NOVEL NEXT 4. Second Wave
Thrusting, hacking, splitting, jabbing. Chiseling, groping, throwing, rushing. Deflecting, hooking, upholding, spinning. Scraping, stretching, whirling. The fifteen basic moves of the Feng Clan's Spear Art. Shen trained them all, together with all the different foot stances and some footwork.
He soon learned that moving his feet and spear at the same time cost about one fourth of a stamina point. Walking, running, or doing simple movements cost much less, about one point per minute after doing it constantly. Stamina regenerated even while it was under usage, so it was theoretically possible for someone with a high enough stamina regen to fight without ever tiring.
His stamina bar only showed whole numbers for his current stamina though, so those costs were just an estimate.
The basic spear movements of his clan came easily to him, as he had the theory memorized because of his Keeper training and had seen them performed by masters, so he knew what they should look like. He could even notice and correct minor mistakes. He would still be ridden with subpar form until he could get pointers from an instructor, but he was confident that his own knowledge was enough to let him pass this tutorial.
Shen repeatedly trained until his stamina reached ninety points, then sat to cultivate qi. He didn't want to exhaust himself in case another of the tutorial's tests contained ambushes, and cultivating would strengthen him, too.
A mortal spear master could kill their enemies, but a strong cultivator with only a little knowledge of the spear could obliterate them.
Unfortunately, his body could only take so much qi before it hurt it. The teleportation had healed him, but after infusing his marrows with qi for only ten minutes, his bones were hurting a little already.
He was surprised when he got two small messages, which he somehow knew to be called notifications, after half an hour of cultivation in total in between his spear trainings.
Health Regen | 1.1 → 1.2/h
Stamina Regen | 0.51 → 0.52/min
The Marrow Revitalizing step of the Foundation Establishment realm was about improving one's health, but he was still surprised by getting the notifications. His physiology was supposed to have changed, wasn't it? If he had considered it beforehand, he might even not have kept revitalizing his marrow. Well, everything had worked out just fine. It was also nice to have such an easy way to check the results of his cultivation.
He was about to go back to spear training when the redhead called him.
"Hey!" the boy yelled and waved. Shen waved back. "I'm Mark! You?"
Yelling was... unbecoming of a cultivator, except in certain cases, and conversation wasn't such a case. However, it would be rude to refuse the boy's goodwill and just ignore him.
So Shen did his best to remember the Lion's Roar technique.
As some being trained to become the Keeper of Knowledge, he had passed more time of his life in the clan’s main library than any other place. The library contained all the Feng Clan's martial books, and it was his purpose to memorize everything in case the library was destroyed or a book was stolen. At sixteen, he hadn't had enough time to memorize everything, though he had read everything twice over and could remember the general gist of mostly everything.
Under the tutelage of the current Keeper, he had started memorizing the books from the most important ones. Currently, he remembered twenty-one of them down to the last letter: the top five cultivation techniques, two books each; the Feng Clan's Spear Art that comprised five books; the best footwork manual; and the five books on general skills that any cultivator should know. They were considered the very basic foundations for the clan should they be destroyed and need to start over somewhere.
The Lion's Roar was a low-level general skill that required qi to rotate through the meridians of his lungs and throat in a set pattern that empowered them and the outgoing sounds. The leaders of massive battles used it to give orders to their subordinates.
It took him some effort because it was his first time, but after a couple minutes of awkward silence, he spoke. "I'm Feng Shen. You can call me Shen." Cultivator culture wasn't so informal, but the mortal hadn't even revealed his family name. Shen would adapt to their customs, as the mortals were clearly in the majority.
He had underestimated the Lion's Roar technique though. As its name implied, his voice came just like a loud lion's roar filling the whole place. Everyone in the surrounding hundreds of islands heard him loud and clear.
A lot of eyes looked surprised at him.
Mark covered his ears with his hands and stepped back as if hurt. Well, the Lion's Roar's original purpose was to bring harm to one's enemies through a sound shock wave. He had read that it was useless except against the weakest cultivators, but he hadn't considered he was dealing with mortals, which were even weaker.
"Sorry," he said while pulling some qi from the technique. His voice came half as loud.
"How are you doing this?" Mark yelled after a few instants to recompose himself.
"A martial technique," Shen replied, taking even more qi from his meridians. He only left the bare minimum for the skill to work, and his voice could be heard in the surrounding few dozen islands.
"Can you teach me? Teach us? I bet it could harm the goblins!"
Shen shook his head. "I cannot disclose the secrets of my clan's techniques to outsiders. Not unless the clan head allows it.“
As for the idea of using it against goblins, it was terrible. They didn’t know how powerful their next enemies would be. It was much wiser to improve on battle abilities that would be useful against stronger foe.
"Dude, we're fighting for our lives here!" Mark argued.
Shen shook his head again. "You're not. There's no death in the tutorial. Dying will only mean you'll get expelled, and that's not my responsibility."
He sympathized with them; he had been in their shoes before, desiring a way out of a critical situation but finding none. Still, a clan's techniques were their very lifeline. To disclose their secrets, no matter how simple they might be, was to strengthen their enemies, which effectively weakened themselves.
As much as they were all humans in an unexpected cosmic war, the Feng Clan had fought against invaders before. His instructors had taught him the history, and it was filled with betrayal, dissent, and vying for greater power between supposed allies. Those things were part of human nature, no matter the circumstances.
He wouldn't betray or act against other humans, even mortals, just to grow stronger. Especially not when their survival was potentially on the line. However, he would also not risk his clan's power and wellbeing for strangers, no matter the common enemies they faced.
His father had taught him loyalty and honor.
"Oh, come on!" Mark yelled. "Don't be an asshole! We're together in this! Void Spawn! Monsters! We should help each other!"
"Maybe we could help each other," Shen conceded. "How will you help me?"
The redhead's eyes widened, clearly not expecting the question. He answered after a few moments, "I'll help you later when I can! One hand washes the other!"
He had never heard that expression, but once again, the translation gave him the general meaning. "I don't know you or your family. Why should I trust your word?"
Mark had no answer for that. Instead, he yelled some profanities that Shen ignored. He would do his best to protect any mortal he found, it was his duty as the stronger party, but it wasn't his duty to tell them his secrets.
He ceased the Lion's Roar and went back to training with his spear.
When there was one minute left for the next wave, Shen moved to a corner of the island. Staying in the center to allow himself to get surrounded would be stupid. Likewise, getting too close to the edge would be dangerous, so he left himself some space to step back and maneuver if needed.
He also made sure to leave his back to the largest shield. The floating weaponry hadn't disappeared from the islands, and he had seen other people taking as many things from them as they wanted. They had even thrown their old weapons away, and new ones appeared. If needed, he would just get the shield and push his enemies off the edge.
Next wave in 10 seconds. 15 enemies in groups of 3.
Shen prepared himself. When the countdown ended, light shone on the opposite edge of his island, soon materializing into goblins. These were a little different from the previous ones though: they held stone knives.
If anything, that was a downgrade to their offensive potential. Their claws were fierce enough, and they had ten each. The stone knives didn't look very dangerous.
"Inspect," he said while looking at one of them.
Weakened Goblin (G) — 7 / 7
These weren't feral, and it showed in their approach. They walked with care, surrounding him the best they could considering they couldn't get to his back.
Shen held his position until one of them lunged at him. He killed it easily with a thrust before it got anywhere close to him, then looked at the other two.
Weakened Goblin (G) | 10 → 11 AP
However, they just stood there for minutes, refusing to approach.
It seemed the tutorial wanted him to bring the hurt to his enemies in this wave. He complied, stepping ahead with a controlled movement and thrusting his spear at one of them. The goblin tried to dodge, but it wasn't fast enough and the spear bit into its shoulder.
Shen was surprised to see it die from such a minor injury. It should have to do with him causing more damage than the 7 health points the creature had. He would do well to remember that if he ever found himself on the wrong end of a seemingly weak attack.
Weakened Goblin (G) | 11 → 12 AP
The other goblin took the chance to counter-attack. Shen stepped back and swung his spear. It hit the monster in the face, biting deeply and killing it in a single strike.
Weakened Goblin (G) | 12 → 13 AP
The corpses disappeared as soon as the last goblin died, and three more appeared.
Shen gripped his spear and used them as training dummies for his battle techniques.
He swung the back of his spear on the last goblin's legs and it fell to the ground. He approached and struck its chest with the spearhead. It dissipated into motes of light.
Weakened Goblin (G) | 24 → 25 AP
Shen was breathing heavily, which meant he had messed up. The Feng Clan's Spear Art demanded perfect control over one's breathing. That allowed the martial artist to maximize their explosive power at the right time, and to not have to breathe at the wrong time.
Still, he found it weird. People breathed to assist with giving them energy to live. The Alliance had taken away their need for nourishment, yet their bodies still required air? Why? How did that work?
He looked around to see about one tenth of the islands lacking people. Not everyone had as easy a time as he, which was to be expected. Being forced to attack an enemy while another would use the opportunity to counter-attack wasn't easy for those with no martial knowledge at all.
There was no blue box after this wave, only the screams of pain of some, and the silence of most.
"Next wave," he said.
Next wave in 1 hour (waiting for everyone to finish this wave to commence countdown). 25 enemies in groups of 5.
Things were getting harder.
Shen loved it.
Stronger enemies and the need to strategize in battle would help him improve quickly. It would also give him bad habits, as he didn't have enough time to turn the right movements into muscle memory, and he wasn't perfect. He made plenty of mistakes in battle, as shown by his very first kill, which had left him with a corpse stuck on his spear. Learning while making mistakes repeatedly would be bad for his muscle memory instead.
Well, at least he was still victorious and thus alive.
He rested for a while, then trained some more.
He was training his swings when he felt a sharp pain in his back. His health bar took a dip.
Health: 85 / 100 | -15
"Ahh!" he screamed in pain.
Shen turned back quickly. Was the Alliance sending an ambush their way again? The answer was no. Instead of monsters, he saw Mark using the strange ranged weapon from before. A crossbow, he had learned it was called after inspecting it.
The ranged weapons had unlimited ammunition that appeared automatically when one pulled the string. Mark was pulling the string of his crossbow back again.
Shen put his hand on his back and pulled the bolt from his flesh. The pain was terrible, but bearable. Fortunately, he didn't need to worry about bleeding.
He used the Lion's Roar again, this time within seconds, because he had gotten used to it. "Why?" he asked.
The reply was a pathetic, "Screw you, egoistical asshole! Share your secrets with us or I'll keep firing!"
Shen threw the bolt away, and it turned into light immediately. He considering fighting back, but decided against it.
He didn't know if he would need to fight together with the others at later stages of the tutorial, but it was likely. After all, the Alliance claimed to as strong as possible, and they still had trouble dealing with the Void Spawn; weak mortals would have much more trouble, but that could usually be offset to a point by fighting in groups. There was strength in numbers.
So, when that stage came, it would be one thing for them to resent him for not teaching them his secrets, but if he added the killing of a mortal, they might attack him on sight. He was stronger than them, but he wasn't invincible. As he had just thought, strength in numbers.
Well, he would counterattack if more of them targeted him, but for now, he would use the idiot as a training opportunity. He couldn't cultivate his qi for now anyway, as his bones still hurt.
When the next bolt came, he filled his arms with qi and struck it midair as it was approaching him.
Deflect training engaged successfully.