Elemental Soul (Book 1 of 'A Fantasy in Time')

Chapter 14: Hand to Hand

Chapter 14: Hand to Hand

I almost dreaded waking up this morning as I wondered what other torture methods Monroe had for me in training.  I knew this was for my own good, but damn!  I think I actually had nightmares these past few nights of Monroe putting me back in and just leaving me hanging in that accursed anti-gravity sphere.  It wasn’t the sphere itself that scared me.  It was the idea of falling to the ground with all those needles already in me, getting stabbed in even further.  *shudder*

Though we seemed to have graduated entirely to stances, his training methods were entirely at odds with what I had seen others do before.  So I had no idea what to expect.  Begrudgingly I made it to his Manor at the assigned time in the morning.  As soon as I arrived, Monroe had another roll of cloth which I had taken to associating with the acupuncture needles, waiting for me.  As soon as Azure saw that, she veered away from the training area and took a walk through the Manor.  She had long since taken to exploring the remainder of Monroe’s home, only to come bothering us for food and to go out-side for a bathroom break.

Seeing her instant dismissal of the training session and the look of resigned sorrow on my face, Monroe began to laugh.  “I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist it.”  He said as he let the rolled up length of cloth unravel as it opened towards the ground showing there was nothing in it.  A sigh of relief could be heard through the room as I realized that he was joking with the needles this time.  “Hahahah!”  He laughed even harder at that.

“Also you no longer need to wear the undergarment that I gave to you.”  He then paused a moment as if in thought.  “I do however suggest you keep it since I find it helpful to practice my techniques with few movement restriction.”  ‘Like Hell’, I thought.  And I so did not need that mental image of Monroe’s wrinkled figure practicing his motions in a man thong in my mind.  That abomination was going in the trash as soon as I got home.  “Um actually, I’m going to go change, so I’ll be right back.”  I had taken to wearing the damn thing under my pants to Monroe’s place after which I changed at the Mage Guild into my normal pair of underpants.  Rushing off to one of the manor’s bathrooms I quickly stripped off the offending garment and donned my more comfortable underpants.

Now back in the room, I was curious to see that Isaac was not there this time for our training session.  As I had not stepped onto the padded training mats till after I had changed, I hadn’t realized that the gravity was still greatly increased in that area.  Looking around in confusion, I saw that at each corner of the training mats was a chalk glyph with a shining brown stone in the center of each glyph.

“Ah, I see you noticed the change in audience.  Isaac knows that I don’t like showing others my techniques, so he created a method to keep the gravity field going for much longer now without his intervention.  Now I want you to stand in the middle here.”  He said while pointing just next to where he stood.  “And get into stance one.”  As I followed his instructions, he began at first pushing lightly on me in various areas as if to knock me over.  Then, as I continued to remain standing he increased the force that he exerted upon me.  Only after I finally had to take a step to keep myself from falling did he say anything more.

“Good!  You are using the correct muscles to hold yourself firm.  Now let’s go to the next stance.”  We went through all of the stances he had trained me in, correcting me a few times when I put too much or too little weight on a certain area that he said hindered the effectiveness of it.  Standing back to look at me, he finally said.  “You are now ready to learn how to fight.”  “Yes!”  I cried out in relieved excitement.  Then in a single rush he knocked me over *hard* onto the ground.

“Ugh!”  The air was forced out of my lungs at the combined force he exerted in knocking me over and the impact upon the ground itself.  Looking down at me he raised his eyebrows expectantly.  “Well, aren’t you going to get back up?”  He asked.  Feeling I was in mortal danger if I didn’t do as expected, I got back up in a hurry.  Then he proceeded to rush me again with the same resulting crash to the ground.