A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed

I am Lin Cian. I know I am weak but I am not a fool enough to get myself hurt. If William hit me the only choice for me is to die. See his muscular body he is at least 18. But for some reason, he acts like an unmatured fellow.

"You should not hit me," I said to him as he stared at me not knowing what to say.

"What you do....."

"No no it is not a problem. I won't hurt you" William promised. Finally, my plan is going to succeed. Hey, I am not taking advantage of him. It is a win-win situation. He wanted to practice how to hit while I want to practice how not to get hit. So basically we are helping each other.

So I accompanied him to the practice area. As I followed him I found that everyone is staring weirdly at William but he never confronted anyone. Suddenly the girl who yelled at William, a student came to us

"So you found yourself a new practice dummy..... Hey, dummy do you think you can take his hit or evade his hit. You can barely do it. So what are you doing here with this weak body" he confronted me.

"Let him go, Alex. This is Cian my friend and he volunteered to practice with me" said William.

"Is it so?" asked Alex to me. He is a tall guy whose age is almost the same as William's. He wore a blue outfit and had black hair with black colored pupils and a chiseled face.

"Yeah, it's been a while after practicing. So I will take this chance to warm myself" I said to cover William. I didn't notice I was scared of the oncoming practice event I don't even know his strength.

Suddenly I got an idea. I used 'Demon Gaze' on William. What I saw was he was stronger than me but not than many other students. As soon as I saw his weapon I knew why?....

His weapon is a spear. All he knew to do is thrust with a spear. He is not a top student. Mostly all the students in the school use sword or ax. They mostly rely on these weapons. Only William use to have a spear. No one would practice with him and he had no chance to get trained because the first step to learning to fight in this school is to fight with your friend. But this guy had no friends.

William bought a leather jacket and throw it to me and said

"You will need it. In case....."

"Ok fine" I was just confident enough to evade his attacks because I know that he only knew to trust. But he is good at using his fist. But once he started to demonstrate all my hope just fell. I have never thought I am so useless, yet I was so arrogant.

The way William thrust is really hard to follow with the eyes. Its speed can be comparable to that of a viper flicking its tongue in and out. Even the sound made by his spear was heard as a snake hissing. At that moment I knew that William is not weak nor does he pretends to be weak, he just wants to be perfect in what he knows. William is not from a big family so he knows about the limited resources he has so he chose to work hard.

Only by this moment, I have felt ashamed. I always felt like I never have given up the cultivation, I had money, I had skills and also I had medicine am I determined as much as him. I wanted to cultivate but I am not very determined. If it was not for Tamo I would have lost my senses ages ago. But look at him, he had no one to help him but he manages to survive and he never wanted to give up.

After a short moment of practice, William turned his head towards Lin Cian only to see him shocked out and staring as his eyes were widened and jaw dropped. William just smiled at him and called him out

"Hey, Cian..... Cian are you ok?"

That was the moment when I realized where I am and came back to reality. I knew I can't help him much but anyhow I wanted to help him but I should also never get hurt. So I decided to speak to him.

"William, ... err.... Look, ... It's not like I don't want to help you....."

"It's ok. I shouldn't have forced you....." he said with a disappointment but with a forced smile on his face.

"I am sorry" Lin Cian replied with an awkward expression.

William just smiled at him but of course, I know he was sad but I also wanted to help him so I just asked him with an awkward smile

"Can you take up a bit slow on me?"

"huh.... So that means you agree?"

"Yeah, but you should not hurt me. I haven't practiced before"

"Sure, ... sure.....I promise ....."

"Then cut the crap and thrust your spear..."

Nothing can be compared to the smile William had on his face. I really couldn't believe a little support can make others smile. I experienced this in my life. So I will let others know that they are not alone.

He started to spar with me. I should add that he used a stick which basically had the width which he can manage to hold his fingers around and had the length of two meters so that it won't hurt me. Anyhow, I wore leather armor a thrust from staff is not something to ignore. If it was to hit your vital point no matter how strong you are, you are going to suffer. Hehe, I am a picky guy who is not willing to get hurt whatever the reason is.

To my surprise, William slowed down a little bit. It's true that I got hit but also I managed to evade his attacks. When I was seeing William's face he was just happy. He didn't seem troubled for being slowed down.

After this William attached himself to me, most likely I became very dependent on him. He never let anyone bother me. He knew that I am a newbie and so he took me under his wing. He thought me hand-to-hand combat. I had a hard time learning to fight. Even though I was sloppy William encouraged me more.

His teaching methods were very simple. 'Two fists, two palms, two elbows, two kicks, and two knees use anything as much as you can. Keep a strong foundation and lean on yourself. Learn when to use what, you will manage then'. I knew that the greatest martial arts are very simple but I never expected to be this simple.

Now we became friends more like sparring partners.