Group training

Sej was excited by the prospect but did not want it to interfere with their friendship so to make this clear he told them directly.

"Guys, although you have placed your trust in me and made me into the leader, I don't want this to affect how we treat each other. We are still friends first. We should act as such. So relax."

The others agreed with why he said they were happy that things were not going to change too much.

"Anyway, I had some ideas that I think we can do to improve ourselves before our next hunting mission."

"Like what?" Henry asked as he wanted to show enthusiasm.

"Firstly I was wondering if you felt your body reacting slowly so your thoughts when we were fighting. Were you in sync with your body or lagging like video games back on earth."

On mentioning this, the others nodded their heads in understanding and agreement. "Now that you mention it I did feel a bit slow in the battle Sam spoke.

Cara spoke in enlightenment, "I get it because we are cultivating now, we are gaining strength quickly, so we can not adapt to it properly. Sej, do you have a way to solve this?"

"An instant solution, no. But we can just slowly adapt to our new bodies. Let's do some basic exercises like running to improve the rate at which we adapt to our cultivation realm. Also, we can do some sparring against each other to improve our reflexes. This should make it easier in future fights."

"That could work" Henry added, "I could also train more with my bow against you guys."

"Fine but take the arrowheads off before we do that, on the off chance that you actually hit us, I don't want to die." Sam joked. Only to be glared at by Henry. His eyes seem to be saying, you asked for it. Now I will bring the pain.

See the chubby man lock on to him, Sam did not back down but glared right back. Cara on the side starting giggling.

Sej thought she looked cute giggling but moved on quickly. "Shall we get started."

Thus began a rigorous exercise routine that they came up with. First was five laps around the village. The village may have been small but its circumference was still quite a large distance. On top of that, the group had to maintain a sprint as jogging would not allow for easy adaptation.

Following that was exercises like squats, press-ups, and sit-ups. Then there was a short run that included dashing and stopping quickly and changing directions to adapt to all sorts of movements. Finally, Cara also added yoga which she learned from her mother on earth and subsequently started teaching to the guys. It was very effective and even facilitated the absorption of spiritual energy. That was to say it helped with improving cultivation which was a nice surprise to the group.

After taking a short break, it was now time for the sparring practice. First was single one on one battles. This could allow the group to learn the other member's abilities while also training their reflexes. Even though fighting monsters and other humans or humanoid creatures were different, it would still be effective training.

After the single battles, it will be two versus two. This could help with teamwork and lower the mistakes they would make in group battles.

The battles would commence with a battle between Sam and Henry. They had been making snide remarks to each other throughout the training. Now they were both angry and rearing to go.

For these sparring sessions, Sej cut off branches from a nearby tree and made some wooden weapons. Sam had a staff, as they were similar to spears. while Henry still had his bow and arrows without their heads. He also had a much shorter branch that represented his staff.

"Let the battle commence," Sej announced before taking a seat next to Cara as they watched on.

Henry quickly took an arrow from his quiver and drew his bow aiming at Sam who was already sprinting towards him. They started 50 meters away from each other to give Henry a fairer chance at the battle. By the time the arrow was aimed and ready to shoot, Sam was already 30 meters away.

Whoosh.

The arrow went flying. It was on target but Sam dodged to the left. Another arrow came, following soon after but Sam was ready and started running in an arc towards Henry making him a harder target to hit. Henry's archery was improving quickly. It was due to his spirit/heart realm breakthrough. As a result, archery felt easier for him to learn and he improved faster.

Henry drew one last arrow but held it. He knew he needed to hit Sam at least once or else he would be defeated quickly at close range combat.

Sam was only 10 meters away now and closing in fast. Henry had the arrow pointed at him but waited. At first, he was calm but as Sam approached, he started panicking a-little. When Sam was 7 meters away he could not hold any longer and let loose the arrow.

Whoosh, Sam saw the arrow coming and ducked. The arrow flew right over his head. Taking the opportunity, Henry sprinted forward, while sprinting, he shamelessly threw his quiver at Sam with full strength hoping to take him out or at least distract him. It worked as Sam knocked the quiver away with his staff.

Sam was now open to an attack after just exerting himself. Henry slashed down with his bow to try and finish Sam off.

Bang

Sam was smacked in the head and fell to the ground. Seeing this Henry started laughing. "hahaha, how do you like me now."

Bang

AAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhh "you piece of crap." A shrill high pitch voice echoed.

Sam's staff had hit Henry in his private place. Sej who was watching this play out froze as his legs clenched together. He felt a chill down his back.

Cara had her mouth wide open, not understanding what she just saw.

Henry fell to the ground right next to Sam and his quiver still whining with tears leaking out of his eyes Sam was starting to get up.

Next, sej saw something that made him pale in pure terror. It made him say " I don't want to be their leader" as he fears them.

Henry reached for his quiver while Sam started to get up. He pulled out an arrow while stifling his pain. Turned over and drew a full arced bow.

As Sam finished standing up, he turned and glanced at Henry when whoosh. AAAAAhhhhhhhh. A second high pitch shrill sound echoed out. Henry returned the favour. The fight was so tragic that it drew the attention of the nearby villagers. Even they cringed.

Cara screamed and then went to stop them before this charade could continue. But sej held her back. He did not want her to be caught in the crossfire.

After a minute on the ground, both combatants were getting to their feet. Henry took out his branch that was his knife and he stared at Sam like they were lifelong enemy's.

Sam with staff in hand did the same. He made the first move and swung his staff at Henry in an anti-clockwise direction. Henry struck at Sam's hand holding the staff while he blocked the staff with his arm. They collided and Sam's staff went flying out as he grabbed at his hand.

Henry taking the blunt force of the attack was sent flying 3 meters but he quickly got up. His left arm that he blocked with was badly bruised but his right arm still held his knife. He went to attack the disarmed Sam but Sam was really angry now and did something he saw from the movies.

He karate chopped Henry right in the neck, he did not use his full strength but Henry fell down choking.

What followed next was not a spar. In fact, nothing about this was a spar. It was a beating Sam beat up Henry and gave him no time to recover. She and Cara had to get involved and stop this.

Sej was wondering how this happened In the forest place. What was going on that required such cruelty from them both?

Cara was kind enough to explain what happened though. " Sej, you may not have noticed because you spent less time with us as your aways training on top of the fact that they hide it well but Sam and Henry are not the best of friends. They do care about each other but whenever I or you are not around, they have a lot of arguments. As for why it's like this, I don't know why. However, from what I can gather, Sam and Henry knew each other before they became cultivators."

Sej was shocked by this as he never got that impression before. Maybe they were good at hiding it or maybe sej just did not know them as well as he thought. "We will deal with this later. Let them recover first. Next, it is our match. Are you ready."

"Ha, don't forget I am in the tendon refinement realm now. I am gonna beat your ass back to earth." She replied with an eagerness she was not expecting."

Did I do something to offend this girl he thought to himself?