"Ha ha ha"
Mane panted laboriously as he struggled to catch his breath. His small frame was coated heavily with sweat, with his clothes sticking adamantly to his fair skin. Before him was a dummy that was dented in many areas. Along with the dents were small traces of dried up blood. He was currently training. It had been a month since he recovered. That would make it a month since he began his training- body wielding training. His ragged breaths showed how intense his training was. And his tired eyes spoke volumes of the stress it took on his body. Yet when one looked into those tired eyes there was no look of concession, only the burning will to train harder.
"It is not enough." He muttered. Due to his ragged breathing his sentence was produced in fragments, and it wasn't as fluid as it normally would be.
"Again." From his mind space the booming voice of the 5th filled his head. He could feel his ears ringing, almost as if the sound originated from outside, and not from within. He shook off the dizzy spell he was going through and rushed towards the dummy. Unlike the dummy in his ring, this one wasn't so special. Apart from its hard exterior, there was nothing truly special about it. It was a dummy that was used to train wielders in the mortal realm. A gift from his father for training in body wielding.
*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*
Mane constantly unleashed a barrage of kicks and punches at the dummy. His movements weren't perfect, but they were no joke. There were very little openings in his defence to capitalize on whenever he delivered an attack, and every attack was timed to perfection. Although he looked tired, his resolve wasn't lost. On the contrary, it was strengthened further.
"That's enough. Take a break. You have thirty seconds" At the command of the 5th, Mane ceased his actions. He sat down slowly in a meditative state and began to perform some basic breathing exercises. Inside his mind space the 5th hummed in acknowledgement. The boy had improved drastically since he first began his training. His improvement was inhumane. Just four weeks ago, whenever he was given a break he would slump to the ground in utter tiredness, and would require about five minutes to be anywhere near fit again. But as he progressed, he grew more composed and his breaks were shortened. As such his improvement was exponential. The boy who was calmly practicing breathing exercises was so different from the little blondie who was desperately out of breath just a month ago.
"So?" the 1st asked. He wasn't clear with his question. But he didn't need to be.
"Astronomical" the 4th answered. "Indeed. His improvement is beyond legendary. I haven't seen anyone grow so quickly in the body wielding art. If he continues like this he would be able to rival peak mortal realm experts with his body strength alone in just a few more weeks. And if he starts to incorporate outer energy into his attacks, his mortal realm physique will be capable of going against above-mortal realm experts with little to no problem." The 5th wasn't stingy with his praise. But his generosity was only because Mane wasn't there to hear it. Just like he could hide his innermost thoughts from his masters, they could also hide their conversations from him.
"It has to do with his special physique. His rate of recovery is amazing." The 2nd added.
"Yes, it is. I remember how battered up he was the first few times. Yet he always returned full of energy the very next day." The 3rd remarked. Initially when Mane began his training, he was bruised and injured all over. His parents were so terrified after seeing him in that state that they had rushed into his mind scape to give the masters a piece of their minds. And the masters didn't defend themselves. In fact, the 1st, 3rd, and 2nd agreed with his parents that he should end his training. They believed it was too brutal for one so young. However the 5th refused to back down, stating that he would only stop if the boy asked him to. He had seen the eyes of the boy while he trained. Those weren't the eyes of someone who wanted to quit. They were the eyes of a hungry man. They were the eyes of one who yearned for more strength. The blue eyes of the boy were as vast as the sea itself, and the eagerness to grow more powerful even more expansive. The usually quiet 4th actually agreed with the 5th. He also believed that the training should only end if Mane deemed them unworthy to teach him.
They were right. He improved at a staggering rate over the past few weeks. And his parents were silenced not only by this progress, but by the fact that without any drugs Mane woke up every morning refreshed and well. It was only then that his parents remembered that he was not just a boy, he was the son of gods. Gods who had a rich and vast heritage behind them. They finally understood what happens when the Olympian and Nordic godblood were mixed together: a freak was produced. So to show that they supported their little boy, they actually got him several training dummies of different kinds. And even Ray had become his sparring partner for his training.
"Time's up kid. Give me twenty laps. Full speed sprinting only" Mane was training in the basement of his house. It was a training room that was 100 by 100 metres. Twenty laps was equivalent to about 8000 metres, which was 8 kilometres. He didn't say anything, only giving a grunt of approval and rising from his meditative state. In his short break he had stabilised his breathing pattern, and no longer looked so tired. Once he was up, he dashed at full speed towards the area marked as his starting point and continued to run at the same speed.
Half-way through Mane's run, the door to the training room was opened. A brown haired man walked in dressed in his training apparel. He didn't interrupt the sprinting boy, choosing to wait patiently on the side lines for his sprint to end.
Mane's speed was amazing. In about one minute he had already completed twelve laps. And although his breathing was ragged, his speed had not decreased in any way. If anything, he was slowly increasing in speed. The brown haired man who watched him smiled in satisfaction. Ray could see the determination behind his son's movements. The power contained in each stride was impressive for someone who had just began his journey in body wielding. In fact, Ray was certain that if any body wielding veteran were to observe Mane right now, none of them would conclude that he began his journey just a month ago. In about 40 more seconds, Mane was done with his laps.
"Take a break. The usual." Mane nodded at the words of the 5th and once again sat down in a meditative state. He acted as though he hadn't seen his father who stood on the side lines watching him. Ray didn't seem to mind the cold treatment. Rather he approved of it. Mane's breathing was ragged and he was showing signs of exhaustion. Speaking in such a state would be a big mistake considering that his rhythm was already interrupted. Right now, what he needed was to recover as quickly as possible so that he would be ready for the next stage of his training.
"Time's up." The cold voice of the 5th forced Mane to end his meditation and rise. Just like before, his breathing had been normalised during his short break and his energy, although not completely restored, wasn't empty either. "Ready yourself." the 4th demanded.
"I'm ready." Upon making this announcement, Mane lightly spread his legs apart and bent his knees. He stretched his arms before him and breathed in deeply.
"Hah!" He screamed. His voice was pleasant and cute, just like his small frame, yet the reaction from this small shout was not as charming. The space around him grew chaotic as the winds began to stir. His golden hair flowed around chaotically and was blown upwards, going against gravity itself. The atmosphere around Mane changed completely. His blue eyes were even bluer, and the ground he stood on cracked apart like it was feeble glass. After about ten seconds Mane stood upright again. The raging atmosphere that filled the basement was gone, leaving behind a serenity that deceived all that what happened before was merely an illusion. Ray narrowed his eyes at his son's change.