At that moment, I stood before a robotic dummy. The AR system appeared before me, asking me to set the difficulty level. Geralt told me to set it in the most difficulty. At first, I hesitated but I had to do it if I ever wanted to improve. After all, I had been training under him for many years.
As soon as I set it to the most difficult level, with a blink of an eye a powerful electromagnet force pushed me backward and I could feel a light attack on my stomach. It was still painful, like an invisible punch that I couldn't trace. After all this entire training was to improve my five senses.
Damn it, I already got hit immediately after I initiate the training. At the same time, I noticed Geralt was looking at me with a frown and analytic eyes, I couldn't let him down now!
I purposefully allowed myself to get hit several times, eventually, I noticed the pattern and used my hand to block my chest, the invisible punch landed on my hand that guarded my chest, and the system didn't count as a hit.
The next punch, I used my ears to listen to the wind and feel the swift change in the air around me and I could tell it would come from my right side aiming at my cheek. I swiftly used my hand to block the punch that was aimed at my cheek.
I repeated block all the attacks for several minutes, and my intuition predicted all the punches correctly.
Geralt then clapped his hand and the training stopped, the dummy then went into sleeping mode.
"If this was a real person, you would be knocked out in the first round, but you did great after you understood the pattern." Geralt pat my back.
"Thanks," I replied.
"However, always imagine that you are at a disadvantage and on defense earlier than the real fight begins. Then progressively adapting and improving." He advised.
My body was filled with sweat, nonetheless, I didn't let it bother me. I was used to it after all, since I prepared another set of clothes in advance putting it in my backpack since yesterday.
"On to the next training, 50 push-ups, 50 squats, and 50 jumps." He clapped his hand after he gave me the instruction.
Momentary caught my breath now I had to lower my body on the ground and repeatedly use my hand to rise and lower back down until I hit my push-up 50 times. Immediately after that I also did 50 squads and jumps, this was like a daily routine for me so now I am comfortable doing it simultaneously.
Once I was done, I sat on the floor and breathed in and out heavily. At the same time when I looked at the glassy window of the second floor, I still spotted the same girl with short brown hair keenly observing my training in another room above mine but the room wasn't exactly above us, it was actually in the next room. However, since my room was a space that extended to the surface without another floor stacked on it, those above next to my room could observe what was happening.
I felt like she was stalking me....or perhaps she was looking at Geralt.
Geralt then snapped his finger causing me to return to the present. He then initiates our next training, with boxing gloves in his hand.
"Now this is the real deal, if you managed to land 3 hits on me, that means you have improved." He stated.
I stood up with a calm mind, to make sure I was prepared for what was to come.
Then without even counting, he sprinted to me and threw his left hand at me with such velocity and force. I cautiously raised my right arm to flinch back his attack but I could feel a sore on my arm as well.
So this was the true strength of Geralt!
Without even a warning, he swiftly lifted his right leg to kick me, fortunately, I evaded the kick on time as I jumped backward.
Geralt said, "That is a mistake!"
He then jumped and turned his entire body backward with another kick in above my head, this old man was trying to kill me for real!
I crossed my arms to block the kick but it was too forceful and made me bend my knee and lower my body. Then he landed back on the ground, swung his punch into my shoulder catching me off guard.
After that, he managed to punch me in the stomach with karate style, causing me to cough with silva spit out from my mouth.
"You need to take this seriously, Einsamer," Geralt remarked.
I was being punched from left and right with such incredible speed that I couldn't block all of my mentor's attacks, but then I remembered the fight I had against the statues of the demon lord in the world of dawn.
If I was always on the defensive, I wouldn't be able to land any attack. Therefore I must adapt and stop gathering information and patterns. I must not be afraid of being hurt, this was my only chance to catch him off guard.
But the problem is if I expose my vulnerable spot to him, I might get knocked out in a short time. Fxck this shxt, I must fight back now, there was no point in doubting myself.
At first, I started to deflect his attack, Geralt didn't flinch and quickly regained his attacking stance and was about to aim for my cheek this time.
Instead of using my hand to block his attack, I put all of my strength into my left arm and threw a punch in such incredible speed at his chest. Both of us landed a hit on each other, but I was thrown backward and got a nosebleed.
Shxt, he was really serious about this fight.
"Come on, Einsamer! You can't sacrifice yourself just to land a childish punch on me!"
My punch didn't even make him flinch, just how strong was this old man?
Thanks to his teaching, I managed to block most of his attacks, if I wasn't training under him. I would already be knocked down now. It seems like I also improved as well in the past few years under his guidance. Right now I managed to land one hit on him, I need to find a way to land two more hits on him.
Geralt took a karate stance, his left foot forward, his right foot slightly behind and he bent down slowly.
"Isn't this supposed to be a kickboxing match?" I asked with a frown as I wiped my blood leaking from the nose.
"In real life, no one is playing by the rule. You need to learn to defend yourself even if you are a good person, let GOD judge those who harm you. Remember you have no Enemy! Let GOD decide who is your enemy and let those fools face his wrath." Geralt said with a serious tone.
God...huh....If he exist, he wouldn't allow suffering to exist in the first place. Of course, I wouldn't say that out loud to his face, since he was my mentor.
He moved forward, pulled his punching arm back, bent his elbow, and extended his hand forward at extreme speed to generate such power. Since I still kneeled on the ground, I immediately jumped backward momentarily to avoid his attack. But yet he switched to his Taekwondo stance and threw his kick at my shoulder, threw me onto the ground, and inflicted a heavy injury on me.
At that time I realized I wouldn't beat him with my experience in hand-to-hand combat, it would be another story if I could use my skills in real life as a ranker.
"I give up!" I raised my hand.
Geralt shook his head got closer to me and threw another punch at me, I flipped backward to avoid his punch.
"I got you!" I said with a smile.
I knew he wouldn't allow me to give up, I said these words just to irritate him to be more aggressive. I bent my knee to generate force to leap onto him as he lost his balance when he tried to punch me when I got him, I hugged him tightly and forced him onto the ground as I wrapped my thing against his head and pulled his right arms out and slightly bending it as to not broke his arms.
"Very smart move, if only I don't know how to counter your attack."
With raw strength, he forced himself to stand up using only his feet while his body was still slightly just lifted above the ground, is this old man a monster?
Then he shouted aggressively as he swung his arms and pushed me back against the wall, causing me to growl with pain. I stood up and tried to do a front headlock to put him down again but then he just evaded me causing me to fall onto the ground once again.
"You did well, you passed my final test."
What? I only landed one hit on him.
"What are you talking about?" I stood up and said with stuttered as I tried to catch my breath.
He then threw the Nedro spray to me since it also had a healing effect as well as reduced the pain, I immediately removed my shirt and lightly sprayed it on my injury.
"If I was someone else, my arms would be broken. So you did great, but it is still reckless." He commented.
He sighed and stepped forward the stairs back to the main hall, then I asked him.
"Is this our last training?"
He shook his head, and replied "I will teach you how to control your emotions, meet me at the artificial garden two days from now."
Then he proceeded to go upstairs and passed through the door. I was left alone with sweat and wounds all over my body, but thanks to the Nedro spray, the pain gradually eased itself. Now, I need to take a shower and change into a new pair of clothes.
Due to curiosity, I gazed at the window of the second floor, and I no longer saw the short brown hair girl. Probably she was looking at Geralt rather than me, well if she was interested in me, I didn't mind asking her out on a dinner date when I was free.
I went to pick up my backpack and took a brief look at the city landscape through the panoramic window, then I went upstairs. People were looking at me and some old men even said to Geralt that he went hard on me, some even questioned did he intentionally trained me to compete in our school kickboxing tournament, but he refused and said it was just for my self-defense.
Before I left the boxing facility, I approached Geralt and properly said goodbye to him. Afterward, I left the building and headed toward the public bathroom building located near a basketball court. Two separate bathrooms were built for females and males specifically.
I entered the male bathroom, there were three floors and each floor contained different kinds of baths like a Suna, swimming pool, water diving, skiing on water, water slide, etc. However the ground floor just consisted of a normal bath, I went to one of the lockers and obtained the temporary QR code for this locker.
I brought out a new set of T-shirts and trousers, then I put my backpack into the locker. Before entering the bathroom, I also paid for a clean towel at one vending machine. When I entered the shower room, there was even a small pool just for me. But I didn't have time for that, so I just removed my clothes and shower normally.
As soon as the cold water ran through my scalp and descended through my body to the floor, many memories of this morning rushed to my mind. From the moment I woke up, to encountered Lasiv and the demon lord. It felt like all of this was a dream, is this a coincidence or is there something bigger and incomprehensible at play here?
I knew I wouldn't have the answer, but it felt suffocating to ignore it. After all, I value a laid-back and ordinary life, and that event messed with my sense of reality.