Chapter 4 | Training

"How could he speak when he was clearly exhaling all his air? Yi wondered, but he didn't have time to wonder, because all of a sudden the tip of Jung-Pal's Jin-geom came crashing down towards his head."

It's cold. Dark. I can't see. I can only hear ringing. I grasp around me, but I cannot feel anything. I start digging my nails into nothing, flailing my arms. There is nothing. No one. Why is it so empty here? How can I get out? I need to leave. Wait what's that? A knife. I can see a knife. It's shining so bright in the dark. It's calling out to me, so I grasp it with my hands, and take it up and chamber it on my chest. This is my ticket out, this is how I can leave the emptiness.

"Hey! Hey you!"

Someone is calling out to me, wait I recognize that voice. It's warm. It's only now when I can feel the warmth of their voice can I feel how cold this emptiness is. The warmth brings along a light, and that light is even brighter than the shininess of the knife.

"Hey you! Hello?"

The light starts pouring in, and filling up the room. I think I know who this voice belongs to.

"Chief?-" I say, but I'm cut off as I awake.

"Chief? No sorry to disappoint you but I'm Jung-Pal, you're new mentor starting today!" Jung-Pal says.

"Wait, what was I just saying?" Yi asks in confusion.

"You were rambling something in your sleep, and grabbing the sheets. So I was waking you up since it's your first day of training," Jung-Pal responds.

"Oh right, training," Yi says.

The two get dressed, and walk over to the training area. It's a big room resembling a wooden Dojang (Korean school of martial arts), with weapon racks lining the walls full of training weapons, and a Joseon banner in the back. In the center lies a big wooden platform, with scratches caked all over.

"Like I said before, I don't need any training. I'm already good enough to fight whatever the Japanese have in store for me" Yi declares while approaching the platform.

"Like I said before, you're not. Trust me," Jung-Pal defiantly responds, while hopping onto the platform.

"How do you know? The only reason you beat me back then was because you caught me off guard!" Yi exclaims, while glaring at Jung-pal, who is mounted on the platform gazing down onto Yi.

Jung-Pal squats down, to be more level with Yi's face, however still staying higher.

"Prove it. Get up here, and we'll spar," Jung-Pal says with a smirk.

"Hmph, You're on!" Yi responds.

Yi triumphantly jumps onto the platform, vibrating the area around him a little, like a lion declaring its territory.

"These are the rules, and I hope you'll listen to them as well as you say you can fight. 3 rounds, the only way to lose is by tapping out, surrendering, or if we're in a situation that would ordinarily be death. For example, when I had my geom (Korean sword) at your neck, I would win that round. Best out of 3 wins, " Jung-Pal announces.

"Don't worry I am a man of honor, I'll follow the rules, heh" Yi smirks.

"Each round has a different choice of weapons, and you cannot use the same weapon you used the round before. The weapon of that round is chosen by the loser in the former round, so for now I'll let you pick since you'll lose this match" Jung-Pal says snarkly.

"Hmph, alright then at least I get to pick. You'll regret those words soon though. I wanna have a rematch from two nights ago, so I choose geom" Yi responds.

"This'll be fun," Says Jung-Pal.

The two walk to opposite ends of the room, and pickup one geom each. Jung-Pal picks up a Jin-Geom (standard military geom), while Yi picks up a Hwandudaedo (Old straight sword with a ring pommel). They then take 10 steps back, until they're just out of reach from their swords, and bow.

"A Hwandudaedo? Interesting, I haven't seen someone wield one of those since the second generation of Ssaurabi," Jung-Pal remarks.

"It's always been my favorite geom, the way it flows and interrupts the enemy's flow, like blood clots cutting off circulation, satisfies me beyond what an ordinary curved blade could do," Yi responds.

The tension is so thick, you couldn't couldn't cut it with those swords. The suspense is so loud, you can hear Changgo (traditional Korean drums) banging in the background. The excitement is so pungent, both of them can smell victory.

They both bow to each other, a 90 degree formal bow, and stick their heads up. They then lift their swords, and put them in front of their eyes, and turn to face the Joseon banner in the back of the room. They then bow a 45 degree formal bow towards the banner. They turn and face each other once again. Yi can see the musty sunlight peering in from the crevices near the banner, and it makes Jung-Pal's hanbok seem to glow once again, but this time in a different manner than at night.

The Changgo start to boom, and the two warriors take up their stances. Yi sends his left foot to the back of his body, and stays turned directly at Jung-Pal. Jung-Pal shifts his body to the right, with his left shoulder leading. His right foot swerves to the side, simultaneously as his body shifts. However Jung-Pal's eyes never move, they stay stuck onto Yi's pupils, calm and focused, like an eagle hunting its prey.

"I won't let you catch me off guard again!" Yi scowls as he lunges forward with his left foot, and thrusts his straight blade directly on the center line.

It was almost as if there was a thin thread, pulling Yi's blade towards Jung-Pal. Yi didn't reject the thread's intentions.

"Less talk, more fighting!" Jung-Pal says, as he parries Yi's blade with the slightest tap, and unwaveringly, keeping his stance, only uses his left hand to perform an upward slash cutting Yi's clothes' collar and nipping his Adam's apple.

The thread was also pulling Jung-Pal towards Yi.

The parry Jung-Pal executed redirected the momentum onto Yi's blade, causing it to vibrate and almost visibly shake, which then distracted Yi for a moment. Yi swiftly side steps to the right, just barely avoiding the tip of Jung-Pal's blade, and getting a shallow yet defined cut on his throat. That feeling was back, fear. However this time, Yi grabbed ahold of it, and decided to cut it as hard as his frustration was going to cut Jung-Pal.

This was the moment Yi's instincts kicked in. The moment Yi truly realized the weight his power had. Those martial arts skills weren't just normal fighting skills, they were killing skills. Yi's father didn't just teach him any style, he taught him THE style. Yi just had to become powerful enough to fully use it. For a second, it was as if time stopped around Yi and Jung-Pal, however their minds didn't.

Jung-Pal started to exhale all his oxygen, and loosen his grip on the handle of his Jin-geom. He carried it up, so that his wrists were resting on his forehead, and the tip of the blade was high in the air, and pointing just behind his head. From this stance, Jung-Pal could perform an infinite number of strikes, however Yi was 99 percent sure he was going to perform the same overhead strike Jung-Pal used in their first fight, which he knew exactly how to counter. Except, something seemed different this time about the stance. Jung-Pal turned to face Yi, closed his eyes, and leaped high into the air all in one big movement clearing the area around him. Yi didn't expect him to jump in the air, however that wasn't going to change the direction of the overhead strike, only the momentum it carried. Yi sunk into a deep, low stance, moving his left leg back even further, so that his legs were wide. Yi rested the handle of his sword on his waist, and gripped the threads on his handle as hard as he could. For a moment, Yi could almost see the air exhaling from Jung-Pal's mouth, it was all concentrated into one string of mist, flowing to the tip of his sword. Yi then thought he heard Jung-Pal say something under his breath.

"Crescent Moon Slash, 20 percent"

How could he speak when he was clearly exhaling all his air? Yi wondered, but he didn't have time to wonder, because all of a sudden the tip of Jung-Pal's Jin-geom came crashing down towards his head. However Yi had his instinct's more prone then than anything else, on complete auto-pilot Yi sent his counter forward. An upward diagonal slash, which would be able to get Jung-Pal right in the groin, seconds before Jung-Pal's tip could even graze Yi's hair. However, things didn't go as Yi expected, Jung-Pal's overhead cut wasn't going straight down like he had expected, it was coming at Yi in a perfect curve from the left, like that of a crescent moon. Behind it, it had also seemed as if the string of mist was on the back of Jung-Pal's blade, driving it forward. Yi couldn't react in time, as his blade was already fully extended out to the right, completely going off target, with no hope of parrying or blocking the incoming attack. Just like that, the fight was over. One finishing blow to the head from Jung-pal's blunt training Jin-geom, and Yi was blasted to the other side of the platform.

Yi had blacked out for not even a second, but immediately got back up on his feet, to which Jung-Pal announced,

"1 point to me, 0 to you. Looks like you get to choose the next weapon, I have a feeling you're going to keep choosing the weapons too since I'll be winning every round,"

"Hmph, you just got lucky" Responded Yi.

How did he do that though? That was the fastest slash I had ever seen, it was almost as if it was cutting through the air, and it formed a perfect crescent moon with the mist that was following it. Yi couldn't help but admire how utterly perfect that slash was, however he hated how he was admiring his opponent.

"For this round I choose no weapon, empty handed fighting" Said Yi, thinking that no swordsman could possibly be that good without a sword.

"Alright, I hear from the locals in the slums that this is your proficiency, let's see if the rumors are true!" Jung-Pal said with excitement.

The two both walk back towards the center of the platform, standing parallel to each other, just outside of arm's length. They stand, feet together. They then both perform the "Palm hold fist" salute and extend their arms forward pushing their left leg out forward, while they salute each other. They then quickly retract their arms and left leg, and do a motion that flicks off the dust laying on their pants, while sinking into their stances.

The Changgo starts banging loudly now, blocking out everything else, forcing the two fighters to only focus on their opponent. The two become more aware of everything on them, they can start to feel their clothes, how the air slivers into and out of their lungs, how their feet grip their shoes and are planted into the platform. They become more sensitive to everything. Their sweat becomes more apparent to them than ever. They can hear the sound of the sweat slowly dripping down from their foreheads to their feet, they can feel the lukewarmness that their sweat emanates on their skin. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. BAM!

A shockwave bursts into the room, sending an explosion of wind towards anything in the room that can be moved. The two fighters' hands clash, as their feet are tangled close to each other.

Yi's knuckles start to blister almost immediately, however he can't feel the pain despite being hyper sensitive, he can only feel enjoyment rising up from inside.

Jung-Pal's palm has parried Yi's fist with a flick, just like how Jung-Pal parried Yi's geom. Yi knows not to fit into Jung-Pal's rhythm however, and decides to not give Jung-Pal time to think. Yi pivots his right leg, and shoots out a right straight towards Jung-Pal's throat, which is suddenly countered by an up-facing palm, which turns over onto Yi's arm. Jung-Pal then grabs the edge of Yi's forearm, the area where the forearm meets the elbow, and yanks it towards the floor, while simultaneously sending a punch towards Yi's throat right over the path he had just made with the yank.

Yi's instinct tells him to dodge, by ducking low and turning his body to low sweep Jung-Pal, to which he misses. Jung-Pal, who has his right leg in front, moves it slightly but just enough to avoid the sweep, and then sends a side kick towards Yi's face.

A direct hit, Jung-Pal's heel had made direct contact with Yi's face, knocking him to the platform. Yi immediately gets up however, because the adrenaline is clouding out all the pain.

Yi decides to left hook Jung-Pal's liver, to which Jung-Pal reacts by trying to roundhouse kick Yi from the opposite side, however the hook was a feint. Yi successfully baits Jung-Pal into a high roundhouse kick, which Yi then catches, quickly smirks, and then kicks Jung-Pal's foot, which collapses Jung-Pal's structure and sends him down to the platform.

Yi then lets go of Jung-Pal's leg, and quickly mounts Jung-Pal from the top. Yi knows all types of hand to hand combat, through his fathers' training, but also through street fight experience. Yi knows that one of the most essential methods of fighting is ground fighting, because most fights end up going to the ground, and you need to know what to do once on the ground. This was bound to be Yi's territory.

Yi hastefully leans over and grabs Jung-Pal's left arm, to which Jung-Pal responds to by sending a right elbow towards Yi's face, however it's interrupted by a low elbow block, with an upwards facing palm, which then turns over to pin Jung-Pal's elbow, and arm, to his chest. Yi then quickly grabs Jung-Pal's left arm with both his hands, and drops down completely on the floor, while lifting both his legs over Jung-Pal's throat and chest. Yi now has completely isolated himself, and Jung-Pal's arm from Jung-Pal's body, putting him into the perfect arm-bar. Yi starts to apply upward pressure into his hips, the magic touch per se, to which Jung-Pal responds with the ultimate move. Tapping out, which in turn stops the match leaving Yi as the victor.

The two stand in silence for a couple seconds, until finally Yi announces his victory remarks,

"Well come on then, choose your weapon!"

"Alright you have talent there, I'll admit it, that is my weak spot after all. There are still some Ssaurabi better than you at hand to hand however, don't forget that. As for me, I choose the Jang Bong (Korean staff, similar to the Japanese Bo staff), the mother of all weapons,"

Great, I suck with the Jang Bong, I could never figure it out. The thing's too long, it always ends up hitting me. Jung-Pal is most likely going to beat me, but I can't give up! Yi thought.

The two warriors both grabbed their weapons, then met at the center of the platform, for the final time. They decide to skip formalities this time as they are both losing their energy, and they go straight into their stances.

"Heh, I can see you don't have much experience with the Jang Bong just from the way you posture yourself with it. Looks like I shall be the victor of this round, and the match," Jung-Pal declares.

"Hmph" Yi declares back, definitely.

Jung-Pal pulls back his Jang bong into his right hand, so that from the front where Yi is seeing him from, no one could tell how far Jung-Pal could extend his Jang Bong. Yi, not knowing what to do at all, leaps into the air, intending to come down on Jung-Pal with a straight downward overhead strike, with both of his hands on the bottom of the Jang Bong. Upon seeing this, Jung-Pal laughs, and simply exhales the mist that he used on his sword again, to which this time it gravitates over to the bottom of the Jang Bong, and he shoots the tip of the Jang Bong straight into Yi's groin.

Yi crumbles over onto the platform like a stale cookie. This isn't the first time he's had a near death experience, but this is the first time it truly felt as if he was going to die.

"Don't worry, I held back. If you're still conscious now, you'll be fine," Jung-Pal said, while laughing.

"Well it seems as if I've won, so now you have to train under me until the Japanese attack. Which won't be too long, however that doesn't mean the training will be easier, in fact it'll be harder since I will try to cram 5 years worth of training into what little time we have!" Jung-Pal continued, with the smile of a devil, and cackling at the same time.

Yi couldn't respond to Jung-Pal, as he was focusing all his attention whether purposefully or not, on his injury. He was about to experience even worse hell, from the devil, from this point on though, because he was a gem that needed a heavy amount of polishing to shine bright.