Chapter 7: It’s getting hot in here

  “e on, punch harder already”Mark anting, as he punched forth again and again. It had been over an hour sihey started training and his arms were growing heavier by the minute. No matter how often herepeated the same motion, he wasn’t improving and the frustration was steadily building up. He had tried different approaches to make it happen. Fog on his arms, then on hisshoulders and then his back muscles but nothing seemed to be w.Mark tried putting more strength into it in order to feel some relief from the arduous task, yet no strike mao make Kai’s hand move even a tiny bit. It simply refused to budge.“Haa … Haa … Haa”His breath grew med, putting more momentum behind every swing.“Honey, Nina needs some help with martial arts” Miriam called out from the other side of the warehouse.“Alright, let’s stop for now” He caught Mark’s fist with ease “Hey luv, ya give dis sack o’ potatoes some advi da meantime?”“Sure thing” She hopped over, hands in her pockets, as they switched pces “Sooo, what’s the problem?”“Haa … I … Haa … ’t … Haa … do … Haa … the … Haa … body type” He barely mao squeeze these words out.“Hmm” She looked at him with a curious gaze, trying to uand the situation “Tell me more”Mark reted everything he did with Kai and she listened in sileil the end.“I see … you’re an intellectual kinda person, aren’t you?”“You say that like it’s a bad thing” He couldn’t his head around the idea of it being a ive.“Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good thing that you’re using your brain. You should tio do so” Miriam smirked and expined further “However that‘s the reason you’re not making progress.Body type Esp is like moving your muscles and instead of doing it subsciously, you’re trying to figure out all the steps to move your muscles so you do it manually”“But then how do you strengthen individual parts?” Mark sat cross-legged as he pted her advice.“Listen, you gotta start small. First, learn to use it and then you sider doing more advauff” Miriam crouched and booped his nose “Got it? Oep at a time”He was left stunned for a few seds “Fine, I’ll try oep at a time”“Good” She stood back up, turned and started walking back to Nina.“Hey … thanks” Hearing that, she looked back with a smug grin pstered on her fao prob”A couple mier, Kai returo tihe training, only to find Mark doing practice swings on his own. He was so focused, that Mark didn’t notice him.He had inteo call out to him at first but refrained from doing so and watched from the sidelines instead.While Kai observed, Mark was busy trying to implement Miriam’s advito his training.(I shouldn’t think of pung as just using my arm. When I move one part of my body, the rest moves with it. My fist is ected to my arm, my arm is ected to my shoulder, myshoulder is ected to my chest and back muscles. Also when I punch, I should pull back my other arm to gee more ford pnt my feet firmly for better bance) He analysed,getting a better uanding for how his body moved with each swing (Such a simple motion a uses most of my body. No wonder I failed before, trying tthen just my arm)He paused iween swings (Imagine yourself being stronger)He took a deep breath, his muscles tensing up with greater iy than usual. Then he closed his eyes to trate, instead of getting distracted by the increasing feeling of power thatpermeated his body.(This is it)He couldn’t afford to relish in the moment, much rather he had to engrave this feeling in his mind as to not fet it. Taking one deep breath after the other, he stood there motionless exceptfor his heaving chest. Once he was fident he wouldn’t fet, he punched forth one more time.WHAM!Uedly, he felt his fist impaething and opened his eyes in surprise. Kai stood there in front of him, stopping Mark’s fist with his own hand.“Good job, didn’t think ya would make it on da first day”Kai didn’t lie. He thought it would take a few days to reach this stage, but he leasantly surprised at seeing so much progress so soon.“You were right, it was all about the feeling of energy flowing in my body. From the tip of my toes through my thighs into my upper body then from the shoulders into my arms until it reachesmy fist” He almost fell over as his body finally rexed. Despite that, the grin on his face didn’t vanish but rather widened, going from oo the other“Yer a wordy lil bastard, aintcha? Hahahah” Kai ughed rambunctiously and asked “How about starting yer real training?”“Yes, please” Mark replied, once more full of enthusiasm.“The’s start by seeing how long ya long da body type”Thus the training tinued until…Ding! Ding! Ding!A metallic klinking sound reverberated throughout the warehouse, surprising those who were immersed iraining.“Time for lunch~” Miriam stated loudly in her melodious voice.“Haaaa finally, I’m so hungry I could eat aire pig” Henry joked while stretg his arms.“Yeah, me too” Kai joined in but immediately received a small sp to the back of his head from Miriam “In your case it’s not joke”The group then gathered together again to walk back to their apartment building for lunch.Mark went along with the group and was silently reviewing his training in his mind.“Hey” Nina called out to him “I saw what you did. You’re more impressive than I thought”“Huh? Ah, thanks” He answered disoriented, having been yanked out of his thoughts “I guess I got kinda lucky”“No way, lucky doesn’t cut it” She waved away his humble attitude “Usually it takes at least two or three days, you know. Even in our little gang, Henry‘s the only who mahat before”“For real?” He looked at the blond boy walking in front of them.Nina suddenly locked arms with him. With upturned eyes and slightly reddened cheeks she then whispered “What you did today was really cool”“Uhmm …” He froze on the spot, things were developing to fast and his brain couldn’t keep up.“Pffffffft hahahaha, you really are fun to tease” She let go, instead holdiomach as if to stop it from leaving her body.“Seriously? Again? Are you going to do this every time?” Mark was now getting angry at himself for falling for the same trick twice.“If you make it so easy, I will do it again” She wiped a tear, having teared up from ughing to hard.They both went on with their bad forth, not notig the anger filled gaze watg them. Walking a few steps behind them was Marco, grinding his teeth out of frustration. His red hairswayed in the air, making them seem like fmes dang on top of his head. As he watched the se unfolding in front of him, rage kept bubbling up from the pit of his stomach, the heat heemanated made the air around him hotter by the sed.This heatwave hit Eve, who was at tail end of the group, straight in face. She felt the suffog air in front of her and decided that it’s not her problem, so she took a step bacreasing thedistaween her and Marco. She disliked iing with other people to begin and now that a storm was brewing in her direct line of sight, she opted out as fast as she possibly could.Out of sight, out of mind.Just like that, the group returned for lun the afternoon the group went back to the warehouse for araining session.“So, are we going to do the same as before?” Mark asked, looking at Kai.“Nah, we gonna do something different. Da afternoon is for cheg progress” He said, smirking in response “And since yer asking, let’s start with ya”“Haaa, why I am getting a bad feeling again?” Mark sighed.“We gonna do bat practice to test yer skills. Any volunteers?”“I’ll do it” Marco steped forward.“Alright, everybody else take five~” Miriam dismissed the rest of the group.“Good luck” Henry waved at them nontly, making his way to the er with the seats.The others followed suit except for Marco, as well as Kai and Miriam who stood at the sidelines.Both boys stood in the middle of the warehouse, staring at one another. However, there was a huge differen attitude betweewo. Mark was feeling somewhat tense and a little nervousat the prospect of his first bat practi the secluded seeanwhile Marco was gring angrily at him.(Why’s he looking so pissed? Did I do something? No way, I barely know this guy. He shouldn’t have any reason to be mad at me)“The rules are simple” Miriam spoke to get the boys attention “This is a sparring match to test your skills, so both of you will fight using the body type only. No low blows to the crotd don’tfet this is just practice. We’ll step in if one of you goes to far, so fight to the best of your abilities”Since Mark didn’t have much experien one-on-one fights, he took a simple boxing stance. Most of the fights he had gotten inthout his life, were during his time with the raid teams.All of those were doh a on or as a group, which left him with almost no experie hand to hand bat. Thus he chose a simplistic approa order to see how he would fare.In trast to him, Marco didn’t take a prhting stance. He was slightly hunched over, preparing to break into a sprint as soon as the fight begins. He was fident in beier at usingthe body type, after all Mark had just learnt how to use it earlier that day. So ohe signal is given, he will rush at full power a down his oppo in one swift strike.Both stood there for a few seds, waiting for the signal.“Ready … start”Hearing the signal, Marco pushed off the ground and burst forth, swinging a fist with his full body weight behind it.Mark oher hand sidestepped the strike, calmly and collected, with minimal movement. He felt the air brush his face, as the fist whizzed past him.Marco quickly followed up with a roundhouse kick, only to see his attack being easily dodged with a backstep. He inteo keep up the offe had to stop himself, as Mark used the smallpause iween attacks to throunch of his own. He po block the pund thealiate with an onsught, except that the fist he received was much heavier than he expected. Hetried holding on but in the eumbled a few steps baow having lost the initiative.After that quick exge, the shock was clearly visible on his face. He had thought of Mark as nothing more than a weakling he could dispatch of without any trouble and now the reality of thesituation ping him in the face. This shouldn’t be happening.Remembering the se of Mark and Nina chatting like they were having fun, made the rage he felt before lunch resurface more intehahat should have been his pd now thisupstart newer was trying to take it from him. He ’t allow it to go on.That’s why he came up with the perfe. Afternoon training would most likely sist of bat practice, giving him the opportunity to teach this asshole a lesson while simultaneouslyshowing his cool side to Nina. It couldn’t get better than that. A … a …In the meantime Mark was analyzing the situation, even as Marco was losing his marbles.( He’s fast but not nearly as fast as Kai. From the looks of it, he’s using the body type for a short burst of speed and power. That’s how he’s rushing me down. Theoretically I should be able to dothe same but I guess shouldn’t hope to just learn how to do it in the middle of bat without practice. I mean, if I didn’t have [Danger sense], he would have knocked me out with the first attack.For now my game po be w, so rather than pushing my luck, I’ll use the punch I learhis m to win)Both took their stances once more, standing opposite of each other just like at the start of the fight.Marco prepared to rush his oppo once more, however this time he wouldn’t hold back. He leaned forward and with another burst of speed, he made a beeliowards Mark.In response, Mark sidestepped the attack just like before. He was ting on Marco using greater speed this time to overwhelm him and this was going to be his ce.As the fist grazed his cheek this time, leaving behind a reddened scratch, it blitzed past him.Marco was about to turn around for a sed rush, but instead he fell ft on his face. Looking back with a bloody nose, he noticed the cause for his fall. He had po use his superior speedand strength to finish the fight, Iurn Mark took advantage of that to trip him.“SHIT! Not again … in front of Nina” He was grinding his teeth, his rage taking over more and more, as the air started heating upMark readied himself to throw a devastating punch. He mao create the ce he wanted and he wasn’t going to miss it.He was about to move, when his [Danger sense] warned him of what was i. He barely dodged by stumbling backwards, hitting his head on ground because of the awkward evasion. Thepain permeated the back of his head but he couldn’t afford look away.In front of Marco there were three fireballs slithering through the air like snakes made out of fmes.“You’ll pay for this humiliation”[Fiery spirit]The fireballs flew at high speed towards Mark, however before they could reach him, Kai appeared betweewo and swatted them away at inhuman speeds.At the same time Miriam grabbed Marco by the ned pushed him face down to the ground.[Sonorous position]“~Calm down~”The temperature cooled doidly as everyoopped moving.“This fight is over” She stated in absolute seriousness, leaving no room for objes.