Chapter 378: Combat Training
Laz’s walk to the training field was pretty quick. While he wasn’t early, he wasn’t late. Despite that, everyone was there waiting for him including Gretchen and Wilma.
"Glad to see everyone is on time..." Laz said, his voice neutral. He looked over and saw Gia who was staring back at him with a look that was unreadable. Since he knew that she had seen where he was last night, he wondered how she had taken it and if she had told anyone, but there was no way he was going to ask about it.
"Whatever happens will happen," Laz thought, coming to the front of the group.
His bare chest and rippling muscles displayed on his flawless skin seemed to be the center of attention as everyone seemed to be appreciating him for some reason. Since he had no idea what that was about, he didn’t bother trying to figure it out.
"Today, we are going to do something different. First off, do the run to get your bodies warmed up and come back here and stand in line," Laz said, waving them off. The all took off running, no one saying a word of complaint.
Laz was glad to see they were still into it.
"So what are you going to do today?" Gretchen asked, sipping her drink as she laid back.
"Combat training. Well... more specifically, I plan to give everyone some live action," Laz responded while stretching.
"You seem different this morning..." Wilma commented, looking up from where she was relaxing.
"Do I?" Laz said, making sure to keep his tone uncaring.
"Yeah, you do. More relaxed maybe? And more focused?" Gretchen said, noticing it too.
"I had a good night sleep for the first time in a while I guess," Laz laughed despite trying not to, something neither women missed.
"Ok then. Well, I’m sure we will find out about it soon enough. Maybe that doctor just drained you dry and now your just recovering...? Wilma commented, making Laz almost cough at the fact that she hit the nail on the head, just in a different way than what she could imagine.
Either way, Laz didn’t say anything else and just watched on as everyone completed the run, faster than they ever have before.
"Good. You all are finally showing some signs of life. Now then, as per usual..." Laz released the pressure, but only at the level it was yesterday. And as expected, everyone was able to adapt fairly quickly to it. Something Laz had thought about when he decided to do it this way was that the more they experienced, the more their blood would awaken. Perhaps some of them had weak bloodlines, but even then, if it was stronger than a normal human, a little nudge would be good for it.
"So now, you ten, come over here and stand around me in a circle," Laz said and they did as instructed. Seeing them stand there however in their white shirts with different colors underneath, Laz realized that this wasn’t a good way to start.
"Let me ask you ten a question. If I told you to attack me right now, could you?" Laz figured he would be straight forward to start with.
"Attack you?"
"Like fight you?"
"I’ve never even hit someone... well, I guess I did stab that guy last time."
"But we are girls... and you want us to fight you?"
"Yeah. This is what I was worried about." Laz said, hearing their replies.
"Alright, new plan. You ten get back in line. You’ll have a chance later. Gia, Bring your group over and surround me." Laz said, waving her forward.
Gia didn’t move at first, her mind elsewhere. Until one of the others poked her and she suddenly was paying attention. The others had already surrounded Laz, six of them in total. With Gia there, it was seven.
"Alright. First things first. No powers. You first need to learn how to hit, how to take a hit and how to protect yourself. Now these ladies know a thing or two about fighting I am told. So this time, it’s all seven of you versus just one of me. I want you to try your best to hit me as hard as you can, understood?" Laz said, pointing to his face as though inviting them.
"You sure you want us to mess up that pretty little face of yours?" One of the girls called out, the tallest of the bunch.
"If you think you can?" Laz shot back, not turning his head despite her being behind him.
"What do we get if we win?" Asked another.
"Whatever you want that I can give." Again, Laz didn’t turn around.
"How about a piece of you? It’s nothing but tits and bitching around here most of the time so I know a few of us would love a piece of you. How about it big boy?"
Laz laughed at this but said nothing, just waving his hand in the air.
"Whenever you’re ready..." Laz said, standing there unfazed.
The seven of them including Gia crouched down and brought their hands up, getting into an attacking position. Normally Laz only paid attention to Gia out of this group since she was the only one he really knew. But watching them take their stances, he saw that several of them were quite skilled.
The trick to all of this was that Laz was using his spiritual sense to follow everyone’s movements. Had he allowed them to use their abilities, he might have been able to follow a few of them, but not the whole group. Their abilities would have interfered with his senses quite a bit.
It was the tall woman who attacked first, swinging her fist right at the back of Laz’s head. With a simple swing to the side, Laz avoided the blow and stuck out his foot, tripping her. She quickly regained her footing and swung around with leg, attempting to kick him in the chest. Laz swung his fist and redirected the kick off to the side and brought his palm forward, sending her flying.
"You all waiting to be taken out one by one?" Laz mocked, not moving from the spot.
This was all the provocation they needed as all six led by Gia charged forward.
As Laz dodged, weaved, blocked and deflected their attacks, he began speaking.
"Battle is all about flow. You each have a warriors blood within you so fighting should come natural. But just because you can swung your fist doesn’t mean you can land a punch. Just because you put your arms up doesn’t mean you can block a punch. Every battle, from start to finish is all about flow. You control the flow, you control the fight. If you fell one enemy, move to another. Never stop until you run out of enemies and while your body is in motion, maintain the flow," Laz said, sending another one of his attackers flying with a shoulder toss. From the start until now, Laz didn’t move from the spot.
"Next, pay attention to what’s happening around you. Being focused in a fight is good, but being focused in a battle is bad. You need to be aware of who is behind you, on your sides. Practice spreading your senses out to keep track of them. And once you can achieve this, they won’t be able to take you by surprise." Even while walking forward towards Gia, Laz deflected and dodged attacks like he had a full view of the fight from somewhere other than his own perception.
"Lastly, keep an eye out on where you are relative to your allies. If you get too heavily surrounded because you strayed too far from you allies, you will be picked off and killed. Everything in battle is fluid. Who you fight, where you fight, how you fight.. it all keeps moving so you need to keep moving. Until only you and your friends are left standing, the battle isn’t over." Laz now stood in front of Gia who was actually too scared to move after seeing how easily he handled everyone.
"One final thing. When you are alone, surrounded and outnumbered and staring death in the face... you only have two choices. You can either give up and wait for death... or you can fight, fight some more, and keep fighting until your dying breath. So... what will you choose?" Laz said, looking at Gia. As Gia looked back at him, she calmed down and charged at him, swinging for his face. When she missed, his hand hit her in the stomach and knocked her down, but not hard enough to make her embarrass herself. That wasn’t the point for today.
"Today, I want you all to fight me, then each other. Punch each other, kick each other, hit each other. Do it all. Your bodies are stronger than you might think and you will heal quickly. But you need to get used to giving pain and receiving pain with your own hands. Only then can we move on.
The next two hours were a bloody mess. Laz had no idea how many time he had gotten hit since he decided to stop blocking and dodging. But unlike the others, he was still standing while everyone else lay on the ground. Bones broken, bruises, busted lips, bleeding noses... it was like a fight club gone stupid. And yet despite that, there was laughing everywhere. And it wasn’t a nervous kind of laugher or a giggle, but a loud, bordering on insane laughing that made your soul shake. Even Gretchen and Wilma had left a while ago since seeing this was not something they ever wanted to do.
"Hey," Laz walked over to the tall woman who had attacked him first and squatted down beside her. Seeing as how her eyes were closed, he slapped her a few times lightly on the cheek.
"You ok?" Laz asked. In the strange battle melee that Laz had just hosted, she was not only the most aggressive, she also ended up getting targeted by several outers who beat the hell out of her. Even then, no one hit anyone else after they went down, which was the only rule Laz imposed and then reminded them of.
"Fucking perfect you asshole," she said with a smile.
"Oh. I can’t really get up right now so can you help me a minute?" She asked, her breaths coming in ragged gasps.
"Yeah." Since she was one of the most aggressive, Laz had kept a close eye on her to make sure she didn’t take things too far or get taken too far. As of right now, she was also in the worse shape.
"Just spread my legs for me a bit, would you? I have to pee and would prefer not to get it all over my self." Her face was several kinds of swollen so although she smiled, it didn’t really look like it. Laz complied with her request and spread her legs, allowing her to relieve herself right where she was laying.
"Fuck... thank you," she said.
Laz then put a hand to her head and spread some energy to her, allowing his black flame to enter her body and begin to speed up the healing process. He then made his way to the other girls starting with the worst off and helped heal them one by one.
Most of the shirts Laz had etched runes on had been torn up on every single one of them so several of them were laying in the grass completely nude. But not a single one of them rejected Laz’s concern or his touch of healing. Even those with broken bones would be good in about two days thanks to their own strength and the properties of his black fire. Not only that, but he also fulfilled whatever request they asked of him. Giving them water, scratching an itch or, as the case was with a few of them, helping them to remove a piercing that had gotten damaged in the fight no matter where on their bodies it was. Three of them even asked him to help them strip so that they could be like everyone else and be fully exposed.
Laz could only smile as he helped them knowing that from now on, they weren’t just friends with a few others, but sisters in arms with everyone around them.
What he didn’t know was that now, in each of the women’s eyes, Laz was like a god to them. As for those who already thought that, the ones who had encountered him in the shower the other night? They would speak to one another about this moment as being their own baptism given to them by their god.
As Laz finished his rounds and stood up to walk away, everyone present could swear that Laz was wearing a halo of light around his body, like a holy divinity made human.
