บท 15: Self Defense
"Self defense method?" Old Ren nodded. "I can teach you."
Alex was slightly excited at learning something new, while Ren thought what to teach this kid. Finally he thought of something.
"Your physical body is stronger than most people now. You can practice learning to fight without weapons." Old Ren said.
Alex nodded. "Okay, what do I do?"
Old Ren nodded like an elderly sage. "What should you do? Go join a dojo obviously."
Alex was flabbergasted. "Am I not standing in one right now?"
"I'm too bored to teach." Old Ren yawned.
"Don't mess around old man." Alex snorted.
"Okay, okay I'll teach you how to defend yourself by fighting. But if you really get surrounded by battle card users, it won't help much." Old Ren said as he set out a mattress in the dojo area.
"Come, I'll teach your how to fight." Old Ren beckoned.
"This..." Alex was suspicious of the old man.
"I'll try to hit you, and you will defend yourself." Old Ren said. "Use whatever I've taught you till now."
Alex sighed. This Old man was clearly messing around with him. He jumped over the mattress which became the mini arena and then he felt a punch arrive from the old man. Alex desperately tried to avoid it, the punch hit his shoulder amd pushed him off the mattress.
Clutching his painful shoulder, Alex walked by to the mattress, when Ren used the same punch again. This time Alex was vigilant and he discovered something shocking, the punch seemed like an extension of an exercise the old man had taught him earlier!
With this discovery, Alex discovered a new emotion. Although he was beaten by the first five punches, on the sixth punch he used the hint of an exercise move to block the punch with his hand.
"Old man, your body is so strong?" Alex clutched the hand he blocked with a tearful eye.
"The more cards you have, the stronger your body will become. The stronger your body is, the more cards you can manifest. Many remember the first statement, but forget the second." Old man Ren lectured in seriousness.
Alex nodded and returned to practice as time passed. Alex had now been spending time either absorbing the source energy or learning to fight with Ren. Slowly, his body had also shown signs of changing from being scrawny at the beginning of the year to having well defined muscles around the half year mark.
Five months were remaining before the end of the year and the high school examinations. Alex had been using up all the time he had, to absorb the source energy. The source was like a thick liquid sliding through his predetermined circulatory pathway and then slowly coming together in the front of his chest.
Today, Alex had been absorbing source energy all night and just when it was about to be dawn, he felt a tremor in his body as he felt the converged source energy in his chest shine and then like a huge vaccuum absorb source energy from outside the body in a huge rush.
Slowly, the quickly revolving liquid began to glow, much like the birth of a star and the seed was gradually born. The seed looked like a small transparent gemstone that shined like a diamond. Alex felt a wave of energy then circulate around his entire body, rejuvenating and strengthening each cell in his body.
Alex felt his senses enhance a little and his body felt stronger. His ability to pull in source energy also seemed to have increased.
When he informed the old man about this, he replied with a simple sentence. "Keep strengthening your source until the very limit. Also work on physical exercises. The limit of your source can be improved if you work hard on strengthening your body."
Alex didn't reject the suggestion. "So what are the stages of the seed?"
"The seed begins out to be soft and jelly like. You have to eventually make it as hard as possible and it should shine like a gemstone. After that, you have to continue using the source energy to polish the seed, make it harder and harder and more and more denser. When the density reaches a limit, you can work on increasing its size very gradually." Ren sighed. "Work hard, you don't have much time before the high school exam."
In school, Alex came and found people were even more gloomy. He looked around at the students in his class and they seemed to be in extreme fear.
Alex walked up to Richard, the class representative he didn't have much interaction with. "Class Rep, what's going on? Why does everyone look so scared?"
"Did the school not call your parents to inform them?" Richard asked, even his face was a little pale.
"My family is out of town. I live with a relative." Alex shook his head.
Richard nodded. "Five students and their families were murdered last weekend and the school found out yesterday. 3- E, D, C, B, A all have lost a student. With the exception of our class every class has lost a student."
Alex was shocked. "Is someone from our school a part of these murderers?" He asked.
Richard nodded. "The school suspects that, as do the government."
Alex sighed. "How are they able to escape everytime? Are the police really so incompetent? How many tens of murders have happened under the same group."
Alex went back to his seat. He was looking through the news, the news of the Scarlet Tide had flooded the internet and the current focus seemed to be investigations. There were rumors that the Scarlet Tide was an offshoot of a dangerous organization from long ago.
As he kept browsing, he suddenly noticed that it should have already been time when the class would begin. But there was no sign of the homeroom teacher.
Alex didn't know why the class was delayed as there seemed to be no notice. He decided to go have a drink at the vending machine. As he crushed the coffee can, Alex felt something was wrong. It was as if his intuition was telling him to hide immediately.
The vending machine was at a corner and there was a small gap between the corner wall and the vending machine. Alex unceremoniously hid in that gap as he held his breath in fear.
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