266 Sparring Part 3 : Improvements

Words : 2324 Updated : Oct 5th, 2025

...… Boom! Yet another explosion was created when Shin's fist collided with Arthur's. The two of them were exchanging blows for quite some time already; they even showed each other the new skills that they had learned since Arthur went for his special training. And during these past exchanges that they had, Shin was able to see the great progress that Arthur had made in those days that he was gone. Not only was his impatient temper fixed, but he also learned how to properly keep his mood in check so that he could make good decision making during the battles; it was like someone who already went through a lot of life-threatening experiences. With all of those, Shin's eyes could now finally see that Arthur already closed the gap between their life-and-death experiences. And now that the latter filled this gap, Arthur's advantages were now starting to show one by one. The first one was the quality of their Internal Qi. Even if Shin's Sacred Internal Qi was ahead of the others, Arthur's Internal Qi was not an ordinary either. In fact, it was slightly stronger than the one that Shin had. Due to the Ancient Bloodline of the Springfield Family, their battle prowess was already ahead compared to the others, and one of those was because of their 'Golden Core' Since they had a power of their dragon running through their blood, the 'Golden Core' of the Springfield Family were able to mutate and became the core that they called the 'Dragon Core'. And with this special core of theirs, the Internal Qi that they were releasing from this were much denser and more powerful than the others. Even if Shin's special 'Qi Reinforcement Skill'; the 'Reinforce Iron Bones', was able to bridge the gap of Internal Qi quality, that didn't mean he could win over the other just like that. It was because Arthur also had a 'Qi Reinforcement Skill' of his own; the Dragon Scales. Even though this skill didn't give Arthur an increase in strength and power, it still gave him a powerful defense that was able to neutralize the amplified force behind the kicks and punches that were coming from Shin. And even if the 'Reinforce Iron Bones' in Shin's legs gave him a bonus ability to move even faster, Arthur's eyes were still able to keep up with Shin's speed with the help of his 'Foresight' talent. And everything didn't just end in there. Since Arthur was already battling Shin for quite a long time already, he could tell that he was already too familiar with Shin's skill arsenal set. And with the help of the trick that his 'master' had told him, Arthur was able to understand Shin's skills and find its flaws which gave him the ability to counter each of Shin's attacks time and time again. Shin could tell that those were the same skills based on their execution alone. But everything time that he thought that way, those skills had different effects. They were the same skills yet also different at the same time! And to make the matter even worse, Arthur was shuffling with the usual version of these skills and their variations. And that made Shin to be even more confused at the current situation; he didn't know which variation of skill was coming after him. If not for his ability to be able to grow in battle, then Shin was sure that he already lost this battle ages ago. So, due to him being continuously on the back foot in this battle, Shin decided to use his other ability and skill arsenal set; he also started shuffling with his Martial-Art skills and Mental Techniques. But to much of his surprise, that was only enough to put their battle in the deadlock. And that was because of Arthur's high comprehensive ability from his Martial-Art Prodigy talent. With this ability, Arthur was able to understand these skills with just one look. And with the trick that the strange man had taught him before, he was able to figure out their flaws while being in battle and made him able to minimize their effectiveness even if he couldn't counter them fully. This might be hard to do with battling someone like Shin, but because of the torture-like training that he had gone through and the repeated beating that the strange man had given him, Arthur was able to pick up the habit of continuously thinking to counter a skill while being in battle. Just like that strange man had said. 'Think, think and think. Don't stop thinking and engrave it on your bones and body. And if you are able to do so, you will be able to do many things without even thinking anymore, which is going to become your second nature.' Bang! Arthur sent Shin sliding backwards with a powerful punch while mumbling to himself. "Thank you, Sir! You might be a strange man and always giving me some tortures, but should still need to admit that everything that you have taught me are effective." After that he clicked his tongue and added. "Tch! Looks like I need to admit that you are better than Grandfather and Uncle Nathan in terms of teaching things. Though, I strangely can't remember much about you." Meanwhile, Shin was looking at Arthur with wide eyes and thought to himself in complete shock. "What the? He improves this much during his special training!?" After that, he took a deep breath and thought. 'Looks like I need to resort to that new calming skill that Old Geezer had given me.' Then he closed his eyes for a moment to emptied his thoughts before using the new breathing technique in his arsenal. And with that, the Internal Qi running through his meridians suddenly started flowing at an even faster rate. At the same time, Shin's mind entered an extreme tranquility. And with that, his concentration suddenly went up to another level, making him forget about anything and focus only on this fight. And when he reopened his eyes, he felt that he could see more clearly and could also perceive his surroundings with extreme clarity; even the dust floating in the air couldn't escape his perception. 'Calming Technique: White Dawn Boundary' When Arthur felt the changes in the atmosphere that was surrounding Shin, one of his eyebrows couldn't help but raise upwards. 'Well, well. Looks like he also has more hidden cards under his sleeves.' Then, on the very next instant, Shin suddenly disappeared from his location before reappearing in front of Arthur in just a blink of an eye. And all Arthur could see was the enlarging fist right in front of his eyes. But even if Arthur couldn't see Shin's movements, he was still able to react at it in time; he moved his body according to the instincts that he built up during his special training sessions; he quickly leaned his head and body to the side, barely dodging the fist that was sent by Shin. Bang! The air in front of Shin's fist suddenly exploded after he threw that punch, making Arthur break in cold sweat. 'D*mn! Is this guy trying to kill me or something?' (says the man who keep throwing hard punches) While he was still lost in that thought, Arthur felt a leg traveling with a great speed and was coming after him. And with that, he quickly collected his thoughts and crossed his arms for as fast as he could before positioning them at the path of the incoming kick. Bang! Yet another attack was thrown at him by Shin and this one successfully landed at his guard. And even if he managed to block that kick successfully, his defense was still broken by it and made his arms to be thrown in the air. And before Arthur could even respond, Shin quickly borrowed the momentum of his previous kick to spin his body before throwing a back kick straight to Arthur's chest. Bang! Arthur was sent flying backwards as that kick cleanly landed at him. 'D*mn! That hurts!' While he was still in the air, Arthur did some consecutive flips to relieve some of the force that he had received from Shin's previous attack. And when his feet touched his feet once again, he was immediately greeted by a silver-glowing fist that was coming straight to his face. Without even thinking twice, Arthur quickly took a step backwards while gathering a bunch of Internal Qi on his right-hand fist. Then he punched it forward to welcome the incoming fist. Boom! A powerful ripple was created in the air when their fists collided with each other. Then they maintained that posture for a moment as they looked at each other's eyes. Arthur's lips suddenly curved upwards after a little seconds before thinking to himself. 'Yes, that is how it should be. This is going to be a little boring if you keep getting suppressed.' After that, he swiftly recollected his Internal Qi before gathering them in his left hand as he clenched to form a fist. And when it released an intense golden glow, he quickly punched it forward in a very powerful manner. 'Advance Military Arts: Meteor Shotgun' Swoosh! Naturally, Shin was not going to be in an idle state either. He also gathered a bunch of Internal Qi on his left hand all the way until it shone with a blinding light in silver color. And without waiting for anything, he quickly threw a straight punch forward to greet the incoming fist of his opponent. 'Flowing Water Arts: Boulder Smashing Fist' Boom! Another powerful explosion was created when the two did yet another collision of powers. But that was just the start as the two were already making their next moves; they threw another straight punch at each other. 'Nine Dragon Arts: Blazing Fist of the Solar Dragon' 'Advance Yin-Yang Arts: White Tiger's Savage Fist' Boom! The two of them didn't care about the result of their attacks and quickly pulled their fists backwards at the same time, before enfolding both of their hands with each of their hands. After that, both of Arthur's arms suddenly turned into a bunch of blurs as he threw multiple punches forward with his golden-glowing fists. 'Advance Military Arts: Destructive Machine-gun Fist' At the same time, Shin's arms also transformed into multiple silhouettes as he threw a continuous assault of palm strikes forward using both of his hands that were shining with silver lights. 'Flowing Water Arts: Myriad Transformation Palms' Bang! Bang! Bang! Continuous loud sounds were created as Shin and Arthur continued at exchanging blows after blows. And during his next exchanges, it was Arthur's turn to be surprised. It was due to the execution of skills that Shin had done so far. He was now executing his Martial-Art Skills and Mentalism Techniques in an even faster way and in a very flawless fashion. It was as if he was doing what Arthur was doing to improve his skills. Though, in fact, it was actually due to the 'White Dawn Boundary' technique that Shin was currently using. In this state of extreme tranquility, Shin could not only have the basic essences that were needed in battle, but he could also execute his skills and techniques perfectly since he could have the unity of the trinity essence of the battle; concentration, perception and fast reaction. Having all of those, and together with the basic ability of a 'Battle Genius' which was to grow during battles – it was natural for Shin to re-bridged the gap that Arthur had created during the days of his special training. 'I should have known that it is impossible to beat this guy with just all of the things that I just learned for a short time. In the end, I still need to rely on the talent that lies in my veins,' mumbled Arthur to himself when things reached this point. He shook his head a little and smiled bitterly before putting more strength on his punch to send Shin sliding backwards. Then he didn't start attacking after that, he just stood on his spot while looking at the latter. And with that, Shin also stopped what he was about to do when he saw that Arthur suddenly stopped attacking. After a few seconds, he suddenly started talking and said to Shin. "Alright, since you are really a tough guy, let me show you what I am now when I went all out." Then he paused for a moment as his eyes suddenly turned sharp, and continued. "And this time, I am going to show you what defeat really tastes like." Boom! After that, he released an even more powerful Internal Qi than what he previously had. And this time, that Internal Qi that was covering his body transformed from being a single colored Qi into a multi-colored one. There were seven colors in total, and they were crimson-red, deep-orange, golden-yellow, jade-green, ocean-blue, deep-indigo, and dark-violet. These colors were alternating one after another, making the Internal Qi enfolding Arthur's body to look like a seven-colored flame. At the same time, there was also a 'Divine' character written at the center of Arthur's forehead, which was emitting a golden glow while also flickering with golden lighting from time to time. And together with that, some electric currents were dancing around the seven-colored Internal Qi that was coming from Arthur's body. This sight gave Shin a false impression of Arthur being a powerful divine beast rather than a human being; Arthur looked like a huge dragon from his perspective. 'What the hell is that!?' ...…

266 Sparring Part 3 : Improvements

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