Chapter 19: The Basics Of Martial Arts [Pt 1]
With Sido accepting to be Arnik's martial arts teacher, the duo of he and Olea left the Underground Fight Club with plans for Arnik to meet up with Sido during the weekends for his classes.
Arnik and Olea arrived at the academy a little time before midnight, they exchanged a few small talks before they each left for their respective habitations. Just before they both separated, however, Arnik suddenly bowed toward Olea,
"Thank you for all your help Olea, I promise I won't let you down", he said with his head still bowed.
"I'll hold you to that promise" Olea replied with a smile on her face, signaling the end of their conversation.
********************
On the other side of the school at the same time that Arnik and Olea separated, in what looked like a huge conference room, 6 dark figures were seated, and a large screen in front of them replayed the footage of the fight that had occurred some time ago involving Gerdi, Rowan, and Arnik. The footage paused just after Gerdi launched his final attack, and one of the figures began moving toward the screen. The light from the screen illuminated the dark room and revealed the figure as none other than Werner Tidme and he was speaking to the others in the room,
"You have to understand that even though I was running to the ring, there was no way that I could make it in time to stop that attack."
He stopped to point at the figure of Arnik on the screen before continuing,
"He was closer to the ring than I was, but there was no way a Fire mage of his level could reach the ring in that short time."
One of the figures seated at the table spoke,
"But he manifested the blue flames, which to an extent can be considered more potent than normal flames, couldn't that allow him to close the distance within a short time?"
Werner began shaking his head in refusal,
"When the fight started, there were no signs of blue flames. I had considered the prospect that maybe he was hiding his true powers before the fight but after reviewing the fight thoroughly, I became convinced that he only unlocked the use of blue flames during the fight"
Another dark figure spoke with a soft feminine voice,
"What exactly is your point Werner?" she asked irritatedly,
"I'll show you" he answered with a sly smile as he began to play the footage again, this time it was moving slowly, he pointed at a quick flash that showed on the screen before Gerdi's attack was destroyed,
"What does this look like to you?" he asked the figures who focused more on the screen.
"Lightning" a deep voice answered, the voice was from the figure seated at the head of the table. The other figures began murmuring among themselves after hearing the figures' response. The blue flames were one thing but were it even possible for a mage to have two affinities that had nothing to do with each other at such an early stage?.
The figure at the head of the table raised his hand to silence the other members of the table,
"Interesting, It seems we'll have to keep an eye on you Arnik Ragniel," he said with a smile on his face.
********************
Arnik resumed his daily school routine of attending classes, studying, and meditating. Soon he was joined by Rowan who had made a quick recovery. Gerdi also returned to class and once again the elite class was complete. Nothing eventful happened for the remainder of the week and soon it was the weekend.
Arnik had woken up quite early on that sunny Saturday morning. He meditated for a while before bathing and leaving the school sometime before midday. He immediately took a taxi and headed in direction of Rindam, a district mostly occupied by middle-tier families on the second layer of the city.
Middle-tier families were mostly made up of branch families of the prestigious ones. They consisted of individuals who didn't have as much money as the prestigious families but still managed to live a relatively comfortable life particularly because of their relationships with the main families.
Olea had given Arnik an address situated in this district as the meeting point for him and Sido. She had also told Arnik to change his appearance to that of Brid's and only use his Lightning affinity when with Sido. When he asked her for her reason, she had simply told him to trust her and he had accepted.
He arrived at the outskirts of the district in front of a medium-sized compound. It looked quite old, but it was still in relatively good shape, he moved towards the gate and pressed a doorbell.
An old maid answered a few minutes later and asked for his identity,
"My name is Ar-, I mean Brid and I'm here to see Sido" he answered politely ", he had changed his appearance again to match his alternate personality.
"Please wait here for a while " she quickly answered and quickly left for the main house. She returned sometime later,
"Master Sido will see you now, please follow me," she said as the gate opened and Arnik began following her. The compound was big, but not nearly as big as that of the Frost mansion, there were several smaller e buildings around but the biggest one stood at the center. Several maids hurried past Arnik as they went about their daily chores.
Arnik was quite surprised, he had noticed that Sido's behavior wasn't as crude as the other fighters but he never imagined that he would live in such a place. The maid that he was following had referred to him as "Master", so that meant that he had to hold an important role in this family. If that was the case, then what was Olea's role?, these were the thoughts in Arnik's mind as he quietly followed the maid.
She eventually led him to a smaller building behind the main one, it looked like a dojo but Arnik could guess that it served as a training room. At that point the made turned to face him and began speaking,
"Master Sido is waiting for you inside," she said as she bowed slightly, Arnik nodded and the maid left him standing in front of the dojo.
Arnik took a deep breath, before opening the doors of the building. The first thing he noticed was the sheer size of the interior, it looked bigger than he initially thought from the outside. Also, he could see some strange markings on the walls of the interior, he immediately recognized them to be inscriptions.
"They must be used to reinforce the room," he thought to himself, his eyes scanned the other parts of the room, there were a few magi gears some of which Arnik recognized and some which he didn't, punching bags, training dummies and weights of different sizes.
"A training room, I was right" Arnik muttered to himself as his eyes landed on a figure at the far end of the room. He was seated with his legs crossed and was wearing a long black kimono, Arnik could immediately tell that it was Sido even though the figure was backing him.
Arnik moved towards Sido who was still seated and stopped a few meters away from him, Sido didn't react in any way, he seemed to be meditating and Arnik didn't know whether to interrupt him or not so he just stood in place staring at him.
" Hey kid", Sido suddenly said without turning, Arnik was surprised but quickly regained his composure,
"Hello-", he paused as he contemplated what to call Sido, after all the man in front of him was now his master, besides the maid had also referred to him as master.
"He's Olea's brother so should I call him Master Karid, or maybe Master Sido like the maid called him" Arnik muttered to himself as he wondered how to address the man In front of him.
Sido let out a sigh before continuing to speak,
"Just call me Sido Brid, no need for formalities ". He pointed towards a door at his left as he continued speaking to Arnik,
"Go in there and change, " he said and Arnik nodded and hurriedly headed the door.
Inside, he found a black trunk and another black kimono which he quickly put on. When he left the room he found Sido standing in front of the room with a smile on his face, he quickly moved to where Sido was and stood opposite the man who would now be his teacher.
Sido bowed and Arnik did the same,
"Let's begin your training, " he said with the smile still on his face.
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