Chapter 12: Dealing With Core Masters

"The Intermediate phase of the bodily maneuvers!" Zax could not help but to say it once more. "The six sequences birth the breathing sequence, the breathing sequence birth the rhythm and the rhythm birth a sort of energy!"

Zax finally figured the main goal of practicing the bodily maneuvers.

WUSH!

His body disappeared, flickered, moved faster than ever before. He jumped, kicked, punched, swayed, bent, rose in every manner he chose. By reaching the Intermediate phase of the bodily maneuvers his proficiency in utilizing the body whichever way he liked, advanced to a new level. No gesture or movement had a wasted ebb and flow. Even with the burden of the cave's savage and imposing force that reduce his control, Zax's precision in maneuvering his body was effortless and graceful.

Zax stopped at the edge of the grove, closed his eyes and contemplated the next thing he should strive to achieve now that he had absolute control of the six hundred and fifty moves, the breathing sequence and the rhythm.

"The energy converged spontaneously and sustained from the one hundred and second gesture of the sixth sequence to its last move and vanished. At the time of the last seven moves and gestures it felt like each of them carried fifty percent more power! Learning to summon the energy should definitely be my next aim, and it's probably the prerequisite for reaching the Advanced phase of the bodily maneuvers".

"Still, there something that I don't understand. If my execution of the moves, breathing and rhythm was perfect and unified all three from the first move, than what made the energy to converge only near the end of the sixth sequence?"

Zax walked blindly to a close by tree, which while testing his new bodily capabilities he saw that had a ripe Blood Red Grape ready for harvest on one of its branches. He jumped, plucked the grape and drank its delicious nectar.

The grape did not fill him with vitality, but the nectar had a special cure like property that lessen the effect of the savagery temporarily and cleared the mind.

"There can only be three reasons. First, I simply didn't notice the energy. Second, its accumulation was too low to bring in into existence. Third, I had to get close to, reach or execute once the moves, breathing and rhythm in union in order to break through a certain bottleneck before the energy could emerge". All three reasons were reasonable and all could be true or false, however Zax had a way in mind to be sure.

He extended his hands from the shoulder, slowly inhaled and moved accordingly to the rhythm.

"Gah!" Zax fell on his knees and spat a mouthful of blood.

"Impossible!" He muttered, panting.

Mid way the first sequence Zax felt a growing mass weighting on his body till eventually he could not carry it anymore. The instant he stopped the mass recoiled and a surge of energy bashed his internals.

"Ugh!" His insides felt like they ruptured and entangled. 'Can't move, got to rest and heal'. Zax retained a calm state of mind, said to himself and allowed his body to gradually heal.

'What was that? The first time the energy dispersed and converged in each move separately. But now it energy emerged right from the start and streamed from one move and gesture to another and accumulated till it was too much to bear'.

'By converging from the start it proved that I broke through a bottleneck when I reached the Intermediate phase, so when the energy accumulated instead of dispersing it made sense that it acts differently in the next level. But if it's truly like this, then anytime I'll stop before a sequence or possibly a cycle of all six is complete, the energy will recoil. Then again, that much accumulated energy will blow my body to tiny pieces ... Doing it like this can't be right. I must disperse the energy in every move and let it converge rather than stream and accumulate, that must be the proper way to maneuver it. I'll test it when my body will heal'. Zax assessed what went wrong and when he reached the conclusion he stopped thinking about it and began to meditate.

It took Zax's body nine hours of recuperation before it was back in shape, yet drained from energy. Couple of unripe Blood Red Grapes later and he was ready to try his hypothesis.

'First move. I feel it converge. Disperse right when the first move ends'. Zax self instructed. 'Second move. The energy converged, repeat the same process'.

Zax exercised the same caution and employment of the energy in one move after another.

'The last gesture of the first sequence ... I can't keep up longer than this!' Zax dispersed the energy that converged in his left foot with a little slide of the heel.

"Dispersing and converging ... is the proper way..." Zax breathed heavily. "But ... I barely finished one sequence..." He picked up a rock, threw it on a tree and several unripe grapes fell over.

Taking the first bite, Zax smiled. "So that is the new challenge!"

...

From the day he reached the Intermediate phase of the bodily maneuvers Zax reevaluated his daily schedule. There was no point anymore to train on the rhythm at one time and the bodily maneuvers and breathing sequence at another. He combined all three and was able to implement them in whatever he did. Since the progress of his meditation slowed down to near a stop, after he resumed ninety three percent control of his body and a similar ninety three percent adaption to the savagery with his soul, Zax realized that unless he will dedicate more time to meditating he will be stuck in the Savage Cave for maybe years – in case the adaptability of the soul was related the bubble that engulfed his sea of consciousness.

Zax arranged his new daily schedule to evenly train for twelve hours in the bodily maneuvers with the goal to converge and disperse the energy in each of the six hundred and fifty moves and gestures, and the next twelve hours to meditation and reconstruct the bridge between his soul and the savagery to something more efficient.

...

The swirling air turned comparably to a cyclone and Zax was at its eye for one moment and in the next somewhere else, where the bodily maneuvers took him.

Almost four months have passed since he ventured to the first Savage Cave. Apart from the vicious encounters in the first couple of days, Zax did not meet any other beasts or humans. As it so happened, something, someone, was about to stir his peaceful days.

"Footsteps!" Zax let the energy disperse and halted his movement. "Two feet ... could it be a human?"

The sound of the footsteps did not yet reach the grove, but also nor far from it, a few meters or so. Zax also trained not far from the same direction, so even though he was over one hundred meters from the edge of the grove, he could pick up the sounds.

WUSH!

'If it's someone that can stride so calmly, then he must be a Core Master at least in soul level!'

From his first days in the Savage Cave Zax learned that Core Masters, or to be precise, a soul with the capabilities of a Core Master is required in order to fend off the savagery.

Nevertheless, although his soul level and body fitness level did not advance at all in the past four months, his utilization of the body experienced leaps and bounds and his control of the body and adaption of the soul were closing in on the ninety seventh percent.

Worst case scenario, if a Core Master would attack him, he will be able to run and disappear before the other will catch him.

"Hahaha ... So someone else got here first". A voice responded to Zax's emergence and laughed sorely.

The one who stood before Zax was a slim man with a black skin, a trimmed haircut and chiseled muscles. The black man was about ten centimeters taller than Zax, around a meter and eighty centimeters in height, in his early twenties and wore a loincloth that was made out from beast skin.

"Friend", the man turned to Zax. "Are you capable of speech?"

In other words, Zax understood, the man was checking if he lost to the savagery.

It is important to note that regardless of how well one can handle the savagery, the redness in the eyes is inevitable within the Savage Caves. Therefore, when two meet inside the cave, it is preferable not to rely on the look in one's eyes.

"Are you a Core Master?" Zax answered with a question. It may have sounded rude, but better to be rude and safe than polite and dead.