Chapter 6 (1/2)
West blue, Ishiria island, roku town
(8 months after Azul became Bais desciple)
”Come on, you have to be faster *smack*, otherwise I'll keep hitting you.” Old man Bai told Azul while leisurely standing in the middle of the training ground. Meanwhile Azul was standing with his guard up and his knees bent slightly eyeing his master, waiting patiently for the inevitable. And just like he thought, faster than the eye could see his master threw a punch at him. Putting his weight on his frontleg Azul moved with a minimal jump to the right, barely avoiding his masters punch.
'The brat is learning, good. Time to up the pace a little.' Old man Bai thought and grinned into his bushy grey beard that reached him to the upper muscled c.h.e.s.t.
”Good, you're keeping your breath in tact and your emotions under control but you are still too slow. Faster I said!” And with that for the first time since the both of them started sparring four months ago old man Bai moved.
With a grace of a butterfly the old man entered the high carrying confronting stance which Azul had yet to learn. He instead had to rely on his avoiding stance to try and not get hit, which was way to hard considering the monster that his master was.
Slightly swinging to the left and feinting with a jab old man Bai threw a right cross at Azul who, utilising the erratic form of the avoiding stance kept on dodging and emptied his mind at the same time to not give his teacher a pattern to read from like he usually does. Next up came a thrustkick from his teacher which he barely avoided by bringing the center of his body slightly to the right though that proved to be a mistake since old man Bai changed the thrustkick midaction into sidekick with his shins by turning his knee into Azuls direction, which hit him straight into the side of his belly, emptying his lungs of air in seconds and leaving him a mess gasping for air.
”Not bad. I think you are ready for the final stance so that we can soon begin with the next level, the actual forms. How are your breathing exercises coming along?” Old man Bai asked while grabing a bottle of water for his apprentice who greedily gulped it down. His master seemed still fresh as when they started sparring three hours ago, not even a little bit winded. Not for the first time Azul asked himself what kind of monster his master was.
”Good I think. I'm having a bit of dificulty with the breathing for the windform, but the earth, water and fireform breathing exercises are coming along good so far.” Azul said while pouring rain water from a tank over his head to cool himself down. Thinking back on the day his master had introduced him to the fireforms breathing exercise still brought a smile to his face. The day his craving got a release after all this time of searching.
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(flashback)
”Sit. I believe it is time I showed you another core of our art. The breath control.” Old man Bai said while taking a seat on a patch of grass followed by Azul who still looked winded from the sparring of the day.
”Now, the stance I have taught you so far and the other two you'll be learning soon are only basics so that you can shift from one into the next when you are in a fight. But those stances alone are not enough, not enough to tame your spirit at least. As I told you, in a fight you are your worst enemy but also your biggest ally. In every human come together two things: the body, the flesh and blood, tendons, bones, the crude matter so to speak, and your soul, the spiritual center of your being. The thing that makes you you. A martial artist strifes to bring, through practise and discipline of the mind, the body and soul together into one solid entity and transcend the mortal world. I don't know if that is actually possible but it is a fact that the soul is an incredibly strong thing which is capable of many wondrous things. The stronger your body becomes and the firmer your control over your soul and your emotions becomes the stronger your spirit gets. So you could say that your spirit is another word for aura which some people prefer to use. Said spirit manifests into three different things. First is the most basic thing as long as your body and soul have fused to a strong enough level. Armament haki, the physical manifestation of your soul, shown on- or outside your body and the only way to touch a logia devilfruit user without them being cuffed with seastone handcuffs. You still remember the lesson about the types of devilfruits and their different types, yes?”
”Yes master. Zoan devilfruits give the owner the ability to shift into one specific animal, with there being undercategories like the ancient and mystical zoan devilfruits. The zoan devilfruits give their owner incredible physical strength and regeneration and are considered the strongest closerange fighters.
Then there are the logia devilfruits, generally considered the strongest type of devilfruits, since they give their owner the power over one specific element of natur and can turn into said element as they will. Everything else that is not sorted into either category belongs to the paramecia devilfruit type.”
Azul repeated what he had learned while ticking of his fingers.