At the end of the school day, Mwana still followed Waya despite how much he had grumbled previously about the latter. He did not have time to spend with his friends knowing his match against Maji 1 would be in 3 days time.
“Big bro, although my strength has increased, I’m still not sure of my victory.”
“How much surer do you need to be? Double sure?”
“No, I need to be at least co-co sure!”
“Didn’t I already teach you the Concave Fist?”
“Yeah, but I haven't mastered it yet. On top of that, it does not seem too special. If I use it in a fight all I can do is change directions mid-air, I don’t think I could use it as a trump card.”
The Concave Fist technique was the fist-style Mwana had used in his fight against Uchoyo to slow his momentum when the latter punched him in the back. It was indeed powerful as it could compress air and create air pressure shockwaves, but it was not a match for the Bone Piercing Fist of a level 4 Bone Forging warrior.
“You are thinking about it too rigidly.” Hearing Mwana’s experiences with the technique, Waya knew Mwana had been stuck in a rut thus halting his progress of the technique.
“You are stuck in a rut because you lack imagination. You are the last person I expected to have this problem Mr. Artist.”
Following these words, Waya punched towards a thick tree by roadside. Mwana and Waya were more than 5 meters away from the tree but the entire tree disintegrated into saw dust!
Mwana was so shocked by this display of might that his mouth turned into an O shape while Waya laughed at the side with a smug look on his face. He was clearly very happy to see the effect his demonstration had on Mwana.
“Ha ha, you look like you have swallowed a whole orange.”
However, a clanking sound of something dropping to the ground distracted the both of them. They turned at the same time to look towards the sound only to see a middle-aged villager who had dropped her basket. She had the same shocked face as Mwana but the two soon noticed a subtle look of anger flash through her eyes.
It turned out this neighborhood was where her home was located and the tree Waya had disintegrated had stood here for over 100 years. It was basically a relic. Mwana and Waya did not miss the subtle change in her expression and only left dust in their wake. Before she could even open her mouth to disparage them, the two fellows were already long gone. It is only when they got away that Mwana finally asked Waya about the mechanics of his punch.
“How can the air pressure shockwave from your punch be so powerful? I would understand blowing a hole in the tree or even shredding it apart but turning it into saw dust!”
“That shockwave had a vibrating concussive factor. Stop thinking your energy is dead and treat it like a living thing. Communicate with it. Apply what I taught you guys in class to everything else. If you can communicate with a sword why not try it with energy, especially your own energy. If your magic power can have different effects then why can’t your natural energy? It is all the same concepts.”
Mwana was amazed by these words. His world view regarding martial arts went through a shift once again.
“Everything is connected.” He had finally come to a realization.
Seeing that he had somewhat opened the ‘little brat’s’ eyes, Waya proceeded to explain other types of force that could be derived from ones energy with examples such as: Spiral force, Vibrating force, Concussive force, Ripping force, among others.
The two young fellows walked to Waya’s home as Mwana continued to seek pointers so that he could increase his strength before his match.
“What you should do is look for techniques that increase your overall ability, instead of simply boosting your power.”
“Overall ability; what’s the difference?”
“Just think of them as support techniques.”
“Which ones do you think fit me?”
“How can I tell you that? Only you know yourself best. However, if I were to offer you a suggestion, I would say the [Demon Sealing Portrait]. You can make full use of your artistry with such a technique. If you are thinking about dealing with creatures of the night such as demons and Amanani like ‘yours truly’, such a technique will come into handy.”
Apart from the Demon Sealing Portrait, Waya suggested 2 more techniques to Mwana which were: Magic Amplification – a magic meditation technique; and Military Boxing – a standard boxing technique used in the army.
After hearing of Mwana’s issues where his elemental affinity and bloodline affinity were mismatched, Waya went further and handed the boy a booklet titled:
Breath Control: Unique Applications of Breath in Body Forging Realm
This booklet described different classifications of breath and how to utilize one’s breathing to accelerate their training and increase their overall power. There were 4 applications of breathing which were described as:
- Outer Breath: this comes from increased lung capacity of warriors. This breath consists of air and nature energy mixed together [inhale] that is taken into the body during inhalation. It is directly applicable in combat as a warrior does not have the time to absorb natural energy through the Energy Nodes on their skin in the heat of battle. Therefore, a good breathing technique to regulate outer breath is important.
Waya further explained this section while leaning over Mwana’s shoulder, “The 2 parts of the body used to intake natural energy are the lungs and skin. Usually one can only attain outer breath at around late Bone Forging. However, there are still some geniuses out there that achieved it even earlier at the 3rd level like ‘yours truly’. Anyway, you only need to start training early and train hard. You can use techniques like deep water breath training, calabash breath training, and etcetera to achieve this.”
The next section of the booklet continued:
- Inner Breath: this type of breath comes from the body itself [exhale]. It can be very powerful based on how much energy you put into your breath to the point that it can be used in battle. Once one has mastered inner breath, they can circulate it in the body to produce Inner Power. After a warrior steps into Organ Quenching, their organs already have excess power stored within them. This excess energy can be exhaled as an attack that can harm others.
- Inner Power: as stated above, this comes from within the body by circulating inner breath. It can produce a boost to a warriors overall strength as it can give birth to inner strength.
For this section, Waya’s explanation was very straightforward.
“Didn’t the Academy vice-head already tell you that you could skip levels? You can apply that same thought process to Organ Quenching. You need strong lungs for Breath training and what better way than to ‘quench’ your lungs first.”
“Can that even be done?” Mwana asked in a shocked voice.
Mwana had thought the vice-head’s suggestion was unconventional but Waya’s suggestion was in another whole dimension. If this could be done, did this not mean that the various realms in body forging were only a guiding structure that one did not have to strictly follow? Waya’s next words answered his rising questions.
“That’s what I did. You cannot guarantee that you will find all the things to quench your organs at the same time. So you have to make a choice. Some things will have to come first and others last. Usually many warriors choose to quench their heart and lungs first and you can even do this early if you have the resources.”
Waya proceeded to suggest that Mwana should quench his lungs first so that he could acquire a trace of inner breath. Even with a small trace, he would have access inner power!
“If you can do that then you will be invincible before the 7th stage even if you are just a 5th stage warrior at that time!”
The last entry in the booklet described inner strength that was born from inner power:
- Inner strength: this is the entry level for unique personal strengths born strictly from within one's body instead of external energy.
Seeing Mwana so absorbed into the booklet, Waya decided to show off even more.
“Let me show you something cool.”
Waya proceeded to demonstrate the power of his breathing after using one of the steel swords he had given to the students for training earlier that morning. He held the sword in front of him and slightly breathed out. The next moment, Mwana was shocked as the steel sword disintegrated as soon as it came into contact with Waya’s breath!
What a shocking sight? From their exchanges earlier, Mwana now knew that the young man in front of him was near the apex of body forging. Waya’s strength had already secretly reached the 9th rank in the time after his slaying of the Amanani and redirecting the river waters. However, not even that could explain what Mwana was witnessing at the moment.
“That’s a steel sword! You just disintegrated a steel sword!” Mwana was so shocked that his eyes turned round and his eyeballs bulged out of his eye sockets. His mouth was in an even bigger O this time.
“Yup.”
Waya responded nonchalantly but internally he was filled with smugness.
“A steel sword!”
Mwana shouted the words over and over again while going around in circles. He could begrudgingly accept that Waya could completely destroy a thick tree with his fist power; he could even accept it if Waya replicated the same with the steel sword by using a powerful fist attack; but using his breath? Waya just breathed a little and a bar of steel was erased like that! Not melted, not broken, not shattered, but completely disintegrated!
“Why are you overreacting? It’s just an ordinary steel sword, not even a ranked weapon.”
“Still, doesn’t this mean that a powerful warrior could kill me just by blowing a little air on me?! It’s like my existence is nothing!” Mwana was almost crying out loud at this point. How come he did not know he was so weak before this?
“Why do you always have to look at everything so negatively? Not every powerful warrior can compare himself to me.”
One lamented and one boasted as the two chattered away while walking towards Waya’s home. Mwana was on his way there to pick up the sword the old man had promised to smith for him in exchange for Jua Urembo’s painting.
When Mwana met the old man Fisi once again, the latter still tried to recruit him again. However, Mwana rejected him firmly. Although this was blacksmith village, Mwana only had a painfully average talent for the art of smithing. His talents lay in things like painting, poetry, and embroidery. He could also do well for himself in spiritual careers such as a master of rites, diviner, curse warder, rain maker, exorcist, or even a priest. However, he did not have much interest in such career paths.
“Old man, my talent in smithing is only average. Average smithing talent can make you an average blacksmith but I’m not willing to be average.”
Translations
Amanani: a type of ogre-like creature.
