, I was reading various books from Alarics hometown about 3D visualizing the space around me during a fight and got the much needed knowledge to prepare for the sparrings. Occasionally I would get targeted by the rubber ball and take a very solid punch most of the time. It's amazing how much speed of an attack can change the damage it will cause, even a damn rubber ball hurt more than getting your solar plexus get hit with a steel pole.

By the final day, the feeling of tiredness that I felt was so overwhelming that I could barely keep my mind together and stand still and that's when Alaric finally sent me off to get my core.

"Boy, you might feel weak right now but trust me. This is the best possible thing for you, since you are almost a cripple thanks to the countless hits you've taken during both the sparrings and by the rubber ball which hit with a power close to a fully integrated 3% body core martial artist that focuses on fist techniques. So when you receive your core, immediately return to me so we can figure out what's special about that mutation and get you to learn the best body repairing method.

This might've hurt a little but you'll return stronger than ever so get rid of that pensive expression, boy!"