POV Cain
Cain stood combat ready, his spear in hand, crouching just enough to lower his centre of mass.
Standing opposite him, a wolf snarled. It blew air though its nose, the cold air in the simulation room fogged on contact with its warm breath.
The wolf started to circle Cain, who responded in kind.
They circled each other, looking for an opening to strike, only to find each other fully alert.
The wolf crouches down ready to pounce at Cain. Cain observes this and tightens his hold on the spear, posing to strike as soon as the wolf pounces upon him.
The wolf jumps towards him. Cain retaliates with his spear, aiming for the spot that the wolf is going to reach, rather than the place it is at now.
The wolf however, lands just south of where Cain attacks.
It then pivots and to rush at Cain, its claws tearing at his sides.
Cain jumps back to dodge the wolf but the claws do leave a mark, drawing blood and leaving a deep gash at his side causing him to grunt at the sharp pain.
Cain swings the shaft of the spear and hits the wolf on its muzzle, blasting it sideways and causing it to stand up disoriented.
He then positions his right hand near the butt of the shaft and thrusts it.
He removes his left hand from the spear and puts his back muscles and his body into the thrust.
This allowed him to reach farther than usual with more force.
The thrust pierces the wolf’s ear, digging into its skull.
The wolf whimpers in pain and thrashes around, causing further damage to its head.
Cain lets go of the spear and punches the butt of the spear deeper into its brain.
The wolf stiffens mid thrash and collapses onto the snowy ground, its blood and brain matter flowing out, staining the pristine snow.
Cain breaths out, gasping for air. His hot breath fogging in his mouth, giving off the distinct impression he was smoking. He clutches a faded ring that hangs from his neck.
It was a keepsake of his mother. They had found it together on a beach.
The last time they truly enjoyed each others company before she passed away.
After he calms his breath, he opens his Status window.
Status:
Name: Cain Talon
Titles: N/A
Martial Rank: Initiate
Cultivation Level: 9
Martial Soul: Saewine Bull
Bloodline: N/A
Runes: N/A
Martial Soul Skills: N/A
Bloodline Skills: N/A
Dao: N/A
“Tch,” Cain glances at his status irritated.
His Cultivation Level remained unmoved at 9.
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Not only had his mana not increased, it had started, for some reason to slowly decline.
He could feel his hard earned Cultivation start to recede, and that both irritated and scared him.
He could not find the source of what and why this was happening to him, and it drove him crazy.
He slowly trudged towards the exit. Now that the adrenaline from the fight has finally receded, sharp pangs of pain radiated through his torso with every step.
He was slowly but surely losing blood. While his cultivation strengthened his body, it was still not enough to survive blood loss.
Thankfully, neither was he wounded enough to bleed to death, nor was he far away from treatment.
As soon as he exited the simulation room he was blasted with a gust of hot wind.
The sudden change of environment from freezing tundra to the heat of summer left him feeling stuffy.
“I don’t think I can ever get used to that.” He murmurs as he tugs at his collar, trying to loosen it in an effort to stop the feeling of stuffiness.
“Well you have to, because there are many phenomenon in this world that will shock your body. They would be much more extreme than this.” Arden says as he descends the stairs from the observatory and walks towards Cain.
“For example, my grandfather told me that he once chanced upon a pocket dimension where the laws of gravity and consequently space itself were distorted. He would run, and cover less distance than if he stood still, he would jump and find himself underground, he would lie down and start falling, only to discover he wasn’t falling to the ground, but to the sky.” Arden explains with child-like wonder in his own eyes.
“While I myself had never been to any environment quite as exciting as my illustrious grandfather, I did have to go through some tough terrains myself.” Arden explains.
Cain nods dutifully at that. He then winces as the pain flares.
Arden tilts his head to look at the wound and sighs.
“Sometimes with how mature you act, I forget that you are still but a child unused to pain.” Arden says regretfully and extends his hand.
He gathers a few runes on his palm and weaves a spell. An amber glow envelops Cain’s wounds, which start to slowly close.
The wound scabs in mere seconds, and within 2 minutes, the scab falls off to reveal fresh pink skin underneath.
The emerald glow recedes and Arden lowers his hand.
“For your age, you fought well. There is no doubt that you are a genius in spear techniques, but your weakness is the same reason you were injured - you lack experience and adaptability.” Arden says.
“Your technique and its execution is textbook perfect, the way you anticipate your opponent is remarkable, but you struggle in adapting yourself, especially so when something goes against your plans.”
“You lack the intuition that many seasoned warriors and some geniuses possess.” Arden critiques coldly, causing Cain to nod and look sullen.
“However, it is not really a fault that couldn’t be filled. All you need is more experience and practice to fill these gaps in your combat technique.” Arden reassures Cain.
“Remember Cain, you are a genius is Spear Techniques, probably the best in this generation when it comes to understanding the spirit of the spear, but that alone won’t be enough, without adaptability and intuition, you won’t amount to much. The only way for you to build them is constant practice and combat training.” Arden lectures him.
“Now, onto greener pastures, how was today’s training? Did you make any new friends? Or better yet, a girlfriend?” Arden asks, dropping his mask of as if it never existed in the first place.
“What is it I hear about you and Artemis growing closer?” Arden asks grinning widely.
Cain’s face flushes up like a tomato.
“I don’t have a girlfriend!” Cain shouts and uses his stubby legs to kick Arden who dodges it nimbly, all the while grinning.
“Especially not that crazy lunatic Artemis!” Cain declares scrunching his face up as if the very thought was distasteful.
This earned a laugh from Arden.
“Look at my little son, already forming a crush.” Arden teases Cain.
“I said that’s not it!” Cain bellows and pouts.
“Haha… ok, I will stop teasing you.” Arden says, wiping a tear from the edge of his eye.
“Seriously though, how was your training?” Arden asks gently.
“It was alright.” Cains mutters grumpily.
“I didn’t quite hear that.” Arden says expectantly.
“I know you did, you old bag!” Cain shouts exasperated.
Arden smirks triumphantly at Cain. The pleasure he gains from messing with his son was something only a prankster father can experience.
“How were the others kids?” Arden asks.
“Most of them were pitiful.” Cain says, his expression disappointed.
Arden nodded on hearing that, he expected as much. His son’s standards for performance were high. While each of those kid would be considered talented based on how much more trained they were over even the average noble and how many resources were poured into them, to his son’s eyes they were lackluster.
“Most of them are either not training as well as they should, or are falling back physically. I did observe some exceptional ones among them though.” Cain says.
“Oh! Exceptional huh?” Arden asks raising his eyebrow.
“Yes, some of them were a cut above the others.” Cain says.
“Artemis was outstanding as usual, Richard was steadfast as always, the twins from the Bask Clan are excellent in their co-ordination, Leonardo was agile as a leopard.” Cain says.
“Hmm, you did well to befriend them all. They are the future of of House, and you would be best served if you have friendly relations with them.” Arden advices.
Cain nods and hesitates a bit before continuing “However, the most exceptional was not any of them.”
