The World We Do Not Know - 161 Tenacious

In the end, Faust just lays on the ground with his face covered with dust and his head buried in the ground and cries.

“Faust! The fear you feel makes you brave if you can overcome it and the pain you feel will make you stronger if you endure it. Learn to fail, make new mistakes and learn from them” Gus shouts to Faust in a cheering tone.

Faust gets up on his feet slowly while wiping his tears. Those tears were not tears of cowardice or helplessness, this time they were the tears of not being able to do anything and feeling worthless.

*”My element of surprise has been used up already in my first attack. I don’t have any more aces up in my sleeves. Nor am I as fast as Tim to evade. But I have seen most of the moves now. I might be able to do this.”*Faust muddles to himself determinedly.

Faust carefully recalls the foot movements of Tim. The way he was moving fast, the spins, the body balance and the defence and strike at the same time.

*”This time, I’m going to do it”* Faust thinks to himself and charges forward towards Tim once again.

Blocking and evading Faust is easy until now for Tim, but this time somewhere in his head Tim is having a feeling that Faust is catching up to him. The round house kicks, hand movements, blocking every move of Tim’s with his wrists and blocking and guiding away the punches of Tim with the back of his fists and with every move, Faust is looking as if he is imitating Tim. It’s is almost Tim is fighting himself in the mirror, perplexed.

*”What is this? Is this really someone who doesn’t know the martial arts? His moves are suddenly sharp and matching Tim’s. Did he just learned those moves while watching Tim move on the ground just now? This is Impossible yet miraculous!” Yang thinks in his head loudly as he keep getting more surprised by Faust’s abilities.

*Bam!!~~*

It’s a hit on Tim.

“This is bad, Tim has got hit on a particular meridian of the heart, his meridian will be closed and it is life threatening! His all working meridians will be closed now!” Yang’s face becomes creased with a sense of tense and danger in his voice. He’s worried for Tim, but then at the same time he still want to know what Faust got with his skills.

“Huh? Hahaha You got me Faust.” Tim laugh and smiles at Faust naturally.

Faust did not hit the meridian, he just tapped Tim after getting close to Tim. This is what his intentions were all this while. To just touch Tim as a tap after getting close to Tim.

“I don’t want to hurt those that I meant to protect.” Faust says and withdraws with a sense of relief and happiness.

He doesn’t wanna continue spar anymore, he reached his goal and that was more than enough for Faust to prove himself. A satisfactory smile graced his lips as he accomplished his goal.

“Gus! Did you notice it too? The level of understanding and grasping everything after witnessing it for just his first time is amazing and he implemented them in a minute. Your grandson turned out a genius!” Yang makes an excited statement in astonishment.

“Faust, please become a student of mine and let me teach you.” Yang walks up to Faust and requests him politely as if he could never get a student like Faust and teaching this style to Faust.

“Please take care of me master.” Faust agrees and  willingly nods with a bright smile.

Gus, Tim and Yang are more than delighted to see Faust smile for the first time in a while.

Faust is smiling all the way while going back to home.

As soon as Gus and Faust reaches home. Faust sleeps beside Bella in her little bed “Bella, I swear I will never abandon you again and will protect you with my life.” Faust quietly whispers to Bella eventually falling asleep with a smile still on his face.

The next day, Gus calls for Faust who just finished his rounds around the village.

“Faust, I want you to help me with finding a book for me.” Gus says to Faust.

“Sure grandpa, where did you keep it?” Faust is all ready to help his grandpa and make himself useful.

“It’s in the attic, in a black wooden box. Take this key to open the box and bring the book down here.” Gus tells Faust as to how to do his little errand.

Faust goes ahead to find the box and unlocks it, he is caught off unguarded with what he saw, a book with a drawing of a long katana on it.

“I’ve got it grandpa, please take it.” Faust was curious but brings the book that seems to be some kind of manuscript to his grandpa, but Gus didn’t take the book, instead he told Faust to read and study the first ten pages.

“Read what it says on the book cover” Gus told Faust.

“Hmmm… Unholy sword arts? That’s what it says.” Faust reads carelessly while looks up at his grandpa with a questioning expression appearing on his face.

“I’m going to teach you how to use a sword” the words said by his grandpa echos in Faust’s ears, while he is mopping the floor with a long broomstick but in place of the brush and stiff fibers, this broom stick has braids of cloth as brush. And when it’s soaked in water it gets wet and makes it hard to move the broomstick even on the ground because of the massive amount of weight on the braids and for a kid like Faust it’s like tons of weight to move.

“In a zig zag motion Faust.” Gus tells faust while resting on the couch behind and watching Faust mop the floor.

“I know grandpa. I know.” Faust says while pouting, fully exhausted.

*”He said he is going to teach me sword techniques but I am mopping the floor for 2 hours already like an idiot. I’m pretty sure grandpa tricked me tsk, how did I fall for this?”* Faust thinks as he mops the floor with disappointment.

*Moments ago*

“Sword arts? What is that grandpa?” Faust asks Gus as he holds and read the book that he brought from the attic.

“It’s about the art of swords Faust, I’m going to teach you how to wield a sword. And this book is the manuscript of a powerful technique that your grandpa is going to teach you.” Gus says proudly as he crosses his arms and his nose seemed to grow long like a Pinocchio.

Faust’s face is sparkling brightly upon hearing what Gus said. Poor Faust had forgotten that one time when Gus said he doesn’t even know how to hold a sword, but now, he was saying something about teaching a sword art to Faust?

“Ohhhh grandpa, you’re the best! I will put my body and soul, my muscle and bone to learn this and will master it.” Faust shouted loudly while he holds both of his hands together in gratitude as happy tears roll off his face.

“Wahhhhh I know my grandson, no one is suitable than you to inherit my legacy of unholy sword.” Gus says while holding Faust close to his face and both of their faces sparkle brightly like little kids all over again.

*Groan~~~*

Bella groans as a way of sigh watching Gus and Faust as if they’re a couple of idiots who is disturbing her sleeping time and closes her eyes to go back to sleep.

“Here Fausty, take this.” Gus places a broom stick in Faust’s hand.

“Huh?” The happy tears and sparkling face of Faust disappears in  an instant at the sight of a broom stick.

“Now mop the floor for 4 hours a day, after your daily exercises. Also I will add one or two more routines to your exercises which will help build your forearms and the strength of your calves.” Gus mischievously says with that goofy idiotic smile of his as he closed eyes at the same time for a nap.

*Present*

*Rawrrr… Arghhhh….. Grrrr…..~~* Faust makes all kinds of sounds while mopping the floor to vent out his anger.

“Yes. Fausty yesss, you got it.” Gus says while throwing his arms in front of his face and giving thumbs up to Faust.

“Stop it, grandpa.” Faust is getting more annoyed with his Grandpa’s gestures.

“gomu gomu noooooo-Thunder bolt… Fire bolt… arghhh~~~” Faust yells out annoyingly louder as he mops the floor harder and his anger increases towards Gus more each time.

Bella watches all of this peeking with one of her eye open. *Grrrrr* she grabs her small bed with her teeth and goes outside to sleep peacefully while staring at Faust and Gus with the corner of her eyes with all the fuss they are making.

“How are your arms feeling Faust?” Gus questions after 3 hours of continuous mopping. He is sitting on the chair with his legs crossing each other as he holds up his chin with his hand.

“They’re hard as a rock and pains like hell, I can’t even move them freely anymore.” Faust replies to Gus while struggling.

“Good, now hold the handle of the stick with both of your hands and soak the dreads of cloth more.” Gus says with a smile on his face as if he know exactly what he is doing.

Gus makes Faust hold the handle like a swordsman would hold their swords with two hands.

“Now mop again in zig zag way until the dreads looses all the water and becomes dry.” Gus says to Faust.

“Grandpa, I will definitely die. This is hard to move when I hold the broom stick in the middle but not the handle? the weight distribution on the dreads makes the stick heavier like a ton. Your grandson will be dead before even learning your sword arts” Faust says desperately as he seems to almost break down in tears from the endless pangs of pain.

“Oh heh heh I thought you were determined to get stronger, so this is the only lengths you are willing to go?” Gus tries to mock Faust with his words.

“I will do it!” Faust says willingly with determination after he thoughts for a few second about what Gus says to him.

“Heh, use your right hand to push the broom left while balancing the handle with your left hand and use your left hand to push the broom right while balancing with right hand, move your legs apart, bend your knees a little forward and balance ur feet. It helps with the weight distribution and gives your arms strength.” Gus says to Faust knowing exactly what to do.

Faust mops while standing In a stance which seems as if he is riding an invisible horse, his arms and shoulders still hurt more and more as he constantly move while making the horse stance every time he move to different location and mop in a zig zag way as Gus has instructed him to do.

“Ok you can stop and take some rest for today. We will train the same way tomorrow.” Gus told Faust as he seems to be satisfied with the work.