CoBI, B2 Chapter 18: The Mind Frames The Perspective
So sorry for the supposed early chapter, the connection is lost when I uploaded the post. Here’s the third chapter and end of book 2 for the week.
Cheers,
Cuppa.
The kick is extremely vicious but Zhang Tie is only on his guard and evade quickly with a twist of his body, causing the brat to hit air instead.
However, before Zhang Tie could celebrate, the brat’s fist is already coming towards his chest, thinking to test the strength of the brat, Zhang Tie chose to lift his arms to block the attack and a dull sound is heard as the fist landed on the protective gear on his arms.
Zhang Tie felt a strong force on his arms, causing them to turn slightly numb while pus.h.i.+ng him to take a step back. Zhang Tie is inwardly shocked, to think that a kid, who is only two to three years younger than him, can be so powerful.
The punching strength of the kid is similar to a full-strength punch of his, from this exchange, Zhang Tie determines that the brat’s abilities is slightly higher than him by a small margin, if compared to the guys in the brotherhood, the brat will only be slightly lower than Baghdad’s abilities.
This level of strength, even if it is a real fight, Zhang Tie will not run away. He is after all older than the brat and has the height and weight advantage, the fight will not be a one-sided beating without any chance for him to retaliate and it is highly possible for him to fight to a standstill. However, as a human sandbag that cannot retaliate, the outcome is easily decided.
While the thick protective gear reduces the damage done by his opponent, it also without a doubt, affects Zhang Tie’s agility. After a few moves, Zhang Tie’s reaction got slightly slower and the brat used the opportunity to throw a kick at Zhang Tie’s chest, causing him to fly back and land heavily on the ground.
The rough landing caused Zhang Tie to see stars, adding to the suffocating feeling in his chest, it takes him quite some time before he manages to stand up while panting heavily.
When he stood up, Zhang Tie saw the d.a.m.n Mary woman, with a face full of concern, wiping the sweat off the brat with a towel in her hand before planting two wet kisses on the brat’s cheeks. The brat maintained his arrogant look, while drinking water, he threw a gaze full of contempt at Zhang Tie.
“I thought your abilities are good but in fact, you are just a trash. You can’t even last more than a few moves!”
Zhang Tie feels that it is beneath him to start a dispute of words with this self-serving brat, do you think this daddy will tell you that every time you land a hit on me, you are helping this daddy grow the Forged Metal Body Fruit? You are actually paying to work for me, ha, what a wonderful thing…
Thousand Karma Fruit Treasure Tree of Lycorisradiata, I Love You!
Zhang Tie declared loudly, in his heart.
The face behind the protective helmet is displaying a mocking smile, with a relaxed mind, Zhang Tie did not put this defeat to heart.
After standing up, he did some light stretching and draw two deep breaths, except for the dull ache on his chest, Zhang Tie felt everything else is fine and once again curled his finger at the brat.
“Utterly, Contemptible!”
……
Anger instantly flash on the brat’s face, he immediately put down the water bottle and rush towards Zhang Tie. After another seven to eight minutes, Zhang Tie is once again swept off his feet and flew back, landing heavily on the ground, after half a minute, he stood up once again.
This time, the brat is beginning to pant.
“Utterly, Contemptible!”
……
After twenty minutes, with his guard penetrated, the brat landed a few consecutive punches on Zhang Tie’s chest, each punch causing him to take a step back. After moving five steps back, the brat released a large roar, before Zhang Tie could react, a knee came up and landed heavily on his lower abdomen, the attack made Zhang Tie feel pain in his throat as the blood vessels within expands, a string of golden stars appeared in his eyes……
As his lower abdomen is soft, the attack did not cause him to fly backwards, instead, his left leg went soft like cotton, causing him to kneel on one leg.
Zhang Tie felt a familiar premonition and without a second thought, immediately adopted the posture Arnold taught him, he lowered his head and used his arms protect his head.
*Thud* a dull sound is heard as the protective gear on his arms defended a vicious kick, however, the force behind the kick still reached Zhang Tie, causing him to fly once again and rolled a few times on the floor. After rolling more than two meters, did he finally stopped moving.
The brat is currently covered in sweat while panting heavily at standing position, his two eyes are glaring at Zhang Tie who is laying on the floor. This kind of fight, regardless if you are the attacker or defender, is very physically demanding on the body.
In fact, within Iron Bramble Battle Dojo, sparring partners like Zhang Tie who focus on becoming a human sandbag for the duration of the entire session is very few. This is because, the purpose of a sparring partner, other than to receive beatings, is to mostly allow the members of the dojo to be familiar with their fighting techniques, this could not be done by just simply receiving a beating, it also involves multiple communication and exchange of wisdom.
A high-level spearman’s value as a sparring partner, is equivalent to a well-known teacher that can consistently guide and improve a person. During a spar, they can point out the mistakes and weaknesses of their opponent’s attacks, the weak spots in their techniques and problems in the rhythm of their fighting, helping people that developed the wrong habits due to various reasons to improve themselves.
This can improve their opponents battle abilities as a whole and also the true value of a sparring partner. This kind of top level instructors are also mostly experts that are invited by dojos, becoming the most valuable character within the dojo.
As Zhang Tie is a new recruit, his standing is still too low and is unable to interact with these peak characters of the profession. In addition, his opponent today is strictly speaking, trouble borne from woman, since the other party is deliberately aiming to beat him up, he will naturally not be easy on Zhang Tie, causing today’s session to be tougher than normal.
If it was someone else of Zhang Tie’s age receiving these attacks, they would likely have long fallen into depression. Even if they manage to avoid being depressed, seeing themselves being beaten down by a brat, their minds will also be filled with a sense of lost and defeat, their vigor will be completely lost.
However, Zhang Tie who is currently laying on the floor is not thinking of these problems, rather, he is thinking about the brat’s last kick. When he thought about it, Zhang Tie felt that he should not have hugged his head to defend the kick but should have used the other method taught by Arnold, using a resilient part of his body, the shoulder, to ‘receive’ the kick instead. This will produce a better outcome and reduce the damage he receives from that attack.
When facing some unavoidable attacks, either you can actively try to evade and defend or you can endure and receive, the choice that was made in that instant must be quick and decisive. However, to evade and defend is a natural human instinct, to use a calm mind and overcome this instinct, is impossible without practicing and tempering yourself.
After understand this point, Zhang Tie slowly struggled and stood up. The brat’s earlier attacks should have improved the maturity of the fruit by a certain margin, right? Ha, I am really looking forward to it, let’s make this brat increase the ferocity of his attacks.
I hope you don’t fault me for abusing child labor, working for this big brother and not requiring this big brother to pay you salary, ha… ha…
When facing a situation, one will develop different feelings when viewing the matter from different perspectives, with different feelings also comes different att.i.tudes, with different att.i.tudes comes different results, when the different results acc.u.mulates one by one, the destiny of each person will also be different.
Although Zhang Tie does not know this reasoning but his att.i.tude towards the beating, that will normally cause people to become fearful, has changed due to the tree sapling in him. He did not know that he has already exceeded the perspectives and feelings that many other people in his shoes will face.
Zhang Tie felt that he is slowly beginning to develop a joy for this torturous and tiring job, this joy, is akin to finding a divine oasis inside a desert sea, not only did he not feel despair or become demoralized, he felt rejuvenated and filled with energy instead.
As he recovers his strength, Zhang Tie slowly stood up and leisurely cracked his neck in front of the astonished looks of the brat and Mary. After readying himself, he once again lifted his finger and curled it a few times.
“Utterly, Contemptible!”
……
After a few minutes, Zhang Tie is once again on the floor but he stood up shortly with a happy and carefree att.i.tude……
“Utterly, Contemptible!”
……
“Utterly, Contemptible!”
……
Outside the training area, seeing Zhang Tie being repeatedly beaten down, yet standing up with a nonchalant att.i.tude, even taunting his opponent despite being the recipient of the attacks as though finding the beating not good enough, has caused an unknowing shred of fear to grow in Mary’s eyes. As time goes by, the helmet covering Zhang Tie, seems to grow stronger and fiercer in front of her.
……
After an unknown amount of time, Zhang Tie once again struggled to stand up, his body is now aching badly from top to bottom, the two hundred plus pieces of bones inside his body felt loose and scattered. As Zhang Tie discovers that he is unable to stand anymore, he supports himself to sit up instead and continues to pant heavily.
His sweat not only covers his entire body completely, it also caused the clothes he is wearing to stick onto his skin, the sweat on his face also start to flow into his eyes causing him to feel a burning sensation on them. Zhang Tie tried to untie the d.a.m.n helmet that is beginning to feel suffocating but is unable to grab hold of the thin ropes securing it at the back of his head, after a couple of attempts Zhang Tie discovers that it is getting difficult to keep his hands lifted.
Suddenly, a bottle of water rolled to his feet, Zhang Tie forced his burning eyes open and looked forward, he saw the brat is also tiredly seating on the floor, his face is slightly pale while his hair droops from the sweat, sticking onto his head.
The brat is holding a bottle, drinking the water in huge gulps, his eyes towards Zhang Tie no longer possess the contemptuous look from before, replacing it is an unknown look.
Mary that d.a.m.n woman on the other hand, is squatting behind the brat, ma.s.saging him to help with his recovery, not even bothered to throw a glance at Zhang Tie.
Zhang Tie did not attempt to be modest, he picked up the gla.s.s bottle at his feet and opened it. Just as he wanted to drink a mouth of water, he discovers that his helmet is still covering him and it only has that few holes for breathing. Not wanting the other party to know that he is currently too weak to untie his helmet, Zhang Tie casually and coolly returned the cap onto the water bottle.
As the two individuals stared at each other panting heavily for a while, the brat shakily stood up, his face returned to his previous arrogant look, “Remember my name, I am Andrew Bennett, the next time, I will definitely beat you down and make you apologize to Mary!”
Zhang Tie cannot be bothered with his words and simply replied, “I will be waiting here the day after tomorrow…”
With that, the brat left the room with Mary at his side, looking at departing figure of Mary, Zhang Tie could not hold himself and dallying said, “My dear big sister Mary, remember our promise of this life”
Mary’s figure stumbled suddenly, nearly falling…
Are his words that powerful? Zhang Tie tried to scratch his head as he curiously asked himself but discovers that it is blocked by a thick layer of leather. f.u.c.k, who invented such a user-unfriendly helmet…