Vol. 2 - Chapter 44 - Mind Games

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The atmosphere in the gym changed a bit, turning itself louder with an old man giving instructions behind a young man with tied raven hair who was punching the bag with eagerness.

"Let your hands lose, one-two hook."

Mathias got his instructions and followed the order, doing a combination of two jabs, the one-two, before turning his hip to send the hook, which made a loud sound on the punching bag.

"Good, but remember to not lean too much on your lead leg. Now repeat the combo, later add some uppercuts and crosses."

Following the instructions, he shifted around his punches, adding more flavour to his hit selections, which made the people who were training in the gym to stop and watch Mathias putting on some hard work, with the old head coach barely able to contain his smiling face, keeping a straight face.

The new people who joined the gym who noticed Mathias hitting the heavy bag asked themselves, trying to figure out if they had seen this long-haired young man before.

'Is this guy some professional that has been recruited by the coach?'

Gabi, the disciple of the old man who was a professional MMA fighter, entered the gym only to be welcomed by the exhaling sound of Mathias and his punches, along with Sir Vinisan loud instructions.

"Gabi, who is the guy doing work at the heavy bag?" asked the newer guys, slightly nervous about approaching the professional fighter, and when he focused on the corner of the gym where Mathias was working the bag with diverse combinations of strikes, he whistled.

"He improved even if he didn't come to train at the gym? Gosh, is this some blessed guy with natural instincts for fighting? His combinations are faster than the last time he came to the gym. That's Mathias. He is not a professional, not even an amateur at that. Instead, he is just some dude who comes to the gym at times, just to kill some time."

"Ohh, so he is just someone who came to lose some weight?"

"More or less."

"But look at the way he throws the jab and moves his head and pivots from lead hand to power hand." told the guy next to the professional guy, who could only nod his head, and later go to change into his training attire.

As he returned, he noticed the head coach move toward him before focusing on him and his training regiment for this season when he didn't have fights lined up for him. The old man simply relayed some instructions before he told the other coaches to keep the other gym members in check so they would lax out before going back to Mathias, who moved to punch the bag with only left-hand jabs.

'Good kid, you even know what your weakness is and started focusing on the hand you aren't yet coordinated with. What should I do with you, lad? You are only 21. We could try a boxing career or an MMA one.'

'Before that, let me test your reflexes and reaction time, and we will also have to have a deep talk and explain to you again your gifts.'

Gripping his old fist full of scars and calluses, the old man remained close to Mathias as if he began turning into his shadow, that the latter didn't even notice, being in his own world while throwing his punches, sweating around in the process.

'Jab, Jab. Just like throwing 'Piercing Rain' relentlessly and ruthless, no one stands in front of my eyes as I fight. This feels so natural to me since I've started picking on the spear inside 'Satisfy', the movement of the jab is similar to the spear jab, just that my body is the weapon.'

Controlling his breath, with each jab he threw, exhaling, creating a rhythmic manner of breathing in and out while throwing his jabs, soon he was stopped by the old coach.

*Whistle-Call* "Kid, aren't you bored of the punching bag? So you know if you mess it up, you'll have to pay. Let's stop the punching training and do something more interesting. A game since I heard you like games."

*Jab* *Jab*

He heard the message, but his body was still captured in the rhythmic movement of his jabs, slowly stopping himself and later turning his head at the old man.

What he saw was a casual expression on the coach expression, and without questions, he followed him to another part of the gym where they entered a room where all more tables held some small wooden blocks, a wall packed with posters containing numbers, medicinal balls, and other equipment he didn't understand its usage such as a big screen enough to cover a room.

"Welcome to my lab, kid. I've never given you a test because I didn't feel like it. It takes time until I decide to test newcomers, but you've got me curious to find out something."

'This room feels like some psychiatric room … Don't tell me he wants to test if I am crazy? That thing I am not, so it should be a cakewalk.'

"Can you run me down on what those things are for?" asked Mathias as he was helped by the old man to take his gloves off while they continued discussing.

"To test how fast your mind is, since in fighting the faster you see certain things, the easier it would be for you to compute and evaluate responses to what's thrown in front of you." mentioned the coach, placing the gloved on a chair, before he laughed at Mathias next question.

"I see, so you aren't testing to see if I have mental problems?"

"Hahaha. Why would I even care about this? You don't seem to be someone with problems, you signed the paperwork anyway?"

"Right, right, so what do I have to do now?" asked Mathias who walked deeper in the room and gazed at the wall filled with posters containing number boxes and the wooden blocks.

The old man, walking toward the posters which contained diverse numbers from smaller to bigger, in all different variations, and even having the numbers turned upside down to make it harder, give Mathias a casual explanation of what he should do, without explaining to him the details to why, and what results would be appropriate.

Then, with Mathias getting a general idea, he heard the old man pointing at one poster close to him in a rapid fashion that took him by surprise.

"Tap on the wall on all the numbers in a degressive way."

Getting his instructions, Mathias looked at the wall broadly, taking in his eyesight all the numbers, and seeing all the numbers and quickly sorting them in the order the coach asked him to order, he started tapping rapidly on the wall, that it made him question his abilities.

'Aren't I too slow? I think I can do it faster.'

"That's all, sir." responded Mathias after finishing the task at hand, looking at the other poster and doing the same exercise, taking the old man by surprise who pushed the button of the chronometer, quickly nothing in his head.

'32 seconds, the first try, followed by 27 seconds on the second try. Lomachenko was able to do this in 24 seconds at the peak of his career.' though the old man when he saw what number the chronometer was telling.

"Sir, what's next? This number counting seems quite interesting. Should I also do it in an ascending order?" asked Mathias, waking the old man from his pondering, where he could only agree, quickly setting his chronometer.

Mathias moved to another poster with numbers from 1 to 25, where he started tapping the numbers in an ascending fashion having all the numbers in his eyes and easily finding them in his count, reaching 27 seconds, followed by another try at another one where he got a 29 seconds, making the coach stare as if he saw a ghost at the back of the young man.

"This shall be all, Matei. Let's do see how you will do with the wooden blocks and add more fun to it?"

"Sir, I can't really call this fun. It's an interesting mind exercise, if I may say so. This room should be used to train reflex and mind reactions to certain elements?"

"So you've understood it without me telling you much."

"I mean, sir, it isn't really that hard to guess. At first, I thought it was some psychiatric room, where you test people to see if they are able to go to the next level." remarked Mathias what he thought the use of the room was.

"Haha, I don't have enough money for a psychiatrist. Let me show you the next exercise."

Following with his gaze the old coach, he saw him walk to the table close to the posters where the wooden blocks were spread around in a messy order, and next he saw the old man place the wooden blocks in order building pyramids, before moving toward the poster with numbers and quickly in 30 seconds solving the poster, returning back to the table and starting ordering once again the wooden blocks in pyramids.

'Wow, placing those wooden blocks in that way should take a lot of precision and patience, maybe also steady hands? This old man is the real deal to be able to move his hands so smoothly at his age, even after his hands seem to be busted.' thought Mathias when gazing at the old coach hands before he heard it was his turn to perform.

Getting at the table, he looked at the wooden blocks spread around and started to arrange them closer to him in a meticulous way, making his life easier to make the pyramid shapes, he then started taking in his hands and started forming the foundation which was relatively easy for him, but then when he had to form the pyramid, his first inclination was to use both hands to balance the wooden block.

"Don't cheat, lad. One hand for both pyramids. So you know, once one pyramid falls, even if you are about to finish, you will have to redo it. Understood?"

"Loud and clear."

Taking a deep breath, calming himself, he used both his hands to slowly place the wooden blocks and form the pyramid before taking the other two blocks and doing the same for 10 rows. Nevertheless, he messed up at the 6th row, failing to balance a block dropping down.

*Tsk* "That's really annoying, my fingers for sure will get numb after this." commented Mathias, to which the old man remained silent and watched Mathias restart the entire process.

By the second try, Mathias completed the wooden block part and moved toward the posters, starting counting the number in an ascending way as quickly he could do before returning to the table and ordering the wooden blocks again.

Like this time passed with the old man and young man spending their time, in silence with the sound of wooden blocks touching the table and the sound of a hand touching paper. Yet the speed Mathias was completing his tasks slowed down, the reason?

Constantly doing this without a rest affects your hand steadiness, so it's not as easy as it looks. Doing such a mundane task many times over, concentration, muscle memory and mental agility are brought into play. It was mental training to its basics forms, and Mathias could observe a small improvement in how steady his hands were moving, coordinating one another in the process.

On the other hand, the old coach was concentrating on Mathias as if he was contemplating something important.

'Let's see his reflexes before I leave him be. It's already 25 minutes since he is doing the peripheral vision exercise.'

"That's enough, Matei. I'll show you another exercise that you might like." said the old man taking three coins from the table and starting out with only one coin in his hand.

"A coin toss?" inquired Mathias, pondering on why he should do that, but not long he got his answer when he saw the old man toss the coin in a short fashion, and later with a lightfast movement catching it in his fist.

"That's just some parlour tricks, let me show you something more advanced. You'll repeat this afterwards, so take a look at how I place the coins and toss them, followed by picking them."

It seemed as if the old coach wanted to show off, and show off he did, placing two coins and doing the coin toss and catch, followed by three coins toss and catch, stopping right there. Then, Mathias started doing the coins toss, starting with one, reaching the second mark, and as he got comfortable, he attempted to toss three coins, but when he was about to catch the third coin, it escaped his grasp.

"How is it? It doesn't seem so easy at first try."

Agreeing with the coach, he tried multiple times the third coins toss. Sometimes he had the magic touch of catching the third coin, but mostly it was him dropping them.

"I will stop here, sir. I feel I will turn flustered if I do this more times."

"Easy, lad. It's not like we will do this like brainless fools. This was just the first day, where we got used to the techniques. Hah, time passes so fast sometimes." remarked the coach taking a look at his watch, to which Mathias did the same and was surprised to see that he reached two hours of staying in the gym.

"Kid, be sure to return to the gym as often you can so we can work on your punches. I told you before, but you have that 'IT' factor for a champion. Your mind is a strong one, the reflexes are there, you are a fast learner, most people would desire such traits and you are still young. You can pursue that type of fighting career if you wish."

Mathias, who put the coins back to the table, still had one in his hand that he fiddled, like a poker chip trick, seeming to contemplate on what the old man remarked.

"Sir, I think I mentioned to you why I signed for your gym, that is to learn the real fighting, which would help me with this game I play, called 'Satisfy'. It is a virtual reality type of game, which uses something similar to your body to live there. It is something where you have to fight a lot, so it would be obvious I would wish to have some advantages. Never in my head, I would think I can box or fight against others in a boxing ring or MMA cage."

"I see, you did mention this, but I took it as some excuse since you started later than the rest. Kid, I want you to consider what I mentioned. This isn't just from an old man who doesn't know anything about life. My hands are proof of my hard work and also the belt in my office."

Remembering the belt in the coach office, he thought at first it was visible an old replica he bought to style his office, but when Mathias heard that in a newer context, he stared at the old man with curiosity.

"Don't give me that stare. I was a UFC champion in my younger days. Your grandfather might have heard about me when I won the belt and brought attention to this country from a wider audience. The first Romanian UFC Welterweight Champion."

"Adrian Vinisan …" murmured Mathias, filling the entire backstory to what the old coach said.

"You've retired because of some affection in your hands only being able to defend the title three times. I've saw a video about your rise sir, but the videos on you later on just turned to obscurity with newer generations of fighters appearing."

"Nothing I can do about it, I wasn't even promoted by the media of this country even though my record was 24-3. Even now they don't care about this and only promote nonvalues. We had some boxing World Champions in the past, they all settled down in other countries. The reason? The disrespect this country showed to them, from the lowest casual watcher who never sweated a gram in a gym to those pigs in the higher seats of power."

"Hah, sir Vinisan, it's fine. I understand, plenty enough the place we are right now. Nothing has changed in the mentally of the people for a long time. A time even my grandfather remembers crystal clear. But let's not derail, do you really think I can do something in this sport?"

"Lad, as I see you, you are a rough diamond that needs his jeweller to turn it into a shining star. If you want to see what's the difference between someone born for this, and someone who might get far with lots of training, see the new recruits who have joined with big dreams of becoming champions."

"Weren't the others I've seen walk off like that too? Talking big and after one week never to return?" asked Mathias in a sarcastic manner, something the old man took it with a grain of salt throwing a jab on Mathias who blocked it using his shoulder.

"See kid, you are different. You blocked even that punch, even though you got relaxed. It's all up here." said old Adrian, pointing at his head as if to signal Mathias was off the charts in that aspect.

Yet to Mathias it didn't feel anything special, he just noticed the jab and raised his shoulder to block it. Only after the end session of the training, when he was walking on the street accompanied by the wind and the sound of the traffic, that he started contemplating on this session of training.

'There's really a big leap I've done since the last time I went to the gym. Yet I can only mask my surprise, and keep a straight front, unfazed. Could it be that my fighting experience is also built by the fighting I am doing in the game?'

'I have to test it out, otherwise I will never know the answer and lie to myself as if I am someone special, when I am just your average Joe.'