After the feast the immortals left one after the other as they were dismissed by Jonathan.
Mario stayed behind, he sat with Jonathan, Diane and Alfred as they watched John swing the hammer and ax, after an hour of playing he stood straight not moving. The four watched John, then slowly the weapons shink in half and it continued to shink, now the ax is as small as a throwing ax and the hammer is like a normal sized sledge hammer.
He continued changing its size and after an hour, he became more proficient, it srink and grew very fast, he could change the size of any part of the weapon depending. After 2 more hour he became very proficient with his control. He asked the guards to coma at him at the same time, this are all heaven level warriors, "dont hold back! Attack me all at once!" He ordered
The guards, readied themselves and attacked all together. John used his hammer as shield, he shrank the handle and enlarged the head this blocked the attacks of the guards then threw lengthen the ax handle and sweeped the group. The fuards used their shield to block the attack. But it was followed by a hammer smash, the group scattered around him an lost their form. John stretched put his hands and spin with the two weapons. The sheilds flew fron their grasp and they lost their balance.
John rested his hammer on the ground while he placed the ax on his shoulder then he bowed his head "thank you everyone for sparring with me!"
The guards were touched, their prince has always been respectful to them. He never looked down on them, thus they trained very hard to protect their prince.
The four watched John and the guards, they are very satisfied of his performance. His father got excited he knew the reason why John sparred with the guards, he needed to familiarize himself with his strength after his breakthrough. John then sparred with Jonathan in hand to hand combat, his martial arts is perfect and smooth, there are no openings, he is patient and waited for the right time to strike, every strike aims at Jonathans vitals and openings, it was fast and precise. Jonathan speed up by a notch, John used his strong perception and soul force to predict sense the incoming attacks. His father usually did this when ever he felt that his martial arts improves.
This allowed John to improve his battle experience even more, though he didnt win, but after every defeat he is able to make adjustments and improvement in his tactics and martial arts.
He could not attack, the rain of punches and kicks came so fast and unpredictable, the stikes did not follow a set pattern, thus he pushed his kenetic vision and senses to the limit, only parrying the attacks as it is about to hit him. The audience were surprised, this is just a two year old. Mario is the most surprised, this is the very first time he saw John fight. And as he observed Jonathan, he did not held back his punches, though his attacks were heavy he only used his brute force without any mana, but as seasoned warrior he knew that any other warrior would spend months on the bed if they were to be hit by this attacks.
How ever John is able to parry at the right moment, avoiding each attack with the least amount of movements and power, he would also send attacks on every possible openings he sees. What made him gobsmacked is that John didnt forget to be wary of his surroundings, never letting his guard down. Its as if he is on the battle field facing massive amounts of enemies.
"Amazing!" He murmured
Diane and Alfred heard him, they just smiled and felt proud of John. After his breakthrough John needed to familiarize himself with his strength, Mario noticed that after a few minutes John is now able to counter more than before.
Jonathan speed up by a notch, he wanted to push John to the limit, he has no more to teach his son, but he could train him and gain more battle experience through sparring, and their sparring is abnormal in the eyes of outsiders. As Jonathan didnt stop until John has drained all his energy. "Ready your self, make sneak attacks using the training weapons" (training weapons are called such, just because they are blunt, however being hit by this would also cause heavy damage) as he instructed the guards through his soul sense
One by one all the guards picked up a baseball sized metal balls, and threw it to Johns direction. Mario wanted to stop the guards, but it was Alfred who held him by his shoulder. "Dont bother stopping them just sit back and relax, its how they normally sparred"
"Is this what you call sparring?" Mario complained, his apprentice might die if he is not careful, he looked at Diane who is furrowing her eye brows watching the sparring.
"Before i disagreed to this, but Johns progress cant be measured by normal standards. The hand to hand combat he uses is his own, after learning martial arts from his father, he improved it and created a new martial arts, in just a year he is able to complete the martial arts and perfect it as it is now. We also get to learn it from him, hehehe" with a trace of embarassment from her words, but the pride in her son cant be hidden
"Starting that day we also trained his martial arts and sparred with him, his talents are off the charts, what we thought of as perfect would always have improvements after every defeat John suffered from us. We are all immortals that he is sparring with, even if we lower our levels to Johns there is too much gap to cover, thus he never won. Instead of being discouraged he persevered and modified the his martial arts."
Then she continued "he wanted to defeat his father and improve himself, thus he always sparred with all the guards. Funny right? he also seem to be enjoying the fight."
"But he is just a child" mario said in concern
Alfred then said to him "we have him spar against the special training camp geniuses, we thought they could defeat him, however he defeated all thousands of them with out using any cultivation, when all his opponents went all out against him. He motivated the kids and they became more hardworking than before"
"by our standards his fighting prowess is akin to those of the saint level experts, purely on hand to hand combat, now that he has started his cultivation and is now a silver level expert, he can fight on par with saint experts, though he would loose but it would take alot of effort if they wanted to kill him!" He proudly said
Mario had his mouth open in shock as he heard Diane and Alfreds explanation
John could now use the BGBTA along with his martial arts, thus he has impenetrable defence, even if he is over powered by Jonathan, the sneak attacks were completely blocked, he would also use the weapons thrown at him and use it to attack Jonathan and the guards.
John looked like a general on a battle field, he is smiling while fighting enjoying the adrenaline rush as he fought. After an hour his movements slowed down, he is loosing stamina, some attacks would penetrate his defense. However, his eyes showed endless buring fire, never giving up until his last breath, when Jonathan saw his son, he knew that if he didnt let himfaint he would not stop on his own accord. This is what he admired John the most, his undying resolve, to fight to the last breath. Thus Jonathan hit him on his neck and let him faint.
"Whew... he improved again" he proudly exclaimed
"Yes. The next time we would spar i think i should ask for saint experts of the first level to be his sparring partners" jonathan added
When the guards heard what their king said they rush and kneeled infront of him as they begged "your majesty please let us be the prince sparring partners! We would do our best to break through, its our honor and pride to train with the prince!" They begged and knowtowed to Jonathan
Jonathan shook his head, the charisma of his son is amazing, to think that he could influence this royal guards and willingly be his punching bag. He knew that it was a good thing, it only means that John is being recognized by his subordinates.
"I could agree to your request. But, those who dont breakthrough the saint level in 1 month will be removed from his training partners, understood?" He said
"Yes your majesty!" The replied in unison
All 100 guards started cultivating, no one wants to be left out. Its their honor to serve their prince, if they were left out, it would be a shame for them. Thus they wanted to breakthrough as soon as possible.
Diane, Alfred and Mario saw the scene and were surprised, have your men willingly serve you, this is a wish that every leader prayed for.
Mario sighed, "my worthy apprentice, exceeds my expectation, what heights would he reach?"
"You made the right choice accepting my granson as your apprentice old man, he wont ruin your reputation." Alfred said proudly
Mario nodded his head, "i have a young heavenly flame that i cought when i travelled a few hundred years ago, i wanted to gift it to my apprentice, but sadly i never found a worthy inheritor. Now its different i found an excellent apprentice, the flame would not be wasted on him!"
The three were speachless when they heard Mario, a heavenly flame is a treasure sought by many, many blacksmiths and alchemist would die to get their hands on one.
"My friend, ill stay at the camp and transfer my forging laboratory there, i would train John every day, make sure to spare him a little strength when he comes to me for training" he said, he knew how Alfred trains his men, its a spartan training that pushes his men to the limit bringing out their potential
"Dont look down on my grandson, he takes his tenacity from this old man" as he proudly declares
"I would like to ask you for those training suit that you invented, it should be at least weigh 50 tons each, with Johns strength it would not feel like training if he doesnt have any handicap" Alfred added
Jonathan and Diane felt chills on theor spines as they recalled the training the went through as a child.
John is on his dreamland not knowing the difficulties he had to face on the training camp.
Mario just shook his head but knew what Alfred said is true, with Johns strength, the teaining camp is as easy as breathing, thus, he didnt complain.
The following day, John left the back mountains with his parents and went to the castle, the family ate breakfast and left for the main training camp under disguise.
Johns height is now 3 feet, at two years of age even before he transformed. Thus he kept this form as he entered the camp, his is now lucas, a country bumpkin who grew up in seclusion with his parents.
When they entered the camp, everyone is training under the sun, The family went directly to Alfreds tent and there they saw two old men talking, John stood ramrod straight as he saluted the two, acting like he didnt know them. The old men, returned the salute and gave John his uniform, it was a full long sleeve vest and pants like the rest of the trainees, but when he held it weighed around 50 tons each, he is also given 8 bracelets with rune marks engraved on it, he placed it on his arms and legs, each bracelet has a weight and attracting force of 10 tons.
He knew of this bracelets, from Regurs memory this is a unique accessory to the barbarian race called shackles, the accessory restricts their strength while training their bodies at the same time, thru this method their body is pushed to the limit, triggering its potential.
As he wear the bracelets, he felt an attacting force coming from the bracelets, he needed to expend his whole strength trying to avoid it from sticking with each other.