Training Part 2

Andrei was currently taking a beating from the woman's staff, he briefly caught site of Dan with his eyes closed, but didn't have much time to complain. Meanwhile, Dan was visualising all the possible scenarios in his head in order to find the one that would be most favourable for him. He quickly found it, and he opened his eyes, and he re-joined the fight. He pretended to attempt a punch at the woman's face and she aimed her staff at his own.

He quickly ducked under it, as if he'd been expecting this and sent a hard uppercut to her exposed chin. Her eyes rolled back as she fought to stay conscious, but she quickly regained control, desperately swinging the staff towards Dan's neck, but he also dodged this time. 

-- Maria's POV --

It was like he knew I'd make that first move, was he trying to visualise my movements? He really does adapt way too quickly, that second dodge seemed almost unnatural! I guess that I'll have to stop holding back, this young man is dangerous!

-- End of Maria's POV --

The woman suddenly started to move much faster than she did before, and she sent her staff smashing into Dan's midriff. Dan was almost thrown to the ground by the impact, and the wind was suddenly knocked of him. Still, he quickly recovered and jumped to his feet. Andrei's pain threshold is incredible, he's still taking those blows despite how much stronger they are. Andrei now winced each time the staff struck him.

Dan would visualise the woman's attacks several times each time he recovered, and he started to barely dodge them more and more, much to her frustration. Despite only receiving those attacks a total of 7 times now, it was thanks to his 200x adaption speed that it was as if he'd practiced dodging them 1,400 times now. The woman's frustration only grew as Dan started to get in his own attacks. He was going all-out at this point, he'd had no idea that he could push this hard.

Despite his body aching from all the hits he'd taken, the fight was strangely exhilarating. His adrenaline was really running now, he couldn't feel his tiredness at all. Dan suddenly used a high kick to knock the staff out of her hands, and in mid-air, it became a roundhouse kick that crashed into her chin. The woman crashed the ground, and despite her efforts to stand up again, her balance was completely thrown off.

She sighed, she knew that she'd been beaten. "You really are incredible Dan, you went from barely taking my attacks to launching your own counterattacks in no time. And you Andrei, you really can take a beating, that will be important in the final room on this floor. Your final opponent isn't much stronger than me, but it's still greater than the difference between your 2nd and 3rd opponents."

They both thanked her, Dan's respect for this woman had greatly increased. "If you don't mind me asking, what's your name?"

The woman smiled at him as she finally managed to sit up, "my name is Maria."

Once they'd said their goodbyes, Andrei and Dan started to head towards the 5th and final room. Dan noticed that Andrei was limping slightly, but was doing his best to cover it up. "Take a break Andrei, I'll need you to be as ready as possible for this final room on this floor."

"Thanks, Dan! I was prepared to push through it honestly, but you're right."

Andrei started to take deep breaths in order to calm himself, and as they entered the last room, they saw their opponent sitting on the floor. He also had a staff, this one was longer and thicker. The man wore a yellowish robe, and he looked like he might be a Monk. "Greetings, well done on making your way here so quickly!"

The man stood up and bowed, "my name is Wu Xing Guo, and I am a monk who studied martial arts at the Shaolin temple for 5 years, I was considered a quick learner. I was almost executed wrongfully after being framed for the assassination of the secretary of defence. But you didn't come here to listen to my life story, maybe another time. I've heard that you can adapt very quickly Dan, I look forward to seeing that in action."

Wow, so he really is a Shaolin Monk, this is going to suck bigtime! Then again, I did get much faster during my fight with Maria. Let's see how much my Deftness and other physical stats increased.

______________________

Vigour: 70

Deftness: 66

Constitution: 71

______________________

Vigour increased by 2, Deftness by 3, and Constitution by 1. Then again, a couple of minutes of recovery time is equal to almost 7 hours recovery time for me. It must be greatly boosted when I'm in a dangerous situation too! "Alright, let's get this started, I know you'd probably think it's a little hasty of me, but as you know, I have my reasons for being a little bit hasty right now."

"Yes, you have become enemies with an organisation I'm quite familiar with. I've fought with their ninjas quite often when I've been out with my comrades. They are quite formidable, the ones I've fought would barely qualify as their lower-level assassins."

Dan walked forwards toward the man, all the while thinking, I need to get my adrenaline going again, otherwise, I'm just going to be beaten up like Andrei did. Oh well, I guess I'll have to get this guy to move first. Dan began to strafe around his opponent, after a little deliberation, he aimed a kick towards the back of the man's head. The staff flashed and Dan suddenly flew backwards, almost hitting the wall before he regained his footing.

Dan replayed what had happened in his head several times, this time he tried to put each scenario into slow motion, which seemed to work. Dan saw the man pick up the staff and drive it backwards towards Dan's chest. Of course, he was aware that it wouldn't be in slow motion in reality, but it would help him at least. He walked forward once more, this time feigning the same kick before suddenly leaping to the side and kicking again, which caught Xing Guo on the shoulder.

But the man rolled in order to avoid most of the impact. "Interesting, so that's how your adaptability comes into play, I guess I'll have to actually stand up."

The man was on his feet almost instantly, and this time, Dan was able to see the staff move, and he attempted to duck, but the staff clipped the side of his head, sending him stumbling. Damn it, Maria nailed it with her description, the gap in ability isn't that wide. But still, I thought I dodged that for sure, I have to be even faster. This Wu Xing Guo guy isn't even trying right now, this is going to be a long fight... oh well. Dan turned and nodded at Andrei, who also stepped forward.

"Dan, I've never seen this guy before, he must have joined more recently."

"Indeed I did, but enough talking."

Dan saw the staff hurtle towards his friend, and acting on impulse, he sent a high kick directly in between the two of them, knocking the staff upwards. This time, he wasn't able to knock the staff out of his opponent's grasp though. Xing Guo retreated backwards before Dan could take his moment of weakness to his advantage. "Very interesting, to think that you could actually see that let alone block it. So that's what Andrei meant by your overtaking him in no time."

Xing Guo took up an actual stance this time, his right leg was placed slightly forwards with his knee bent, the other leg was behind him, to maintain stability. His staff was held diagonally across his body, ready to block or strike. Dan decided to equip both the thigh and wrist guards on the ground behind the man, and he threw a set to Andrei, who also put them on. Unlike the ones worn in sport activities, these ones allowed plenty of flexibility for movement.

Without warning, Andrei suddenly charged forwards toward Xing Guo who raised an eyebrow. Dan realised what Andrei was doing and decided to play along. He watched as Andrei took each strike, he would also attempt to block and parry somehow. This went on for over half a minute before Andrei retreated for a moment to catch his breath. However, it seemed that the man had other ideas, and went on the offensive. So Dan closed his eyes once more.

He once again played out multiple scenarios, now he could simulate up to 50 in under a second. While Xing Guo continued his relentless attacks on Andrei, Dan opened his eyes and slowly crept up behind the man. As he was about to land another strike on Andrei, Dan suddenly spun around and sent a back-kick into the small of the other man's back. Xing Guo tumbled to the ground, his staff catching him on the chest. The man grunted in pain as he fell, but he was quick to stand up.

He now held his chest with one hand, and never keep his eyes off of Dan, bent to pick up his staff. When Andrei saw this, he kicked the staff to the other side of the room. Xing Guo grimaced when he saw this and straightened, but this time he changed his stance. His stance now resembled what looked to be a Praying Mantis, his legs were positioned similarly to his previous stance. However, the man's hands were almost looked like claws now.

Time to check my stats again before he attacks again.

______________________

Stats:

Vigour: 71

Deftness: 67

Constitution: 71

______________________

My Vigour and Deftness both increased by 1, alright, let's play it his way. Dan tried his best to imitate Xing Guo's stance, much to his amusement. He then turned his hand around and beckoned, Dan knew that he was being taunted, but he decided to take the bait. He leapt forward whilst trying to deliver a punch to the man's face, and the man slightly tilted his head to the side. He knew better than to take Dan's attacks head on now.

Xing Guo's right arm shot forwards, still resembling a Praying Mantis, catching Dan on the shoulder. He winced but he managed to keep his balance, he then tried to imitate the man's attack, his fingers resembling a claw which caught the man by surprise so he wasn't able to block effectively, and stumbled backwards. The two of them began to exchange blows, gradually speeding up as Dan gradually adapted to the man's attacks.

As time went by, Dan began to very slowly land some effective strikes of his own, but each time, Xing Guo would start taking the fight more and more seriously. This is it! That adrenaline rush is back again! However, Andrei didn't remain a spectator and started landing attacks of his own, roaring as he did so. Xing Guo was now going all-out to defend against both of their attacks until Dan managed to land an attack right into the man's throat.

Xing Guo started to choke, and the both of them capitalised on this. Dan delivered a kick into the man's unguarded Solar Plexus, and Andrei sent a right-hook, directly striking the man's temple. Xing Guo was unconscious before he hit the floor. As he did so, Andrei suddenly dropped to his knees, breathing heavily. He was battered and bruised all over, and had a few scrapes all over his body. Dan was the same, his body was aching even more than it was before.

Dan recovered in next to no time, his aches and pains were slowly fading now, they'd passed the final trial. They then heard a voice from somewhere, one they recognised to be Yauheni's. "Well done, especially you Dan! You now have 1 day to recover as much as possible. You've earned it, you can can come down and eat if you want to as well. Leave your equipment on the top floor, it will be washed and repaired by the time 1 day has passed."

Dan breathed a sigh of relief, as much as I was enjoying that, I do need to recover from all of that, Andrei also won't recover as fast as me. As Dan was thinking over what had taken place in such a short period of time, he suddenly heard a system notification come through.

The first 5 fights are done, I ended up writing more than I intended too. The next part will just go over what the rest of the floors entail. The only other in-depth fight will most likely be Dan Vs Yauheni.