Dawn... Just as it had for the past week or so, for Siu, it tasted of cold iron... and copper. The reason? He was always pushing himself up from the training ground, wiping his mouth free from the blood he coughed up, resuming his fighting stance to go for the next round, switching between them, trying to match their rotation as fluently as possible. It was... his new routine. Wake up, get there early, train, which meant it was time for him to be beaten before heading to take a medicinal bath and rest until the next day.

  It was hard... Yet... It made him smile, which was creepy for even Tian to see.

  That morning wasn't any different, and he had been awake long before the sect-wide morning bell rang out, sitting up in his bed. The only difference was that it was finally not accompanied by an annoyingly high level of energy, but by a tired, painful groan. Still, he never complained, and instead, he formed a new habit out of this situation. Leaving the room, he flexed his joints by the stairwell, watching the first light come over the cliffside, then massaged the place where his bruises had been before the bath yesterday while he walked the stone path toward the training yards.

  The square he usually occupied was carved directly into the rocks, close to the edge, a clean rectangle of polished stone that made it almost mirror-smooth, surrounded by thick, wooden posts and flapping banners of the Hollow Song Sect. Once again, Elder Thane was there already... No matter how early Siu was, he could never catch him off-guard... Was he sleeping there? He was starting to think that... Yet, as before, Elder Thane just watched him arrive, his hand resting on the wooden baton at his hip, something that Siu would be able to sense coming at him, even in his dreams. Hells... he even dreamt about it yesterday.

  “You’re late,” he said when Siu reached the threshold of the square, making him give his current teacher a lopsided smile.

  “I came before the bell,” He murmured, bowing even though it was unnecessary by now.

  “Earlier still, then.” He did not let him off the hook, “The sun is already shining, Siu... That's already lost time. Haaah... Now... We had spent ten days on the foundations... I have to acknowledge that you learned it quickly. But a foundation is what it says it is... only the place to stand on. Today, we will begin building your future palace, so if you have given a hundred percent up to this point, it's time to give a hundred and ten! Understand?”

  "Yes." He snapped to attention, cupping his hands and nodding his head in answer, finally making Elder Thane slightly smile as he moved to the center.

  “You have been taught the common things we hand out to new disciples without an established lineage. Show me the main stance!"

  Without question, Siu did as ordered, showing him the sect's stances, all of which were related to an animal: a bear, a horse, a snake, and then a tiger. He expected the baton to swing at him... but it did not... Not even when he switched between them, usually when there was something Elder Thane didn't like, pointing it out with his baton.

  "Good." Elder Thane nodded, drumming his fingers on the handle, "Finally, you can switch fluently. Good... You do listen to me. But this will not win you a duel with someone like Nue Toah,” he continued flatly. “So, now you will learn the sect’s public forms... Or, one of them. Its official name is the Way of the Bestial Spirit."

  "Only... one?" Siu asked, making the Elder watch him, remaining silent for a moment.

  "For now." He explained, "Learning it all is possible, even combining them, as that is the final level of this art... But we don't have the luxury of time. So... I will demonstrate all of it and then you can make your own choice, which will be the one that resonates with you the most."

  "Understood." He answered without arguing, and he wasn't lying. With the basic stances... he finally knew that whichever he chose, one of those would be the foundation of his subsequent studies.

  “Iron Ox,” Elder Thane said after he saw there were no more questions on Siu's side, stamping both feet, making the earth tremble. He planted his weight hard, and his chest pushed forward, making him gulp in a great amount of air, exhaling it through his nose, “This style is all about strength and endurance. When your opponent's defenses are hard... You must forcefully break through it.”

  Then, without notice, he shifted like a snake coiling around itself, the motion sinuous, his hips and shoulders melting into each other, showing a kind of flexibility that was almost impossible for a man of his size.

  “The Wild Cat, with its main focus on evasion. It strikes at the gap in your enemies' defenses and movements. It hits at their weak points and retreats against power.”

  With that, his movements changed again, widened and elongated, one foot angled just so, while his arms described a loose circle. It was less a stance than a suggestion of space... It felt weird... as if... inviting in the enemy to strike at his obvious weak points.

  “The Crane,” he continued, “This is for counterattacks. It feigns cowardice, mistakes, and gives an invitation. You lead the foe to empty air, then you use their own motion as the base of your strike, attacking from an angle they don't expect.” Saying that, he slowly straightened, surprising Siu that it was all... "These are the basic forms. There are more, like the Spider, Fox, the Wild Dog, and the Snake... but you are not ready for those."

  "Why?" He asked, not to complain, but out of curiosity.

  "Your body." Elder Thane shrugged, "It is not ready. You are either not fast or flexible enough to learn their movesets properly."

  "I see. Thank you, Master Thane."

  “Mhm. Now... pick one as root,” Thane finished, satisfied with the way Siu called him all of a sudden, “What calls to you?”

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  Falling silent, Siu's thoughts turned to Nue, trying to discern what kind of martial art someone like her would practice... From his initial idea, it had to be power-based, something that suited her as a forceful style. And if his reading were correct... she would want to hurt him and overwhelm him from the start... So, against her...

  “I choose the Crane,” He said, no more hesitation in his voice.

  "I see..." Thane looked at him, eyes watching his face, “The Crane requires courage. You must stand and not move, even though your enemy is coming at you. You will have to let a blow reach you first and then fold it back upon the striker; you must trust the gap you make more than you fear being hit. You can be killed while you wait for the perfect moment... One miscalculation and it's over... But you are aware of it.”

  “I understand the risks.” He confirmed, and seeing the clear determination in his eyes, Elder Thane didn't warn him a second time.

  “Give me the basic Snake Stance!” He yelled instead, and the lesson became immediate.

  The Crane’s basic form was deceptively simple: the weight was distributed along a line slightly off-center, the front foot ready to be lifted as if to take flight, the torso turned so that the body presented less surface area. His arms had to form a soft, circular guard, not to block, but to act as a guide for the incoming attack. What he had to learn was not to meet force with his own force... He had to lay a channel and let the strike flow into it, and with that, redirect everything back to the sender or outwards, away from himself.

  Of course, understanding it and doing it were two different things... So, the baton was moving again in Elder Thane's hand, hitting him whenever the form was not up to standard or when it was time to test his understanding. The first strikes were utter failures, as his body naturally wanted to resist. It had intended to meet steel with steel, to tense up, expecting to get hit... It was a reflex that was older than martial arts, so in turn, Elder Thane’s corrections were blunt as always: A strike to Siu's ribs, sending him down to the ground again, almost breaking his bones...

  “Breathe,” he kept saying while Siu was standing back up, taking up the basic stance again, “Use your breathing technique to establish a rhythm. It is for your own good... It will help you calculate, it will distribute the energy, and you can see the invisible ticks in your enemy's movement. Adapt to it... Exploit it... and strike!”

  When the baton swung again, Siu's first instinct was to spasm a web of muscle to block... But this time, he realized it was another mistake and tried to adapt, but... Too slow. The impact rippled along his bones in his arms, almost cracking them, but Elder Thane wasn't stopping, asking if it hurt or not... he just swung again.

  “Almost. Focus! Do not meet it... Use your eyes and senses, see its path moving... See where it will be, not where it is!”

  Then... for a moment, Siu saw it. As Elder Thane raised his hand again, Siu angled his forearm as if swatting a fly away, making contact with Elder Thane's wrist. It wasn't a hard attack or an aggressive push... It was... just enough to make it so that the baton slid past him... The satisfaction that rose inside Siu was immediate, but a moment later, it was replaced with regret. The reason was simple: Elder Thane's hand was already coming back, taking advantage of Siu's momentary lapse of focus, slapping him with a backhanded fling, sending him spiraling in the air before landing on the ground, skidding a meter or so.

  "Never relax in a battle." He said calmly, watching Siu groan and spit out blood, pushing himself back up, "That's death."

  "Yes..." He groaned, knowing it himself too, hearing the exact same words uttered by an old man in his memories... It was one of the lessons he had first learned... but applying it was indeed much more different than theorizing about it.

  Despite the hardships, Siu knew, there was no sudden mastery of anything. There was only repetition and the slow creation of muscle memory. He had to do it, over and over again. When it was not about fighting, Siu was made to throw a thousand soft redirections to help him build familiarity with the Crane's movements. High, low, diagonal, every direction was practiced until the sun began to dip behind the mountains.

  And when it was gone, it was time to bathe. It was something Siu couldn't miss. Thankfully, Neya was doing as promised, bringing him CC every day, paying off her debt, which was immediately spent on Siu's medicinal baths. Without them, his muscles and bones wouldn't heal by morning, and he would be crippled before he ever fought with Nue.

  It was... simply routine.

  "Between strikes, you must always keep your eye on your enemy's movements." Elder Thane taught him every day, as Siu was practicing his movements, “The Crane’s win is the moment you give the opponent the illusion that they have pushed you into a corner! In truth, you collect their momentum and redirect it through a smaller aperture, amplifying their own strength. When it lands, it will hurt... and if you can do it well, they will suffer a backlash. That's more crippling than anything. You will learn two things today,” he said after Siu seemed to grasp the essence behind it, ready to take the next step. “The first is named the arc. Think of it as the circle that turns a strike backwards. The second is the counter. It's the Crane's beak that follows the arc. The first is your defense, the second is the offense... Yet they are one motion.”

  "Two as one..." Siu muttered, nodding, memorizing, and watching Elder Thane demonstrate it to its fullest.

  What followed it was nothing but more work, Siu focusing on the two separately until his shoulders burned and his hands grew numb. Then, one day, instead of whacking him with his baton, Elder Thane brought in a wooden dummy. It was simple, but weighted to replicate a human's swing, someone of a similar strength to Nue. It was what made Siu realize Nue was stronger than he initially expected, as the swings when landing almost broke his arms already, just in the first round. But it was what he needed, learning to redirect two strikes in sequence, folding the momentum into a small step and then launching the counterattack where she would feel the whiplash from her own powers and where Siu's elbow would crash into her.

  "Good..." Elder Thane whispered, seeing that Siu's attack had landed perfectly, hiding his astonishment. Siu was the first Elder Thane had ever seen reach this state this quickly... He was capable of learning the form in only a few days, while others needed weeks of practice.

  "It feels... natural," Siu muttered, replaying it in his mind, letting himself enjoy it a little.

  “You can already see an opening,” Elder Thane nodded, “And you even managed to strike at it. But this is a dummy, Siu. A human can react and take a step back... Then what? You missed... and you died. You need to be faster!”

  “Will it be enough?” He asked, watching the elder's face.

  “Hmmm... It is not enough to be enough,” he answered, making Siu shrug with a smile, “But it is enough to begin. You will also need endurance, so you don't miss the second attack. If you see that you will miss, immediately launch a second one! Or a third! You must be ready to turn a hundred strikes into one opening. Don't think just one will be enough!”

  With that, Elder Thane added a final drill, changing Siu's training every day, rotating the tasks between lessons. It involved practicing basic movements, attacking a dummy, and finally, sparring at reduced speed. He stepped in as his opponent, his motions exaggerated, and if Siu had to guess... Elder Thane was cheating.

  Why? Because he was using a fighting method Siu had never seen him deploy before... And there were two possible reasons why. One was to ensure Siu could hone his adaptability. But then... why didn't he ever change his movements the following days? Which left only the second option open for Siu: Elder Thane was using the same fighting technique Nue was proficient in.

  He was, without saying it, helping him... He was taking a side. And Siu would not forget it... Never.

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