Ikki felt his muscles screaming in pure agony as he blocked another one of Aaron's lightning-fast blows. He felt as if he was being pushed back way too easily as if he was being pushed to his backfoot by a man who was barely trying to hurt him.
Ikki was seen struggling to breathe as Aaron continued pilling on the damage as he moved quickly avoiding Ikki strikes and landing power blows of his own. This was becoming way more painful than he thought it would.
Ikki seeing an opening attempted a counterattack, it was a very precise punch aimed at Aaron's blind spot. Aaron however as if having eyes being his back, simply just angled his head as Ikki blow went whistling past him without actually landing on him. Using this small moment before Ikki could pull back, Aaron landed a devastating roundhouse kick straight to the back of Ikki's head.
Ikki's body landed on the floor with a heavy thud as he felt his muscles screaming at him to stop, his vision momentarily giving out on him."It's just pain, grit your teeth and move on, move forward no matter what, and don't look back," Aaron said as he looked at Ikki on the floor.
Ikki grunted a bit as he pushed his body off the floor with all of his might, he then rushed toward Aaron attempting to use a grappling technique to overpower Aaron with Raw strength, he made sure to put as much energy into this as it was humanly possible to.
Aaron noticing Ikki rushing toward him, decided to use Ikki's own momentum against him as he flipped Ikki over his shoulder causing Ikki to fall face-first onto the floor.Ikki rolled onto his back, looking very exhausted, his relatively average frame was seen gasping for air. This wasn't a fight at all, he had realized this in the first 3 seconds of the fight, this was an obstacle that he had to overcome.
He remembered the words Aaron had told him before dragging him into this...."Let's get you strong enough to protect what you hold dear..."
Ikki gasped for air...this wasn't training, this felt like torture, was this what Sakura had to do in order to get stronger?As Ikki vision looked up toward Aaron, he noticed he had a wooden sword in his hand...Ikki pushed his body off the floor as he realized he to possess a wooden sword."Ready," Aaron said looking at Ikki.
"Ye..." Ikki tried to say but before he could finish his sentence, Aaron was already infront of him, With multiple stabs, Aaron managed to poke all the pressure points that he needed to cut in order to render Ikki... Essentially immobilized, like a marionette without its strings, Ikki fell onto the floor looking quite lifeless, his body was unable to listen to him. He was surrounded by a dark ocean and his consciousness was fading.
"Not yet buddy" Aaron said as he pulled Ikki back to the living world...Ikki held his head a bit in pain as he groaned a bit."I felt like I died"Ikki mutters holding his head in pain."Oh you did, "Aaron said nonchalantly.
"HUH?!"Ikki said with a stunned look on his face, he died but he was alive right now, how."Human improve the most when their life is in danger...Ikki are you willing to die 100 times just so you can have the strength to save your family" Aaron said looking at Ikki with a serious look.The weight of the question hung heavy in the air. Ikki looked at Aaron, the playful doctor facade replaced by a warrior's focus.
A shiver ran down Ikki's spine, and a strange mix of fear and something else...was that perhaps resolved. He knew, for a fact that the choice wasn't really between he had to die over and over again for power, it was Aaron asking him about how far he would go for his family.
He might not be on par with Aaron yet, but he wouldn't back down from the grueling path to protecting those precious to him. Taking a shaky breath, Ikki met Aaron's gaze with newfound determination. "Yes," he rasped, his voice firm despite the lingering pain.
"I am."
"Also don't be scared about you changing because of your near-death experience...I kind of made it so that your brain just thinks you are passing out, so hey you don't have to worry about being less of a human" Aaron said with a smile on his face as he helped Ikki get up.
Ikki nodded his head before getting into a fighting stance matter what, he had to improve.Aaron had a smile on his face as he noticed the feint aura emanating from Ikki's body...a wide grin on his face.
"So we going to test your reaction speed...your goal for the next 30 minutes is simple, dodge," Aaron said as suddenly what seemed to be 20 tennis ball shooters appeared...Aaron had modified the spheres to shoot standard tennis balls at speeds just below the human reaction threshold – quick enough for the conscious mind to register, but not fast enough to react in time.
A low hum sound filled the air as the spheres warmed up. Ikki's breath was caught in his throat..why did he feel like he was going to get hurt...badly? Aaron grinned before raising one hand and all the machine aimed at Ikki.
Aaron made sure to wire the machines so that they shot fast enough so that a person of Ikki level could barely perceive them but yet he could still react to it.
Aaron's plan was simple really, Ikki by far had the highest stats in his strongest form that was for sure, the only thing Ikki was lacking was the fact his reaction time was a bit slow....actually it was very slow.
With Ikki's speed, he should have been able to clash with unbuffed Gifu just fine...as long as Aaron could train Ikki to the level of a Gifu that wasn't buff by basically a demon, his plan was set.
Ikki was a fast learner so he should be able to do it just fine...Aaron then turned around to notice Vice...Vice hiding behind Aaron looking scared.."She is scary," Vice said shaking a bit as Aaron looked at Vice's opponent, it was Miyuki...was that Vice's tail in her hand, and did she just crush it...
"You a demon right so just use your demonic pride and fight her," Aaron said looking at Vice"Demonic pride means nothing if I am dead...I don't wanna die. I wanna live" Vice said hiding behind Aaron