บท 21: Sparring with the Wolves
As they walked through the White estate they saw a wide field filled with men in orderly lines training their bodies. The White estate contained all the facilities and housing for Jack's personal army, the White Wolfs. Currently the White Wolfs were training their bodies in the training field. Jack had made their training schedule himself and it was the most cruel and drilling schedule in the entire kingdom. As a result the White Wolfs were the strongest and most well trained of all the special units in the kingdom, rivalled only by the Golden Guards (the royal special unit). Seeing them train Lucius felt an urge to join them and train himself since it had been a day or two since he had trained his body and he couldn't help but want to, after all, habits are hard to break.
"Can I go train my body with them, it's been a couple days since I trained so my body is feeling restless."
"Sure, John can train with you as well."
Lucius walked over to the weight rack and began searching for a weight of 500 kg, he noticed it right at the end of the rack so he walked over and picked it out. Lucius's usual training entailed a routine of 100 push ups with a 500 kg weight on his back, then 100 pull ups, squats, sit ups, crunches and then 1000 km of running or 500 km carrying the 500kg weight. For Lucius this was enough to tire him out and pushed him enough to rebuild his muscles properly since he had reached the middle of the Hide stage of body forging. He was much stronger then normal cultivators and even these White Wolfs can't compare to him, if they tried to do Lucius' routine then they would have to decrease the weight to 100-200 kg instead. Most of the wolfs had turned around to salute Jack on his arrival and so they turned their gazes to Lucius, shocked at him picking the 500 kg weight which was only there for when Jack did an intense workout using all his qi. For those that had reached Jacks level on Bakre, there wasn't much they could still do so they came up with a technique to condense their spirit qi even further in hopes of purifying their qi and maybe having a breakthrough. The technique was called hell purifying, a dramatized name to describe how it made the person feel. They would use their qi to lift weights and endure a hellish routine and exhaust their qi and strength entirely and then when they recuperated their bodies would be slightly stronger while their qi would sometimes gain a higher purity. Sometimes it didn't succeed because they wouldn't push themselves far enough, and in fact the only one who still used this technique was Jack out of the other 3 colonels so he was stronger than them.
When Lucius began to workout, some people wanted to stop him out of concern but since Jack said nothing and only watched they just spectated as well. John ran over to the rack and picked up a 50 kg weight and began to copy Lucius' routine, while Jack nodded in approval. John was able to keep up during the push ups, pull ups and running but he was lacking during the sit ups, crunches and squats highlighting how he had trained his upper body more than his lower body. He made a promise to himself to improve his training and follow Lucius' routine instead as he felt a lot of improvement at the end of the session as his entire body was on fire like never before. He had always stopped whenever he felt it was too much before but now that he forced his body through a properly thought out routine (designed by Orion) he was able to tell that although he might feel like hell for now, his body might someday be as strong as Lucius and then he would be able to drop through a 500 metre waterfall and come out unscathed. It took Lucius around 45 mins while John took 90 minutes.
After the training was done and John was collapsed on the ground, Lucius got up and asked for someone to spar with. The White Wolfs had just witnessed Lucius complete a gruelling routine with a 500 kg weight in 45 mins which was comparable to their boss at his peak, they were terrified of Lucius' body! Seeing his subordinates hesitating so much, the leader of the White Wolfs and Jacks second in command, Frederick Haus, stepped forward.
"Captain of the White Wolfs, second in command under Colonel Jack White, Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Haus. It would be my honour to spar with you!"
"Likewise, Lucius Basil. I usually spar with hand to hand combat first and then move on to weapons, after the first round, you can choose the weapon to spar with after that."
Lucius' introduction was short but there wasn't much he could say since he didn't have an army rank or a unit under his supervision to announce so he could only give his name. The two of them bowed to each other curtly and then fell into their stances. Frederick was the first to attack as he pushed off of his back foot and pounced forward, swinging his right fist at Lucius' side. Lucius dodged to the right and then dodged back as Frederick attempted to knee him so he dodged. Frederick kept bounding forwards offensively, throwing punches and kicks relentlessly while Lucius dodged effortlessly. Frederick got closer and closer to hitting Lucius as time went on but actually it was Lucius that was making his dodges smaller and more precise in movement. Only jack could tell this as Frederick was a Peak Spirit Refiner while Lucius was Lucius so the rest could barely follow the bout. Rebecca smirked to herself as she thought that Lucius would soon be taught a lesson for his arrogance. That was when Lucius stopped being on the defensive and switched to an offensive mode.
Frederick sent a jab forward towards the right chest of Lucius but Lucius dodged inwards into Fredericks chest instead of away. Lucius then jabbed his stomach 5 times in succession as Frederick staggered back wards. Frederick swept his leg at Lucius left shin to try and destroy his balance and stance but Lucius rolled to the right past his leg in a boxing stance and elbowed Fredericks left side powerfully, sending him falling to the right. Lucius then did a leg sweep and brought Frederick into the air slightly then hammered down with his two fists held together. Lucius was able to beat down the captain of the White Wolfs almost effortlessly once he tried. Lucius was happy that his training with his father had paid off as he was able to see the flaws in Fredericks movements and agilely take advantage of them. He used the beginning defensive portion to become accustomed to the level of strength to use since he was accustomed to fighting either his father or Delilah who were both much stronger then him. Lucius walked over and held out a hand for Frederick to get up, Frederick took the hand with a smile on his face and praised Lucius for his amazing battle skills. Next was weapon sparring but before Frederick could pick out a weapon, Jack took a step towards the training weapon rack and picked out two wooden swords, throwing one towards Lucius.
"Come Lucius, I'll spar with you for some sword training!"
"Of course sir, I'm quite good with the sword you know, be prepared!"
Jack laughed off Lucius' remark and swirled the sword around his hand as he took his place 10 metres away from Lucius. Jack then pounced forward, reducing the distance to one step and slashing the sword down straight at Lucius. Lucius was prepared as he blocked the sword with his own in a diagonal blocking stance. Jack then unleashed a flurry of slashes and stabs from all directions that Lucius blocked effortlessly, as he once again acted in a defensive manor. The Whites had seen this turn of events before with Frederick and while Milly and John were questioning whether or not Lucius could actually win, Rebecca was already standing there with a deep scowl on her face. She had already decided that if Lucius really did beat her father then she could only see him as a useless idiot, she would have to bring in her prince to sort out the both of them. While Rebecca was thinking about how to give Lucius a lesson, the battle was heating up.
Lucius was not just defending anymore as he threw out the same number of strike as he blocked. The duel was getting faster and faster and only Frederick could still tell what was happening clearly, but even he wasn't able to tell after a while. Jack would slash down and Lucius would parry his attacks as their swords slid of each other under Lucius' expert footwork and skills. Lucius was able to constantly turn away Jacks sword and pacify his powerful blows. Lucius had to fight against the physically superior Orion and Delilah so he had learnt how to deflect and parry instead of take hits on frontally. He had a ton of experience in fighting those stronger than him so he was able to hold his own against Jack.
As the fight continued on Lucius began to realise that Jack wasn't as powerful as his father or Delilah and he began to notice that Jack was showing openings and immediately thought that he could actually win against Jack so he started to step up his game as he then to deflect Jacks blows with a lot more power and then starting fighting back by imitating Jacks hard hitting sword style. After a few minutes of blows being traded Jack had thrown down a slash from the top like he did at the start of the match and Lucius was able to attach his blade to Jacks and then spin round with the blade in a reverse grip and then stab the blade into Jacks stomach, sending him reeling backwards. Lucius had won the duel.
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