Chương 6: Martial Arts
On their way back, Cyrus was itching to read those martial arts books and was basically dragging his father all the way back. However before arriving at the entrance to the slum district, he froze up remembering those people suffering on those stakes. It was like a bucket of cold water being poured down his back when recalling those looks of pain.
As quick as he came, he almost ran over Raymond on the way back. Luckily, being on the bigger side of the average man he easily picked Cyrus up by the back of his shirt.
"Its alright Cyrus. A real man has to get over these things or else you wont be able to take care of your family. So don't look away and embrace it, but remember that uncomfortable feeling in your gut and don't ever forget it." He said this with a reassuring tone.
"I understand Dad", turning around he mentally prepared himself.
Seeing it once again he shuddered a bit. Those low groans were like fingernails scraping on a chalkboard, hard to listen to without scrunching your face up. To live up to his Dad's expectations he stuck it through and watched them all.
Slowly they made their way back through that giant checkpoint and those ferocious demons that were straight out of a nightmare. Cyrus felt a little proud after making it through that, but he didn't waste time sticking around and pulled his dad back as fast as possible.
Knowing that his dad was leaving soon, Cyrus retrieved the martial arts book and the wooden sword to practice. After saying goodbye to his dad he quickly ran to the room in their house. On the way out Mr. Josh also mention staying in a quite space to comprehend the deeper mysterious within would help.
So with anticipation gripping him, Cyrus finally took a good look at the two books he had received. The first was called {Sword Basics}, quite the simple name he thought inwardly and switched his attention to the next one.
However this particular skill, known as {Mystic Tiger Kill}, was a little different and combined both the movement and fist technique. Finding this one a lot more interesting he decided to learn the latter first before checking out the former.
Opening it up, there was an illustration of a tiger pouncing on its prey in a savage manor. Brutality and a certain wildness seemed to flow out of the painting striking the reader. The more Cyrus focused on the picture, the more he felt it was like reading a picture book that had myriad changes.
Slowly as he immersed himself deeper in this martial arts manual, an image of a tiger formed in his mind as he witnessed it roar in a challenge manor. That wild ferociousness, killing intent, and domineering nature influenced him in a profound way. Like that, Cyrus sat stark still for 30 minutes studying and comprehending the deeper meaning in the picture.
After 30 minutes his eyes flashed and a look of utter calmness replaced that initial excitement from before.
"I completely understand now. No wonder those guards had given me a feeling of pressure when I was nearby. It's my primal instincts of danger warning me to run!" Realizing that he clenched his tiny fists with a budding ambition starting to form. Finally seeing the path to acquire power and hope in this martial arts manual, he could not help smiling a bit in anticipation for the future.
"I should check out the rest of the book. Seeing how the first part was mostly the martial intent used to focus and release the power, the second part should be the changes in the forms of the moves."
Re-gathering his focus he flipped the pages and poured over the words in great detail. As he was reading, sometimes Cyrus would scrunch up his eyebrows in contemplation, other times he would nod in understanding as if he grasped something. An hour passed and he concluded that he learned everything he possibly could for now and needed to practice it.
Now standing up in front of the bed, the air around him changed subtly as he took the first stance. Cyrus followed the movements he comprehended in slow-motion grasping that ethereal feeling behind each gesture.
Like a creek going into a river, the current moved faster as Cyrus increased the speed of his move and whipped up a gradual breeze in the air.
"This is so weird, its almost as if I am the tiger and the tiger is me. Each movement has a barbaric force behind it that's adjusting the bones and muscles in my body", Cyrus thought inwardly.
The increase in tempo started to strengthen his body the same way, but less efficient and complete, as when he meditated under the sun. Continuing with the exercise gave that same feeling of euphoria were every cell in his body was rejoicing.
And with the sweat building up, that black dirt like substance started to come out, stinking up the room again, as his body reached limits of its tolerance. 20 minutes later and a dead tired Cyrus almost collapsed on the floor without any decorum.
On the floor and breathing heavily he thought, "I was barely able to last for that little bit of time hahaha....huh.....huh...." and laughed in a self depreciating manner.
Little did he know that these results were clear signs of an unprecedented talent. To be able to understand the essence of the technique and reach early success after a little less than 2 hours was shocking. Cyrus, being clueless on these types of standards, found his results lackluster and thought he could do better.
With these thoughts swirling around in his head he deliberated inwardly, "Forget it, I'll just continue to work at it. Like mom always told me, only hard work will lead to results."
Getting up and scrunching up that tiny baby face, he went to repeat the process with a new found dedication to succeed.
As the hours passed and the sun started to fall, each fist and step was gradually accompanied by the roars of tigers and shaking of the earth. His movements were forceful and connected with one another in a fluid manner. Each body part moved like gears in a machine with the end product being seamless and having no fault.
Wrapping up his practice he gave a satisfied smile. Cyrus chuckled out loud "Not bad, not bad, I actually improved so much hahahaha. Probably go see if dad and mom are back."
Before he could even put the stuff away in the room, that lingering smell of dirt and sweat hit him like a boulder almost causing him to trip and fall.
"Cough...cough..." quickly running to that slit like window, he sucked in a deep breath holding his breath before running outside. Those small sized lungs barely lasted him until he got outside as he was sucking in deep breaths.
"Oh my god, that smelled horrible" still retching a bit, he thought internally "I need to air that place out our mom really might hang me outside naked for a few days." Shuddering just thinking about the possible consequences, he quickly re-gathered himself.
Like a chicken with his head cut off he, started rushing around to clean the room and himself so that their was no smell. However with the rain water they caught a few days back running out, he barely had enough to clean everything. Since they got very few supplies from the ruling class, people had to figure out their own ways to survive.
Finished, he finally sat down and found that he was extremely hungry and could not wait for his parents to get back. Just thinking about dinner almost had Cyrus swallowing his tongue, though it tasted like nothing.
Since no one was back and his hunger was not something he could solve at the moment, he decided to take a look at the {Sword Basics} book he passed up on last time.
Studying the first few pages Cyrus mumbled under his breath "These moves are nowhere near as complicated as the previous one. I mean even the basic strokes don't seem to have any profound intent and are just the standard attacks of using a sword."
As he kept reading he noticed that at the end of the book talked about the general philosophy of setting a firm foundation in martial arts, similar to building a tall building. Cyrus did not fully understand the metaphor but figured that the foundation was key to reaching the peak. If he ever wanted to be like those celestials, flying through the sky unhindered and unfettered, he had to master the basics.
When he came to that seemingly simple conclusion, a resonance formed with those tiny, star like, drops of blood as they flashed in a strange cadence. Even that golden sun like heart burned even more brightly, like it wanted to break some restriction, before everything returned back to normal.
"What the heck just happened, " checking the inside of his body he didn't notice anything different but contemplated inwardly "I could have swore my body almost seemed to agree with my speculation."
To Cyrus it felt almost like his bodies instinct was agreeing his speculation, he decided to think about it another time as his parents should be back soon.
Just as he decided to go look for something to tide himself over, his parents walked in at almost the perfect time. Seeing his mom, he quickly helped her start preparing the food and talked about the exciting things he saw in great detail.
Like that they passed the rest of the night in a peaceful manor with some quality family time.
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