Chapter 6: Bathing and training in the forest
The two girls had been drinking since work in the morning until after they finished their shift in the afternoon. It seemed like a long time, but in fact, they hadn't overdone it because their stomachs were limited. They ate something and found a room to rest for a while. Suddenly, Thea remembered that she still needed to go to the woods to learn martial arts with my father. Smelling of alcohol and unable to concentrate, she was in a terrible state. So, I called the bar owner and asked if there was a place to take a shower.
"Are you treating this place like a resort?" Although feeling dissatisfied, the bar owner didn't dare refuse to this illustrious guest, so he could only take Thea to a small bathtub specially opened in the back, and said it had never been used before.
Felicity was planning to go home, but upon learning that the bath was free, she joined Thea. The boss saw the two chatting all day, but didn't know what her relationship was with Thea and didn't dare to stop her.
Thea put on the bathrobe and entered the house only to find that the boss had specially dug a hot spring with a small circle around it. The pool wasn't big, so it would get very crowded if four people could sit there, being more suitable for one or two people. I thought it was a single bathroom, but I didn't expect it to be like this.
"Oh, little Thea, you're so clever! We should have arrived early in such a cool place!" Felicity looked around and didn't find anyone else, so she took off her clothes and jumped into the pool, having a beautiful time.
Wow, she has such a good figure, Thea murmured quietly. After soaking for a while, Felicity realized she was still tipsy, grabbed Thea's hand, and said, "What are you looking at? Come on. You can't dive into the hot spring after drinking. I heard it's bad for your health..." Thea felt it wasn't good to be honest and unprepared. She vaguely remembered that saying and hurriedly explained, "It's been three hours since we finished drinking! And that's for people with illnesses. It'll be fine if we take a quick bath for a while. Don't worry about me getting sick!" Thea had no choice but to enter the hesitant bath. She took off her robe and entered the pool.
"Hey, there are no strangers here, why are you still wearing underwear?"
"Wow, Thea, your skin is so soft."
"Hehe, Thea, you're so tiny!"
Felicity Smoak managed to provoke Thea so much that her face turned red, signaling there was a lot of moisture in the room. Felicity took off her glasses and was a bit nearsighted, unable to see clearly. Although it was a bit odd at first, Thea soon found it very comfortable to have a little wine and sleep, and then head to the hot springs! She had no idea yet, but at that moment, she also initiated the future of the female superhero alliance to take thermal baths every time they met. Although she reminded the girls not to drink alcohol every time, Wonder Woman always said, "We are all superheroes, so afraid of birds." Ah...
The two had a normal fun time and didn't do anything too extreme. Felicity took Thea to the forest, and the two bid farewell.
Thea looked around and saw that Malcolm had not yet arrived. She also needed to calm her emotions, so she found a big tree and sat cross-legged.
In fact, Malcolm had been there for some time, and Thea had been under his surveillance almost all day. He arrived five minutes before Thea. Last time, he was discovered in advance. This time, he was much more careful, testing her perception range, always observing from afar.
Through comparing some details, I could estimate that Thea's effective perception range is almost a circular radius of ten meters. According to the League of Assassins selection criteria, anyone with a radius of five meters is considered talented. Lady Shiva, the world's number one, an assassin who seems to be able to sense a range of twenty meters, but that's the result of years of training. Except for precision rifles, Lady Shiva can completely dodge any melee weapon, and no one can sneak up on her.
Thea is not yet able to do that, but I believe that through her own training, she can completely dodge medium-range weapons like bows, arrows, and knives within the detection range, and she can also dodge long-range guns. What an incredible talent!
Seeing Thea sitting motionless under the tree, Malcolm also had a certain understanding of her patience. She was intelligent, talented, patient, had a tough personality, was young, and had such good conditions that he was a little jealous.
He stood up from behind the tree and said hoarsely, "Thea Queen, are you ready for training?"
In fact, Thea had noticed him long ago and just stayed silent. Malcolm's estimate was wrong. Her perception range is about a twelve-meter radius. The original Thea 1.0 was a follower heroine. Although her strength was only average, she would definitely be much stronger compared to the various soldiers of the League of Assassins. Now this version 2.0 of Thea Queen is even more extraordinary. It seems to be just a buildup of numbers. In fact, it's a great leap in strength and potential. It's like running 100 meters in 10 seconds, and another is running 100 meters in 5 seconds. It seems that the numbers are a bit different, but in fact, it's a great leap in strength and potential. The difference is very large.
"I'm ready. Please teach me. I'm not afraid of difficulties."
"Very well, I see your determination. You can call me Black Arrow. From now on, I will teach you various fighting techniques. What do you want to learn first?" Malcolm held his hands behind his back and looked like a master.
Thea secretly smiled in her heart, "I want to learn archery, can you do that?" She still said seriously, "Since you are called Black Arrow, let's learn archery first and let me see your level."
That's a bit arrogant, I came here to teach you, why do you still want to test me? Another justice hero might just roll up their sleeves and leave, but Malcolm is a villain, and he likes you if you have temperament. He will despise you if you are submissive.
He took a tube of tennis balls from the backpack behind him and handed it to Thea, asking her to randomly shoot it into the sky.
Ah, Oliver seems to have practiced this in the original plot, you guys are really on the same page. The ninja master teaches Malcolm, and Malcolm maintains discipline. He is considered a third-generation disciple? Compared to his brother, the ninja master taught his daughter Thalia, then Thalia passed it to Yao Fei, and Yao Fei taught his daughter. Oliver and Yao Fei's daughter had a moment together. A golden light flash learned the essence of archery. He should be considered a fifth-generation disciple, right?
Fortunately, foreigners don't care about antiquity issues, otherwise, my brother won't be able to say hello when he sees me in the future! The Ninja Master has lived for over 800 years and is known as the world's best DC gardener. He has many peach and plum trees around the world. As an immortal supervillain, he has cultivated numerous superheroes. This is really a sad story.
Without the will to lament for the ninja master, Thea picked up a tennis ball and threw it into the air while carefully observing Malcolm's feet and movements. With a "pop," the black feather arrow pinned the tennis ball to the tree trunk.
This move is difficult. It's much harder than Oliver's method of shooting at the wall. After all, you have to calculate the arrow's landing point and keep it on the tree trunk, otherwise, it won't be good if it flies far away. No wonder it was so ancient in the first season. There is no problem in beating the Green Arrow, he is indeed better than the Green Arrow!
Next, Thea continued to throw the tennis ball up and down. As expected, Malcolm was at his peak. With God's help, after a few "pop, pop, pop," the strings rang, each arrow hitting the center of the ball... With such precision, he nailed the nine tennis balls to the tree trunk, one by one.
"It's amazing, I'm going to learn this!" Thea said with shining eyes.
"Huh," he secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Actually, Malcolm had a slightly higher performance than his level today. After all, he is in his forties and almost fifty, and he is not the type to practice martial arts since childhood. In order not to disappoint his daughter, he focused his attention as never before. If Thea throws a few more
balls, he may not be able to hit them. This is the biggest difference between him and the Green Arrow. His physical strength or endurance is not as good as the young Green Arrow. If he concentrates in a short time, he can beat the Green Arrow. Over time, he can beat the Green Arrow. This won't work. As an ordinary person without any enhancement, the Green Arrow's endurance for beatings has been tested by history.
"Position yourself with your feet apart, shoulder-width apart, naturally. Use your left hand to guide the landing and keep your right hand steady. Use the right index, middle, and ring fingers to hold the bow. Place the index finger above the string and the other two below the tail of the arrow."
Malcolm constantly adjusted Thea's posture and corrected all errors. As a master archer, his guidance was very good. He could clearly explain the key points of each action and why it was done. Many people can do something on their own, but not all can teach others, and Malcolm definitely doesn't fit into that category.
Thea held a lightweight red recurve bow, without sights or stabilizers. Women aren't naturally as strong as men. Although there are female shooters everywhere in games and anime, in practice, it's really tough! Less strength means less lethal power. In ancient wars, the population was predominantly male, and monarchs never recruited women as archers.
In the original plot, Thea Queen, as a member of the Green Arrow team, was known as the "quick shooter" and came up with the idea of using a high rate of fire to compensate for low damage. Later, realizing that this path wouldn't lead to success, she became famous on her own and even left the team at one point.
"Let's focus on the future in due time, I've already anticipated my own destiny and I can certainly rewrite this unsatisfactory life trajectory." Thea calmed down, reflecting on Malcolm's teachings, drew the arrow and aimed at a large tree 10 meters away. Malcolm drew a red circle in the center of the tree.
"Breathe out, breathe in to adjust your breath and look at the red circle in front of you." The arrow flew with a "whistling" sound. Thea, highly concentrated, had a mysterious sensation, as if a part of herself was flying along with the arrow's trajectory. Like in the past, this arrow would surely hit!
There was a muffled "pop" sound, and the arrow was firmly lodged in the center of the red circle on the tree trunk, very close to the bullseye. According to competition rules, she would score at least seven or eight points.
Honestly, it was the first time she achieved such good results. Honestly, Malcolm was a bit jealous. He remembered that when he was trained by the ninja master, it took three days of uninterrupted practice to hit a target at ten meters!
Afraid that his daughter would become too proud, he pointed to a target twenty meters away.
This time, Thea's shot missed as expected, but the deviation was less than Malcolm expected, and the arrow stuck into the tree trunk.
Now, Malcolm felt more balanced and began to carefully explain the next steps. In fact, Thea's first shot was not the result of mastering archery skills, but of a much higher perception. The entire ten-meter range was within her perception. As long as she focused, she could achieve perfect results. This is not a special skill. In fact, when many people shoot three-pointers, they know the basket will be right as soon as the ball leaves their hands. It's just a mysterious feeling.
But twenty meters were beyond her perception range. Although she could still ensure accuracy within the first ten meters, her shot missed the last ten meters as expected. As expected, she was still far from those idiots! Just like Prometheus, there's a helmet that can download all the fighters' martial arts, just click the mouse to search for the target, and it'll be ready immediately after confirmation! It's as convenient and fast as learning martial arts with Neo in Matrix, unlike him, who has to practice a lot. Where did he find his helmet? It's not mentioned in the comics!
I patiently listened to Malcolm's explanation, and I must say it was very well explained. He detailed several key points and habits and explained them in a simple and easy-to-understand way. As expected from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, no, he's an excellent senior student who graduated from the Nanda Parbat Martial Arts School. Thea absorbed the knowledge like a sponge.
The fusion of two souls brings not only expanded perception, depth of thought, memory speed, and reaction sensitivity, these are complete improvements. If the original Thea was just a near-heroine throughout her life, now she already has the qualifications of a frontline hero.
At the end of the lesson, Thea managed to hit the 20-meter target. Although she couldn't say she hit the target 100 times, her score of nine out of every ten arrows also left Malcolm sad. This was the first night of class! For Malcolm to get to this point, he had to practice for a week with back pain and leg cramps!
It's great to be young! Quietly, apologizing for his inferior qualifications as a daughter, he accompanied Thea to Queen's mansion from a distance before returning home.
When I got home, I changed into casual clothes and asked the housekeeper, "Has Tommy returned?"
"No, I just need to deal with the phone message." The butler replied honestly.
"Hmph." Malcolm snorted. What could be wrong with him? He must have gone to see Laurel again because he wasn't home today. For a moment, he felt helpless. He really didn't know how to raise the son left by his late wife. His mind, courage, and resilience were nothing like his. If he didn't believe that his late wife wouldn't betray him, he would have doubted whether that was his son, especially under the stark contrast of a certain daughter.
Actually, everyone has talents, it just depends on you to discover them. Just like football in another world. During World War II, Ishihara Wanji praised the prime minister of his country every day: "It would be great if Tojo-kun kept him as a warehouse!" He can handle at least five machine guns!" The implication is that you're kidding me if you ask him to become prime minister!
Returning to Tommy's question, it's not that he lacks talent, it's just that he didn't use it in the right place. When Oliver returned to town in the future, he found his positive point. He encouraged his friend to open a bar. As expected, Tommy made things famous. If he hadn't reached Malcolm and used the earthquake movement, the current company might have been successfully listed!
The more Malcolm thought about it, the sadder he became. He looked at photos of his wife and remembered every detail of the past. He decided to wait for him for another six months. If there was no improvement, let him do whatever he wanted. I guarantee he would be happy for the rest of his life. Not worrying about food and clothes is worthy of the dead wife in heaven.
When Thea returned home, she found Moira waiting for her in the living room, hugged her mother tightly, and said, "Mom, I'm back."
Moira received the news that Malcolm was looking for someone to train his daughter, she didn't know that this "person" was himself, so she was worried that her spoiled daughter wouldn't be able to withstand the difficulties, and she was also afraid that the "person" would seriously or severely harm her daughter, waiting in the corridor bored. She didn't think it was necessary from the bottom of her heart. Her family has a lot of money. What kind of bodyguard can't be hired and she has to train hard alone? Seeing her daughter come back happily, she felt it necessary to confirm her daughter's thoughts.
"If you're too tired, don't go tomorrow. Mom's worried about you."
Looking into her mother's worried eyes, Thea acted with great strength: "I'm not afraid of difficulties, Mom. I'm afraid my own powerlessness won't be able to protect you or this family."
"My poor child, I said I would respect any decision you make. If one day you don't want to study anymore, you should tell your mother, okay?" Moira said seriously.
"Okay, I understand." Thea smiled and nodded, and mother and daughter entered the room hugging each other.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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