Training and Malcen

While he was puzzled, Ben put that matter aside. He had urgent matters to attend to. 6 weeks had passed. In the remaining 6 weeks he had to train for the opportunity mentioned by Mahaansh. The reason Ben valued his teacher's word was because of the man itself. Mahaansh was a man of few words and more action. Whatever he said it has happened. Or he has made it happen. Hence, his word could be trusted. He did not what the opportunity was, but he was going to have it. The issue Ben was facing now was that he did not have a practical experience with his martial art. To know whether the integrated art works or not, it had to be put in practice. To practice that he needs either a combat field or a sparring partner. Ben sent a request to the school asking if it was possible to arrange a sparring partner like previously. Ben decided to wait for 2 days for a response. If there is no response, he will go to school to check. If the sparring partner is denied, he will find another way.

For the next two days, Ben was practiced the claws as much as possible. He had analyzed the structure of forearm and the flow of aura and he began to optimize the aura pathways and the muscle, nerve, blood vessel combinations. The external utilization of aura was easy. The internal utilization however was tricky. He could not input aura beyond a certain extent. If he does that, his forearms will be destroyed inside out. He had to control the aura very carefully. When going to his maximum capacity he had to control the internal aura so that his hands did not burst. It was not easy to do this. In these 2 days, Ben achieved only 10% success. He could not control the internal aura very intricately. All the meridians in the body were not equally strong. Only by training them would various parts become strong. In his case only by training the claw technique will the meridians, muscles, nerves, bones, blood vessels and tendons in his forearms become strong for the claws.

On the third day the request for spar was approved by the school. There was no extra fees for this, as this is a service provided for the students who awaken early. The sparring partner was not specified. The sparring was to be conducted on the school grounds on the 6th day. Ben had 5 more days to prepare. The opponent was not specified. But that was also part of sparring. If they know who the opponent is students will prepare and the very purpose of sparring will be sabotaged.

Ben went into a training spree for the next four days. He trained in aura and the fighting skills. He integrated aura into the fighting skills. Ben was making the avatar in his visualization method to do the same moves he was doing outside. So his external body and the internal avatar was doing the exercise in sync. He did not know why he was doing this. But he felt that there was some benefit to it. He also integrated the claw to his fighting skills. Whenever the striking part of his fighting skill came, he would use the claws. He was also training to use aura along with his fighting skills to make it a martial skill. He had to activate more aura in the relevant parts while other parts are kept at minimum aura output. He also could not go overboard either. Any way he needed to have an intricate control. This was not easy. But Ben did make some developments. Ben was accumulating aura and soon entered the stage 4 of Knight rank. Till ranks 4 of Knight, very little amount of aura was required to accumulated. So it was somewhat easy.

Soon the day for sparring came. Ben reached school early in the morning. They were moved to another underground facility in the school. The sparring partner was Malcen. Ben was surprised. He thought it would be a different person. On another thought, he understood that it was not easy to get a Knight to come to a school as a sparring partner. Malcen slightly smiled. He said "It seems you have improved. I could not bid farewell last time. First of all I had important work and secondly you were taking your sweet time to sleep." Ben was a bit irritated. He wanted to refute but could not find any words. He just looked at him. Mahaansh looked at each of them and said "There is no need for introductions, right? You can begin now!!".

 Ben and Malcen stared at each other. Both of them could see that the other person had improved. Seeing that the staring competition was not stopping and because he had other things to do, Malcen moved. Just like previous fight, he simply vanished. Ben was not frightened. He simply used his spatial sense. While he did not spend too much time in this skill, it did develop. Ben sensed him coming from his left side. He used a skill from the ' Airavata Stanam' and blocked it. Ben had covered the part in contact with Malcen in aura so that the electricity does not stun him. Even then a part of electricity did pass through and Ben was electrocuted slightly. But he did not stop. After blocking that move, Malcen's balance was slightly off. Ben performed a skill from the 'Vyali Mardanam'. This was a kick actually and an aura powered one at that, right on Malcen's Chest. Malcen used his arms empowered with lighting to block the attack. But it was not enough. The impact bypassed his arms and Malcen was sent a few steps back. Ben followed through with a combination of 'Sharabha Chalanam' and his claw skills. Malcen attacked back with a lightning empowered kick. Both the attacks clashed and shockwave was created. Both of them moved back. Ben withdrew the claws. Then he ran towards Malcen. Malcen was a bit stunned. He was about to use his speed skill which looked like vanishing. But suddenly a large debris came flying towards him at a stunning speed. He could not execute the skill and he was forced to block it. While he deflected, he saw a shadow at the top. Ben had used a movement skill coupled with a jump to reach above him. With this momentum he used a claw attack on Malcen. He did not have the time to think so he just dodged it and had to roll over. Malcen was stunned. He could not understand what happened. But Mahaansh had seen it. For a split second, Ben increased the aura input to the hand, used external aura manipulation to increase the size of the claw and clawed out a huge chunk of ground and threw it at Malcen. 'The hell. How did this body do that? People think that it is easy to change the shape of aura, but it is not. Only if one practices it and understand the structure of intended object can one manipulate aura like how he did it. This boy, he did it. Not perfectly though, his hand is in pain.' Of course Ben's right hand was in pain. He clutched it hard to ease the pain. He will not be able to use the right hand for some time now. However the spar was far from over. Malcen, seeing that Ben could not use his right hand rushed towards him. Ben narrowed his eyes. He was not using his speed. He was using his power, as he was covered in electricity now. Ben understood that he could not touch Malcen now. So, he punched the ground and he a huge amount of dust and debris rose up. Malcen did not stop even though he could not see. He was confident that he could sense Ben. So, he rushed towards him based on a rough direction and began to use his sensory capabilities to sense Ben. To his surprise he could not sense him at all. He looked around and also used his electric aura to search around. But he did not sense any thing. Malcen withdrew his electric power but covered his body with his aura. Suddenly Malcen's senses picked something. But before he could act on that, something akin to a meteor hit him in the solar plexus.