18 – Shadowboxing

Three weeks passed, and Jonny was no closer to having added a layer to his core than he was before. He was beginning to think it wasn’t possible. His mana capacity was increasing, and he was compressing his mana more densely than ever, but it never really pulled inward toward his core. Tommy had recently started practicing for his own core layer formation, and when Jonny asked about it, Tommy said that his mana pulled in toward his core almost immediately. Even long before it reached the density of Jonny’s mana, it was already pulling inward.

Jonny tried to force his mana inward, but had to stop doing that when he realized he was on the border of causing another mana surge. The mana surges he had experienced in his arms were bad enough. A mana surge in his abdomen where his core was located might have actually killed him.

He never stopped trying, though. If nothing else, the compressed mana was still highly desirable. The more compressed it was, the more of a strength boost he got, and as he had also discovered, the stronger his workouts got. That was exciting at least. It must have been what Igrette had talked about when she talked about the basics of internal mana techniques. Because he was infusing the mana into his body, his body was gradually getting stronger, and since he was now using compressed mana instead of ordinary mana, it was getting stronger much faster than before.

Still, as much as he hated to admit it, he could no longer deny that Tommy would be beating him to his first core layer. There were only two days until Tommy did the deed, and unless he had some kind of massive breakthrough, Jonny wouldn’t be doing it before then. Though, then again, Tommy was technically three months older than Jonny. So as long as Jonny did it within three months of when Tommy did it, he’d still be able to say he did it faster. The fact that Tommy was an actual five year old, while Jonny was a twenty eight year old in a five year old’s body was irrelevant. They both had the same amount of time in the magical world, and therefore, the competition was fair.

With Tommy spending so much time getting ready for his core layer formation, Jonny had a lot more alone time than usual. His workouts were quieter, his runs were quieter, and his stretching was much more peaceful. It was very nice, though he did keep finding himself glancing over, expecting to see Tommy, only to find himself alone.

Why do I keep doing that? he thought, shaking his head as he turned the corner to run along the fence on the far side of the yard. It’s not like I miss that annoying brat or anything.

He was on his twenty-second lap of the day, which he figured was close to eight miles or so. It was hard to tell without any kind of standardization, and his math skills were nonexistent, but eight miles felt about right. And he felt like he could keep going for another eight, at this pace. He had met up with Tommy for long enough earlier to get a mana infusion, and even after running for so long, his mana was still extremely compressed.

Maybe I should work on speed today.

He began accelerating, but when he was about halfway across the far side of the fence, he heard a sudden noise from just outside. There were always noises from various forest critters, but this one sounded like something much bigger, so he slowed his pace and listened carefully. The sound continued, gradually getting closer. It was definitely footsteps.

He glanced over at the nuns near the orphanage building, making sure none were watching, then focused some mana in his legs so he could jump up and grab the top of the fence. The fence was almost eight feet tall, which would normally have been well outside the reach of someone his size, but with the help of mana, he was not only able to reach the top, but he was able to get his chin up over it without too much effort.

Holding himself up at the top, he peered over and into the forest as the footsteps drew nearer. After a couple seconds, the source finally came into his view, and it was… Sister Igrette? And she had her sword on her hip again?

Jonny watched in confusion for a few seconds until her head snapped to him and her one eye narrowed.

“Jonny!” she said. “What are you doing up there?”

“Uh,” he said. “I heard footsteps.”

“Get down!”

“Why do you have blood on your mask?”

Igrette raised a hand to her mask, touching it gently, then looking at her bloodstained hand.

“I was helping some of the local hunters kill primaboars,” she said. “Now get down from there. You remember what happened last time you went past the fence!”

“Okay!”

Jonny released himself, landing back on the soft dirt below as Igrette’s footsteps resumed. He ran quickly, doing a full lap around the yard, and when he returned, he heard Igrette’s footsteps again, this time along the side of the fence, and it sounded like she was heading toward the orphanage.

I wonder how many she killed…

He knew that Igrette was strong, and now that he was messing around with compressed mana, he was getting an inkling of just how strong she might have been. If just regular compressed mana with no core layers already enhanced him this much, how much would first layer condensed mana help? Or second layer?

He had a sudden urge to ask Igrette how many layers she had on her core. Helen had said in the past that asking things like that was rude… but Jonny was a kid now. Kids could get away with saying rude things, right? And who knew? Maybe she’d actually tell him.

Whatever the case, no matter how strong he was, those primaboars wouldn’t stand a chance. Heck, the primaboar that he fought wouldn’t stand a chance against even him now. Now that he had internal mana techniques, if he combined that with his combat experience, even a full-grown primaboar might not be too tough for him to handle.

For the rest of the run, he ran simulations in his mind about how he would handle another primaboar suddenly appearing. If it was the same size as the last one, he would definitely do it differently now. He was bigger than he was back then, and with internal mana techniques, he would be able to manhandle it. When it charged, he wouldn’t need to dodge. He could just catch it by the tusks and throw it to the side. And he wouldn’t need to waste any effort grappling, because his fists would be strong enough to damage it directly.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Well, maybe he wouldn’t need to waste effort grappling, but it could be useful… He had never really thought about how grappling against a wild animal would work, but clearly, it didn’t work the same as it did against humans. A lot of the chokes probably worked the same, if he could get his arms around its neck, but limb control was completely different, especially when animals had claws.

Armbars likely wouldn’t work at all. Just the way that most animals’ limbs were oriented made it hard. Pulling outward might dislocate their shoulder, but he wouldn’t be able to easily keep their elbow joints stiff. To do that, he would have to re-angle his body like he tried against the primaboar, but in doing that, he shifted his weight so far he lost his leverage.

Maybe if I just grab and stomp…

As his run continued, his pace slowed, but not because he was tired. Instead, it was because he kept stopping or reducing his speed so he could physically feel out different moves. His grab and stomp idea made him realize that not only would old techniques not work the same, but he could actually use new techniques that he couldn’t before.

In the ring, there were limits. Stomping on an arm to break it was absolutely not allowed. But against a wild animal trying to kill him? Nothing was off limits. It was either them or him. If he could cripple or maim it, he won. Eye pokes, fishhooks, headbutts, bites, throat strikes and grabs, 12-6 elbows, stomping, small joint manipulation, pinching, clawing, groin strikes… He had a whole new arsenal of weapons at his disposal in those kinds of fights, and there were so many ways he could use them.

If he ever fought a full-grown primaboar, he would probably have no choice but to use them. He had asked the nuns about them out of curiosity, and while the one he fought had been fairly young, apparently, adults never stopped growing. They just kept getting bigger and bigger until something killed them. It made them dangerous if left untended, but with all the hunters around to cull the population, the area was relatively safe.

But if that wasn’t the case, and Jonny had to fight off an absolutely enormous one, his options would be limited. It didn’t matter how hard he could punch if his opponent weighed twenty times as much as him. Well, at least not as he was. Even his strongest punches with compressed mana wouldn’t be enough to take out something that size.

He would need to go for the limbs. Take out its legs first. If he could get it immobile, it would be a sitting duck. No matter how big and powerful it was, a grounded primaboar would succumb eventually. But how would he get it to the ground? At that size a stomp wouldn’t do the trick. He simply didn’t weigh enough. If he wanted to snap its leg, he’d have to do it over his knee or something. Or he could start smaller. A punch to the head wouldn’t kill it, but a punch to the knee might injure it. Or maybe–

“What are you doing?”

Jonny stopped mid-kick, looking up to see Tommy standing not far away. He looked at Tommy, then back at himself, one leg planted and the other raised to deliver a side kick.

Wait, wasn’t I running?

Jonny was frozen in confusion for a moment longer before slowly settling back into a normal stance.