Capital Punishment [Training]

Everyday, Nol would wake with the rising sun, and then quickly begin his training. He wasn't the one that would get up and stretch, then yawn, and then walk around like a zombie for a while, until finally doing something, as he wanted to better himself every day, at all times if possible. But, sometimes he had to take detours to steal food at night, and other things, his schedule was very strange, in that he slept two times, at 4 hour increments during the day and night, as there were only certain times he could be active without a house. So, he got up off of the bench he was using, and immediately went into a nearby forest, which was more like a large park set aside for the city to have some sort of greenery in it. As he walked through the trees and other things, he noticed that it was very tranquil in the forest, as the dense trees around the outside shut off most of the outside sounds from the city, that never seemed to actually calm down, simply slow down a bit at night and in the extremely early morning. Nol found a nice spot, that was a sort of circle of trees, that formed almost like an arena type area for him to train it. He was simply practicing the basic martial forms, that allowed him to excel in most forms of combat, and he would learn actual styles very shortly. He was very good at learning combat styles, so he was going to quickly run through all of his forms, before locking them into his muscle memory and then he would have them forever.

His power to learn any martial or combat style nigh instantly was amazing to him, and it allowed him the opportunity to constantly better himself, as well as an excuse to continue on forever. There was always something new to learn, and soon he would be the most powerful fighter around. His other power, to manipulate a very basic element, the building block of all life, was also fascinating to him, but he didn't understand it as well as he did fighting and combat in general. He would learn everything about combat first, before trying to understand chemistry and physics, or whatever subjects were needed to understand the properties and uses of carbon. All he knew for now, was that it made some very potent armor around his body. Continuing with the task at hand, he found a low branch, and did a few pull ups. He was in good physical condition, and this allowed him to do around 20 of them. Not entirely great, but he didn't do a lot of strength training, as form and technique was far more important to him at the moment. If he came across a style that was based on speed, such as Wing Chun, or strength, such as pure Wrestling, then of course he would start to branch out and train those aspects.

So, after pull ups, there would be push ups, lunges, and a plethora of other exercises that would get his muscles warmed up. After they were warmed up, he would spend around 10 minutes stretching his muscles out, so that they were nice and limber. This wasn't exactly needed, as he could spring into action at a moment's notice, but this was extremely good preparation for the learning and practice of forms. Taking his general form, he would straighten his posture, as posture was very important. He was constantly aware of his own body, not even needing to look at it to know how it was. His power allowed him to know what movements would send his body where, how it all flowed, and of course, how to perfect his own posture. He was simply standing, perfectly straight, back straight, shoulders slightly back, chin up, in a form similar to military discipline, and then went into his combat stance suddenly. His body was bent slightly lower, giving his arms, which were tucked in front of his chest, a greater ability to parry and block attacks, should they come towards his body. He made his overall body a smaller target, while his feet were about shoulder width apart, knees were bent slightly, never locked, this was to allow perfect flexibility and mobility should he need it.

He would sway slightly to the left, feeling his back and core muscles sway as well, some of them twisted slightly, as his feet never changed positions, and then he would sway to the right slightly, and feel an equal and opposite effect on the other side of his body, and he would do this a few times, before sighing. He was done with that already, and he would swiftly move his arms, going through the motions of defending himself, as if an invisible enemy was throwing punches and kicks towards him. As he did so, he isolated around ten or so points for his arms to move, that would theoretically block any strike, should it not be empowered, as blocking someone with much greater strength than he had, would result in some broken bones. He might have to fire out a way to fortify his bones with his Carbon manipulation, but that was testing for another day. As he continued with the swaying and blocking motions, he would stop. He would stretch out a little bit, before re-assuming the posture, and then start with striking himself. He would throw out a few quick, light jabs, some uppercuts, and then moved on to his feet. Intense blows that wouldn't allow him to defend himself seemed useless, considering smaller, more focused movements were more efficient.

A few kicks, some long, towards the invisible head of the opponent, and some short, straight kicks to the knee of the opponent, should there be one. A few kicks, and he was ready to move on to something else that was crucial, but for that, he would need something that could be compared to a human, because he needed to be able to judge distance between the opponent and Nol himself. He would be able to know whether or not he would reach an opponent with an attack if he was close enough, and would be able to judge which of his techniques would be the best in each situation. This was an invaluable skill that he would need to earn the right to use, but because he was incredibly smart when learning anything that dealt with combat, he would finish it rather quickly. He simply picked a tree, and would start far from it, at around 10 meters. He was thinking, and literally nothing he had would be able to reach the target, so he would need to shuffle towards it at a moderate pace, so that he wouldn't get caught by the opponent, and he could still strike as he got close enough.

This brought him to the other basic principle of foot work, which was definitely needed. As he practiced it, he felt the inevitable rumble of his stomach, which displayed that he needed some sort of food. It was still extremely early in the day, meaning he could get away with stealing some fruit and some fish, especially from the local super market. He did have a little money, just in case, but he didn't feel like using it when he didn't have to. As he walked towards the super market near where he sort of lived, he would find it, and it was just opening. The man knew Nol, and knew that he took food, but he was a kind old man, and simply let it go. He knew Nol was homeless, and he didn't steal just to steal, but simply to live. So, a simply large apple and a fish were taken, and Nol simply left, nodding to the man that gave it to him. The old man would never accept any money from Nol anyways, so it's not like it mattered. He wasn't sure why the old man gave him the necessary food, but he chalked it up to human nature to look after those less fortunate, or at least those who don't have anything, like Nol. All Nol had was his gloves and his knife, which he promptly used to cut the fish.

He would make some sushi, by cutting the fish swiftly, removing the bones, and then simply eating it. It didn't need to be washed or anything, since it was already cleaned before putting it into ice. He happily ate the fish, then the apple, and then went to a park and drank from the fountain they had there, and was ready for more training, and he receded back into the forested area near the park, and continued his training. He would use his knife to carve out a sort of outline of a man, and then carve a heart on it, into a tree. He would simply train his knuckles now, and punching a tree would do it. As he punched and punched, he could feel the blood after a long while, but he didn't really care. He of course was doing this without his gloves on, so he was getting full bark and wood on his knuckles and hands. The best way to train was to cause small breaks in his knuckles, in which it would heal and become stronger. Anything that didn't kill you or incredibly maim you made you stronger. He knew that if he caused permanent damage in his hands, that would definitely make him weaker, not stronger, so he made sure to take a few breaks, before continuing again.

After his hand was nice and bloody, he would wrap it with his combat bandages again, before stuffing them into his gloves, and then he would do the same with his legs and feet. Once he was sufficiently beaten up, and the tree didn't look so good either, he would take a break, and simply lay in the grass in the middle of the circle. It didn't take very long for the cloudy skies to happen, and it wasn't going to rain, but it did give Nol something to look at. As he tried to match the shapes of the clouds with something found in real life, he found it rather boring, and wondered how the other people on this planet did it. He wondered if he was alone as well, or if there was other non-human entities here. He wanted to be able to fight everyone, and it seemed that the humans, even those granted with super powers, weren't very strong at all. He would be happy to be proved wrong soon, but he had seen people that had abilities to form weapons out of their body, to control wax, and to use fire to a limited degree. All of them were bested by Nol, and they didn't even last long. It wasn't even fun to him, and he needed a real purpose. He was simply wandered around fighting people, and while it was rather fun, he would rather actually work towards a goal, and his current one was to get stronger, but he wanted something that would actually be completed.

He was sitting there, not really paying attention to the pain he felt in his shins and feet, or his hands, even though they were both bleeding, and decided that he would simply sleep. He didn't have much of a schedule, like some people would wake up at six am, and then be awake until exactly ten pm, and then start the whole cycle over again, which seemed a bit boring. He simply yawned, as he slipped into sleep. He would have his hand close to his combat knife, just in case someone decided to try and sneak up on him, but he didn't think anyone would. He would wake up in a few hours, and hopefully his hands and feet would have stopped bleeding by then.

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Word Count: 2002