Chapter 43: [43] Take it like a Man

--Chapter 43--

Title:Take it like a Man

After what seemed like a night longer than any he had ever had in his life.

Takeshi woke up to breakfast and after breakfast, he was ready to have a great day.

After all, Solaria had forced a healing meal into him before anyone could drag him downstairs, and the food had already eased most of the leftover strain from the night before. His body felt clearer. And primed for action.

By the time he arrived. Nyxara was already waiting in the lower room.

"Finally," she said with what he could only describe as a wicked grin.

"My turn," she declared with her hand over her chin and eyes straight.

Takeshi stepped onto the cleared floor and looked around the room. "No destroying the house. Alright?"

Nyxara grinned. "Then don’t make me chase you into a wall."

Solaria stood near the side with ointment and clean cloth in hand. Lana remained by the doorway, quiet and composed, watching the two of them.

Takeshi set his feet down with the authority of a master. "Let’s begin."

Nyxara walked straight into the center of the room. Something about her presence changed the atmosphere almost immediately.

Heat seemed to cling faintly to her dark crimson skin, and the smile on her face carried far more excitement than Takeshi had seen from Solaria during their lessons.

She looked him over once. And then again, her tail whipping by her side.

"First lesson," she said. "Fighting isn’t like your little arguments in the street. You don’t win by sounding smarter than the other bastard."

Takeshi raised an eyebrow at her mocking analogy.

"You end the bastard before the other bastard ends you."

She pointed toward his feet. "Stand wider."

Takeshi listened and pulled his legs apart slowly.

"Not that wide. What are you planning to do, invite someone between your legs?"

Takeshi narrowed his eyes with a death stare. Almost like he dared her to keep running her mouth.

Nyxara laughed. "Relax. I’m teaching."

She stepped closer and nudged his foot into place with her own.

"Keep your weight where you can move it. When you’re watching, stay light on the back foot. When you attack, drive through the front with your hands high and elbows closer."

Takeshi nodded and copied the position she proposed. Nyxara examined him for a moment before nodding.

"That’s more like it."

He took a breath, remembering Solaria’s lesson. In through the nose. Let it settle, then out.

He reached for Minor Mana Sense at the same time. And the room became slightly different. It wasn’t so pronounced that he sensed everything but it was better than his five senses.

He could feel something around Nyxara. A rough concentration of heat around her arms, stronger than anything he had sensed from Solaria.

Before he could understand why, she moved. Takeshi instinctively backed up but he was too straight.

Her hand slapped his front guard aside and the next strike crashed into his shoulder without remorse.

Pain shot down his arm. And shook the integrity of his stance.

Nyxara didn’t give him time to complain. "Hands up..."

Takeshi quickly reset. Gritting behind the pain. He asked to train. He might as well, take it like a man.

Once again, she struck the exact same place. This time the impact went through his guard and into his ribs.

His muscles absorbed part of it, but the force still travelled through him. And for a moment, his body felt empty.

Nyxara stopped and pointed. "There..."

Takeshi clenched his jaw, looking at his displaced guarding arm.

"You took that with muscle," she tapped his shoulder.

"Muscle is nice but mana is better."

Takeshi looked at her with a raise eye brow. "Do you mind showing me then?"

Nyxara’s grin returned. "I’m getting there... My student.." she strained the last word as slow as possible.

Suddenly, she grabbed his wrist and lifted his arm. "Pull mana from your center. Send it into the arm I just hurt."

Her fingers traced along his forearm as she demonstrated. "Not just your shoulder or fists. The whole thing."

With a small snort she continued. "If your fist is hard but everything behind it is soft, I’ll still break through... Understood?"

Takeshi nodded and breathed the way Solaria had taught him. He focused on the strange sensation beneath his abdomen.

And followed internally as the mana moved. But too much went toward his fist anyways.

"Not there," Nyxara tapped his fist. "Spread it around."

He forced himself to ease the pressure and let the mana move farther through the arm.

The sensation was somewhat familiar like moulding and yet it felt unfamiliar.

Before he could get accustomed to the sensation. Nyxara raised her own fists.

"Ready?"

Takeshi brought his arm up confidently. "C’mon, Hit me."

The strike came in light and fast. And his reinforced arm absorbed it.

Pain still travelled through him, but it stopped much sooner than before.

Nyxara’s eyebrows lifted at his attempt, then her smile widened. He might actually be worth her time.

Without hesitation, she struck him again. The next reinforced block was messy. Takeshi recoiled.

Before he could complain, another came at him and then another.

The hits came faster. But slowly Takeshi entered a good state and kept his guard up and tried to follow the rhythm Nyxara was forcing on him.

Every strike gave him another problem to solve. From his forearm to his shoulder, then his ribs.

The mana reinforcement helped, but only when he actually kept it where it needed to be.

Nyxara struck his arm again. Takeshi absorbed the blow and shifted his weight instead of letting the force push him backward.

"Hahaha... You’re a natural punching bag," she said behind another strike that came toward his shoulder again.

He reinforced the area before the impact. This time the pain was much duller.

Nyxara’s eyes brightened. "You’re starting to understand."

Takeshi breathed through his nose and kept his stance. He could feel the difference now.

When he concentrated too much mana into one place, the rest of his body became vulnerable.

However, when he spread it too thin, the reinforcement became useless. The balance was uncomfortable, but Solaria’s lesson had given him enough awareness to notice when he was getting it wrong.

Nyxara suddenly stepped in and drove a fist toward his stomach. Takeshi reinforced his abdomen.

But the impact still knocked air out of his lungs. His hands dropped for half a second. When Nyxara’s fist stopped just beneath his jaw.

"If this were real, you’d be dead."

Takeshi forced himself upright again. "I know."

"No." Nyxara lowered her fist. "You don’t."

She tapped his chest with her black nails. "You’re thinking about the pain. You should be thinking about what happens after the pain."

The man steadied his breathing. As Nyxara stepped back. "Pain tells you something went wrong. But it doesn’t give you permission to fall apart."

He sighed and nodded...That part he understood. Especially after his mind drifting back to the Bald Garrick shit soiled boots that nearly iseakaid him for a second time.

He brought his hands back up. Keep his elbows close and his chin down. Mana flowed through his torso before his arms.

Nyxara watched him reset with a new fire in his eyes. Then she smiled sheepishly.

Without a word or warning, she closed the distance with her next strike.

Takeshi absorbed it. The reinforced defense was pushed back but it managed to hold.

And In the succeeding minutes, she shifted her targets, making his react to each new direction till it became a sensation he remembers.

At first, every change caught him off guard. Then his body began responding before he had time to think about it.

He started noticing her shoulders. The movement of those endless hips. And the direction of her body.

Even with all the tiny changes that came before a strike. It wasn’t always enough to predict her. Not even close...

But he was beginning to see the beginning of the attack instead of only the end of it.

Nyxara noticed his instincts for this and finally stopped. "You’re watching better."

Takeshi wiped the sweat from his forehead. "I’m trying to"

"Don’t try," She raised her fists. "Just do it."

Takeshi smiled. His mind drifting back to his old life for a second.

But that second would cost him as Nyxara attacked again... A new fire brimming in her eyes.

<End of Chapter>

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