A Lewd Cultivator in Brockton Bay 18 (Patreon)

A Lewd Cultivator in Brockton Bay
Chapter 18: Training Never Ends

-VB-

It was just great not having to go through an infatuation period between Amy and I. Because of how long we’ve known each other, we weren’t blinded by love. We saw each others’ flaws rather well, and acted to help each other fix it.

Most of the time.

Amy had no intention of fixing my lustful nature. She actually encouraged me actively to bone her sister.

That was a story for another time, however, because right now was the time of action and practice!

I was actually surprised a week ago when I invited Assault and Battery to join me and Amy in our training. While Amy was now pregnant and starting to show and unwilling to participate in anything too strenuous, she still stretched, practiced stances, and tried to cultivate within reasonable limits, which was the reason why I invited the Protectorate heroes over for sparring practice.

I suspected that the PRT was keen on keeping an eye on me, even if I was part of a long standing independent hero team.

And honestly speaking, Assault fought well for someone who’s power should have given him a measure of complacency.

I crouched low to avoid one of Assault’s left jab, and then spun around with a low spin kick. He jumped back easily on his bouncing feet before rebounding on the spot and coming at me with his fist drawn. I let him come closer before jumping to the side while rising up and leaving my left feet on the spot where I was as the limb that propelled me away from his attack. He twisted on a dime, no doubt drawing his own kinetic energy away from his forward momentum.

But that was a trap from me.

As he turned to engage me in my new position, my left leg snapped up like a snake as I pushed myself forward. Assault’s eyes widened as my leg landed on his thigh with a powerful snap-kick.

See, what I learned about parahuman powers was that not all powers were created(distributed) equally. Assault’s power, Kinetic Redistribution, allowed him to absorb attacks that came at him but only if he was generally aware of the attack. He knew his own weakness in that regard, so he rarely engaged his enemies upfront like he was doing here.

But then again, this was a spar and not a life-or-death fight in the streets or in an Endbringer Battle.

Assault, however, was now aware of my attack, and my kick less damage than I wanted.

That’s where the rest of my “kit” came in. My ki flowed through me, already having been spread out throughout my body, and I spun around, pulling back my left leg so that it was now the standing leg while I snapped my right feet and leg in another attack.

Assault, now aware of the attack, smirked and tried to barrel right through.

He didn’t expect my kick to bypass his power and send him sprawling to the side.

I noticed Battery shoot up from her seat on the sidelines. Assault rolled on the ground before he kicked himself back up.

“... ow!” he hissed as he held the left side of his jaw. “How’d you do that?” he asked me incredulously.

“I have some internal energy shtick that I can do,” I smirked. “That was just a love tap compared to what I can really dish out with it.”

Assault narrowed his eyes and grinned. “Oh ho, you mean you can leg it when you want to?”

I frowned. “Was that an attempt to make a pun out of my kick?”

“Kind of?”

“It’s horrible.”

Assault used my deadpan to rush me, using what had to be a significant boost from his kinetic energy reserve to literally fly at me.

But I wasn’t a street-fighting martial artist for nothing. I reacted just quickly enough to dodge his charge and then strike right at his upper back as he passed by me. My attack did jackshit, but it was the thought that counted!

Assault came to a stop on the other side of my sparring ring.

He came to an abrupt stop and turned to whistle at me. “That was just barely underneath supersonic. How’d you dodge that?” he asked, relaxing.

I took that as a sign that the spar was over. I relaxed as well before shrugging. “Part of being a martial artist is being ready to dodge. Though my particular path doesn’t focus on dodging, dodging in and of itself is a foundation of close quarter combat that all fighters should have learned to the point that it is instinctive.”

“Alan, you’re lecturing again,” Amy pointed out. “Assault is a veteran in the cape scene. He probably knows more than you.”

I thought about it before nodding. Turning to him, I nodded. “Sorry if I sounded condescending.”

“Not a problem, big man!” he said with a wide, friendly grin.

“Big man?”

“Yeah, you do that intimidation thing that makes you look before!”

“... What intimidation thing?”

Turned out that I did use intimidation.

From the more technical standpoint, all I did was exert the level of ki available on the ready by distributing it all over my body, but this also had the effect of allowing my ki to leak out and become a kind of a negative emotion-intensifying “aura” not unlike Vicky’s.

I knew that Assault and Battery would report this new development to their superior, and I would get a Shaker rating.

After all, if Vicky got a Shaker rating and my “aura” did less than hers, then what other rating would I get?

Right?