Chapter 12 - Warrior Secret Technique: Qi Revolution (2)

A slow and refreshing wind blew towards Nerun's flabbergasted face.

" But, but, but, but, but... But what a fart of a technique is this, Father? You go super slow winding your arms, and then you push a little air into the other. Am I supposed to blow air in other people's faces so they'll feel sorry for me and leave me alone?".

Maikal's eye began to twitch, and he struck Nerun right in the back of the head. "What do you know, you snotty little brat? That was your first chance, and I'll only repeat it two more times. If you fail to notice anything, then that's that. It means you have no fate with this technique".

Nerun felt wronged, but there was nothing he could do to fight Maikal. So, he began to concentrate and watch Maikal carefully. This time, though, Maikal's eyes were especially stern. He once more went into position, next to a big boulder several meters high and wide, and started repeating the circular movements with his hands. This time as Nerun was watching intently, he noticed a subtle energy wave moving along Maikal's hands. Then when Maikal's hands got close to one another, all the energy went into an invisible whirlpool between his hands and said energy was then pushed away by Maikal softly, as if he was gently pushing a door, as he touched the big boulder next to him.

Nerun was looking expectantly at the boulder.

"..."

An awkward silence ensued and Nerun was once again incensed and yelled "You dirty old man! The technique doesn't work. Teach me something actually useful".

Maikal sighed, and said, "That was number 2. This will be the last time I show you the technique".

"Stop. Please stop Father. I think I saw something around your hands when you used the technique, but I'm still unable to understand the meaning behind all the movements. At the very least explain to me what you are trying to accomplish." Nerun begged.

"That's for you to discover," Maikal said. Nerun was close to despair right now. He really wanted a powerful technique to call his own, but Maikal insisted on only teaching him these hand and arm movements.

He ran to the boulder Maikal had touched earlier, trying to stop him while saying:

"Look, father. The ground is filled with cracks from Silvester and Luka's training. You can see the strength of the technique they were using, as well as its utility. But I fail to see anything from this skill. I want to learn something like that too, please". Nerun was flailing his arms and one of them inadvertently touched the boulder softly.

Crack!

The boulder suddenly became completely full of rifts and cracks, as if it was a broken mirror. Then the boulder completely turned into dust right in front of Nerun whose face was completely dirtied and filled with grim.

Now he was truly and completely wide-eyed. Then he turned his head to see an unimpressed Maikal staring back at him "Ok. I'll teach you something else. Maybe this technique is unworthy of a genius such as yourself".

Nerun then laughed sheepishly and seriously said "Father, how can you say that? From the very beginning, I knew just how awesome you were. I know that even a small fart from you can level a mountain, how would I dare to say that something you are teaching is worthless. Please Father show it to me one more time". Nerun's eyes were looking straight at Maikal as if everything he'd said before had never left his mouth.

'This brat is getting more and more thick skinned', thought Maikal, trying to calm himself down so as not to clobber him all over.

"This will be the last time". Maikal then went into position.

Nerun focused intently on Maikal's movements. He concentrated with all his strength and pushed his small amount of Qi towards his eyes, and activated his Ocular Meridians. His eyes turned golden, and he could even notice the movement on Maikal's arm hairs down to the millimetre. He focused so hard, that for a small instance, he could even see the Qi movement and circulation in Maikal's arms, and he was simply mesmerized. The Qi inside the body was actually guiding the Natural Energy of Heaven and Earth surrounding Maikal and it was spiralling centripetally towards his hands. By the point the hands were together, the energy and Qi were all condensed in a single point.

Said point was invisible to the regular eye, but the amount of concentrated energy and Qi was incredible. The actual air and space inside Maikal's hands were trembling, but if you were not paying attention, such a change was almost imperceptible. That being said, this energy cluster was highly unstable, and once Maikal stopped moving and started pushing the energy away from him, most of the accumulated energy was dispersed in the air, and rapidly at that. Nevertheless, it was precisely this residual force in the attack, that was capable of destroying the heavy boulder from the inside by thoroughly breaking all of the atomic links inside the rock.

Nerun subconsciously started imitating Maikal's posture and hand movements very slowly. The air and energy around him actually started spiralling towards him. Now it was Maikal's turn to be wide-eyed and end his demonstration early. Nerun actually succeeded when trying the first time… Well, almost. Nerun's conscience seemed to return when his hands came together, and once he lost his focus, the energy was all gone. When Nerun pushed his hands forward, all he did was fan a little.

"Eh…. what was I doing exactly?" Asked Nerun. He suddenly felt deeply tired and had to sit on the ground while panting profusely. Apparently, that degree of focus was quite hard to maintain. "Wow father, that technique is awesome. I know I will be invincible once I properly learn the Secret Skill. No one will be able to stop me"

"Well. That's the technique I wanted to teach you. But it's not perfect. If you lose the balance between the outer and inner energy, you are doing nothing more than looking like an idiot, and the faster you try to accumulate the energy, the easier it is to lose control. Also, doing it while moving will also increase its level of difficulty tenfold. The other thing you must take into account is that you need to touch your enemy with your hands to transfer the energy. Your enemy won't be exactly waiting for you to finish charging your move after all and they won't stay still either. Furthermore, the energy is extremely unstable, therefore you should try and do the technique in one swift move."

Maikal's words were like a cold bucket of water for the kid, and Nerun stopped daydreaming about conquering the world with this technique. He got up with difficulty and once again tried to repeat the movements and perform the Technique, over and over. However, he might as well actually fart, because his movements could accomplish nothing. Maikal even thought for a moment that he was hallucinating previously, because this time Nerun couldn't manage to move either Qi or Natural Energy.

After half an hour was over, Nerun dejectedly left the training area. Elijah silently appeared behind Maikal. "Are you sure it's ok to teach that move to Nerun? I mean, I was the one who wanted him to get stronger, but that move has too many risks and if done incorrectly it could even make his own Qi spiral out of control. If he uses his Auxiliary Meridians, he could very well kill himself. Besides, even if he managed to learn the technique, its application itself is quite complicated."

"It's ok. To begin with, using and depending on Secret Techniques is not the true way of the really strong. Whoever thinks that by knowing or even mastering a Secret or a Martial technique, then he is above everyone else is a true idiot. I want him to not depend on the Secret Technique but on his constant training and improvement. Second, even if it was close to a fluke, he did manage to see the circulation of Qi within my movements. He is using more and more his ocular meridians even without himself noticing. Those don't put as much strain on his body as the other meridians and they give him a great advantage towards understanding any skill he lays his eyes upon.

Third, this technique predicates balance about all else. It's not about forcing your will like a Warrior, not about bending nature's will like an Adept. It's about an all-encompassing balance. It's a Qi technique that looks and feels like a Mana technique. Actually, that's where the difficulty lies. Neither I nor Armand even, managed to truly understand nor master this technique because the control of such opposite forces seems like something impossible, ludicrous even.

It was not created by me, it was an inheritance I got from my ancestral hall, and even there it was said that the first ancestor created this technique while travelling overseas and meditating in some very ancient ruins. No descendant after him managed to master his Martial Art and Secret Skills, and with the loss of my Family, I'm the last living person who knows them. I personally didn't find them very useful and I couldn't manage to make them shine either. I developed my own Martial Way, the same one I taught Armand, and he used it to get to the top of the continent. However, while thinking about what to teach Nerun, I suddenly couldn't get this skill out of my head. Nerun has several issues to control the energy within himself and that will make it harder to control the Natural Energy of Heaven and Earth as well. This technique could actually help him get them under control. At least, in theory, it should work".

Maikal said. Even he himself couldn't understand completely why he taught Nerun this technique instead of his own. Maybe it was his longing for his lost family, and wanting to see his long-forgotten ancestral techniques flourish once more in the world. After all, his own developed Martial Art already had an inheritor in Elijah and Maya even if Armand was gone.

.…

During the next couple of days, everyone was puzzled because Nerun kept circling his arms as if he was trying to grab the air and then push forward his hands, doing it over and over again. He did it slowly, but absolutely nothing happened every single time. At first, some of the kids laughed a bit, but eventually, they got tired of it when they saw Nerun so serious about it. Either morning, afternoon or evening, Nerun kept repeating the same movements over and over, 'till his arms and legs were cramping and hurting, but to no avail.

At one point, Elijah took Nerun apart, into the private training area. There, Elijah told Nerun about the upcoming mission of going into the forest to get a Green Crystal Flower. Nerun was beyond excited when Elijah told him that he had gotten Maikal's permission to take him on the mission. Nerun was to serve as a lookout and secondary guide for the general knowledge of the fauna and flora of the place, especially its recent changes.

"Indeed Nerun, you can come with me. The guards should be arriving in about 5 days with the Young Miss. I need you to be on your best behaviour when they come. The nobles do not take well sometimes on us orphans, but they have paid already, so it's a job. Most of the money will be going to the orphanage".

"Don't worry big brother. I know what to do. I haven't seen the flower you mentioned, but I'm confident my friend, Whitey has. Besides, I'm such a cute kid, I'm sure they'll like me, and even give us more money, hehehehe. I can eat all the apricots I want afterwards", Nerun replied with a big smile on his face.

"How is it going with the technique Father taught you?"

"Bro, I haven't been able to make any advance at all. Maybe I'm too dumb, I don't know. That technique is not practical at all…. I know big bro. Why don't you teach me a technique? That way I can help you even better in the Woods." Nerun begged Elijah.

"I know you just want to learn another technique. The Secret Skill Father taught you is quite good, however, it depends on you for it to show its true worth. That being said, I know it is quite a difficult technique to employ. Actually, I brought you here because I was thinking to teach you a new technique so you can get stronger a bit faster".

"Really big bro. I knew you were the best" Nerun said while grinning from eye to eye.

"You snotty little brat, always trying to win me over," said Elijah while fondling his little brother's head. Elijah loved all of his little brothers and sisters, but he couldn't help spoiling Nerun once in a while and constantly looking after him. After all, Elijah has taken care of him since he was a little baby and considers him as a true baby brother.

So for the next few days, Nerun and Elijah trained in this new technique. Nerun got quite proficient in it really quickly, having gotten a small degree of mastery in just 4 days. Finally, the 10 days ended without much ado. That morning, a small party of guards escorting a large carriage walked into the town of Radem.