Chapter 97 - First Lesson (2/2)
”Really?” Kat's head perked up as though someone was offering her a treat. Standing up and walking over, she looked her old man in the eye and once again asked, ”really?”
”Yes. Really. Since either of us can do this, at least you'll enjoy it. Just try to keep it in your pants though, ok?” Jon reminded her.
”Hehehehehe...” Kat was crackling while turning her head towards Laz, as though an evil villain had finally trapped it's pray. Laz couldn't help but feel a shiver go up and down his spine.
”Alright, enough like that. You're scaring him.” Jon swatted the back of Kat's head. He then pointed at the post.
”Alright Laz, I want you to hit the post as hard as you can without hurting yourself.”
”Umm... You sure,” Laz asked, hesitating. He had a rough idea how strong he was and also the thing was only made of wood after all.
”Yeah. Just remember something. No matter how hard your first is, there is always something harder. You're not using your first like a hammer. If you wanted to do that, you might as well just use a hammer. What you want is to focus the energy created by your fist into the wood at the point of contact. If you can do that, then any part of your body could be a weapon, not just your fist. And every part of your body can be just as destructive as your fist,” Jon lectured. He had a bad feeling that Laz was just going to bash his fist into the post as hard as he could. Even though the rope would provide some cushion and the post, being wood, would absorb the impact, there was still the chance that Laz would hurt himself. Young men tended to be somewhat brash after all.
Laz walked over to the post and stood in front of it. At first, he reached his hand out and touched the wood and the rope. After listening to Jon a bit, he had some ideas. Despite training, he had never fully grasped how to make his energy flow through his fist. He could do it to his entire body which was a lot of surface area and then also to his leg, which, although smaller, was still larger than a fist. For the moment, he wanted to get the feel of the post with his hand, almost as though he was showing the energy where he wanted to direct it.
Jon didn't say anything, but Kat was mumbling all kinds of things under her breath.
”What the hell? Just hit the damn thing.”
”Why the fuck are you caressing it? Wood make you that turned on?”
”Is he scared or something?”
She kept mumbling on and on while observing Laz. For Kat, she was rather straightforward. If you don't hit something hard enough the first time, just hit it twice as hard the second time. There was no reason to hesitate about it. In her mind, a hot blooded man should just throw a fist first and figure out the details later. Laz couldn't help but overhear her as he tried to focus, his mouth beginning to frown.
”He might be solidly built, but he's kind of a pussy...” Was Kat's final judgement. Jon finally had enough of his daughter and glared at her, forcing her to shut up.
With the newly brought silence, Laz had found the focus he needed. All his hand could feel was the wood while the rest of him relaxed. The grain against his skin, the tickling bite of the rope, all of it, was felt through his finger tips. After closing off and out everything else, including Kat's comments, he could finally see the energy's direction through him. All he needed to do was let it burst out.
Taking a deep breath, Laz backed away. He started circulating his source essence, letting the energy flow through his body over and over again. When he finally felt like it had reached it's peak, he took one step forward and threw out a punch.
BOOM
The noise exploded though the dojo, startling both Jon and Kat while the blonde guy at the front desk fell backwards out of his chair. Jon made a quick move and stood in front of Kat while shards of wood flew everywhere. Luckily for Laz, since he had directed his energy forwards, the wood all blew out from where he was standing.
As the wood dust and many of the tinier pieces of wood and rope started floating down, Laz pulled back his fist, looking at the post in surprise. Even though he had felt like he was doing it right, the end result was simply amazing. Jon finally recovered his senses enough to walk forward and began examining the post. He then grab Laz's hand and started pressing his finger into it at different points. Although Laz winced a few times, overall, he was fine. Unlike the last time, he barely even touched the wood itself. What made the wood explode was the rush of energy that came out of Laz's fist like a wave. After ensuring that Laz was ok, Jon just took a step back and looked at the young man.
Laz was immersed in the feeling of what had just happened and was playing it back in his head over and over again. From what he remembered of the paper his Grandpa Chu gave him, he felt like he had started practicing the actual Dragon Fist. Something about it still felt off however.
Kat finally regained her cool and came forward, grabbing Laz's fist. She then started to work her hand down his arm and up to his bicep while periodically squeezing. Come back to the moment, Laz felt her actions but didn't say anything, vaguely remembering that Jon did the same thing. While Jon had checked his hand, he thought that she was checking his entire arm to look for signs of stress or soreness. At least, that's what he thought at first.
She kept going after reaching his shoulder and started grabbing his chest, as though she wanted to evaluate just how tough his pecks were. After that, she stepped to the side and used one hand to roam his abs while another hand was pressing into his back. It seemed strange, but at the same time Jon didn't say anything and just looked on. She then brought her nose in close and began sniffing him. This finally prompted Jon to grab her by the back of her gi collar and yank her away.
”That's enough of that thank you. You're like a dog in heat. How the hell are you going to be able to work with him like that? Oh, that's right. I remember you telling me you didn't want anything to do with him. Sorry I forgot about that. I will take over from her,” Jon teased while smiling a bit sarcastically.
”OVER MY DEAD BODY. I finally have someone to work with in the middle of bum fuck town and there is no damn was you are taking that from me,” Kat shot back while walking forward.
Sigh.
Jon just shook his head, knowing that she had already latched on like a leech and wouldn't leave Laz alone no matter what. Although he knew that nothing would happen between them, he also knew of his daughter's strange fetish. All he could do was say a little prayer that the young man would survive being her first guinea pig and lay down some ground rules for her.
”Alright Laz, we will talk about this later. Don't worry though, it's not a bad thing. Just go back to your room and meditate on what you just felt. Remember the sensation. I'm going to take my daughter away to go over some rules and we will start up with some basic training shortly.”
With that, Jon grabbed his daughter by her collar and forcefully dragged her over to another room while she stared back at Laz the whole time.