Chương 29: They don't know me son

Crunches, sit ups, planks, leg raises... one after another, every herder was absolutely destroying their abdominal muscles.

Jawbi, currently had his overall straps off, revealing his pristine and bountiful muscly top frame; shouting at the top of his lungs with his deep menacing voice, instructing each workout maneuver in cadence.

The hundred or so students were grunting, moaning even. The pain was nearly unbearable. The cloudy floor soaked up all the sweat that was pouring out from the struggling participants of the grueling training; and soon the entire gymnasium radiated the stench of body odor.

'Gah lee, I thought we were only sparring; and why are all the workout's only focusing on the core?'

"Your core is where your chi is stored. They don't need big bulky meat heads to be shepherds. That's what the craver's are for." Soda explained.

Lilo's abs felt like they were on fire, but it wasn't a pain he was unfamiliar with. In his past life, when training his body for combat, he had learned the limits of his own body and how to push past the barriers that kept him from reaching his peak potential.

Pain was merely a gauge for how much one tried to improve, and there was a measured process of how to obtain the desired result.

Through gritted teeth, Lilo persisted and outlasted most of the other larger herders around him; on sheer mentality alone h is performance surpassed his peers who had better physiques.

There were often moments where students would stop to catch a break and Jawbi would be right on their heels; but Lilo remained consistently cranking out reps.

Many heads turned his way, acknowledging his dedication and discipline. For a child with such a small frame to have that level of intensity was more than impressive.

Even Lemon eventually caved and had to rest. Seeing her fold under pain cause an involuntary smile to crease Lilo's lips.

"You really proud of beating a fifteen year old girl? Get better competition sir, your thoughts are pathetic to witness." Soda's voice echoed in annoyance within Lilo's head.

When Lemon glanced back at him Lilo's grin had already disappeared. Instead, his gaze locked in on Jawbi.

If Soda was right about not needing a muscly frame, why was Jawbi so built? Surely there had to be some benefit in being extremely fit in the field.

"Time!" Jawbi tucked away his stop watch and everyone eased into the floor, sinking in their own puddle of sweat, relief washing over them.

"Find a partner and spar, we'll switch partners every three minutes with a minute rest in between." Jawbi's command immediately forced everyone on their feet.

Lilo had no difficulty picking apart each new opponent he was matched with. He simply kept his distance and used his agility to pick his shots.

The fighting style of all the herders were awkward, odd in stance and also form. Their technique was wild and fluid; compared to Lilo's methodical rigid structure of what he considered perfect technique.

'Wow... they are so ass. I mean, I expected as much, most of them are spoiled kids; but I had high hopes seeing that I am enrolled in an academy that specializes in training monster slayers.'

The best part about combat is that there is no room for lies. The truth will always prevail and find victory. Since Lilo was handling each of them with ease, he assumed his method to combat was far suprior.

The herder's were often twice his size and several years older; but their breath was out of rhythm, their foot work wasn't organized, and each of their strikes didn't hold any weight, with no proper distribution of power into their force.

Everything about them was predictable, and the very few odd moments where they weren't; Lilo would simply dodge it with his superior agility.

The only issue he ran into was that his strikes were of no merit because of how petite his frame was. There was only so much technique that could maximize the impact of such a small person's strike.

His punches only stung and his kicks barely left a red mark; but Lilo was precise and accurate. Targeting muscle tendons that would trigger his opponents to fold, and elbowing the solar plexus of where their chi was stored also proved to be lethal.

Almost all of his sparing matches ended early, with his opponent on the ground, clutching their abdomen which had already been conditioned to failure with their earlier workout.

Lilo knew to pick out the weak parts of his opponent, and to him, all of these children were weak.

Many, if not all, of his opponents considered him to be the child. They overlooked his potential threat and that was their greatest flaw.

Even champions aren't arrogant enough to belittle the potential of any opponent. A true warrior must analyze and acknowledge any and all possibilities.

Jawbi analyzed Lilo with amusement, anticipating where he might fail...

And then eventually it happened. He was matched with Lemon.

'I should go easy on her right? How do I mend her hatred for me? Like, I don't even remember doing anything wrong.'

"I think it's a mix of prejudice for our spire as well as you teasing a bit too much... I don't that throwing the table thing was also really out of pocket." Soda said candidly.

Lilo had been analyzing Lemon's matches with his peripheral vision all throughout his own matches. She had a tall lanky frame and seemed less of a novice than the others.

While everyone he faced today seemed to be clueless about the fundamentals of combat, Lemon showed evidence of a bit of experience.

But only a little. She still made plenty of mistakes and was by no means a good hand to hand fighter. Her sister was a marksmen and their cohort already had a brawler: Jawbi. So Lilo was a bit confused on her role in the group.

Wonka was the smart one as well, so Lemon's infatuation with puzzles didn't really win any points for her being the clever one of the cohort.

Her stance was solid and she understood movement well, but the fundamentals of how to strike was lacking.

Her movements were still too fluid, lacking technique when executing a punch.

Instead of facing her opponent at all times, she spun a lot; exposing her back one too many times. She seemed to enjoy kicks, mixing it in with her fluid spinning motions; like a whirlwind of lethal momentum.

A few of her opponents were flatlined, having to be brought back to consciousness by Jawbi with an icepack and cold water.

Her lanky, wiry, frame was like a whip, with astounding elastic energy and lethal momentum.

Lilo took a deep breath, realigning his chi before taking his stance opposite of Lemon.

Lemon hopped on her toes, establishing a rhythm before even entering the space of where they would spar.

Her face was stern, devoid of emotion when standing across from Lilo. Jawbi paused whatever he was doing with another student and focused his attention on them.

The bell rung and Lilo assumed his usual stance. A high guard Muay Thai stance that he had perfected on his many trips to Thailand back in his old world.

His front leg tapped the ground in rhythmic fashion and he slowly bounced on his toes to remain vigilant.

'I'll just feel her out and see where it goes, no need to end this fight in spectacular fashion. Let's just earn her respect and hope it turns out okay.'

With this light hearted mindset, he threw a light kick to Lemon's calves, causing her to wince in pain.

'That wasn't that hard was it? Oh wait...'

Lilo noticed something about Lemon during his time perceiving her spar. She had never gotten hit. Not even once.

'She must be sensitive to pain. Okay, I'll just play defensive.'

Lemon spun into motion, her figure a blur in her barrage of kicks.

Each kick was either maneuvered or blocked with ease by Lilo, all the while he made sure to not counter her strikes with his own; even with the ample opportunity to do so.

Everyone else paused in their match to witness this one. Jawbi didn't even bother to make them resume. They were all enamored by the flurry of strikes Lemon was dishing out as well as how easily Lilo avoided them.

It was like a dance, but one partner was refusing to be syncopated, stepping out of tune.

The avoidance of the fight on Lilo's end was blatantly obvious to the audience and as time drew on, Lemon grew tired.

'Oh shit, I can't let her get tired. That'll make her look bad.'

"I think you've already made her look bad bro." Soda exclaimed with a palm to his face.

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Vanilla_Chino

Hey y'all... is anybody out there? Has any brave soul made it this far? Please leave a comment to let me know I'm not all alone out here, don't leave me hanging gangie!

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