Chapter 33：The Art Of Death (II): Training

"You want me to take off my clothes? But why?" Rezar asked as he looked at priest with confusion etched all over his face. Priest on the other hand just shrugged his shoulders and answered.

"So that every time my fists touch your body it will leave a mark. I'll train using two or more steps! Why? Because I've only figured out the first two steps, I'll make up the others as we progress."

Rezar raised an eyebrow at that, he took of his shirt leaving his upper body bare as he walked until he was in front of the old clergy.

Rezar didn't known what came next, well he did; but how? What and next was pain, and he was incapable of feeling afraid of it, so he just stood there as Priest made a move, smashing his right fist into Rezar's jaw so hard that he heard it crack ad he was thrown off his feet.

"I've noticed child! That you don't feel fear, there's nothing that you fear in this world, not even pain, and as such you're always willing to keep fighting! How do I known this? Well I've lived with death class holders and vampires before, I know you're all incapable of feeling afraid, but this is something that's important for you. Fear or not, you have to know pain, embrace it, love it, conquer it, and above all be able to knock me down on my ass with just your fists, legs and body alone. This is unarmed combat! And I'm going to kick your ass!"

Rezar received a knee to the side of his head as his vision went blank and he rolled to the edge of the ledge they were standing on, he shakily got to his feet only to receive a bare foot to the chest that sent him over and falling seven meters until he smashed down into the ledge on the level below. It didn't matter how fearless he was, or how strong he had become, Rezar passed out.

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*Splash!*

"Fuck!" Rezar shouted as he was jolted awake, his entire body filled with bruises and both his eyes having swollen up. He was dark skinned, so the bruises on his body wouldn't show in color, but nevertheless he was still very much hurt.

"Watch your language, why are you screaming?" Priest asked as he flicked a single droplet of water of his bare chest.

"The water is cold damnit!" Rezar replied, not at all willing to censor his language for anyone, not even Priest. Rezar shook himself and then asked.

"How long have we been doing this?" there was a blank look on Priest's face before he sent a fist smashing into Rezar's stomach, his wet body seemed to even increase the intensity of the pain, then he answered Rezar.

"We've been doing this for three hours, and you've passed out six times."

"Urgh! Thanks! Ufff! Good to know!" Rezar replied before he crashed to the ground curled up in pain, this hurt even worse than when the Cavern moles were taking a chunk out of his body.

Priest rolled his eyes and he sent his feet smashing into Rezar's stomach, however he was ready as he grabbed onto Priest's leg and attempted to pull him to the ground. However all the priest called Priest did was push off the leg that was held, jumping up a bit and bringing his free let smashing into Rezar's face, safe to say the young man found his way back to the land of unconsciousness.

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"A lot of people talk about the art of war Rezar, the millions of ways to wage war and defeat your enemies, tactics upon tactics, however I feel that a battlefield is just a personal fight between two men; one commander against the others. And that's how fights and wars are, there's no difference, there are all one and the same thing.

In a fight you must act and think at the same time, you must be able to not only anticipate, but predict your opponent's moves, and come up with contingencies when it seems your prediction did not pay off, and you must do it all at the spot.

Wars and fights are the same, there should be no wasted movements, and every strike and hit should be as critical as possible and aimed to bringing your opponent down as fast as you can. A prolonged fight is never good, so every time you decided to draw your sword, you every strike must be to kill.

In the body of a man, his shoulders, stomach, neck, eyes, nose, groin, joints, if attacked properly could decide a fight. You must have power Rezar, you must have defense, but above all, you must have speed. There are many school of thoughts about what matters most, absolute attack, absolute defense, or absolute speed. In my opinion I would say, why not all of them! Balance is the essence of life, my faith teaches that everything is created by God, but he lets it live on and thrive or fail without interference because life must have balance!

If you want to but hard, then you must be fast enough to but twice as fast as speed enhances attack, and your fist and body must be sturdy enough to withstand the impact of that hit. So fight me, and make sure I don't ruin that pretty face of yours today, yesterday was quite productive, but it was also quite disappointing. Fight better today alright! God bless you child!"

Rezar so wanted to rip apart the smile etched on Priest's face, this was the second day, but he had spent the entirety of the previous day getting beaten to Within an inch of his life and being unable to fight back. In all honesty it baffled Rezar, why did he have to get beaten up so much, he had no idea how this coincided with training.

He has not even achieved any Milestone, or received any sort of stat or skill point bonus. Maybe it was because he now had higher levels in all of his classes and as such more stats, so the achievements of milestones would be a lot more lesser, however; getting his pretty face smashed in by a priest still didn't feel good. But what could be do, he asked for this.

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And it was in this manner the days blurred together, Rezar had not had the time to go hunting for any other monsters, but instead sparingly raised the remaining undead cavern moles and had them mine and like up more ores and gems. Every time priest left, he would leave with at least half of the gems, he ignored the Stygian ores and had instead advised Rezar deliver them all and clear a significant amount of his Quota.

As of this moment Rezar was free of labor (in a way) for the next three months. The Stygian ore was in abundance with his sector of the mine, and he had the best sort of miners with the moles. Either way they've been training for a week, still no milestones or bonuses, but there was great change in Rezar.

Priest didn't teach him any sort of martial arts, but Rezar was quite imaginative in the way he applied his movements and fought. He would strike with his foster hands but push his middle finger out a bit to create a concentrated point of impact.

He was fond of attacking joints with that move, and he was usually quite fast. To Priest Rezar was a slow learner, a very slow learner. Compared to others he had trained, even with his more magical oriented combat classes, others in his shoes would have either earned a trait after three days, or even some stats bonuses.

But he remained the same....at least in stats anyways, skills could be trained, but they could not be generated from practice. You needed the skill books to get the corresponding skill, so while Rezar was learning unarmed combat, without the skill, there would be no bonus to his attacks.

However he was still learning to be a good fighter, which exposed an aspect of Elysium that was a bit grounded in reality. Not everything learned here, can be a skill.

You can be a good cook without having the cooking class or skill. But the difference between you cooking and someone who has the class and skill would be miles apart. The person would cook a food capable of giving bonuses. But yours will just taste really good.

But nevertheless after a week Rezar could fight decently, the only thing that worried priest was the fact that Rezar thought a little too much during a fight.

It made him understand something of Rezar's character, though he suspects his necromancer class might be the cause. Rezar like to predict the outcome of a fight from start to finish, and he used the most efficient way to try and attack, which was good.

But every move was a scheme, a carefully crafted dance to push Priest into a corner. After seven days of training, though much more was still needed, Rezar already knew how to control the flow and tempo of a fight.

He lost every time of course, Priest was trying to teach Rezar how to fight directly without tricks and fancy moves with efficiency. But this kid likes to torture his enemies, he was turning the entire lessons upside down. He was using tricks to deal damage in the most efficient and sustained way possible, every move should cause pain and make the fight easier for him. This was a tactic he adopted because he was fighting an Enemy stronger, faster and had more endurance than him.

Instead of hoping for a fatal attack, he was fighting to leave an impression, basically he fought with the mindset 'I know I'm going to lose, but I'll make sure you work for it' and after the fourth day priest knows he has been working for it. He was still loads faster and stronger and more resilient, but a dozen tiny punches will still hurt eventually, even if he had all his stats above tier 6.

Rezar was not the best he's trained, in fact he was just about the worst, but Priest had to admit he was the weirdest and most adaptive, or rather it would be best to say things adapt to him.

"Its been seven days old man, you took the last of my precious stones and ores three days ago! Is your merchant friend not back yet?" Rezar asked as he looked back from the ledge where he was sitting with his leg dangling over the edge.

"Don't be in a hurry, Bahrenburg is a newly established land in the frontier, the warlords are still warring between each other in an attempt to crown a new king, movement between all of the Duchies ain't easy. Not to mention we're right at the edge of Bahrenburg, in a place called the wild canyons of Toromont. Navigating this place is tricky, but never the less the Merchant is back and he's brought your money, here."

(You have received 427 gold, and 80 silver Elys.)

Rezar had a big smile on his face as he turned to Priest and asked.

"So what do we do next?" Priest smiled and answered.

"Now! We're going to beat you up with Nunchakus or rather both you and I will be beating you up with it, isn't this fun? It's the next step in your training!" Rezar was surprised, he didn't know how to react to this sudden turn it events because quite frankly this wasn't what he had expected for the second step.

He thought maybe he would start training with weapons, which in way he was actually right about, but why Nun-chucks of all things? It didn't make sense to him, not one bit, so all he could do was look at Priest and ask.

"Nun-chucks?"