Chapter 99: Surprise (II)

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"It’s not what you think; I was just going easy on you." John stood up.

"Now you’ve done it; we’re going for another round." She smirked, throwing the towel to the floor.

She picked up the wooden katana and got into her stance. Well, it wasn’t a lie that John always did go easy on her in terms of pure strength, but the words did get her fired up nonetheless.

’I want to land a hit, even if it’s strictly through martial arts alone.’ She drew in a deep breath, focusing the strength in her thighs and calves.

John could feel that burning spirit when he stepped on the sparring floor. Honestly, it was hard to think of anything else when he faced that intense drive to improve.

He spent most of his time thinking about stories, and who they affected, or working on said stories, so this was a nice change of pace.

John himself had started to fall in love with the training, and Colleen seemed to match him in that thing.

’I’ll worry about everything else later; for now, I have to focus everything on this.’ He took in a deep breath and rolled his shoulders.

Because of Loki’s matter and focusing much of his time last night on learning the limits of his current reversed cursed technique, John had neglected another one of his purchased powers.

And it just happened to be one that would be perfect for the current situation.

’That’s an interesting stance...’ Colleen observed the way John’s open palms moved into position.

It wasn’t anything like what he had shown her till now. Still, she rushed forward and welcomed it all with a powerful downward slash.

However, unlike how he usually met her sword with a punch, John used the back of his palm to deflect the blade by pushing the trajectory off course.

Colleen almost stumbled because of the absurd shift in momentum, but somehow turned it into a roundhouse kick.

She had aimed for his temple.

But he narrowly lifted the side of her shoe. Pushing the kick over his head. Colleen rolled forward and regained her footing before he could attack her open back.

Surprisingly, he wasn’t moving from the starting position. It was like he had no plans of moving from there at all. Was this a challenge?

Like make me move from this place, and you win?

The gears in her brain started to turn. He was using Tai-chi, or at least something based on it. The only thing she knew was that it wasn’t a gentle style from the way her ankle stung.

Even then, she dashed in, raising the sword high.

’The fun is in figuring things out.’

Colleen kept a close eye on the way he reacted to her flurry of strikes. He was no longer trying to match her power head-on. It was closer to redirecting the force of her attacks away from him.

The martial arts he used did seem to be rooted in or inspired by Tai-chi, but they were mostly translated through northern Mantis style kung fu with the way his upper body moved.

And it didn’t appear like John was a master of this. It seemed that he was still learning. A technique like this should’ve had much smoother handwork and perfect looping movements to avoid openings.

But John’s moves were rough and jagged. There were dozens of holes in the defence he was trying to weave. And truthfully, it felt like there was a touch more power in his strikes.

Colleen felt her left palm burn as his swatted her attack away. She hadn’t felt any pain or discomfort during their previous spars, even when they matched blows. But it was different this time.

’This is too stimulating.’ Feeling the hot sweat slide down her heated body, Colleen’s eyes widened to take in every bit of information about his moves.

The corners of her lips lifted as she started to push her body to the limits. Her sword lashed out like a whip, it almost looked like she had two of them.

And facing all those attacks, deflecting them as she got up close, John only had one thing on his mind.

’She is certainly having fun.’ He looked at the wide smile on her face.

Still, it was worth facing that endless flurry of attacks. Water Stream smashing rock was a defensive martial art at its core, and he especially wanted to train in that capacity.

Now he could just let the skill overtake his body, but there was no fun in that. Right now, he was looking at the oncoming attack, reading the best course to deflect it that the skill showed in his mind, and tried to copy it on the spot. Although the execution was rough, it wasn’t something repetition couldn’t fix.

Colleen was a great starting point because she really liked going on the offense. Plus, she had incredible speed because of her trained lower body and solid core.

The only thing he found unsatisfactory in all this was that he still had quite a number of openings. It was understandable since it was a new martial art that he was learning, but he did feel a bit disappointed with himself.

’Being a Hanma sure is tough.’ The only reason Colleen hadn’t landed a hit on him yet was because of his much faster reaction time.

Even without Observation Haki, his bodily senses had reached a superhuman level. That was why he could go through that complicated process before every attack.

If anyone else was in his place, they would’ve been curled up on the floor with the amount of hits that should’ve gotten through by now.

’For now, I have to smooth out my moves.’ John relaxed his arms, trying to act like they were made of water.

He had to connect each move with the next one, creating a slightly broken but fluid chain of deflections and redirections. And he had to do it without both his hands getting tangled with one another.

Only after that would he be able to try and similarly move his entire body, becoming a true water stream that can smash rocks when needed.

The wooden sword hastily slashed through the air, meeting the hand that always slapped it away. The clashes were echoing in the dojo, which was usually empty when these two went at it.

However, there was a spectator today. Susan had long forgotten about the punch drill Colleen had told her to repeat. All her attention was taken by the fast-paced spar before her.

Honestly, she wasn’t even sure she could call it a spar. Just the heavy thuds along made her wince. It was like they were really trying to hurt each other. She just wished nothing like that had happened.

Colleen seemed extra worked up, running around John as her feet stomped on the wooden floor hard enough to make it shake.

’They really do go at it hard...’ Susan was stun locked.

She could barely follow the hand movements or the blurry sword, but it was clear that these two were operating at a speed that was beyond human.

The sound of the sword slicing through the air was enough to make her step back, but John hadn’t moved from his spot even once. Even if she was a layman in terms of combat, there was no doubt that he was something else.

At the centurion club, she wasn’t able to see much of the fight as the smoke had thickened and she had passed out not long after. But today, she could watch to her heart’s content as his controlled breath and the magnetic eyes.

Well, she could see as much as her human eyes allowed, and her eyes were mostly locked onto his sharp face.

’Would it be rude to take a photo without asking?’ Unfortunately, by the time Susan had decided to sneakily take a picture, silence returned to the dojo.

Because of how high intensity the spar was, Colleen was only able to last half of their usual time. She was currently lying flat on the wooden floor with her arms spread open. Barely holding onto the wooden katana.

Until the end, she wasn’t able to land a single hit. Her palms had swollen, her legs were cramping, and she felt lightheaded as her heart felt about ready to explode. But there was this unmistaken excitement deep inside her chest, an electrifying feeling that was running rampant inside her brain.

Even now, her mind was focused on how she could improve and what she had learned just now instead of the laboured breath that made her chest rise and fall.

As for John, well, he was also replaying the spar in his mind. He had been able to close about five weak spots in his defence near the end of the spar. His water stream smashing rock fist was still far from smooth, but it was a matter of time before he got the hang of it.

’I can think about offense after I’ve worked on defence enough.’ John cracked his neck and focused on the buzzing feeling in his fingers.

He had learned a lot about the martial art even with his somewhat botched attempt. But now that he had data in his head, it was much easier to look at the individual problems and fix them one at a time.

And while he was deep in his thoughts, Susan approached slowly. When he opened his eyes, she wordlessly handed him a towel to wipe the sweat off his brow.

"Would you like some water?" She offered the water bottle in her left hand as well.

It was only after he had taken the bottle that Susan realized it was her own bottle; she was supposed to give him the other one and not this one. But before she could speak further, he had started drinking.

Thankfully, he was letting the water fall into his mouth by raising the bottle rather than touching his lips to the rim. It was honestly a relief, but also a bit of a shame.

’I am thinking of useless things.’ Susan recentred herself before her cheeks started burning.

There was a really important reason she had arrived here today, acting like it was an accident after all.