Chapter 123

Chapter 123

A fist with the force of a charging bull hit Anton straight in the face. He was sent flying backwards, though despite how that looked it was actually the best result. That meant the force was nicely distributed instead of just focused on a single deadly point. It wouldnt entirely stop his face from bruising later, and he still had to land properly. As the wall came rushing towards him he twisted his body so that his feet were facing it, and he landed much as he would from a vertical drop, though with some awkward forward and ground-facing momentum.

He wasnt even fully on his feet when his opponent reached him, kicking him in the side. His body lifted off the ground slightly, and a kick from the other side tossed him back in the other direction. None of the attacks were powerful enough to truly break through his defenses, but it was shameful to be treated like a sack of potatoes. The attacks kept coming continuously, giving him no time to think between them. Which was, of course, the whole point.

Anton had only barely started to lift his hand to block the fist coming for him when it stopped, touching his nose. He sighed. Have you been holding back or something, Hoyt?

Hoyt shook his head. Its just the restrictions placed on you that make it feel so difficult. Youre not used to fighting without a weapon. Besides, youre actually less effective than normal for another reason. Youre trying too hard not to think.

I thought that was the whole point of training Instinct, Anton commented.

Depends on who you talk to, Hoyt said, But as someone who knows you and has trained with you, Instinct definitely doesnt replace thinking. What are you thinking about?

I was just trying to not. I wanted my body to react to your attacks on its own. Is that not correct?

Hoyt shrugged, Again, Im just one person but even I dont know how to not think. Besides, Instinct is just another thing. Youll still need to think. Just try to focus on something else.L1tLagoon witnessed the first publication of this chapter on Ñøv€l--B1n.

The two of them went through several more iterations of training over the next several days with only minimal progress. Finally, they found what worked best for Anton. Since he wasnt an expert in Instinct he still needed to be in the mental state of combat to make use of it. So they returned to sparring, with some special features thrown in.

Arms and legs moved swiftly, but the subtle movements of small joints or the waist sometimes made the most difference. Anton could deflect every strike, but if Hoyt got ahold of his arm even his slightly greater cultivation couldnt save him. He had to use all of his concentration keeping himself out of a grapple he would likely lose. Then a rock hit him in the side of the head. Hoyt was kind enough to slow down slightly as Anton was thrown off, but he didnt let Anton have the freedom to think about other things.

At the current moment Anton was able to avoid a simple rock about half of the time. Energy charged rocks he was slightly more successful with, as they were easier to notice. Anton had to admit that he wasnt using Instinct as his sole method for dealing with the flung projectiles, but he didnt like looking so sloppy. It was also not unreasonable, since relying on just Instinct later would doubtless get him killed.

The ones to throw the rocks had been Catarina and Timothy at first, but as Anton advanced in his training Velvet had taken to participating. She upped the difficulty too much with her stealthy, so she usually chose to abstain, but a certain small someone had picked up her technique. Alva didnt have the bodily strength to launch a rock fast enough or with enough precision that Anton wouldnt just have moved out of the way before it reached him even if he didnt intend do, but with a little bit of stealth technique mixed in she nearly matched Catarina and Timothy. Some of that started with Anton wanting to make her feel like she was succeeding, but soon enough he was legitimately finding it difficult to avoid her attacks. Though as his level of proficiency in Instinct increased, he was better at avoiding every attack even when he wasnt expecting them.

It is not hard for those with even a bit of cultivation, though it does make transporting animals difficult, Ebbe admitted.

That first parts the problem. Maybe it doesnt matter, but I cant help but think more people would come see how things are here if the road was better.

Maybe we should work on it, Ebbe conceded. Ill bring it up later. Or you could.

I dont want to force things. I know my opinion carries great weight, but I dont want to run things. He didnt even want to be a mayor when all of these people were just part of Dungannon. It was just that apparently people equated personal strength and leadership. Anton was willing to admit that people could have both, and even that cultivators could improve themselves in ways to become better at leadership, but he didnt think he was there yet. Not really.

Lets stop standing in the fields, Ebbe said. Have a drink. Were a bit low on the good things, but the well is plentiful.

I wouldnt mind a drink, Anton said.

Normally such a thing would be trivial and ignorable. Drop the bucket, wheel it up, pour it into a jug, drink. Easy. Even normal people had no trouble with that, cultivators even less so. Despite Anton feeling his age again, he wasnt feeble. But something felt strange.

His hand grabbed Ebbes wrist before he even thought about it. Wait, Anton cautioned. The water tasted sweet and clean but he had the feeling it wasnt. With that feeling he actually brought his energy to bear, and found that Instinct hadnt led him astray. The water was bad. It wasnt at the level that would kill a man, let alone a village of cultivators but it could certainly make them sick.

Anton had no problem exerting his influence for purposes like investigating the water. Within an hour someone was running into Stregate to get the water tested while many others were moving around the area looking for a source of contamination. Anton wasnt familiar with poisons, but he didnt think the well was poisoned. At least, not intentionally. The investigation would hopefully arrive at the same conclusion. If it was foul play of some sort Anton honestly didnt know what he would do. In such a case, he should probably ask Kohar for advice. She wasnt just an expert on legalities, but also the proper way to handle such things. Back in Dungannon most conflicts were settled easily as they were honest mistakes- and when someone tried to cheat him in a business deal, he simply refused to interact with them again. Once everyone knew someone was a cheat, they didnt last long.

He thought perhaps he should study law. By Kohars admission, she had been doing so for decades and still wasnt able to cover everything in a single field. That meant it wouldnt be easy, and he probably wouldnt have the time. But getting at least a basic understanding beyond village laws could help him maneuver through tricky situations. More importantly, if he planned to push for change in Ofrurg he needed to understand what laws were required at what complexity to make a functioning society. He wasnt a fan of complicated laws, but if they were too simple they might be insufficient.

What Anton knew for sure was that he grew bored when he wasnt actively participating in events, and he decided to scout around the area. He was several times faster than anyone else, and within an hour he found a dead animal upstream of the village that was likely the source of the bad water. It felt the same, at least. He properly moved the half-eaten deer away from the shore. That would prevent the problem from worsening, but he didnt know what to do to make the current water safe.

Fortunately, someone else did. Another reminder that he couldnt do everything, even if he wanted to. Anton supposed he was sort of justified being set in his ways, but the longer he remained a cultivator the less the old man excuse would actually apply. He needed to take a moment to examine which of his future goals he actually needed to lead himself. Killing Van Hassel was a given, but he wouldnt mind giving the job to some Elders if the opportunity presented itself. Personal catharsis was nice, but hed rather not risk his own life and that of his companions for something so ultimately meaningless.