Chapter: 16 Hawk-Bat Combat Style (Ataru) 🦇
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After the rain ceremony, Aachman worked two more days at his father's farmland. His family asked him to go back to work as the workload was manageable without him.

So here he was, back at work. More particularly, he was in the garden and the chief was standing in front of him.

Why do you ask? Today, the young lady was attending a martial arts class, and the teacher was an old chief. Who else could be?

Aachman, the young lady, and her two lackeys were standing, and in front of them was the chief, who looked very solemn. Aachman wondered why the mood was depressing.

"Since Aachman is new to martial arts. Are any of you willing to provide him with basic information?" the chief asked in his usual whisper.

The young lady and her lackeys were looking at the ground and remained silent. Aachman thought these guys were overreacting. Even though the chief looked scary, he was not an unreasonable guy.

When he thought, silence would prevail forever, the young lady timidly explained martial arts: "Inside your body, you will feel tingling and take that tingling do dishum dishum" While explaining she swung her hands and started to beat imaginary foes.

Aachman wondered what sort of explanation this was. He did not understand a thing about martial arts from her explanation, but the young lady was looking at him with expectation. He discerned what the young lady wanted from him, so he acknowledged her intention.

"Ah, the young lady's explanation made everything crystal clear. Martial arts are so simple. Find a tingling sensation in your body and use it to fight"

The young lady nodded and started looking very pleased with herself.

"Hmph," the chief snorted.

"If only it was so simple for everyone," Chief shrugged and explained. "Akalya was not wrong. First and foremost, to be a martial artist, you need to sense the prana, the life energy within your body. Afterwards, you need to learn to control the prana to fight the others"

Aachman now had a vague understanding of martial arts. The problem was until recently he believed only in science, but that mentality had taken a hit after he reincarnated in ancient India. He saw many things which cannot be explained with science. So Aachman grudgingly accepted the prana and its use in martial arts.

"Gaja, tell me how to sense prana?"

Aachman wondered who Gaja was, but it was Baldy's name. This surprised him the most. Who would have thought baldy was not his original name? What a pity that name fitted him most.

"We can sense prana through meditation," baldy replied.

"Yeah. Gaja is right. We can do meditation in different positions, and the easiest is the sitting position.

This is the first stage of martial arts. A martial artist in this stage is usually called a novice."

"Balu, tell us what we practise other exercises in the novice stage? And why?"

"Ah, yes, chief. We also practised Yoga along with meditation. Since the next stage of martial arts heavily depends upon stances, yoga serves as a foundational exercise"

Chief nodded and looked pleased with fatty's explanation. "Balu is not wrong. Yoga is a great foundational exercise that improves flexibility and provides a person with a superb physique and later on, even difficult forms can be done reasonably well if that person has mastered yoga".

The question and answers session finished with no hiccup. Aachman wondered what was next.

The chief told them next was a practical lesson where they needed to spar with him.

"Aachman, come here. Don't worry. You can try anything, I will not respond," the chief told him so.

Aachman was not stupid. He knew there was no chance of winning with bare hands, so he borrowed a wooden sword from the young lady.

The chief was standing with his hands crossed and waiting for Aachman to make a move. Aachman rushed towards the chief and swung his wooden sword at full force.

"Thwack"

Nothing happened. The chief did not evade the Aachman's sword. He simply closed his eyes and waited for Aachman to continue it again. Aachman did not lose his heart yet. He took some distance from the chief and rushed towards the chief with a roar.

"Haaaaa" "Thwack"

"Thwack"

"Thwack"

"Thwack"

After some time, the buffed old man was still standing upright and hands crossed. Nearby, Aachman sprawled in exhaustion. He did not know how many times he attempted to harm the chief, but nothing worked. He even tried to attack the chief's genitals, and that did not work. This made him wonder if the chief had iron balls for genitals instead of normal ones.

The chief opened his eyes and stared at Aachman "Do you understand the difference between a martial artist and a normal person?"

Aachman was frustrated, his emotions got the better of him."Do you mean a fight between a martial artist and a normal person is like fighting a child?"

Chief shakes his head "No, it is more like fighting an ant, and that is for the new martial artist who recently learned to sense and control prana and for a veteran like me ..."

The chief shrugged his head. "Look," he said to Aachman and picked up a small stone from the ground and threw it at the young lady. She promptly caught the stone.

"Crush it," this time the chief commanded the young lady.

The young lady crushed the stone into powder with no apparent effort. Aachman was not surprised, as he already knew the strength of the young lady.

"See, never fight the martial artist unless you can control prana, otherwise it is going to end in one way, that is your death"

Chief nodded and stared at his students."There was no point in sparring before you can sense prana"

Baldy and fatty nodded their heads.

The chief glanced at the young lady. "Bring the sword, let's spar"

The Fatty and the Baldy pulled Aachman away.

"Hey what are you doing? I want to watch it?" Aachman protested.

"We can watch it from far away" fatty ignored him and pulled Aachman far away.

The chief was standing upright like last time, but this time he was holding a wooden sword and looking at his granddaughter's movements very carefully.

The young lady walked softly towards the chief, almost like a cat. Then she vanished from the view of Aachman.

"Bang"

The chief blocked the aerial slice from the young lady. Then the young lady was in constant motion. She jumped, spun and flipped around the chief, all the while attacking him from different directions.

The chief style of fighting was an opposite spectrum to the young lady's. He had minimal movements. He blocked all the attacks from the top, down, front and back, as though he had eyes all over his body.

"Bang"

"Bang"

"Bang"

Aachman was dumbfounded, this fight is better than fantasy movies in his previous life.

"Hey, can you see?" Aachman enquired.

"Yeah, I can see the chief," fatty quipped, which made Aachman glare.

"Hmm, I can sort of see the flashes of the young lady, almost like a blur," fatty confessed to Aachman.

"Same here. " Baldy also supported the fatty claims.

"Bang"

"Bang"

It seems the chief became tired of defending. He attacked proactively. He did the sort of flash steps and arrived at the young lady instantaneously, which made her fend off the chief's sword.

The chief pressured the young lady to block again and again. When the young lady tried to jump or flip to a different place, he would be with her like a shadow.

The chief occasionally jumped or backflipped, but he depended on his superior footwork, sort of flash steps, to counter the young lady's acrobatic style of swordsmanship.

It seems the young lady's weakness was defence. She was barely defending herself against the chief. The chief quickly lunged at her, which made the young lady's form crumble, and the chief jabbed at her gut in quick succession. This compelled the young lady to haphazardly defend, and she skidded along the grass field.

"Bang"

Chief this time did not follow the young lady; he waited but the young lady could not get up.

The chief's breathing was calm, and there was no sweat. On the contrary, the young lady was drenched in sweat and her breath was erratic. This showed the difference in fighting power between the two contestants.

The Chief frowned."Your prana improved from the last week, but you are making the same mistake again"

The young lady did not say a word. She remained silent. "Work hard. I hope to see some improvement from you next week"

Chief looked at the sky and said, "I have work to do. Balu and Gaja teach Aachman yoga and meditation. Work hard, I will see you next week"

Chief turned and walked away without a word.

Aachman noted the young lady still did not get up, but when he tried to go near the young lady, the fatty shook his head to leave her alone.

Lackeys pulled Aachman to teach meditation and yoga. Fatty doing yoga was almost a medical miracle that made him remember the Chinese fat martial artist actor in his previous life who, despite prodigious bulk, was quick on his feet.

Baldy and Fatty meditated, and Aachman went near the young lady. She looked down and ignored Aachman.

"Young lady, you were good. All the time you were moving like 'swoosh'. I could see nothing. I heard from my father that the chief was undefeated during his nation's champion days. You have been sparring against him for nearly ten minutes. Cheer up, young lady."

Aachman noticed the normal praise was not working, so he thought he could change her mood by diverting from the topic.

"Young lady, why did you not move away from the chief when he was shadowing you?"

This made the young lady respond in anger. She looked displeased."What do you mean, I did not try to move away from Grandpa? I tried to jump, somersault, flip and spin, but nothing worked. It is like grandpa knows where I will be."

The young lady puffed her cheeks to show her displeasure to Aachman.

"Young lady, don't get angry. I wanted to say why you did not shuffle to either side. It would be easier than jumping." the young lady froze and her eyes sparkled. Aachman did not understand that the young lady was in the throes of insight. Since the young lady was not looking down, he left her alone.

Aachman went back to meditation, but the cool shade of the tree made him drowsy. When he was about to sleep, fatty shouted excitedly.

"What happened?" Aachman asked, in irritation.

Fatty spoke: "I felt a tingling sensation in my legs"

Aachman sneered: "That is just a numbness sensation because you were sitting still for a long time."

Fatty retorted, "you are jealous of me".

This back-and-forth dialogue between the fatty and Aachman made the young lady laugh. It seems she awoke from her insight.

Four kids peacefully meditated under the tree without thinking about their previous setbacks.

This is the day, The Way, was introduced to Aachman. Of course, no one even himself knows what he could do with it.

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