The Arcane Archer - Chapter 29 Martial Arts

“ALRIGHT MAGGOTS, IT’S TIME FOR YOUR TRAINING!” Roared the General while walking around. “DROP AND GIVE ME 100”

All the dwarves dropped to the ground at the same time and started doing pushups immediately. I quickly followed as to not get in trouble and attempt to gain a stat point in strength or something but with it being at 50, it wasn’t that likely.

After finishing up the pushups, we were told to run around until we either throw up, drop dead, or he says to stop. Once again following orders, we did as command without question. Quickly I noticed something about the dwarves. They were Slow to put it nicely.

Though they didn’t look tired which showed they had a good constitution/endurance, their overall speed was only about half of mine, even with me running at a steady jogging like pace.

I slowed down to the point where I was right next to a dwarf and going the same speed as them.

“Hey.” I said while moving like I was speed walking. “How long do these usually last?”

“Huh?” he said only just now noticing my existence. “Oh, they usually last until someone makes an example of themselves or the- ”

“STOP RUNNING MAGGOTS” Yelled the General.

Everyone slowed down to a stop and faced the center of the room where the General was. The General himself was angrily walking over to the dwarf and I while giving us a evil look.

“Don’t you know the rules soldier?!” Roared the General in the dwarf’s face.

“YES SIR!” Replied the dwarf instinctually out of fear.

“And you!” He said while tuning to me. “It’s your second training session and you already willing to join me to show the others how something is done. How nice of you.” He said while smiling before grabbing me by the shirt and throwing me to the center of the room.

(Quick Author’s Note- I’m going to have fun reading all about how Leo’s being a wuss/idiot about letting people do this type of stuff to him. Though just as a reminder (once again) that Leo is incredibly weak and that a ton of people are able to do this instantly. Now back to the story)

*You’ve taken 10 Bludgeoning Damage!

I groaned slightly while getting up from the ground before stretching my neck out a bit before whatever was about to come. The General was already in front of me and tapping his foot inpatiently.

“Put your fists up kid.” The General said while putting his own fists up.

I complied and did the best I could to imitate what I saw from martial arts back on earth.

“Punch me.” The General said.

I complied and sent what I thought was a decently strengthened punch towards him. He simply pushed it aside with his hand and said to try again. This went on for a couple of minutes with him occasionally moving behind me somehow and lightly pushing me forwards.

“Ok stop.” The General said at some point while shaking his head. “It seems like you aren’t really suited for strength-based combat. Let’s try something else. Trying to focus on using your legs instead. They’re quite long and you should be able to use them better.”

I shrugged my shoulders before going in for a kick to his side. Contrary to both our expectations, with me moving much faster then anticipated, the General had to actually block my kick.

[Thanks to your {Adaptability} and being a mutated Human, you’ve learned {Taekwondo} which focuses on kicking and using agility/dexterity to strike quickly.]

“Oh? Seems like we’ve found something perfect for you.” He said while smiling. “Everyone focus on basic hand to hand combat with a partner! I’m going to enjoy training the kid for a while.”

He used his one hand to indicate that he wanted me to come and attack him, so I once again complied and ran forwards before doing a couple of different kicks. The General no longer surprised by the initial strength of my kicks, easily blocked or dodged out of the way.

[Thanks to {Adaptability} and using {Taekwondo}, the skill has leveled up!]

Thanks to the level up for the skill, both the speed and damage of my kicks increased and allowed me to move the General back an inch or two.

“I’m impressed” He said while stepping out of the way from one of my kicks. “But you still have lots of more work to do.” Before grinning and sending a singular punch my way.

I tried moving out of the way but my momentum from one of my attacks kept me moving forwards, so I was unable to block it.

*You’ve taken 285 Bludgeoning Damage!

[Thanks to {Adaptability} and taking more than half your max health and surviving, you’ve gained a point in Constitution!]

I fell to the ground in a mess of blood and bruises. {Intermediate Regeneration} was already working on fixing the cuts and bruises that were causing me pain, but it still hurt.

The General walked over to me and picked me up by the front of my shirt and placed me on my feet.

“Not bad. You’re already doing much better then a couple of hours ago.” He said while hitting me roughly on the back. “Take a quick break. We’ll go onto weapon practice next and you’ll want to at least be able to hold your bow!”

A gave a weak grunt in agreement but other then that, went to grab my bow. Once I had it, I came back and sat down in the center of the area where the General and I fought just a bit ago.

About 45 minutes passed before the General spoke up and told me to go back with my group. Once I was there, he told everyone to start getting some actual combat experience with the others and also gave some rules for us to follow.

Do not kill, you’re allowed to surrender, no hitting the head, do not do fatal damage, and stop anyone not following the rules.

Very simple but needed rules.

The group talked for a bit before deciding the Vondal (The Paladin) would fight me. We went to our fighting area and got into our positions. Weapons in hand, Gunter started a countdown from five.

“Five.”

“Four.”

“Three.”

“Two.”
for visiting.

“One.”

“BEGIN!”

Vondal immediately started running towards me but unlike the General, this one was at least still somewhat manageable. Don’t get me wrong, it was still very fast and everything, but the General was just something else.

I quickly pulled out and arrow and shot it towards Vondal without really aiming and focusing on speed more then anything. He lifted up his shield slightly and let it bounce of the shield while continuing on making his way towards me.

I shot a few more arrows but each one he just blocked out forced out of his way. By now he was just a couple of feet away from me and I couldn’t really aim that well with how close he was.

Marking one of my arrows with mana mark, I fired it a bit to his right side (The side with the weapon) and made it seem like it was about to miss. Right as it was about to pass him, I quickly used curving arrow and made it hit him in the side.

He had full-plate gear on, so it didn’t really do much bit he still got hurt slightly because of the force from it.

“Lucky shot” He said

“Maybe” I said before sending another couple of shots his way.

Some of them had my mana mark on it and the ones that I did have it on, only turned from mana arrow once they were fully behind him. At this point, he was only like 5 or so feet away and he could easily be within melee distance if he took just a few more steps.

I stowed the bow and decided to do the next best thing I could do, activate my flame aura skill and attempt to fight him with some martial arts. With the flame aura bursting out, the heat made Vondal hesitate slightly as he questioned how I was doing perfectly fine.

Taking this opportunity, I ran forwards and did a quick axe kick aimed at the center of his chest. I was able to hit but his armor made my leg hurt from the impact from it.

*You’ve dealt 87 Bludgeoning damage and 5 Burning Damage!

The heat and brute force behind the kick allowed me to push him back slightly but he was still within range so I decided to back up slightly so that I could rush forwards again later and get another good hit. As I was backing up, Vondal saw his chance and jumped forwards slightly and brought down his sword before yelling, “Minor Smite!” and making his sword glow wish a yellow-gold light.

He brought it down just above my head before stopping with it just a singular hair away.

“Yield.” Vondal said simply.

“I think I still have a chance” I said while taking a look at my health.

He gave a sigh as he stowed his shield and used his hand to touch the end of his sword. The glow that was originally going throughout the entire sword went into the tip of his finger and glowed brightly.

“If you’re still able to fight after this I’ll say that you win. Deal?”

I looked at it and thought about it. The feeling it gave off was one that seemed threatening and dangerous, but I felt like I could survive this since I had 175 hit points left.

“Deal.” I said as he slowly brought his finger towards the center of my chest and touched it slightly.

Instantly the glow that was on his finger went throughout my entire body and made it feel like it was on fire.

*You’ve taken 200 Holy Damage! You are now Unconscious!

Vondal watched as my body fell forwards and he quickly made sure to catch me so that I didn’t fall face first into the floor. His hands glowed slightly as he put one of them onto my chest. Another glow went into my body but this time, it actually healed it instead.

*You’ve healed for 200 hp. You’re now back to 200.

I quickly awoke and saw what Vondal was doing and gave him a quick thanks before removing his hand and shaking it for a good battle. After that, I went to the rest of the group and sat down to take a short rest and heal up a bit more.