65 A new life
Ronan woke up sharp at 3:45 am and washed himself as he was ready for training at 4.
Karna was impressed by Ronan’s punctuality and seeing him fresh and ready for the day sharp at 4 am , he felt motivated to train Ronan to the best of his abilities.
” Alright , we start with jogging , follow me on the forest trail , we will also catch breakfast along the way “. Karna said as he started jogging , signalling Ronan to follow.
Ronan started to jog behind Karna , however the speed of the jog was almost like a full sprint for him , as the steps that Karna took were too large and covered a lot of ground compared to his tiny legs.
The duo ran for 40 minutes straight , as along the trail Karna would occasionally throw rocks at trees accurately piercing stems to get hold of fruits and berries.
Some of whom he would eat while the others he would toss to Ronan , as he also kept educating him about various plants.
” In the forest never eat a fruit you don’t have knowledge about. Even if you are at the limits of hunger , eating leaves will be fine but never eat berries which you have never seen before.
9/10 berries found in the jungle are poisonous and even level 50 bears die while eating a few of them.
The blue berries on those shrubs with the white dot at the top are poisonous…
Those black berries are poisonous….
That fruit can kill elephants in a single bite ….. “.
Karna imparted practical knowledge to Ronan , the likes of which a school could never provide , as he taught Ronan about the real ways of the jungle where only the strongest survive.
Ronan who was like a sponge absorbed all the knowledge that Karna had to give as he made a mental note to remember to never eat berries without prior knowledge.
After 30 more minutes , the duo reached a raging river as Karna finally slowed down his sprinting pace and came to a halt.
Ronan was fine despite the constant sprinting , only a little short of breath , however Karna was beyond impressed as he had estimated Ronan to kick the bucket after the 30 minutes mark , but he turned out to be much sturdier than expected.
Jumping on a rock , Karna took off his robes as he let his muscular body be drizzled by the small droplets of water that were sprayed as the raging collided with the large rocks , as he started to regulate his breathing.
” Watch ” , said Karna as he began to demonstrate his special martial art to Ronan.
Karna’s family martial arts was one of the best martial arts in the entire Everlon continent for people under the ascended level to practice , as the effects of training in the method were excellent for constitution and foundational building.
It was once the core of the suryavanshi clan as only scions with proven potential were allowed to learn this important family heritage , however the war changed everything as the times demanded even the less talented to come to serve the family on the front lines .
With the family forcing branch clans into war , they had to be generous with rewards as well , which forced the family to teach the technique to many children from the branch clan when Karna was a child.
However it was simply impossible for anyone to comprehend below the 4 star talent , as even though the martial arts was imparted by the elder for everyone to learn , only a select few could truly understand and comprehend the beauty of the intricate technique.
The technique was divided into 4 Layers.
Part 1 – It was the simple punch called ‘ Raging Fist! ‘ , the punch when mastered created a layer of air enveloping the fists as a protection , as it allowed the user to display power that could even crush boulders.
Part 2- It was the move called ‘ Shoryuken ‘ which translated to the rising dragon fist. It was the move that when used properly , could even floor Ascended level masters.
Part 3- It was the mastery of the 360° barrage of palm strikes , the purpose of the move was to defend against attacks incoming from all directions and once mastered the user became invincible.
Part 4 – The Strongest move of the series was a core secret of the Suryavanshi clan , which was not imparted to anyone except the head of the clan.
This was the only move that Karna had never learnt.
What Karna was demonstrating for Rudra now was the first move of the series the ‘ Raging Fist’ . Having a foot stance slightly wider than his shoulder with , Karna bent his knees only slightly to a 5° angle.
Taking a deep breath he rotated his upper torso and clenched his thigh muscles as he stored power for the next strike.
BAM!
A fist attack so fast that Ronan could not even see the movement of the fist properly was used by Karna as the fist that he aimlessly shot towards the river , split the moving water in half and collided with a tree on the other side , imprinting a visible punch mark on it’s trunk!
” Soo cool ….. “. Ronan was wide eyed with amazement at the power of Karna’s attack as he could not understand how the human body was capable of releasing such strength.
Karna on the other hand only had a smile plastered on his face at the praise he recieved from his disciple. He practiced his body for 7 years before he could master this move , it needed one’s muscles and bones to be extremely strong yet elastic to create a force this powerful.
Looking at Ronan he said ” This is just the first level , and this is what you will be striving for. To create this level of strength you will need to train your body to the utmost limits and the training won’t be easy.
But endure the training and this is what you will be capable of in the future “.
Karna tried to entice Ronan with the same speech that the old elder gave him decades ago , when he saw the technique for the first time , as Ronan said ” I’m welling sensei “.
Satisfied , Karna put his robe back on and signalled Ronan to start sprinting again , as todays lesson for Ronan was the training regime that Karna liked to call ‘ Roadwork ‘.
Sprinting side by side , Karna asked Ronan to shadow his movements , as the duo weaved on their feet and threw punches in the air while constantly moving forward.
Although it seemed bizzare to an outsider , for Ronan who had already undergone training from a young age it was surprising to see that he could not keep up with the change in movements at all.
The movements that Karna used were very erratic and needed him to constantly change directions with explosive speed , which made Ronan drained of his stamina extremely quickly.
This was a new experience for him as not even 3 minutes later he was struggling to be on his feet as his legs simply hurt so much and in his clumsiness he tripped over an uneven rock.
THUD!
Ronan went down facefirst into the dirt , as Karna clicked his tongue ” Tsk , is this it ? Are you finished Ronan Draco? “.
There was an underlying taunt behind that voice , a taunt that made Ronan’s blood boil , as it felt like a taunt to his Draco name more than his own inability .
While he could tolerate his own image being ruined he would absolutely not let anyone tarnish the Draco name as biting his tongue he was on his feet again as he started to follow Karna again despite the pain.
‘ What immense willpower ‘ , thought Karna as he remembered his own first day at training. He was already level 40 and around 10 years of age at that time and had already been in training for 4 years , yet he could only last 20 seconds before his body gave out.
Yet Ronan was 200 seconds in and still managing to hang on , while being Lower levelled and much younger than him at the time.
However Ronan’s stubbornness could only get him into trouble this time as unlike the academy or the palace , Karna was not someone who was going to reward him for being strong willed , infact it was exactly the opposite.
This time when Ronan would feel the pinch in his muscles , he would not be given A grade medicine by Karna to heal his body as he would have to understand the process of body’s natural healing.
While the training would not be any easier the next day , Ronan’s muscles would be extremely sore , which would carry on day after day until he realized the value of his own body.
The way Karna saw Ronan , the boy had no regard for his own wellbeing an did not understand which fights to take and when to retreat . A strong will was a good thing , but inside the jungle the foolish get killed first and Ronan pushing himself for vain pride was just plain foolish.
‘ Yes , i am tired sensei ‘. There are the only words that Ronan needed to say , however no matter how many times he fell Ronan refused to say them.
Karna was patient too , as while it took the duo 8 hours to come back the same way that took them 1 hour to go , Karna let Ronan work himself to the bone untill he could barely crawl himself back inside his hut.
” 15 minutes rest , we go hunting for food then “. Karna declared once Ronan barely reached the door of his hut as his soul shuddered hearing those words.
Ronan looked at Karna with teary eyes , but while those eyes were effective on Alexander and Chanakya , Karna was simply too cold to care about them.
” Chop chop “. Said Karna as he refused to give into Ronan’s childish protest as it became clear to Ronan that he had truly entered a hellish training camp.