“For example, Light Essence will reshape the body to enhance speed over all other traits, while an Earth user will have a much stronger defense.”
“What about Power Essence?” he asked, turning to Irusaru, who was looking irritable at being disrupted.
“Strength. It will give you more raw strength than any other Essence type will give you. Now, enough questions. It’s time to fight!” he snapped.
Aika rolled her eyes but got into a fighting stance.
“I’ll try and go easy on you,” she said, giving him an apologetic smile.
Roy felt a spark of anger at that statement. Aika was just trying to be nice to him, but all she did was remind him of the difference in their strength. He was weak, and she would have to hold back the majority of her strength just not to kill him on accident.
Fingers curling into fists, Roy raised them before his face, hunching his shoulders and tucking in his chin. He would win this fight and show that old man that he was ready for the real Martial Arts.
He moved in quickly, throwing a jab at Aika’s stomach. Just because he was angry, didn’t mean he wanted to hurt her. His logic was somewhat flawed on that account, seeing as he wouldn’t be able to hurt her, even if he tried.
Instead of the punch landing, Roy’s fist only met thin air as Aika pivoted neatly out of the way. Before he could blink, she was inside his guard, an open palm striking him in the nose while her foot scythed his legs out from under him. The combination of the two-pronged attack was more than enough to unbalance him and send him toppling to the ground. Before he could so much as cry out, Aika was on top of him, her fist driving towards his nose.
“Stop!” Irusaru’s voice snapped out, and her fist froze an inch from his nose.
Aika quickly got off of him as Roy tried to get some air into his lungs. It had been knocked out of him when he’d hit the ground, and she’d moved to finish him before he could get in a breath.
“Are you okay?” she asked, “I didn’t hit you too hard, did I?”
Roy’s nose throbbed, and when he brought his fingers up to feel it, they came away slick with blood. The fight had been over so quickly that he hadn’t even had a chance to react. There was no way she hadn’t been using some sort of enhancement.
He glowered up at her and pushed himself back to his feet.
“Looks like you lost. I guess we’ll be doing things my way,” Irusaru said with a smug look.
“There’s no way anyone can move that fast without an enhancement. She had to have cheated!” Roy said, pinching his nose to stop the bleeding.
He saw Aika’s expression change from a worried look to a hurt one.
“I didn’t cheat,” she said in a low voice.
“She didn’t cheat, I can assure you,” Irusaru said, giving him a hard look. “Do you not believe me?”
Roy stared between the two of them for a long minute, feeling adrenaline pumping in his veins. He was angry that he’d lost the fight so quickly and he was lashing out. He knew he was in the wrong but just couldn’t help himself. It was hard to think clearly when one was so upset.
“Maybe don’t say anything right now,” Geon’s voice sounded in his mind. “You’re getting all worked up over nothing. So, you lost a fight. Didn’t you do that all the time back before I was here?”
That snapped Roy right out of his dark thoughts.
“Geon, are you starting to remember again?”
“Remember what?”
Mentally sighing, Roy took a few deep breaths to calm himself. Geon wasn’t getting better, and his acting out wasn’t helping either of them. He’d been doing that throughout the day, seeming almost normal, before going right back to not knowing what was going on.
He bowed first to Aika, and then to Irusaru.
“Forgive me for my rudeness. I spoke in anger and didn’t mean any of it. Thank you for showing me how much my knowledge of martial combat is lacking, Aika. I would be honored if you would be my sparring partner.”
Aika’s hurt look vanished just as quickly as it had come, and her grin was back in place.
“It’s okay. Anger can get the best of us sometimes.”
Irusaru let out an angry grunt, then shooed Aika away.
“We won’t be needing you for the next few hours. It seems that Roy’s instruction is severely lacking. I will call you when we’re ready for sparring.”
“Next few hours?” Roy groaned. He’d been working almost non-stop since noon, and it was approaching eight. If he had to work a few more hours, then spar, when was he supposed to eat or sleep?
***
Roy collapsed, exhausted, into his bed at four in the morning. Irusaru had run him through drill after drill in basic forms. From stances, to movement, to striking. He’d then spent about two hours being tossed around by Aika like he was a sack of rice, and now he would finally get to rest. For the next three hours.
Irusaru had made sure he knew that he’d be up at seven sharp to begin his run around the basin. His entire body throbbed in pain. His muscles had been abused to the point where he wondered how he’d be able to move when he woke up, and his body was covered in bruises from all the times Aika had struck him.
Despite all that, Roy had to admit that he’d learned a lot today. More than he had been able to teach himself in nearly two months. It also helped to have a human target for his attacks, even if he never was fast enough to hit her.
He also found that fighting with Aika was oddly enjoyable. He’d always looked on in envy at the Shah as they trained together, laughing and having a good time. Now he had been given that chance, and he found that he liked it.
Despite the exhaustion that he felt, Roy found that he was unable to go to sleep. He had too much to think about, like whether he’d make it to Yellow in time, and what would happen to Geon when he did. Would the core’s memories return, or would he stay the same, or get worse?
And what about him? If Geon couldn’t remember anything, would he even be able to tell him how much time he had to advance, or if his body had finally caught up and could handle the strain? With those worrying thoughts filling his mind, he finally drifted off into an uneasy sleep.
Roy’s training continued on like that for the next several weeks. Every morning at seven, he would head out and attempt to run the circumference of the basin in the allotted time. He would then be subjected to a four-hour-long exercise regimen followed by a meal of lean meat and water. Irusaru would then school him on basic martial combat forms, making him repeat the same moves thousands of times until they were drilled into his muscles and brain.
This would be followed by a second meal of meat and rice. For the first week, Irusaru had him spar with Aika for three hours after that. But once the second week started, he began using the time to train Roy in his modified version of the Tonde clan martial style, called the Unaru Kuma. This fighting style normally combined fast movement and footwork with short-range strikes, mostly using elbows and knees.
Irusaru’s style was a bit different. As he was a Power cultivator, his version leaned more heavily into strikes and used a broader variety of punches and kicks. Footwork was very important with this style, as dodging attacks and positioning were necessary when fighting at such a short-range. He said that strength was a Power cultivator’s greatest asset and that this fighting style put him in the best position to strike as hard as possible.
Roy enjoyed learning the Unaru Kuma far more than being tossed around by Aika, but in the third week, she was back again for more sparring. By the time they were done for the day, Roy was so tired that he could hardly think straight, but when he complained, Irusaru said that that was the idea. He had to use a regimen that was designed to work over half a year, and fit it into two months, so it would undoubtedly be hard work.