As Noah woke up to a new day all he could feel was pain. All his muscles screamed out for him to not move. But trying to ignore the pain of his destroyed body he moved off the bed and stood up on his own two feet. He leaned back to stretch but the pain in his muscle made his back give out and he fell back onto his bed. Sighing he struggled to get back up.
Once he was on his feet again he started to stretch the rest of his body. First his legs 'crack' then his arms 'crack' 'crack' finally his neck 'crack'. Feeling all the blood flow to his head he took in a deep breath and started to walk towards the door. On his way to the door he looked out the window he noticed that the sun was still barely rising.
He assumed that he was up early then continued to his door. Opening it he walked out into the hallway and made his way to the cafeteria. Walking into the cafetera again he looked around to see that barely anyone was there. Walking straight to the counter he picked up his food and looked for a seat.
This time he found a table near the corner of the room and sat down. He ate his tasteless slosh in comfortable silence. He was almost done with his food when he saw Troy and his friends enter the cafeteria. They had spotted him so they got their food and headed towards him.
As they approached Noah started to get nervous. One thought ran through his mind." did they see me not get excited while the execution was happening" because if they did they might have reported him to any higher up in this church.
Troy sat down followed by his friends. He then engaged Noah in conversation." hey man did you sleep well"
Noah responded" yeah a little sore from yesterday "
Then austin interjected" how long were you out there for we didn't see you leave"
Noah responded " well I was out there till lunch" conveniently leaving out the fact that he went back after lunch.
" ah I was worried you were out there all day, I thought you might have forgotten to do your daily sacrifice " austin said while the other two nodded in agreement.
Noah responded " yeah don't worry I won't miss out daily sacrifice I mean it's one of the most important events of the day. Anyway, I need to get back to the training field to learn some more things from Garth so I'll see you guys later." cutting the conversation off he got up in a hurry leaving troy, austin, and henry at the table and went to the training field.
Once he left the cafeteria he started to walk faster. He felt a strange excitement welling up inside him. He quite enjoyed his lesson and was excited to learn more from Garth.
As he arrived at the training field he looked around to see if he could find Garth. Not being able to spot him he just walked to where the training dummy was left. As he approached the dummy he saw that there was something different about it.
There was a red and orange marking on the dummy. There was a red marking right below the left side of the rib cage, there was another on the chin, there was also one where the last ribs of the rib cages meet and one slightly below the right side of the rib cage.
As for the orange marking there were orange markings on the neck and almost all of the face except for the forehead. Thinking about what the marks were for was pretty obvious they were weak points. The red where critical spots and orange may be a secondary target. But he could be wrong and have them in reverse though.
As he was going thought what these marks meant Garth had showed up and greeted him."good morning Noah you ready for another day of suffering"
Noah showed a happy expression then spoke" as ready as i'll ever be"
Garth just smiled as his response then started today warm up" so to start off today we are going to warm up your arms. Do some stretches first you don't want to injure yourself before we even start."
Noah agreed with this and started to do some stretches. After his stretch he felt the familiar feeling of blood rushing to his head. He felt dizzy for a second then regained his composure. Done with his stretches he turned to his side and warmed up some jabs and crosses then turned back to the dummy and started punching it.
After about 30 mins of practice Garth spoke up" ok that's enough for warm up, come here i'm gonna teach the next punches."
Hearing, Noah quickly stopped what he was doing and walked over to Garth to listen to his insightful wisdom. He sat down in front of Garth about 7 feet away once he got comfortable. Garth and started his lesson.
" Ok if you remember yesterday I started to talk to you about the two other basic attacks: the hook and uppercut. To recap the hook is a close range arcing punch and has good striking power while the uppercut is a punch aimed at the chin from below it is best used to knock out or if two weak heavenly disorientates. First we will learn the hook"
He proceeded to get into a lower stance one used to charge forwards. He then moved to a closer range and kept his striking hand low. As he swung he made a larger movement with his hips compared to a cross. The hit striking the dummy right below its right rib cage. The dummy being hit by such a strong strike tipped over slamming into the ground.
" Oops"Garth quickly picks up the dummy and checks if he had done any damage to it. This power was a reality check that Noah desperately needed. There are possibly hundreds of awakens among the people here. If an army were to attack here it would turn into chaos. Not only are there humans fighting, all of them are equipped with magical powers and super strength. This also makes it harder to escape. This concentration was cracked by the sound of Garth's voice
" anyways that how you throw a hook as you saw it a strike with huge striking power but remember if you put too much power into it and miss it could leave you open for a nasty counter attack"
Noah snapped back to reality, nodded and started to practice this punch. This punch could be his ticket to maybe winning a battle against an opponent that is not awakened.
Garth also added " also remember the hook can come from both hands here look" he proceed to do the same thing but with his right hand.
"As you can see the hook can be used with both hand so it can be very versial usually you use a jab or cross to get their attention then while they are distracted with the jab or cross you punish them with the hook thought I haven't gone over combos or how to use these in combat so we can work on that later"
Noah was excited by the prospects of learning how to use these techniques in combat. He had almost never anticipated something this much in his life. He was really starting to like learning to fight. Noah thought to himself" I might actually pick this up once I become an awaken, maybe as hobby"
Noah proceeded to Practice the strike over and over again Noah was having more trouble with this attack then the jab and cross. The jab and cross both came from the upright position but the cross comes from a lower stance so it was throwing off his balance. Also the hook is thrown differently than the other two punches. His leading hand hook was also very weak.
He was able to get the stances problems corrected but could not figure out why his leading hand hook and so much less power then this back hand did. He went up to garth and ask him" so I noticed when I do my hooks with my leading arm I'm getting the same power I would get with my jabs. What am I doing wrong?"
Garth asked Noah if he could see his hook. Noah obliged and threw his left hook then Garth asked him to throw a right hook in which Noah did so. Garth thought for a second then said " both your punches are underpowered. With both punches you and not putting enough waist into it, also you need to pivot your feet while throwing your hooks more".
Noah was grateful for the advice and got right back to hitting the dummy. Then after hitting the dummy for an 2 or 3 hours garth told him to stop" are you sure you have never learned any martial art"
Noah shook his head in refusals "no never"
Garth respond" you pick things up fast then you have learned how to do jabs, crosses and hook in such a short amount of time. You are either lying to me or you have a knack for fighting."
Noah said back " I don't know if that was a complement but thank you"
Garth shook his head" anyway we are going to learn the last of the strikes. The uppercut is a very specific strike. Unlike the jab, cross, and hook that can go for head and body the uppercut is only used for the head. It is a specialized attack used to knock people out. Like the hook it can be used by both hands but the uppercut is best used with the more dominant hand for a harder hit."
He demonstrated the attack, first he stepped in with his front foot. Firmly planting his foot he twisted his body putting his full body weight into the strike and right first cut through the air like a knife. Right before he hit the dummy he stopped his fist lightly tapping the dummy's chin. He then pulled back and went for an uppercut with his left. The left uppercut was done slightly differently.
Instead of twisting to hit with his right, he twisted to strike with his left. He did not put his full body weight into the hit. Instead he puffed out his chest and dropped his forward arm down. He then ripped his arm up into the chin of the dummy rattling the dummy.
He brought his arms back down an looked at Noah" think you can copy that"
Noah enthusiastically nodded his head and got to work. As Noah was learning the uppercut he thought drifted to the idea of a real fight. He knows it is a bit prosperous to think he can win a fight after learning 4 types of punches but he thinks that he at least stood a chance as small as that chance maybe"
By the time lunch came around Noah had a basic understanding of the punch. His striking power was a bit off but he accounted for not being able to move well due to his soreness. Garth took note of this and thought about things to do that do not need movement.
As he walked to the cafeteria again the power of the strikes that his instructure showed him was scary. His thoughts started to spiral. " If Mr. Garth's punches are that strong then how fast is he? I've heard and awakeners are faster and stronger than the average human so how am i going to escape this place when it's being portrayed by awakened guards twenty four seven."
" the only time to escape would be when the guards are busy, but the guards are doing nothing while there is no fight going on so the best time to escape is when their is fighting going on"
As noah was thinking he got his food and sat down " but how do I get them into a fight, I can't fight them and the only person I have somewhat good rapport with is garth who would not be willing to help me me,and troy and his friends who are not powerful enough and are staunch loyalist to the church. So it seems to me that the only way for me to escape is to hope and pray that the one escapee was able to make it to the sun god's holy city, which mean that i might have to stay here for the great ritual in 3 day which is just great"
As this brainstorm came to an end Noah noticed he had finished his lunch. He got up and instantly went back to the training field. His body was screaming in pain telling him to stop but he was just having too much fun learning to fight so he ignored it and kept walking.
As he arrived back at the training field he noticed that Garth was still there. He was sitting down next to the dummy just waiting for Noah to return. As Noah got within talking distance, Garth spoke up" you body seems to be slowing down so we are going to talk theory and aiming punches now"
He pointed at the dummy " ok if you were looking at the dummy while punching it, you could see that I have colored in the spots of interest you must strike to be effective. The two red area under the right hand side and left hand side are the liver and spleen. They are critical parts that you must aim for. Be advised though when punching these areas the opponent must be distracted. If not distracted they have time to tense up their muscles and absorb the hit".
" The next red zone you have to worry about is the spot right here where the bottom two ribs meet. This is called the solar plexus no matter when you hit it it will always knock the air out of your opponent's lungs. The final red point is the chin. If the chin is hit by any hit with enough power it will shake your opponent's head causing the brain to bounce around in their skull thus knocking them out".
for a while they were talking about strategy but then a guard walked into the training field. He shouted with a stern tone" attention, there is an event meeting in the primary chamber to receive a message. It is mandatory that everyone goes"
Garth looked and Noah then sighed " ok let's cut this talk short tomorrow if you are up for it we are going to learn how to dodge attack effectively. Noah, ever excited to learn new things, beamed and said " yes sir ".
As everyone walked towards the primary chamber Noah wondered what they were being called for. He walked in the cambers and looked forward. It looked like everyone excluding the guards were attending this event. Noah sat down and waited to see what would happen. Suddenly the curtain on the window was closed by an invisible force and then appearing on the stage was the leader of this church, the archbishop alexander.
Archbishop alexander started in an somber voice " today I have found some grave news.today our informant in the city of the sun has found irrefutable evidence to suggest that the heretic that escaped with the heathen that we brought to peace has made it to the city of the sun "
Hushed mummers of panic spread throughout the halls. But the archbishops voice cut through
He raised his voice and said with conviction "I will not let these heathens of the sun god snuff us out so easily. We will fight back, we will defend ourselves and slaughter those who cross our path. We must repay them for spilling the blood of our brother and sister for the glory of our great god Adyr. We will butcher and sacrifice these lovers of a false god and prove once and for all that we are the followers of the one true god Adyr!"
Cheers echo throughout the hall everyone cheers, even Noah cheered but his cheer was for an entirely different reason.