Instincts

Without bothering Pakku and his training session, Genji decided to do a little training of his own.

One he would like to do blind.

Tuning off his Hyper Sense skill, Genji felt like the world around him had disappeared.

He could vaguely feel people through his Heightened Senses because of the subtle noises he was hearing. An interesting thing to note however, was that he could also feel the presence of various things through the use of bending.

In a sense, Genji would say that it was similar to how Toph 'sees' the world through seismic sense.

Genji was unconsciously sensing the water and ice around him and even the heat and fire from other things.

He could sense the ice beneath his feet, the water five meters away, the heat from the bodies of the students and Pakku, and the fires of some lamps inside the nearest house. It was.... strange but it felt even weirder that Genji believed it to be natural.

However, after a couple of minutes, he got used to it quickly and it was like he had another form of his Hyper Sense skill. This rapid development was most likely because he already had experience in something similar, Hyper Sense.

Which might also mean that it was due to the high levels of his skills.

Because of this, Genji also momentarily turned off his bending skills and focused only on his Heightened Sense.

Suddenly, the world went dark and all he could recognize were sounds, the ground, and the air brushing up against his skin.

After focusing himself further still, Genji tried tuning in to a single sound: the beating heart within his chest. In doing so, he realized what he needed to focus on.

And then everything became clearer than ever!

To put it simply, if you want to hear someone breathing, you must tune in to every breath coming out of their mouth. If you want to see them breathe, you can either watch their face closely and try looking at the movements of their muscles.

The same goes for seeing them blink, open their eyes, or any sort of movement.

Genji decided to improve on how detailed he can improve his senses.

Like how far he could hear someone or how sensitive his taste buds would be.

Currently, he could hear someone whispering very clearly from 34 meters away.

It seemed like that was currently his limit until he could level up his Heightened Senses skill even further.

Just when Genji was going to try a different sense, he heard a Pakku call out to him.

"Young man!"

"What?"

"Come here," said Pakku.

Genji sighed and didn't turn back on his Hyper Sense. Using only his senses and the walking stick, Genji walked over to Pakku.

"Are you willing to spar against one of my students?" Pakku asked the second Genji arrived next to him.

Thinking about it, Genji believed that to be a good idea. To see what type of other skills he could gain whilst fighting people.

"Yes," said Genji with a nod.

"Hm, good. You will have to leave the stick here, no weapons allowed," said Pakku.

Nodding, Genji pushed out the stick towards Pakku's voice, waiting for him to hold it. Once he did, Genji asked, "Where will we spar?"

"Right here. I will ask my students to make some space whilst you spar against my student," said Pakku as he gestured to his students to back up whilst leaving one alone.

Once everyone was far enough and only Genji and the other student remained, Pakku was ready to announce the start.

"Are both of you ready?" asked Pakku in confirmation.

Genji nodded, "Yes."

"Yes!"

With both fighters ready, Pakku couldn't help but smile as he turned to look at his student.

"BEGIN!"

Swoosh!

Bending the water, Genji's opponent didn't give him enough time to move or anything as he quickly bent the water and hit Genji on the chest, throwing him back.

Again!

Swoosh!

The attack came again. With just two attacks, Genji found himself unable to block the incoming blows. He wasn't able to dodge the strike and instead took a blow directly onto his shoulder.

Thanks to his steel body skill, Genji didn't break any bones or dislocate any.

Instead, he felt like he was being suppressed by the attacks of the kid without being able to do anything.

Genji frowned slightly.

As expected though, the boy kept attacking regardless of whether he was able to fight back or not. As long as Genji continues to stand back up, he won't stop attacking and will only continue until Genji gives up.

...

Looking at the sparring session, Yue gasped and began to get worried for the blind man.

She wanted to go after him right now, however she knew that she couldn't stop this fight. Especially since she is a woman and someone like Pakku wouldn't listen to her, even if she's the daughter of the chief.

That means she has to wait patiently while watching this battle unfold before finally being able to go over to Genji's side to help him recover.

That thought made her feel somewhat depressed inside—she really wished she could do more stuff. She didn't like always having to stand on the sidelines. But alas, such thoughts aren't permitted for women. Even so… so she wished she could do something about it.

...

BANG!

The water hit Genji harshly, throwing him back against a wall.

'Damn! I need to do something!' thought Genji as he quickly got back on his feet, determined to at least land one hit on the student.

[Ding! Skill level up!]

[<(MIND) Indomitable Will> (Lvl. 20)]

[Ding! Skill has broken through to level 20. Unlocking one skill effect.]

[<Suppression> unlocked!]

[<Indomitable Will> has been made into a <Special> skill!]

[System Remark: Wow! A special skill. That's pretty good. A special skill is like the combination of a Passive and Active skill. There are effects that are passive, but once the active effects are turned on, the passive effects are made stronger or just the active part turns on leaving the passive effects alone.]

Woosh!

Suddenly, the student began to feel nervous as he looked over at Genji.

The student didn't know what was happening to him all of a sudden but now he felt a bit intimidated and didn't wish to attack Genji. However, thinking otherwise would be wrong. After all, his teacher told him to keep going because "he'll definitely lose eventually".

The student had already lost twice during training sessions with Pakku.

'No way am I gonna let myself loose today too. If Master Pakku says 'keep going', then I have to do exactly that!' thought the young man, quickly shaking off the suppression effect of Genji's upgraded skill.

Because the effect was new, Genji wasn't sure how to use the suppression effect properly. He might need to sleep and have a dream about it in order to use it properly.

Genji didn't mind it much right now, however.

He managed to buy himself some time in order to get out of a corner and quickly began to focus on his senses as he tried to listen and feel the change in the ground and air before he got attacked even more.

However, no matter which direction he moved towards, he still received an attack almost immediately afterwards. It seemed that he couldn't escape from these attacks forever. The enemy doesn't seem to give up either. In fact, they're getting angrier and more frustrated every second.

"Hahaha!" laughed the student who stood behind Genji as he saw him struggle. "This guy ain't half bad! You look kinda tired."

It seems like the student isn't expecting defeat yet. Instead, he sees victory somewhere nearby and believes that he could easily win. Such confidence makes them think nothing of attacking others recklessly. They don't understand why anyone else should care about their life. And thus they believe themselves invincible. Just like animals fighting each other.

'This kid suddenly got annoying,' thought Genji as he recovered once more from some attacks. 'Come on... when will I unlock a new skill!'

Focusing back on the fight, Genji listened and waited for his opponent to attack.

But even after listening carefully, he couldn't hear anything except sounds coming from everywhere around him. No footsteps anywhere near him.

It was such an odd feeling.

Suddenly, Genji's body moved before he could even react.

Swoosh!

A water whip passed right by Genji and it grazed him, tearing a bit of his clothes.

[Ding! Learnt new skill!]

[<Wild Instinct> (Lvl. 1)]

[System Remark: That was pretty wild to me. Now get in a couple of hits for me! How could this kid humiliate the host!]

Swoosh!

Once more, Genji's body moved, but this time with a bit of Genji's voluntary actions. After feeling it the first time, Genji knew that this skill will be good for avoiding sneak attacks in the future.

With this, dodging and blocking attacks not seen by the naked eye will become even easier. To do stuff on instinct is usually the best way to survive on various occasions.

Swoosh!

Another water whip came close again without any sound or warning whatsoever.

Unlike last time though, this one did manage to hit Genji directly. But instead of being cut apart, only part of the cloth ripped away and fell down onto the floor.

As expected, Wild Instinct has a chance to appear.

If he can level up this skill, his future will be more secure.

'Hm?!'

Suddenly, Genji felt the urge to dodge and moved along as to how he felt and naturally dodged a Water Whip completely this time.

Psh!

The Water Whip hit the ground and everyone was stunned to see that Genji had finally managed to evade an attack completely. Pakku's eyes widened in shock before narrowing down in suspicion. Yue, far in the back, was also shocked and couldn't believe her eyes when she saw Genji dodge the Water Whip that moved so fast she could barely see it.

[Ding! Skill level up!]

...

The Wild Instinct skill leveled up and quickly reached level seven after performing two dodges. One partial dodge and another complete dodge.

With finally having a skill to help him, Genji smirked and began his counter attack as he fired up his Martial Artist skill and felt his senses take a leap forward. He felt his senses turn sharp and he quickly jumped forward after feeling the nagging of his Wild Instinct skill.

Pa!

A fist flew straight by his opponents face and produced a sharp sound as it almost hit the young man.

With 11 points in Power, Genji's strength was the same as two adult males.

"Huh?"

Surprised, the young man suddenly tripped backward and was shocked to noticed that Genji moved really fast just now. Whilst everyone was surprised by how fast Genji was just now, Genji on the other hand was rather disappointed since that attack should have hit the young man.

"Haha! My bad, I slipped..." said Genji as he scratched his cheek.

The young man frowned and got back up as he focused onto Genji's face that had a cloth wrapped over his eyes.

'There's no way I would lose to some blind bastard,' thought the young man as he clenched his fists and glared at Genji.

"Enough. Return to your place Kos."

Suddenly stepping forward, Pakku stopped the fight between Genji and the student, Kos.

Looking at Kos who hesitated a bit before heading back to his group of teammates before Pakku stepped forward himself.

Standing in front of Genji with a serious look on his face, Pakku said, "That will be all for today. Tomorrow, if you're willing, you can spar with them once more"

Smiling and nodding, Genji accepted Pakku's offer.

It's free experience points after all.

Although they may be level 2, he can still gain some form of skill XP when dealing with them. If he plays his cards well enough, he might even be able to fight against Pakku who is a level 5.

"Alright, you can go. I will stay here and instruct these children a bit longer," said Pakku as he waved off Genji before focusing on his students.