One not-so-beautiful morning I woke up to the lustful giggles of some balding mustachioed Chinese man in a green hat who was photographing me from the ceiling. And this didn't outrage me, but frightened me, because I woke up precisely from the click of the aperture.
But looking closer, I remembered that Hayato had told me about his friend from China. The lustful head of the Phoenix Order — the largest martial arts school.
Since my morning was ruined, I decided to ruin his in return.
"I have two questions for you, may I?" — I asked in the most charming voice possible.
"Of course, dear, anything for you!" — Well, hold on, you old pervert.
"Do you know that in China, a green hat is a symbol that your wife is cheating on you?" — I asked innocently. The man frowned but still continued photographing me. So I continued in a bass voice, throwing the blanket aside. — "And also that I'm a guy?!"
You had to see it! He first jumped up, fell, somersaulted over his head, and ran to the yard. There he ran up to a barrel that usually collected rainwater and began furiously washing his eyes, exclaiming:
"How, how could I be so wrong? How can I live now?" — Hehehe, live however you want now with this. That's what you get for barging into people's rooms, waking them up, and photographing without permission.
"What happened?" — Black was right there.
"I think my old friend will now be less reckless. Come on, I think you're ready for the next level of training." — As always completely silently, the giant appeared behind my back. But I was already used to this teacher's eccentricity. — "If you were stupider, I'd arrange a test and such for you, but I see that you know what you want and won't kill in pursuit of power, like my former student."
"You had a student?" — I didn't know about this.
"Yes, he was a promising young man." — Furinji's face darkened. — "Ogata Isshinsai, I thought he would become the successor of my martial art alongside my son. And then I learned that he kills in underground no-rules fights to hone his skills."
"My condolences, sensei." — I said sincerely. Although I wasn't a true follower of the life fist, considering it barbaric to leave alive people who repeatedly try to kill you. And would have killed you if they were in your place. But the death fist was also distant to me. Want to develop martial arts, develop them - why kill? This way you only reduce the number of masters. And if an opponent turned out weak for you, maybe his student will be stronger.
"Don't worry about it. Now I'll tell you about three of the 104 combat techniques I know. The rest are too complex for you or don't suit your fighting style."
"My fighting style?"
"You don't notice it, but you're slowly weaving martial arts techniques into your spells. Remember at least your apparition behind my back. That was unexpected." — It wasn't quite apparition, I just finally managed to partially repeat that success with floo powder from several years ago, and the work on the piercer wasn't wasted either. The idea is that I push through not into a needle's eye, but into a quite full-fledged portal. And since it's extremely short, the mana costs aren't as large, and the disorientation is much less. And body saturation with energy and mental magic completely compensate for the rest. I called this technique blink.
"That was blink, I told you. And against you it still didn't help, sensei." — I grumbled discontentedly. I still have phantom pains in my ass from the kick he caught me with.
"Of course. But I'm more experienced and stronger. If you fought an equal opponent, you would have won at that moment." — Hayato disagreed with me. But I wasn't proud of his praise. I understood that my goal wasn't mages or masters equal to me, but much greater and distant peaks of magic.
However, I also knew that a long road begins with a small step. — "However, we got distracted. Masters' techniques aren't the same as ordinary people's strikes. All of them use ki to some degree. The first thing I want to teach you is the steel barrier."
"That same one?" — I remembered the moment when Furinji dodged all my strikes and charms.
"Yes. It will help you not only dodge and block strikes, but also sense any movement and the slightest ki fluctuations. Therefore, it will be almost impossible to catch you off guard."
"Almost?"
"There will always be someone stronger or more experienced than you to such a degree that you won't notice them until the moment they hit you. The second technique will be the iron shirt."
"Is this by any chance the technique you used to catch all my spells with your hands?" — I guessed.
"Yes, exactly that. By releasing and controlling ki on the body's surface, you create a universal barrier protecting you from both physical attacks and charms. Of course, it has the same disadvantage as all universal shields..."
"Costs?"
"Exactly. But after proper training, you'll be able to summon it instantly, without incantations or waving that wand of yours."
"It's a magic wand." — I protested.
"Doesn't matter," — well yes, he doesn't like magic, just like mages. But this doesn't concern me and Black. — "And the third technique, hmm..."
"Are there problems with it?"
"No, I just forgot to name it." — The giant smiled. It seems I'm having a bad influence on him. Or was he always like this? — "If you want, name it yourself later. This technique consists of a sharp release of compressed ki to enhance strikes and break through shields."
"From hands?" — I asked, meaning where the mana should be released from.
"From hands, feet, knees, elbows, anywhere. Just don't recommend from the head if you don't want to become a fool. As you know yourself, modern mages have quite a few shields and they're often narrowly specialized against charms or physical impact. This strike has two effects at once, which such shields really don't like." — He continued explaining.
"So you're giving me what I was lacking? Dodges, a universal strike, and a shield against such a strike?"
"I knew I had a clever student."
***
After a little theory, training proceeded as follows:
Steel barrier. It was trained, not hard to guess, with attacks. Hayato attacked me with two huge clubs, and from the side it looked like some terrifyingly frightening murder attempt. But in reality, these clubs were much softer than his steel body and fists, and their size made it easier to predict movement trajectories. Although with the teacher nothing is ever simple - he didn't care about the laws of physics and inertia, changing strike directions at any moment.
Iron shirt. Same thing here, only I don't dodge. He hits me, and I must minimize damage with compressed mana distributed throughout my body. The better I compress and distribute, the less it hurts. Everything is simple to the point of teeth grinding.
And the nameless strike for now. Soft fabric is wrapped thickly around my hands, and I must release compressed mana through it without applying special physical force to destroy a wooden makiwara. While not damaging the fabric. But this is only the beginning. Then there was a steel pillar, and plush bears on my hands that also shouldn't be harmed. And at the end, a titanium-tungsten wall protected by a magic shield, covered with runes and enchanted. I shouldn't have told him about this alloy.
…
"Maybe we should tell him that this wall is impossible to destroy at his level?" — Black asked his friend.
"Youngsters sometimes do impossible things," — A sharp and unpleasant metallic sound was heard, followed by a victorious exclamation. — "When they don't know about their impossibility."
"Damn you, Hayato. Always with your Eastern philosophy. You could have just said you knew he'd manage."
"That's just it — I didn't know. I also thought he wouldn't manage." — The two friends looked at each other and laughed.
***
And three months later, while I was learning with Phineas to compose charms from scratch, Hayato appeared before me, holding in one hand a loudly crying small bundle, and in the other a bloodied woman with a huge hole in her stomach through which internal organs were visible. The woman could barely be recognized as Shizuha.
"Black, come here! Check the baby quickly!" — He placed the small bundle on the tatami, and my teacher began quickly casting various charms with wand waves. Even during battle with me, he didn't cast charms so often.
I approached the woman I had seen a few more times after the first visit. Always content and happy, in love with her husband and unborn child. I checked her pulse.
"Useless," — The giant called out to me, looking frightened for the first time. Frightened not for himself, but for the innocent child, his granddaughter. And he was also in complete rage, but restraining himself so as not to harm those around him. — "Found her near the gates. Saiga... I felt he was changing, but who could think he'd go this far?"
"Sensei, don't judge immediately without knowing the truth." — I thought, going through options. — "What if I tell you I can resurrect your daughter-in-law?"
For a moment both men froze, eyes bulging, refusing to believe the words I had just spoken. Hayato was the first to come to his senses and instantly appeared next to me.
"What did you say? Repeat it!"
"You have the best hearing in the world, you heard it anyway. I can try to resurrect her if not much time has passed and her soul hasn't departed for reincarnation or the other world."
"That's impossible!" — Black exclaimed. — "I've never heard of such magic!"
"Phineas, our student has already done the impossible." — For the first time he said "our" student. And quite sincerely. — "What do you need for this? Sacrifices, bloody ritual circles?"
"Would you go for that?" — Seeing a negative head shake, I continued. — "That's not needed. I need a spacious open place where no one will disturb us, that's all. Just if the charms go wrong, anything could happen. I've only used them on dead rats."
"Let's go," — Taking a portkey from his jacket pocket and grabbing me with one hand while summoning the girl's corpse with levitation with the other, Black said. — "Let's try. And you stay here, Hayato, the baby is fine, but she needs watching."
Furinji first jerked, but then waved his hand. Even though his emotions are overflowing, he understands that testing some of the most complex charms I know isn't the best place for his granddaughter.
"Salt Lake?" — I asked when we appeared on a snow-white plain flat as a table.
"You're quite educated."
"Just good teachers," — The third charms in my wand were "normal" doppelganger charms. So my copy wasted no time picking up the corpse and apparating away with it. I had already learned to use them better and could give them commands at a distance and see through their eyes.
"You didn't say you could do that. What kind of charms are these?"
"Doppelganger charms, I haven't had time to tell you about them yet. Teacher, please put up shields."
"Which ones specifically?" — Black decided to clarify.
"Whatever you know. When I once used them unsuccessfully, only apparition saved me." — Brr, not a pleasant memory. And the worst part was it wasn't an explosion, but some purple gas that killed everything living and dissolved magic shields like a hot knife through soft butter.
I switched to the doppelganger's vision and ordered him to begin chanting resurrection charms. I poured two-thirds of my reserve into him, so despite the copy's reduced reality, he should have more than enough mana.
He began singing a long appeal to Inanna asking to resurrect an innocent soul. But this wasn't apostleship, just this type of verbal component of charms.
My doppelganger began glowing from the emitted power, and this glow, after the verbal part ended, transferred to the girl. Now either there would be success, or the body would be irretrievably destroyed, as in my first attempts with rats.
Seconds flowed like molasses, freezing mine and Black's nerves, when suddenly I saw through the doppelganger's eyes that the nightmarish wound on her stomach healed and a heavy sigh was heard...
***
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Thank you for the help with the power stones!!!