Practice Ground Five (2)

Kain jumped back as a bunch of ice daggers hit the ground he had just been standing at. They had been fighting for about 10 minutes now, and blood already soaked his clothes. Kain had not hit managed to hit Manar even once. The old man's relentless attacks prevented him from trying to retaliate with his own attacks.

Whenever Kain did have the chance to attack him however, he would find a way to disappear and dodge his attacks, avoiding them all. He had to find a way to consistently track the old bastard, but he was too fast.

One moment he would be launching a wave of icicles at Kain from behind him, the other moment he would be right next to him, punching him in the face before backing away.

At this point an entire crowd had formed to watch the old man practically beat him up.

From the outside, it looked like Manar was just playing around with Kain, attacking him, but only enough to injure, and not knock him out. Only the two of them knew the truth.

Manar was training him by beating him into the ground. It took Kain a bit of time to realize it because he still hadn't even hit him once, but he was getting better at dodging and blocking attacks.

He was just barely managing to adapt to Manar's style. He would attack from one direction, and immediately change how he attacked and where he attacked from.

He bounced around the practice ground, not staying in the same place for a single second, always moving. He was like a nimble rabbit, always dodging all of Kain's ice spears with an expression of glee on his face.

However, Kain was indeed getting better at fighting against Manar's style as the fight kept going. He was slowly managing to adapt, changing his attacks to account for Manar's constant movement.

And yet, while his attacks did almost graze him once or twice, his body would bend in seemingly impossible ways for someone as old as him.

There was something he had to be missing about the old man. He should have hit him at least once by now by the sheer amount of spears he had thrown at him. 

'This is bad, I'm already feeling tired by the amount of times this old bastard has pummeled me into the ground. I don't think I'll be able to keep up for another few minutes.'

Kain gritted his teeth as he barely dodged some spears thrown at him. No more attacks followed up, giving him a chance to retaliate. But instead, he just stood in place, looking at the old man standing across from him, without a single sweat on his face.

"Getting tired young man?" The old man laughed, briefly pausing the fight, "You know, if you're that tired you can just stop and challenge me tomorrow. Maybe you'll get better with time?"

However, Kain simply stood in place, taking deep breaths, 'No, there has to be some sort of secret as to why he is so fast. It can't be water propulsion, I clearly saw him running without any water surrounding him. So what could it be?' 

He started to think on his memories of the show, trying to find any possible reason, before he stumbled upon a little tidbit he had missed.

'Could he be? No, it isn't a full moon yet. But he isn't bending someone else's he's bending his own. So could I possibly imitate him?"

He kept thinking as heard Manar rushing towards him again, getting bored by him just standing there and not attacking back.

But as he approached Kain didn't move an inch, he just kept standing.

'This brat, he's really ignoring me huh?' Manar thought as his hands curled into a fist, 'Maybe he's trying something new? Regardless, being distracted in the middle of a fight is a death sentence.'

He rushed forwards throwing his fist with blinding speed, "Pay attention to your opponent at all time during a fight-"

He was cut off however, with a fist slamming straight into his abdomen, before a kick that sent him flying. He just barely managed to land on his feet, but it was clear that the sudden attack had a major effect on him.

He got up coughing, taken aback by the sudden and powerful counterattack. Across him stood Kain, leg still outstretched, before it was swiftly retracted as he got into a fighting stance.

Kain grinned as he looked at the old ma's astonishment, 'I was correct, this is a variation of bloodbending but applied to oneself. By propelling your own body fluids, you can vastly increase both speed and strength.'

He looked down at his own hand, which was still shaking after the punch, 'A side effect? Well it makes sense, I haven't mastered the technique yet. I'm still feeling the backlash from using it. For the old man to continuously use it without getting tired... He really is a monster.'

This technique was one of the variant techniques of bloodbending. He had recalled this technique from Amon using it. The technique allowed a waterbender to display feats of flexibility, strength and speed beyond any other bender. 

However, this technique only touched the tip of the iceberg on what bloodbending was capable of doing. It was simply a way to control the blood in your own body, unable to affect anything outside. Regardless, it was a good foothold into the art of bloodbending, for now at least. After all, it wasn't like he was going to get any more progress into that due to more ethical reasons.

He looked over at Manar's direction, "Ready to continue the fight old geezer?"

Manar looked at him with a bit of concern in his eyes, "Kid, you uh... you sure you ready to fight again? That technique does have quite a bit of a backlash."

"Don't worry I'll be fine, now lets finish-" His sentence was cut off as his body shook rigidly, before his eyes blanked out as collapsed on the ground.

"Sigh, I warned him about the backlash." The old man approached Kain and picked him up, carrying him like a sack of potatoes, 'Still, being able to adapt and learn my techniques in just 15 minutes... this kid is inhuman. Does he have any prior knowledge on bloodbending?'

The old man ran at full speed, blitzing past the crowds of bystanders that had been there to see the fight, 'Maybe I should tell Balam about this...'

As he ran towards the infirmary, a single man blending in with the crowds followed him. He stopped right as the old man entered the infirmary, observing from a distance, "A kid who can use the same techniques as Manar? So my theory was right, it isn't hereditary. I wonder if Ra'Ok would be interested..." The man withdrew his gaze as the old man left the infirmary, before walking away, again acting like just another citizen.