Chapter 151: *A problem with Ian’s body*
Fortunately, all of their misunderstandings had finally been cleared up, and now he only wanted one thing: to be able to take control of his elements so that he could stand with Liam without being afraid of being a burden to him. But after only 10 minutes of training with Kevin, he saw him frown, and finally, Kevin told him to stop and to follow him.
Ian didn’t know what could have made Kevin frown like that. He had already warned him that he wasn’t very good at fighting, so it couldn’t have something to do with that, right?
They joined Alan, who, after showing the basic movements to Ashton, made him practice on a dummy. As he was standing a little apart from him, Kevin said to him without preamble, in a voice no louder than a whisper, "There is a problem with Ian’s body, but I can’t fix it here. We have to go to a place where no one will see us because I have no idea how his body will react."
Alan’s eyes widened in surprise; he really wasn’t expecting this, but as always, he chose to trust Kevin. So he nodded to him to let him know that he was coming, and then he went to Ashton to tell him to keep training and that it would be all for today.
They would see each other again tomorrow. Ashton, as promised, didn’t ask any questions, and he watched them walk away, hoping that next time he would be able to leave with them.
Once they had moved away from the training grounds, Ian, puzzled, asked Kevin, "What’s wrong with my body? Why are you saying there is a problem?"
Kevin still had a dark expression when he confessed to him, "At first, I didn’t notice it, but your body is disrupted, and you are so used to it that you don’t even realize it."
Ian and Alan exchanged a look, and Alan asked him curiously, "How can a body be disrupted, and what does that mean exactly?"
Kevin, who was too busy with his own thoughts, didn’t answer him and instead asked Ian, "Do you have enough Teleportation Talisman papers for us to go and back from the Wildlands?"
Ian didn’t know why Kevin looked so tense, but he said to him, "Yes, I have enough."
Kevin just nodded, and once in the forest, he started to run. Since he had kept all his weapons on him, Ian and Alan didn’t waste time following him, or they would lose his track.
Kevin didn’t stop running until he found a place wide and far enough to open a teleportation portal. Ian, who knew that Kevin would explain everything to them when they were in the Wildlands, wasted no time and handed a Teleportation Talisman paper to Alan, saying to him to think of Qira Mountain and that they would meet over there.
Kevin followed Ian, and Alan joined them a few seconds later. They were all now at the foot of a gigantic rocky mountain; it was so gigantic that the summit was lost in the clouds. The vegetation around them was lush, and there was even a large lake on their left. It was a beautiful place, but Kevin was too preoccupied with their current problem to pay too much attention to the scenery around them.
When Kevin saw their serious expressions, he decided to explain to them, "Like I told you, at the beginning, I didn’t notice anything, but after only a few movements and with someone who has my kind of experience, I’m sure about my analysis: your body has been disrupted, and that’s probably why you can’t control your elements properly."
He told them, still very serious, "Let me explain it to you: your movements are not fluid; they are jerky. However, it is almost imperceptible... To give you a concrete example, it is as if you hear a signal, and instead of reacting immediately, you have a floating second before finally reacting."
He then looked at Alan and said, "Now, to answer your questions, Alan, I have started to teach you the pressure points to allow you to paralyze some parts of the body. The pressure points allow you to change the circulation of blood in your body, but there, it’s completely different. Deregulation of the human body means that there is a problem in the nervous system, and honestly, I think you grew up with this problem, because otherwise, I would have noticed it much faster."
He added, "To put it simply, it’s as if your brain sent you the order to raise your left hand, but it was your right foot that was moving. All your connections with the parts of your body have been modified, but somehow your body has gotten used to it, and so it has memorized this new circuit as the correct one. That is why you don’t feel any discomfort on a daily basis. Only, and this is just my theory, for your body to continue using this new circuit, it must subconsciously take a lot of concentration, and that would explain why you can’t use your elements properly."
He looked at Ian, who was petrified by this revelation, and he asked him, "I need to see your spine and more precisely where your spinal cord is located, and I also need to check your cervicals. Your problem can only come from there because these are the only places that can reach the nervous system."
Alan then intervened and asked him, "Why did you want us to come here? Why not just go to one of our pavilions?"
Kevin answered him with a serious expression, "Listen to me, the Warrior Spirit who taught me the pressure points also taught me how to disrupt a human body. It is enough to touch some nerves with very tiny needles, and as long as the needles are not removed, the body can’t be fixed. Only, the longer the body stays in this state, the more dangerous it is to withdraw these needles... It is as if Ian’s body had always functioned with only 10% of its capacities and suddenly it would be able to use 100% of them. I don’t know what will happen if I ever find out where the problem is... That’s why I asked you to come here."
He looked at Alan and said, "Pull out your sword. The higher your Stats are, the better it will be. If something goes wrong, at least we need to be able to protect ourselves."
Alan nodded and pulled out his sword with its scabbard, which he attached to his waist. Ian didn’t hesitate for long before removing his sweater and t-shirt and turning to face the lake so that Kevin could see his spine and cervicals, as he had requested.
