Spirit Taming

Chapter 378: Fists And Only Fists

"How did we get here?"

"I have no idea, I thought we were getting a tour. I wanted to work on the materials we just got."

Ralph and Clark were trying to understand what they were watching. Somehow they were now sitting in a mix of twenty training dummies while the rest of their group and Illia were fighting them with bare hands.

Grace had made a simple comment about how she had been learning weapons but she wasn't sure how she would fight without them. This had prompted Brad and Reese to tell her how they fought without a sword or shield and sword. It just went further when Isa said that she rarely fought without something to help her use the ice and flames from her beasts.

To be fair, Ralph was most likely the most experienced when it came to hand to hand combat. It would be easier to say that he was the one with this skill since he had a hot head and would charge in to a fight. But realistically, everyone that grew up in rougher areas in a city learned to fight at a young age.

Clark was most likely one of the least experienced with basic hand to hand combat. When he had started to learn to fight, he had learned from scratch. Clara and the mane family had taught him the basics of dodging and survival. He had been able to train with a spear and a few other methods but that was just it, he had learned basics. Nothing more.

Now that he was seeing the bodily awareness that people like Jerold and Maria had developed because of using daggers, he was a little more apt to learn the close combat techniques as well.

One focus that he and Ralph had been working on were knees and elbow. Using the sharper bones of the body in a way to cause blunt trauma without risking a broken foot or hand was a smart move. It also let you deliver more force. But it ensured that if you were being attacked this way, they would need to use the harder bones in the body to block.

Now this sounded funny to Clark until he had a sudden recollection of his past life. Something that hadn't happened for a while since he had perfectly been adapting to the new world. So much so that he would be forgetting many of the random distant things he had learned in general life. His personality had even changed greatly.

"Why do I have to use my forearm and shins to block again? Won't that just hurt more?" Ralph was annoyed that Clark had just changed his style after they had finished the breather and wondering why the heck they were there fighting instead of resting and dividing materials yet.

"They are the hardest bones you can block with. Your forearms are what you should cover your head with if you are attacked. Think about it, will your fingers and joints get messed up first in a fight or your thickest bones?" Clark used logic and Ralph used his own thoughts about fights he had seen.

"Yeah, I never see people with broken arms like that. It's usually that other bone in the arm, right? Yeah. alright, let's try it again." Ralph looked like he didn't really want to but the training dummies were already going and the others were doing it too. They were just focused on their own styles and battles.

"Maria? Is this how you trained before?" Illia was asking a lot of questions. It was as if she had become a totally different person away from the gazes of others.

"Not really, this is way better. Before I had just trained strength since I was weaker. I had to fend for myself after I was kicked out. So I had to figure out food myself on the last bit of money I took with me. Now I have started strength training using Lit to heal me. It's great since Ella's older brother shared his method.

You should have seen him at the fourth year battle. He was pretty giant. Basically a monster himself."

Since Maria had done the training for muscle strength, she knew that it was effective. She was even a bit afraid of Ella's older brother since he was very muscular. Therefore, it meant that the strength he had was many times over hers. If she were to fight someone like him head on she could only imagine being beaten down faster.

"Really? I can't believe a family would throw people out. You're a great fighter and a groundbreaking healer already. I bet they are fuming mad now that you are here and they are pretty much ignored.

I can't say I know anyone in Nebula that is really worried about any family from Nova though… Well, now you'll be the family we worry about." Illia just came to her own conclusion but it didn't seem to shake Maria at all.

"It's going to be fine. We have plans to make Niva better. We just need the strength, right?" Maria saw Illia nod while showing her a few of the muscle building exercises that they could work in to fighting with the dummies. The random squats and low crawls would definitely help with leg and arm muscles.

"See how Brad just struck out using his back and legs to move? That is the best way. Your punch with an arm and that's all is nothing. It requires your entire body. Brad is using every muscle he can to make it happen. Jerold has instinctual actions while I have trained.

Mix the two." Reese was like any old teacher when it came to looking at Grace. He was even mixing action and teaching.

"I can use this but to be honest I want to go." Brad seemed distracted until Reese smacked him on the head. It elicited an immediate punch in return.

"If you can beat me then I will let you go. If you can, that is. It's not like you'll be strong enough to do that. Hell, I doubt you can even lift your entire possessed armor when it grows. That's why it's just a helm." this did the trick. Reese had paid attention to Ralph and Clark's taunting to use it himself.

Grace was watching all this while standing next to Jerold. The two were very carefully watching the taunted fight between Reese and Brad. As much as it seemed like the two would just be watching, Grace felt that she was finally watching and learning something real.

All the classes she had taken were oriented towards raising a beast, learning the basics of the world like history, and survival in camping. This was the best combat she had gotten in terms of explanation as to how something would work at the basic level.

She had gotten the training from the other girls for multiple weapons but Reese had proven to be a very good teacher. "He is copying the elders in his family. But they must have a very good teaching style for young children. I will adapt it too." Jerold was more calm when watching but he immediately started to slowly move through the actions to alter his muscle memory.

Grace didn't wait to do the same.

While all this happened, no one had noticed that Isa had moved off on her own. The trick to this was that Isa had other ideas. She had already started to hatch the wind caterpillar. It was still going to take time which was perfect. But she had the ability to use ice, fire, and earth to a degree.

The issue was that her perfect crystal golem was hard to let attack alone. It couldn't fuse with her much since it was weaker and she was not adept in using earth energy. However, when she started to use fighting techniques, she found that the connection between her and her golem seemed to flare to a higher level.

The some reason was the need for defenses when using a hand to hand combat technique. The perfect crystal golem usually made defensive walls for her. This was perfect because it was a head of battler instead of an attacker in distance. Isa had missed this since she was so used to attacking at distance with fire or ice.

As she battled, the perfect crystal golem had intentionally reached out for her hands and made crystals around them to help her. The simple action was a massive inspiration. Isa had missed an entire style she could adapt to, she could use her fused state to use flames and ice on her body itself instead of attacking at distance.

With the crystal golem, it was viable since she would be protected from damage.

This entire inspiration and begin the development and control of the crystal over her body. If she could train this then she might be able to perfectly fuse sooner than expected with her crystal golem. Once that happened she might be changing her battle style completely or have a perfect counter when in close combat which would shock opponents who underestimated her.

Everyone was in a surprising yet different way of improving themselves as they slowly forgot about the tour.