"Ugh…!"
I could hear Dong Fang Yue Chu complaining from his corner in the dojo. Dad had prepared a special training menu for him – one was for him to do non-magic martial arts like the rest of us, but the second portion of his training involved him practicing fire magic. I could see Dong Fang Yue Chu's crimson flames flickering at the edge of my vision, but I was in no position to worry about him.
Wham!
Dad's sword caught the crown of my head despite my best attempts to block it and I dropped to the ground with a groan.
"Your defenses are too lax," he told me as he offered me a hand. I accepted it and allowed Dad to pull me back to my feet.
"Again?" I asked.
"Well…" Dad glanced over at where the rest of my juniors were training. And his eyes stopped on a restless Troy, who was hammering a punching bag to oblivion. "Normally I would like to, but let's not keep our guest waiting."
"Oh!"
I nodded and backed off, waving toward Troy.
"Okay, all of you can stop your training for today." Dad clapped his hands. Dong Fang Yue Chu looked incredibly relieved as he stopped conjuring his flames, and my three juniors turned to watch their dojo master curiously. Dad smiled and gestured to Troy, who had also come to a stop after a single hammer blow that knocked the poor punching bag off its suspenders and sent it crashing untidily into the ground.
"Oh?" Harvey looked pretty excited, though that guy was enthusiastic over just about everything. "Are we having a new lesson today?"
"Sort of." Dad nodded and then cocked his head toward Troy, who couldn't help but smile and crack his knuckles. "As you've probably already noticed, we have a special guest today."
Originally Troy wanted to spar with Dad immediately, but my father didn't want to detract from his training schedule, so he asked Troy if he minded waiting until our daily training was over for the day. In return, he gave Troy something to hit, and the latter went to work on it with a vengeance, happily pounding the crap out of the poor punching bag. Right now, the poor thing was rolling around helplessly on the ground, dented and crushed.
"So are we finally going to duel?" he asked.
"Yeah." Dad studied him and nodded. "You've become a lot stronger since our last exchange." H cocked his head toward me. "Like Richie, you've been accumulating quite a lot of combat experience, haven't you?"
Troy grinned. "You know it."
Dad sighed. "Well, looks like this is going to be a tough battle. I'm getting old, so please go easy on me."
Please…Dad was only in his thirties at most. It wasn't as if he was getting any weaker. In fact, his magic was growing stronger, if I was any judge.
He turned to look at us. "Watch this battle closely. I'm sure you'll learn a lot from it. Especially you, Richie."
"Yeah, okay." I nodded. Let's be honest, I was probably the worst martial artist to have existed in Dad's time.
Troy stretched himself as he jogged into the big space in the center of the dojo, and Dad merely waited with his arms crossed. When Troy dropped to a combative stance, raising both his hands in a standard kata, Dad finally put one foot out and stretched out a single hand as if to beckon his opponent to come at him.
"You can begin any time you're ready," he said.
Troy grinned and sprang forward immediately, throwing a punch. Dad deflected it by smacking the dark-skinned martial artist's hand to the side, but the latter responded with a hook from his other hand. Dad brought his other hand up to parry the blow – not by blocking his fist head-on, but by swinging his arm inside of Troy's punch and striking the latter's forearm to shift the trajectory of the fist. As a result, Troy's fist merely flew past the side of his head, missing entirely.
"!"
Troy's expression betrayed a glimmer of surprise, but he was quick to recover, bringing his knee up. Dad took a step back, avoiding the knee, and then jerked his head and chest back to avoid a merciless swipe from Troy's hook. Spinning to the side, he struck the dark-skinned martial artist's collar bone with a chop. The latter flinched, but he struck Dad's arms, knocking them away, and then punched him in the chest.
Again, Dad was able to whirl away to the side to avoid the fist, and then he cut his hand down upon Troy's elbow, causing the arm to slip aside. With a series of sharp, precise strikes to Troy's face, neck and chest, he forced his opponent back. Troy managed to raise his guard and defend his face and neck, but he was forced to withdraw.
Not because Dad's strikes were powerful. But they were sharp, swift and precise, aiming lethally for Troy's weak points.
Despite being beaten back, Troy grinned in feral delight, his eyes gleaming.
"It's been a while since I've received your Wing Chun!"
Dad merely smiled and then rammed his elbow against the side of Troy's head, opening up a wound. Troy staggered backward, blood streaming down his face.
"Less talking, more fighting," Dad said, and then flicked his hand at his face again. Troy managed to block that strike, but Dad kicked him in the knee, causing him to buckle and fall over. Troy gritted his teeth and pivoted on his other leg, throwing a vicious punch that Dad was forced to sidestep. That bought him more than enough time to launch his counterattack.
To Dad's surprise, Troy suddenly switched tactics by abandoning his kata and diving straight at him in a tackle. This time, Troy was using wrestling techniques, trying to grapple with Dad and lock his limbs. Dad managed to avoid him, and he countered with a strike, but Troy showed surprising flexibility, throwing himself up and locking Dad's arm by wrapping his arms around it. His legs snaked out and hooked over Dad's shoulder, and with a twist of his body, he brought Dad down to the floor, grabbing Dad's hand and trying to dislocate his arm from his joint.
Dad grunted as he hit the tatami mat, but he didn't struggle and roll about. Instead, he relaxed his arm. Troy didn't expect this maneuver, only for Dad to suddenly tensed his arm and smack his opponent's body against the floor. Troy's head smacked the ground and his hold loosened, allowing Dad to slip his arm out and quickly pull away, distancing himself from the prone black guy.
As always, Troy was quick to recover and jump up. He had bragged in the past that he had taken a lot of hits in the past and was pretty sturdy after enduring so many beatings, and I could see the truth in that as he straightened up. Flexing his arms, Troy switched his fighting style yet again, stepping forward and kicking Dad from an unexpected angle.
"…"
Dad managed to block Troy's kick, but the latter was already spinning around for yet another kick. Dad backed away as Troy delivered roundhouse kick after kick, basically turning into a human tornado.
"Amazing…" Harvey gasped in awe as he watched the two experts duke it out. "Is this really a duel without magic?"
"That's right," I confirmed. Then I grinned. "Now imagine what happens if you have that as your basic foundation, and then combine it with magic."
"I see…" Stan nodded, mesmerized. "Yeah…I understand now why your father wants us to learn martial arts."
"Martial arts can be applicable to any form of combat. Even though he fights like this, Dad is still a summoner." I glanced at Dong Fang Yue Chu. "Who specializes in fire magic and fire summons. Yet he devotes so much time and energy into mastering martial arts."
Dong Fang Yue Chu blinked and nodded as well. "As expected of the legendary Angel of Fire," he murmured. "He's on a whole different level."
Right now, Troy had switched back to punches, and was dancing around Dad while throwing his fists out in rapid-movements, but sometimes switching to locks and holds whenever Dad countered. It reminded me of Krav Maga. As I watched him grab hold of Dad's arm after the latter tried to strike him, I couldn't help but be impressed by Troy's vast knowledge of so many different martial arts. He was a true prodigy at fighting.
Dad shook his arm free, and then smacked Troy away before kicking him in the leg. Troy was caught off guard by that last kick, falling to his knee, but he was able to block Dad's next strike and grab hold of his arm, trying yet another lock.
Dad already saw through that, however.
Instead of trying to break free of the hold, Dad leaned in and rammed his knee into Troy's chest, earning an astonished gurgle from his dark-skinned opponent. Troy's hold naturally loosened, and Dad took advantage of his momentary lapse to strike his face with a barrage of swift, precise blows that snapped his head back.
But Troy could handle a lot of punishment. Gritting his teeth, he brought his head back up, almost as if to head-butt against Dad's fists. Dad narrowed his eyes, and instead whirled away, continuing to rain blows on Troy's neck and shoulders. Troy flipped upward with a kick that almost slammed into Dad's chin, but the older man deflected his foot with his elbow. Almost as if he was dancing, he caught Troy's counterattack when the dark-skinned martial artist punched at him, and then bent it.
This time, it was Dad's turn to lock Troy's arm. Pressing the helpless Troy to the ground with his knee, he rained down another barrage of short, swift punches on his arm, all the way to his head. Troy's eyes lolled about in his head for a second and he lost consciousness.
Breathing heavily, Dad rose to his feet and backed away from his opponent. The rest of us watched in horror (except me, who already had some expectation of what would happen). Dad shook his bruised fists, grimacing.
"Can't hold back against this kid now…"
"Whoa…will he be all right?" Dong Fang Yue Chu demanded. "He took quite a lot of damage, didn't he?"
"That senior…he lost consciousness!" Wang Fei gasped.
"Should we…should we call for an ambulance?" Harvey asked nervously, as if he was witnessing murder in front of his eyes.
"No need for that. Troy will get up soon." I assured them calmly. Everyone stared at me in disbelief.
"No way. Not after getting beaten up like that…" Stan began, but he was cut off by a cough.
Blinking, Troy stared at the ceiling of the dojo for a few moments, then slowly stood up. Grimacing as he traced the bruises and scrapes along his face, he turned to Dad sheepishly
"Looks like I lost again, Uncle?"
"You were pretty close," Dad conceded with both his hands raised. "You made me panic there for a moment."
"Aw…" Troy shook his head as he stood up. Cracking his head from side to side as if to relax the stiff muscles in his neck, he shrugged. "I'll try again after some training and missions."
"You're welcome to challenge me anytime," Dad replied cheerfully. I didn't tell Troy that Dad had been training on his own and taking far more dangerous missions than both me and Troy put together. So even if Troy grew stronger, it wasn't as if Dad was going to stagnate and remain at the same level for him to catch up to.
"That was amazing!" Harvey exclaimed, his eyes shining. "Will we be able to reach that level one day?"
"If you continue training everyday, you might." Dad turned to us with a grin. "Now, I hope you guys learned a lot from that exchange!"