Combat Training - Second Stem

Nol had arrived in the big city, and wanted desperately to train, as he hadn't done so in a few days, and it started making him a bit testy. He needed to learn some fighting styles, and this city had a huge wealth of knowledge he could easily learn from, although it would take a great deal of time most likely. He learned incredibly quickly, especially when it came to combat, so he would be able to learn the basics of most fighting styles, simply by watching them in action, maybe seeing some demonstrations on the internet. He was quite lucky that this city was full of internet cafes, as this would allow him to get all of the information he needed quickly, before simply going into the park and practicing it. He had a list of things that he wanted to research, some of the most popular fighting styles around the world. Asian countries seemed to have the more potent styles, but there were still very beneficial styles that could be learned here. As Nol walked into the internet cafe, it seemed that he would need a bit more money, because they were going to charge him money to go onto the internet it seemed. All these complicated rules and money grabbing that kept trying to squeeze every last bit of money out of you. Nol was a bit frustrated, and decided to walk out, but it seemed that the girl that worked there showed a concern for him, and wanted to know what he needed. Nol explained that he was researching fighting styles, but was going out to get money, and the girl offered to waive the fees, if he worked at the store. She needed to tend the front desk, and couldn't go around, making sure they weren't researching things that they shouldn't, such as pornography, and even sweep up because people were allowed to eat and drink in there. Nol shrugged and decided it was worth it, and grabbed a broom, and started sweeping up. As he was sweeping through the isles, he would simply glance at people, to make sure they weren't disobeying the rules of the place. After about ten minutes, the girl would say he did a fine job, and then tell him to go ahead and get on a computer. Nol made a mental note that some humans weren't bad, and made sure he wouldn't kill her.

As he researched fighting styles, he came across something very unusual, and it made him blink a few times. The name of the Style, was chi blocking. This styles allowed one to strike pressure points in the body, which would cause different effects, as the bodies pressure points were very sensitive and ran the body itself. Well, this was an amazing find, as it would help him to get rid of pesky super beings without them being able to fight back very effectively. He also wondered if it could also shut off powers later, but he would worry about that when he started expanding upon it. As for right now, he would need to learn the style, and so he would print out a sheet with the pressure points on the body. There were three hundred and sixty one of the pressure points, and to learn them all and learn to strike them all with precision while the things were moving, would be a relative challenge. As he took the piece of paper back out of the store, he waved to the woman, as he would need to stay on her good side if he was going to come in for research more times than just that one time. He headed into the park, where he would simply lay the pressure point sheet onto the floor, and sit with it in front of him on the ground. He would have to go about these pressure points on himself first it seemed, as that was the only way to practice it without causing a big ruckus, and that would not be very beneficial to him or his mission at all. He was there to train and to find info out about the spheres. He would probably go to the internet to find out what that was all about as well. It didn't really matter to him, as he lightly touched his body, making sure to find each of the pressure points without actually stimulating them or hitting them too hard. He didn't want to suddenly lose control of his arm or something, and this would allow him to find them without actually causing any damage. As he found them, a slight twang would go off in the part, making it feel as though it was asleep. He would get in a long stance, his body open far more than usual, but it was more sideways, with his back leg being far but directly behind his front leg. He would be a larger target for horizontal strikes, but not for vertical strikes. This would also allow him to spin around and dodge attacks easier.

It was strange that even a simple tap could cause an arm to go limp, and it seemed that he would need to train the stance and the actual strikes, so that he could fluidly go into it and use it whenever he wanted. After a long day's training, simply moving, flowing, and then striking certain places on a nearby tree, he would finally go to sleep, and await the next day. He didn't even dream, as there were no dreams where he came from. He woke up fairly early, and it seemed that the internet cafe didn't open for another hour or so, so he would head back into the park, and start training. Simple stuff, sit ups, push ups, pull up, and an assortment of stretches, would have him ready to go throughout the day. He would continue, running laps around the park, as well as all the other exercises he could think of, before it was about time that the cafe would open. He would walk in, and wave to the woman, who would then hand him a broom. It seemed he was working for another ten minutes or so, but this time it was a bit longer. He looked at someone who was watching something inappropriate, and would drag him out of the store. She didn't really want him to do that, but appreciated the gesture. It was Nol's turn to use the computer, and he quickly went and searched through some more fighting styles. He found a style called Wing Chun, which would help him avoid nasty situations. It trained the body to be able to adapt to situations, and to make sure you weren't easily counter attacked. For inspiration on what fighting styles he was learning, he went back to his fight with Nameless, in which he was completely out classed. He was going to challenge that man again, and he would show him that he had made progress. His goal currently was to beat Nameless in a one on one fight. He wanted to be the better fighter, even though it was clear that Nameless was more powerful.

Nol once again waved at the woman, before exiting the shop. It seemed that they were getting along perfectly, in that they weren't causing problems for one another. Nol memorized the stance and the general movements of a demonstrator when he watched the video on the computer, and would mimic these movements after a while of training. He walked back to his park, and then started practicing. He needed something to practice on, but he only had a tree, and not a moving target. He was confident though, and he needed to limber up if he was going to try and make his attacks uncommitted, and be able to pull back if he needed to. He simply kept going through the motions, before suddenly trying to interrupt his own attack movement and move backwards, or even counter attack back. He looked strange, going against an invisible opponent, or the tree for a while, but then again, he didn't care what other people thought of him. He was going to do the best he could, and train for a week straight if that's what was needed to become stronger. He was definitely going to beat Nameless. As he trained over and over, he would try and figure out his next move after training so hard. He wanted to find out about the spheres, and even try to retrieve them, but he was going to need to have a good strategy when he faced another super. He supposed that he was training for just that reason, so that he wouldn't die against a super if he tried to take the spheres away from them. He kept training throughout the night, and barely got any sleep, but he was wide awake at day break, and made sure to continue his morning training. People could see that his arms and legs, and body in general was fairly bruised and beaten by his own method. Pain was simply weakness leaving his body, which is how he thought about it.
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Word Count: 1536

After a good night's rest, Nol decided to get up, and continue his research into the art that was fighting styles. He would make sure that he learned the basic principles of all of them, before he went out and tried to get a sphere. As he awoke, he was rather sore, the training he did previously was incredibly arduous, but he was going to train until he couldn't move anymore, so he would pick himself up, and shuffle his way to the internet cafe once again. It was open, of course, as he would wake up a lot later that day than the previous days, because of the intense work he put into it. The whole place seemed dead that day, and there was only two people in the entire store, besides the woman and Nol of course, and the woman just motioned him to a computer. It seemed that his help wasn't needed that day, and he was pretty glad, he just wanted to search, he didn't need to keep the damned computer, so he disliked having to do manual labor and tedious tasks just to use a computer. He decided he would need to get some sort of house or lodging, as he was tired of basically camping outside. He also wanted a computer, as that would make training from sight alone much much easier. He would simply need to wake up turn the machine on, and start training. Still, he did like the interaction with someone, simply because it was in human nature to need someone or something to talk to. He was simply glad that he wasn't going insane anymore. He was much better off here than in Naraka, and he was glad that the ripple effect expelled him. He was getting slightly distracted focusing on the past, so he quickly started searching the internet. The woman came over to him, and started asking him why he was researching all these things, and he simply told her that he was training, trying to develop his own way of fighting, and he was learning as much as he could about other fighting styles, practicing them a bit before actually trying to make his own. She thought that was particularly interesting, and Nol made a joke about how she must have thought moving your body was interesting, because she worked at an internet cafe, and thus she must not move very much. She said she cycled, and didn't get the joke at all. Nol simply sighed, and then continued looking through the martial arts. He wasn't sure what to do next, a few things piqued his interests, and it seemed that the best option, and one of the easiest to learn, compared to the others, was boxing. It would be good for his aching body, to learn something like this, as it only required beating up his arms.

Nol yawned, before walking out of the store, waving to the woman behind the counter, who waved back in a nice manner, and then he swiftly made his way back to the park. He was going to make sure he mastered this style quickly, as he liked fighting with his hands. According to the video, it was all about footwork and making sure you could punch swiftly and with force, using your body's momentum and energy. He would need to make sure he did this in a way that didn't counter act his Wing Chun principles, as this wouldn't quite work if he simply un learned a bunch of stuff. The difficult part would be combing all of the principles and making sure they didn't contradict each other. He would swiftly throw out a few jabs, making sure to gauge how fast he was, and of course he would need to test his strength as well. He wondered how much it would be to get access to some sort of gym, so that he could practice on something that was designed to get punched, instead of just a tree. He wouldn't mind if he had some sort of punching bag, but of course he was homeless currently, and didn't know if his current job was going to pay any actual money, or even get him a place to live. He shook that off, and continued, making sure his core was right, rigid, but flexible. Contradicting attributes that had to somehow be balanced, much like the yin and yang within one's body. He kept practicing for several hours, before going to a nearby fountain and just splashing himself all over. He was rather hot, and once he dried off, he would make his way over to the internet cafe once more. The woman was there, and smiled at him, wondering why he was back so soon. Nol explained that he was finished working out, and wanted to know what they had for fun around the place, and she showed him a few videos on you tube that were trending and such, and Nol laughed at some, and didn't really care for others. She also showed him how the internet had all sorts of music and such on it, and Nol got to enjoy the classical music of Beethoven and Bach. That made him quite happy, and Nol finally decided that he wanted to know this woman's name. She revealed that her name was Elizabeth, and Nol told her his name. His name was a bit strange compared to a lot of people in this age, but it seemed that she didn't make anything of it, and simply smiled.

Nol had to slightly distance himself from her, but he needed the internet, because no one else here could possibly know as much as actual practitioners of the styles. They went on the internet and simply watched a movie, and it seemed that the girl kept trying to grab his hand through the movie, as it was supposed to be a horror movie, but Nol simply stopped it. Nol wasn't the lovey dovey type, especially in movies, and he didn't even realize that was what was happening, that she was trying to flirt with him and such. Nol was mostly oblivious, and simply didn't like holding hands with people. After the movie, he simply left, and waved in his usual manner. He would sleep, and come back the next day. When he came back, it seemed that the cafe was closed, and he was a bit confused, but the sign said that it was closed on sundays. Apparently it was sunday that day, so it seemed he would be stuck. He walked through the city, and saw a large group of people surrounding a few television sets that were set up in glass. It seemed that they were watching a professional wrestling match, hosted in Mexico. Lucha Libre was what it was called, and the constant slamming and throwing, and wild moves, seemed amazing. Plus, the grappling and submissions that they were doing intrigued him. He decided that he would need to learn how to wrestle, as grappling and the submissions were very valuable, and would probably help him out in the near future. He needed to get something that was around the same weight as a person. He went to a construction site, and grabbed a bag of concrete that wasn't mixed, and this would be his training dummy. He grabbed it and walked off, and no one seemed to care. The construction site was abandoned because of lack of funding, so there wasn't anyone around. He walked back to the park, before grabbing the sack and tossing it around for a few hours. He could go around and jump off of things, jump from the top of the trees and such as if it was the top rope. He decided that he was done with the wrestling portion of his training, and it was rather early still, so he decided that he would try and get something to eat. He had pick pocketed some money from people, and it was just enough to where he could get some fast food. He simply spent the rest of the day training, practicing his push ups and sit ups, before heading back to the park. He was rather tired of sleeping in the park, but it seemed he was sort of stuck. As he looked up into the sky, but there were no stars, because of the busy city, and the city that supposedly never slept.
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Word Count: 1413

As Nol slept under the night sky, that seemed to be completely empty, minus the satellites that were over head, he began to dream. His first ever dream, was a rather simple on, simply him fighting off the demons of Naraka. Most would consider this a nightmare, but Nol loved the thrill of battle, and he showed no fear, as he was born in it. As he awoke, he had a grin on his face, and he looked around. The sun hadn't quite risen yet, but whenever his body felt that he needed to wake up, he would be awake, and he would swiftly begin training. As he let out a yawn, he would jump up into a tree, and swing from a tree branch using his legs. Inverted sit ups were very challenging, and he enjoyed that no matter how strong he got, he would still get a nice work out from push ups and sit ups, even though he had to do a lot more than he had to back when he first got to this world. Nol simply continued training until the sun came up more over the horizon, so that he could gauge the time. The sun acted as a sort of clock, and he could tell what time it was by where the sun was in the air. So, as he looked into the sky after training a bit, and then rinsing himself off, he gauged that it was about eight o clock. This was around the time that the internet cafe opened, and Nol needed to quickly get over there, and make sure that he was learning more. He only had a few more martial art styles picked out, but this didn't mean that he was going to slow down there. He would make sure to learn as much as possible before going after the sphere. As he walked over to the cafe, he made sure to walk in with a bit of a graceful step, and waved to the woman, much like he always did, and quickly walked over to the broom. He began sweeping, looking around, and he noticed the woman leaning on the counter watching him. She seemed to be staring at him with a smile on her face, and Nol simply kept sweeping, and watching the people. He didn't really think too much of it, perhaps she liked having some sort of helper in a world of perverts. He looked away, and made sure to get every last bit of things off the floor, before putting the broom away, and then sitting at a computer. He was researching the final few martial art styles that he wanted to learn. A person named Bruce Lee had a very fluid and open style, which Nol really liked, and the flashy execution of it was just up his alley. As he watched the man over and over again, he kept clicking more and more videos that the internet suggested to him. He watched the man break bricks, break things over his body, and everything that martial artists usually did to display their power, but a particular video caught his eye quite fantastically. He saw the man play a tabe tennis game, with nothing but nunchaku. This seemed overly impressive, and it was for some sort of phone company. He still didn't understand how the mobile phones worked, but he enjoyed the applications. As he watched and watched, it was hard to pinpoint a particular style, as it was so fluid and open, so he looked up certain other things. He made sure to bookmark that page for later, as the woman came over and showed him how to work the internet slightly. He was learning a bit about the computer, and it seemed that he was getting a bit better at living a normal life. He didn't want normal though, but he just didn't want to stick out. He started looking up other styles, and it seemed that there was a style that was able to use explosive force to phenomenal levels.

He judged it over and over again, and he decided to tackle the harder style first, and decided to learn Jeet Kune Do. He would need the address to a library, because there would be know learning a comprehensive and open style just by watching it. So, he got the library address, and it was rather close, so he quickly walked over to the library, and looked around. The woman at the cafe explained that he would need a library card, and she simply allowed him to use hers. He was grateful, she was probably too nice to him, when he was a stranger, and he didn't even have a home. This got Nol thinking about why she would help him so much, and wondered if she pitied him, and was helping him because he was homeless, but it seemed that she genuinely cared for him. As he got the book and headed back to the forest, the woman was there looking for him. It seemed that he took more time than usual, and there was a power outage in the city, so it caused her to have to close up early. She wanted to sit and watch him train. Nol didn't care, and he simply read through the book and did the motions. It looked sloppy at first, and there were a few giggles from the woman, to which Nol simply rolled his eyes, but very quickly, he started to look like a hardened fighter. He trained constantly for about an hour or two, before taking a break. The woman motioned him to sit near her, and he did. It seemed that she was cold, as it was a bit chilly, and the woman simply rested her head on Nol's shoulder. Nol sighed, and then simply waited. The girl was being a bit too close, and Nol finally figured out that she wanted to sleep with him. He made sure he knew that he himself was an incredible idiot. Flirting was another type of battle, and it was on. Nol simply opened up into a kiss, and it soon became x rated. He went back to the park after a few hours, and finished up his training alone. He seemed rather happy with himself, conquering everything that was thrown at him, even a woman. Hopefully she wouldn't take that to heart, he didn't want to emotionally harm anyone, and he made sure she knew it before he left. Now that he was fairly competent in Jett Kune Do, however, he was able to move on to the other fighting style he picked up on at the cafe, before the power went out of course. Xingyiquan was the name of the style, and Nol got to print some stuff out about it, but left it over at the woman's apartment. It seemed that he would have to go from memory, which was fine, but it would be rather helpful to have the finer points on paper to look at. It was all about building up power in the power and unleashing it swiftly, which minimized the user of tension, meaning it could be fluid as well. This was fairly difficult, usually tension was a good thing, but to build up enough needed to actually put a hole in someone, there needed to be a sort of wind up time, like those who pull back their whole body for a hay maker punch in boxing. This was completely different, and he needed to make sure he got the basic principles down. Sudden explosive force was needed, and he wanted to make it as swift as possible. The punching technique was odd, but after a while, he learned that moving your body and suddenly stopping it, caused all the force to need to go somewhere away from your own body, so the only part that remains moving, such as your fist, would receive all of it, causing the punches to be devastating. He simply repeated the process for a series of other attacks, before declaring himself ready. He was going to go retrieve the spheres, or at least learn about them now, but he would need to be able to track down a super being who had that kind of knowledge it seemed. He was pretty tired, and surprisingly it was the woman who made him like that. Sapping energy was a succubus technique right? Nol chuckled to himself at that little joke, and would have to remember to tell the woman the next time he saw her.

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Word Count: 1435