Chapter 16. Dancing Dragon.

"The martial art I will teach you was invented by our first sect master; it covers all the basic aspects of combat from attack to defense and evasion. Its name is 'Dancing Dragon,' and it consists of nine katas. If you can fully master all nine, even as an ordinary mortal, you will be able to take on five trained individuals simultaneously and easily defeat them all. That was the brief introduction and now let's get straight to action. Novices, spread out so there's about five meters between each of you. Excellent, at least I didn't have to hold your hands and lead you. You're not as hopeless as I thought. And now," said Deacon Gerhard, rising a meter above to make himself better visible to everyone, "stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, keep your hands at your waist like this, and follow my movements for the first kata.

"Step, left hand punch, step, right hand punch, step, block. Watch my movements. And again... Now I'll show you the second kata, which emphasizes a low kick and blocking such a kick. Follow me." In this way, from one kata to another, the deacon led his novices, showing them more and more new movements, each of which they repeated many times before moving on to the next. Meanwhile, without ceasing to demonstrate the katas, Gerhard commented on the progress of the novices and corrected their movement errors if they made any.

"Lucius, well done, everything is perfect. I think Elder Royden would be proud to see how you perform the katas."

"Eyron, put all your strength into each strike in this kata. You seem to be holding back constantly; stop it."

"Melissa, raise your leg higher, the strike should be aimed at the opponent's head, not their belly. What do you mean you can't lift it? Need help?"

"Lin, you must be like a dancing dragon, not like a drunken dog. Movements should be smoother! The first move should flow into the next!"

"Oberin, shorten your step a bit, move your torso more with the strike. Yes, like that, very good. Now you're doing great. Keep it up."

"What are you doing, Weed? Are you even watching my movements? You move as if you were born yesterday. Once again. No, no, not like that, with that block you won't even block a child's slap, let alone a cultivator's strike. It needs to be like this. Got it? Repeat everything from the beginning..."

Thus, hour after hour passed. Endless repetition of some movements was replaced only by endless repetition of others. Gerhard constantly found flaws in the novices' movements, corrected them, and then found several more. At the same time, he could watch and correct several novices at once, allowing him to evenly distribute attention to each. But he didn't forget to praise them, making the novices proud of their accomplishments and encouraging them to strive for more to earn praise again. Only Weed, the unusual ten-year-old boy, whose behavior Rand found very strange, Gerhard constantly scolded. It seemed like he was always looking for a reason to praise him, but no matter how hard the deacon tried, he couldn't find one.

For some, including Lucius, the teacher made the training program more difficult after a couple of hours. He forced them to put bracelets on their hands and feet, after which even the most trained novices had a hard time. As Gerhard explained to them, the bracelets would constantly change in weight, thereby disrupting the practitioner's balance and destroying their movement rhythm.

For Rand, it wasn't easy either. But not because the katas were difficult for him. No, they were quite simple for his standards, even though he had never practiced these specific ones. But when you reach great heights in one martial art, others will be much easier for you. The main difficulty was not to absorb everything too quickly. His task was to look like a genius, but within reason. So he deliberately made mistakes, at first quite often, but gradually, following deacon Gerhard's instructions, Rand made fewer and fewer mistakes. And he earned more and more praise from his teacher.

"Enough, everyone stop. We'll finish with the 'theory' for today, and move on to the most important part, practice. Knowing the katas and being able to perform them is extremely important, but if you can't use them in real combat, then such knowledge is useless and the skill is meaningless. So now we'll learn to fight for real. Yes, you understood correctly, we'll have training fights now. You don't have to hold back, but try not to maim your opponent unnecessarily. If I notice anyone slacking off or fighting at half strength, they'll train with me personally. And now, pair up as you choose. You have thirty seconds for that. Oberin, Lucius, except for you two. You've reached the first stage, but you still don't fully control your strength, so you're not allowed to practice with ordinary people yet. So you will be a separate couple. And Eyron, you also don't fully control your body, so you'll pair up with me.

Oh, almost forgot, your fights will only end when I say so, and not a second sooner. After that, you can rest."

Deacon's words brought a genuine smile to Lucius's face, and his eyes lit up, and he joyfully turned to Rand.

"So, senior, shall we go? Will you teach me martial arts?" Lucius said the word "senior" with such thick sarcasm that it seemed you could even taste it.

Rand didn't respond to his childishness, just smiled back at Lucius, which made his eyes light up even more. The two young men moved aside from the others to not interfere with anyone else and assumed fighting stances.

"Watch, senior Oberin, I'm starting," and without further words, Lucius attacked, trying to strike Rand's face with his right fist, largely repeating the strike that Achil failed to execute a couple of days ago. Rand tried to block it the way Gerhard had taught them. But Lucius's punch turned out to be just a feint. The son of the elder stepped back half a step and hit the opponent's body with his other hand. Rand tried to block it as well but "wasn't fast enough." And Lucius's fist collided with Rand's stomach, making him stagger slightly and step back.

"You're tough, senior, didn't even fall after that," said Lucius, rubbing his slightly reddened fist, "But it's even better, you'll last longer, we've just started, and I don't want you to break too quickly, and the teacher stops our fight.

"Now I'll kick with my left foot from below, then with my right foot, and then with my right elbow. You have to be faster, senior, faster. See, I'm even giving in to you, calling out each strike, so don't lag behind, or can you only keep up with the mortals? Right foot kick," said Lucius, striking with his left hand, and with a hook to the chin, knocked Rand to the ground — "Oops, sorry, mixed up my left hand with my right foot. Come on, get up, come on. Well done, that's the spirit of a senior."

Their fight went on like this, at first Lucius, with his vast experience, literally overwhelmed his opponent, not allowing him to get out of defense for even a second. Rand constantly received blows to the head, torso, arms, legs. He fell many times — but each time he invariably got up. And even with some progress in the technique of the Bronze Body, he was increasingly covered in bruises and abrasions, blood flowing from many places. It seemed he was standing only by sheer force of will. Most of the surrounding novices had already finished their fights and sat tired, watching Rand and Lucius's battle, which was on a completely different level compared to the duels of all the others.

And the longer their training fight went on, the less Lucius managed to deceive Rand or deliver unexpected strikes. From time to time, Rand even began to launch fierce counterattacks. This whole situation incredibly infuriated Lucius; he hoped to mock his inexperienced opponent and show his complete superiority. But with each passing minute, Rand's fighting technique improved and improved, as if Lucius was training him.

The novices in the vicinity even started discussing their fight:

"Such speed... If I were to stand against either of them, I wouldn't last a second. That's the power of the first stage..."

"Aren't they tired yet? How can they fight for so long? Especially the one who beat Achil, his whole face is covered in blood."

"But it seems to me that this Oberin is fighting better and better."

"That's right. At the beginning, he would miss every second strike and couldn't even get out of defense, but now almost none of Lucius's moves reach their target."

Even Deacon Gerhard began to actively follow their battle, marveling at Rand's achievements.

"This Oberin is a true martial arts genius. In all my life, I've only seen two like him. Few can adapt so quickly; every second, he learns from Lucius, literally adopting his fighting style. Their movements are becoming more and more alike. Lucius is already resorting to various tricks, but none of them work on Obren more than once. It's incredible, but soon I'll have to stop their fight or Lucius will have problems with his self-confidence, and an elder won't be happy about that," Deacon Gerhard reflected as he watched their fight.

"How can this be!" exclaimed Lucius, blocking Rand's strike and stepping back. "No one can improve their movements with such speed. No one can learn so fast. It's impossible. I get it, you already knew the 'Dancing Dragon' art and just hid it, and now you're trying to make a fool of me."

"Where one person needs years of training, another may only need a day. People are different, and so are their abilities," Rand replied, shifting into attack.

"Lucius, Oberin, let's finish, one last exchange of blows and that's it for today." Deacon Gerhard announced.

Rand and Lucius stepped back several meters and nodded toward Gerhard, indicating they heard his words.

"Attack, show me everything you're capable of, fake genius," Lucius allowed his opponent, assuming a defensive stance.

"As you wish," Rand replied, then ran toward Lucius, and at the last moment, even jumped at him, slightly twisting his torso.

Lucius prepared to respond to his opponent's attack with a dodge and then his own attack. Since Rand couldn't change the trajectory of his strike after jumping, it was easy to dodge. Moreover Rand was completely defenseless in the air. Lucius even had enough time and confidence to begin uttering a pompous phrase:

"Only fools jump at their opponents…"

Boom

A strike — and Lucius found himself on the ground for the first time, not understanding how it was possible. "What happened..."

"That's it, we're done with today's lesson, everyone can disperse," deacon Gerhard announced. But at that moment, Lucius, who hadn't fully recovered yet, got up and loudly spoke, attracting everyone's attention:

"Stop! I haven't lost yet, haven't lost. Allow me one more round with him, and I'll definitely defeat him."

"Don't disgrace your father's name with your unworthy behavior, Lucius. It was just a training fight. Everyone is free," Deacon replied, ignoring his senseless request.

"But..." Lucius wanted to say something, but under Gerhard's stern gaze, he fell silent, then ran away.