Chapter 99: Master and Disciple (III)

 

At the present moment… 

 

Yela’s spinning kicks in the air continued. At this hour she should have been sparring with her teacher, but as she was told, he would be negotiating an imminent business deal. 

 

In her teacher’s place, she was told to imagine an opponent.

 

“Im— Imagine?” 

 

“Yes.” 

 

“For the time being, imagine either myself, or some other combatant as your opponent.”

 

“Umm— I– I’ll try my best!” 

 

“Good.” 

 

“Since this is your first practice in such a method, I will guide you through the necessary steps.” 

 

“For beginners at mind use and imagination, they should close their eyes to imagine a blurry figure.”

 

“Then, open your eyes while pretending that the figure is in front of you.” 

 

“You only need to imagine a puppet of the person, who can attack while also dodging and blocking your strikes.” 

 

“After this, disciple, I will find you some opponents.” 

 

Balon thought in his head. ‘Kaerys’ band of young warriors are also far away from her level at this moment, but they might work…’ 

 

‘Just in case I will also procure some other training dummies…’ 

 

“Oh– okay! Thank you, teacher!” 

 

“Mmm.” 

 

He went back to his throne of stone, talking to his sisters while intermittently glancing at his disciple.

 

These past few days, the master and disciple tried to spar with each other. 

 

For Yela, the mere pressure she faced against her teacher was enormous. The nervous girl was already trembling in place, so when her teacher threw the first punch, her knees gave out and she almost fainted. 

 

Yet, humans were adaptable creatures, and Balon would not let her off until she found the courage to stand against him. From there, she was instructed to dodge a slow punch from him. Then, to attack her teacher with all her strength. 

 

Over and over she was conditioned to face her fears, making little steps forward upon an invisible path, until throwing punches and dodging attacks were as comfortable as breathing for her. 

 

Yet although she made great progress, Balon knew this was not a proper fix. His vision of a spar was supposed to be much more than what they were doing, but their levels were simply too far apart for proper practice. He let himself be hit too easily, while his strikes at Yela were much too telegraphed. 

 

The young student even thought to herself that it was a fun exercise, and that maybe sparring wasn’t as bad as she thought. 

 

Although she was correct, it should also not be so easy. A proper spar should be a rapid exchange of blows, where the two give all of their effort to overcome the other. 

 

Yet, Balon could not offer his disciple such a realistic martial exchange. To put it simply, he was much too powerful, and the extreme control needed to imitate the level that Yela needed, was not something he could do. 

 

This was on the basis that the more strength one had, the harder it was to control it. 

Strength was like water, to which someone’s energy reserve was anywhere from the size of a small puddle to a magnificent ocean. Meanwhile, the body was like the vessel, while skill in this sense was the level of mastery in a person’s movements, as they filled their vessel with water and used it to however they desired. 

 

Metaphorically, the average human held a bucket, to which they could fill with water from their pool of energy. If they took a small amount, it was easy to move around in any which way they wanted. The person could effortlessly lift it up and down, swing it horizontally or diagonally, or keep it in a static place for as long as their endurance would let them. 

 

However when they took a full gallon’s worth, it was much more difficult to deftly handle the bucket. Lifting such a thing over their heads, would lead to their arms trembling from the weight. If they wanted to swing it, their movements would be so much more rough, and much less graceful. 

 

In Balon’s case, he was swinging around a terribly large six feet tall barrel, and the water he filled his vessel with, was actually liquid iron. 

 

His skill and preciseness of movement using such a thing was already incredible, but if he made even the tiniest mistake, Yela would die. 

 

“M– My lord!” 

 

From the tunnels that led to the open space cavern, was an average looking youth leading along a few of the men that decided to follow Balon. 

 

All the men carried with them carriages of golden bars, that shone beautifully under the dim light of the dancing flames. 

 

“Monti.” 

 

“Lord! I’ve brought a portion of the saved riches here as you ordered.” 

 

“Good. Stand at the ready.” 

 

“Ye– Yes, lord!” 

 

The plain and ordinary looking youth stood straight as a rod next to the man sitting on the throne. He tried his best to replicate the same posture that generals had when standing next to their king, but when Monti did the same it felt more like a silly child playing soldier. 

 

His aura felt neither solemn nor dignified, it felt more like the energy of…a squirrel. Or a panda.  Harmless, docile and…largely incapable. 

 

The three sisters looked at him, then at their brother with a sort of questioning gaze. 

 

‘This is the man you gave authority to? To control those who follow you?’ 

 

‘Look, even the men under him don’t truly respect him.’ 

 

When Balon’s men looked at Monti, their inexperience showed. Their glances towards him could not disguise the emotions of superiority and disdain in their eyes. Yet when their eyes looked at Balon, those same emotions were quickly replaced with fear and respect.

 

All eyes landed on the man, but he paid them no heed. Instead his eyes drifted back to his disciple.  

 

In Balon’s point of view, the girl stood there with her eyes closed. First she seemed tense, as if she was trying hard to see something within the vast plane of darkness. Yet as time passed by she grew ever more relaxed, as if it was natural for her. 

 

At this moment, Yela was doing as she was told, closing her eyes to imagine a blurry figure of her teacher. 

 

The girl did her utmost best. She strenuously used her mind and imagination, but everytime the blurry figure of a person materialized, it quickly dissipated back into a plane of nothingness. 

 

To be fair, Yela misunderstood what Balon meant. In the mind where most could barely persist in keeping the image of a circle for a few seconds, she was trying to render a full three-dimensional person. 

 

Yet, something mysterious occurred, proving that in born talent was not something that could be explained. 

 

In the process of her countless tries, a tiny voice spoke to her without language. In her mind she unraveled a ball of light, birthed from the cosmic nothingness in that plane of darkness. And in that ball of light, were wordless thoughts in the form of intuitive understanding. 

 

The little girl instantly felt a wave of tranquility that washed over her whole body. It permeated her being until somehow, she was overflowing with clarity. Her mind had naturally calmed itself down, telling her through the language of feeling, that this was the state necessary to achieve her objective. 

 

Balon opened his eyes wide in surprise, and so too did his sisters. Their instincts were telling them that for some odd reason, she was glowing with light. 

 

A vague image of a person quickly formed in Yela’s mind, and it persisted there for a long moment in time. 

 

‘I think I did this correctly…’ 

 

In the next moment the girl opened her eyes, and magically the vague outline of her teacher that was within her mind, had manifested before her eyes in physical reality. 

 

‘Whoa…’ 

 

‘Cool…’

 

Yela took a few steps forward, wanting to touch the thing. The vague outline of her teacher’s figure was made out of a transparent light-blue flame. It was not detailed at all, as it looked more like a see-through mannequin. 

 

She extended her hand, but before she could touch the thing, the blurry figure raised its fist sluggishly at her. 

 

Yela moved her arms and legs to quickly dodge. Utter surprise found itself on her face while she looked at the thing. 

 

A few moments passed by, and it moved again to attack with the same moves that Balon used to spar with her. 

 

Over and over this occurred before she gained the courage to attack back. The magic of what was happening never went away, but as her spinning kicks passed through the figure, that feeling of astonishment rose by ten times the amount. 

 

‘Wow…’ 

 

‘This is so cool!!!’ 

 

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH

 

The winds were disturbed by Yela’s kicks as her sparring with the transparent flame-like outline of her teacher carried on. Balon looked at this and gave a simple nod. His disciple was performing exactly as he wanted her to. 

 

In fact…she looked exactly the same as when he was actually sparring with her. 

 

WHOOSH

 

‘Haha this is so fun!’ 

 

‘Hmmm…’ 

 

Humans were adaptive creatures. Yela’s initial excitement might not have disappeared, but it did go down. 

 

‘I wonder if I can make you go faster. Or use some other moves.’ 

 

‘Or…maybe I can make you more life-like!’ 

 

‘Hmm…let’s try!’ 

 

The girl stared at the thing intently. She did not know why exactly she felt like she could do it, but she instead took the opportunity to simply act. 

 

Like a baby trying to walk its first steps, her inner-knowing— or in this case her talent, stumblingly carried her through to make the necessary adjustments. 

 

Yet…she was soon to regret those actions. 

 

The blurry figure of Balon quickly manifested to grow the same features as him. No longer was it a vague outline, as it was becoming more and more detailed. It grew eyes, a nose, a mouth, and even ears at the sides and hair on his head. Details such as clothes formed and even the structure of Balon’s muscles bulged on his arms and legs. 

 

Before Yela’s eyes, manifested an exact duplicate of her teacher in the form of a transparent flame-like person.

 

The talented girl had no time to be stunned however, for that same duplicate version of her teacher moved, attacking her with such savage ferocity that she felt that she was going to die. 

 

In this moment, Yela’s mind was subconsciously painting the imagined figure in front of her with the same strength that Balon used against Zan. 

 

Needless to say, the gigantic fist instantly reached the young student along with the premonition of her death. It was not until the fist dissipated on her face and in front of her eyes, did she collapse to the floor while heavily gasping for breath. 

 

Balon watched this from afar. 

 

‘Hmm? Does she have talent in minduse and imagination too?’ 

 

Balon kept his gaze on her for longer, and the sisters started to notice. 

 

“Shadow sparring?” Renna commented. 

 

“It seems so.” Said Kaerys. 

 

They did not know, but what the little girl was going through was completely different. 

 

Yela swallowed the air in mouthfuls as she struggled to calm herself down. It took her a long time to totally calm her tense nerves. For her, what had just happened wasn’t unlike facing death. 

 

‘Wha– Wha?’