Unique arts of the Kabai

I took a large bite out of the alien burrito, which indeed tasted like baked beans. "So lemme get this straight Thomas: you want to cram thirteen years of training into one year? Then I fight to the death against Ziya?"

"That sounds about right."

"Then I'm frickin screwed."

"I wouldn't say that, but your chances are pretty slim."

That seals it: I'm done for. Dead. Gone. Obliterated, reduced to atoms. What the heck am I gonna do?

"I heard that you like the kunai, right?" Thomas asked in the middle of my thoughts. He swallowed a bite of his meal while he casually plopped his feet in a criss-cross pattern on the table.

"Yeah. I dunno why, but lately, I've gotten into knife-related things. I guess I have a little bit of experience with stuff like it before."

"Good. I also prefer short-ranged weapons over long-ranged. I will show you the art of the dagger."

Thomas spun out of his chair in one quick and smooth motion, standing up in the blink of an eye. He moved his hands in a smooth but slow motion, as if practicing some sort of ritual. A dark aura slowly started to envelop Thomas, like he was drawing darkness out of the air around him. Within a few seconds, his body was glowing with a dark aura.

Out of nowhere, a set of ragged daggers appeared in his hands. They simply just burst into a flash of light, and boom, the daggers were there.

"What the..."

His voice was now deeper and now had a powerful tone behind it.

"Andrew, what you are witnessing is the physical form of short-ranged weapons, known as the unique art of Kabai. Does any of this seem bizarre to you?"

"Yeah how the hell did you do that? Those daggers..."

"Watch and learn kid."

Thomas slyly flipped the daggers into a throwing position. With a flick of the wrist, the daggers were gone.

"Where did th—"

Thomas adjusted his necklace. "Wait for it."

A slight stinging sensation filled the same spot on both of my cheeks. I touched where I felt the pain, and to my surprise, blood was dripping down my cheeks.

"How'd you do that bro?"

"Wouldn't you like to know Andrew. You sure are a curious kid. I already told you it, which proves to me that you don't have much'a attention span, do ya?"

He flopped back down into his chair, a smug look of accomplishment on his face.

"Thomas, I wanna learn this art. Please, I can prove I ca—"

"Andrew, lemme ask you a question: do you have 50 stat points in intelligence?"

"Umm, what?"

"You don't, which means I can't teach you it until you do."

He went back to eating his burrito. I was completely shocked, but that shock quickly turned to anger. I wanted to wipe the smug smile he still had on right off his stupid face.

I was about to yell at him, but he put his hand up, as if saying "don't".

"That doesn't mean I won't train you until you are ready to learn it. Come, let's practice short-ranged combat."

He finished up his burrito in a few quick bites (mine only halfway done) and we were off to the training arena. My legs were already sore from running, but I guess it didn't matter to us. Thomas and I both walked in silence, until he finally broke it gate.

"You haven't leveled up since the hunt, right? That means you have two days to get two hundred experience, that is, if you already did the daily quests," Thomas said.

"I'm pretty sure one of them is complete," I replied. The quest 'On Time' I know was completed, but I wonder if the second one was done.

'Time' I thought, using the keyword to open the menu. I tapped on "Experience"—Which was 60/200— to look into my completed quests.

"Quests Completed:

'Endurance'

'Bright and Early'

'Revenge'

'Test of the Mountain'

'Taking Down'

'On Time'

'Finders Keepers'," the watch announced. Had I only completed seven quests? It seemed like more, but I couldn't argue with it. I wondered what the two new quests I completed were.

"'Endurance':

Run five or more miles in a day.

'Bright and Early':

Wake up before 7:00 a.m."

So all I had to do each day was wake up and run five miles? To get about thirty experience a day, that seemed like no problem at all.

After a while, I finally answered his half-question. "Yeah I did the daily quests."

"Good. Now it is time to learn some skills with a short-ranged weapon."

He pulled out his daggers and went into a fighting stance. His left foot was slightly to the side his body, while his right foot was slightly on the opposing side, Thomas's knees both bent. His elbows were close to his body, his hands jutting out. His hands were in a fist, enclosing the daggers, which were upside down.

"This is the standard form for a close ranged fighter. Although the stance is basic, it is easy and efficient to use during combat. Lemme show you an example. You see that training dummy over there?" Thomas gestured to the human-shaped wooden block a few feet away. "This is a move called quick lash. Basically, you jump from one spot to the next in a few seconds to attack your enemy, hence why it's called quick lash. Watch."

He changed his body to face the dummy, which was at least twenty feet away. He started to vibrate, his body shaking with complete power, and then, BAM!

Thomas launched off his feet at an incredible speed, so fast it looked like he teleported. He flicked his wrists and the dummy split apart from three different spots.

"Now you try. This is a very easy move, so you should be able to do it. It may seem hard, but it's completely different than from what it is," he yelled from the split dummy.

"Easy to you!"

I took the stance, a couple of my kunai in my hands. I tried to vibrate my body, like Thomas did, but I probably looked like a retard jumping up and down like that.

Thomas's laughter proved my statement. He was on the ground laughing his eyes out. When he was done laughing and gasping for air, he finally spoke. "You don't jump up and down! Here, lemme show you."

Within a second he was next to me, not a trace of a smile on his face was left to be seen.

"Feel the energy around you: in the air, in the earth, in your watch. Take a deep breath and use that energy to rocket you towards that dummy." Thomas pointed to the dummy to the left.

"Ok. I guess I can try it."

He stood back away from me. There wasn't many people here, since it was the Monday. I closed my eyes and took in a large amount of the air.

I could feel the motion of the tiny bugs that made an eerie buzzing noise as they flew past my ear, the heat of the sun against my body, the humming from my watch, the stillness of the earth. I could feel it all. I couldn't hear anything else in the arena, because everything was still to me. I felt my breathing, in and out. It felt like it was storing energy inside my body. My body finally felt like it was ready to burst like a volcano spewing ash and lava. I unleashed the little strength I had left from running.

My hands no longer felt like they were under my control. They flailed in a pattern, almost as if they were a seperate part of my body, having their very own will. When I opened my eyes, I was next to the dummy, but nothing happened. Suddenly, it exploded into hundreds of pieces, falling to the ground like a glass plate.

Thomas stood behind me, shock and surprise both spreading across his face.

"I've never seen a beginner perform that move so well on their first try, let alone a human. How the hell you do that kid?"

"I dunno. I just felt the energy around me buzzing, and I ended up over here."

"No kidding. Your arms didn't even move, yet the dummy still exploded into hundreds of pieces. Andrew, this was a test of speed, and you are incredibly fast and powerful, even at your base level. That's saying a lot from me."

"I'm really that strong?"

"You are strong, but if you are gonna be stronger than us, then your gonna have to do a ton of training."

His words puzzled me. "Us?"

"Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you. You have a new coach to train with you and me, kid. Andrew, you'll be working with Bruce as well."

When I saw Bruce, my mouth dropped. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, but it was in fact real. He was no longer wearing his cloak. Instead, he wore black combat boots, his brown pants tucked inside. He was wearing a black muscle shirt, which matched the boots. He had thick, black hair that was slicked back. If I hadn't mentioned it before, Bruce was a built guy, and was at least nine feet tall. But what surprised me was what his skin was. His skin was scaly and red, which lead me to one final conclusion.

Bruce was a dragon human.