Chapter 3 part 7 The newly forged master

I had returned to Jackie from gathering the rocks for chemicals they were made into several separate compounds.

Firstly we made basic acids then compound acids each 1 had its purpose some compounds stayed as powders till the last step.

Some of the compounds were bases and they were used to create refining salts and to take some dissolved metals out of solution later the pure metal power would be collected, wrapped in a cloth coated in special salts then forged out into extremely pure metals.

Jackie only worked with 5 metals iron, copper, gold, silver and aluminium he would combine them forging them together from time to time.

Jackie had finally been satisfied with the quality of my compounds.

I had used this knowledge to gather up more chemicals for myself and have tests run in my crypt surprisingly my material quality had drastically improved and the state of my technology was improving rapidly.

I hadn't even taken notice of the technology advancements that had been available to me as Jackie kept me extremely busy.

I had been hammering out hundreds of pieces of armour at Jackie's forge I had only learnt half the trade thus far, the weapon craft was where the alloyed metals played there parts and where the true secrets in the versatility of its creation was.

Jackie had walked up to me as I completed the last piece of armour in a set of hundreds and said "Follow me, today we will be learning the next part in metal craft that is finding the balance between metals but before that I need to help you find the balance inside yourself and bring it out."

Jackie this time had me run with him to a nearby plateau and as we ran up I noticed the beauty in the plateau.

If you wanted to feel balance this was the place it was perfectly calm and the strong winds broke on the mountains making it perfectly calm, the air was not hot or cold it was simply perfect.

As I looked around I noticed Jackie gesture me to come to the centre of the plateau and as I followed his directions I noticed how level the ground was.

Jackie suddenly stopped and spoke "Now I will teach you my martial arts first you will need to master the form then I will have you find the balance of the art. The first art I will teach you is called Ti-Chi this art is all about redirecting and subduing stronger forces the next will be Taekwondo this art is all about using your strength in pin point precision blows you use it to attack with the most accuracy and with balance you will find that even without great power you can have great impact."

Jackie started with slow gentle movements that seemed to be nothing more then pushing and pulling the air, while the movements may not have seemed very useful they were certainly good for achieving balance.

The movements had started to pace up and every movement Jackie made was almost like the wind blowing through the plateau, I had also noticed that his muscles seemed to totally relax and contract rapidly.

All of a sudden Jackie came to a complete stop and changed his stance.

His open palms quickly clenched into fists and each action flowed violently pulling his body weight around.

Each punch let of a sudden whip into the air yet he did not seem to move a lot to achieve this.

I had been following each movement keeping pace yet I could not achieve the sound, his muscles had once been softening and tensing rapidly.

Finally the forms had concluded and Jackie said "Tomorrow we will do this at sunrise on the mountain peak then on the slopes at midday and here at night."

We ran back down to the shop and started processing the chemicals for our next days work.

The martial training continued on the mountain peak in the morning however the wind had forced me to over brace my body and the cold winds forced me to tense up.

My movements were a complete mess as I moved about haphazardly never pulling to position for any of the stances.

Once more Jackie had us run back to the shop and start processing the raw ores into pure metals, the work proceeded till midday.

Finally we had ran out to the steepest slopes and started the training this time the forms were easy in the start but as we started moving faster I kept losing my footing and falling over, the martial arts seemed to form part of the balance Jackie had wanted me to achieve and I seemed to have grasped the gist of the lesson.

The training had continued for a complete month and despite my best efforts I continued to fail at the motions of the martial arts.

Jackie finally decided to talk to me 1 evening after the sunset.

Jackie had just finished cleaning up his part of the shop and he sat next to me saying "The martial arts are not just some technique they a way of life despite your grasp of the motions I grantee that you wonder why you can't keep your motions on the peak or slopes?"

I had been gazing up at the stars listening to what he said and replied with "I honestly have been trying to refine the form so hard despite my best tries it just keeps pulling me off balance every time the wind blows or the starts to cool I just can't keep with the flow and on the slopes every time I speed up the balance flows so quickly I just fall down."

Jackie smiled looked up at the stars with me and replied "On the peak your breathing is everything if you learn to pace your breathing and have your body tuned into the weather you will learn when to move with the changes, on the slopes you need to actually learn to clear your mind and flow with the energy you invested in each movement.

This must be brought to your craft in every strike and you will become even greater then you already are with crafting, then I can teach you how to blend metals to work as weapons."

I had taken a deep breath and said "Thank you for all you have done for me not only teaching me to come to terms with grief but now even teaching me to adapt to the future."

Jackie seemed to not move for several seconds then he said "We all have a responsibility to help others achieve peace or bring them happiness I simply saw my chance to make amends for my past."

I couldn't respond to what he said because I too felt the same way Jackie did.

This night I had decide to try and master the mountain peak I had rushed up and started the forms remembering everything I had just been told.

Despite having come to grasp the action I now understood that I had to focus my breathing and as the night progressed my form started to flow perfectly.

The dawn had just broken as I was still training when suddenly I saw Jackie arrive he did not start his practice he simply watched my practice and once I had completed he clapped his hands loudly.

Jackie looked at me and said "Congratulations you have mastered the breathing now you can draw on your chi in defence and better yet your attacks will start pushing out more force."

The 2 of us stood at the peak and continued our regular morning pattern of training.

We had just got back from training and I hard started grinding at the chemicals today I seemed to get done a lot faster using the breathing technique to maximize my motions.

Jackie had seen me get done with all my work and pushed me of to go practice on the slopes.

This time I had done as I was told and despite that I had noticed my powering through allowed me to complete the forms with minor errors as I over shoot my finishes.

I had quickly started dialling back my power and fine tuned my strength to balance my landings.

The motions were rapid and had sunk in with me instantly I noticed the changes I needed in every shift of power and then I closed my eyes and flowed with the form till it felt like I was not doing a thing.

The forms brought on no more difficulty and the air ripped with every motion I made till I finally noticed the last breath of Jackie finishing his form.

I opened my eyes and Jackie said "You have surpassed me in my martial arts congratulations now let's get to the shop."

We had arrived in the shop and ever since I had been around Jackie had produced and alarming amount of metal blocks today Jackie did not have the forge on instead he had oils and polishing stones at the ready and we began polishing the metal cubes with each pass I felt the softness or the hardness of the metal and in an instant I had understood how to combine the metals.

Jackie had only showed me the orders he had and I lined up each block with the metals I would combine with it or melt into it.

Jackie had several large containers for melting the metals and I instantly chose out the best suited ones and lit up the forges and started the crafting.