Chapter 68: Mastering the fist!
" So, Captain, what brings you to my barracks out of the clear blue?" Zephyr walked past Markus and placed a cup of whiskey down in front of him, before taking a seat at his desk.
Markus picked up his cup and sighed, before taking a sip from the cup. The drink had a smooth texture and a sweet taste but felt like fire had gone into his stomach.
" Gah! Tastes pretty damn good, but it burns like hell." Markus muttered.
" Yeah! Jerez, that's the good stuff. None of that cheap shit the rest of the Marines drink." Zephyr proudly exclaimed.
" Yeah."
" So, again, what brings you here kid? You need something?" Zephyr asked once again. He sat up at his desk and crossed his arms, waiting for Markus to speak.
" Yeah, actually, I was hoping you could teach me more about haki."
"Hm?" Zephyr eyed Markus curiously.
" What? Why do you need my help? You're doing pretty damn good yourself as it is. What more could I teach you, that, that old bastard hasn't?"
" I need to know the advanced stages, what I have now just isn't enough. Neither is my strength. I'm planning to hit the Battleship bags again to try and build my strength up more, but while I was out there, I quickly discovered that my current use of haki is inefficient. It's lacking, I'm wasting it. I need more training." Markus told the man. He held his bandaged fist up and stared it. It was slightly disappointing, at least a little, how things turned out. Even if they did work out in the end, Markus knew he couldn't keep skirting close to death like that.
Zephyr heard this, and grunted.
" Why ask me? Why not go to that damn bastard, Garp. Surely he'd make a pretty good teacher." Zephyr stated.
The logic made sense. Garp was his father, who else should he go to for help? But Garp isn't what you would call a helping man.
" I get what you're saying, but pops has made it clear, he has no intentions of helping me further than he already has. He won't even talk with me about it. He just laughs and tells me to figure it out." Markus told the man. " But I tried. I did, but I can't seem to get the same feeling back like I did, then."
" What feeling?"
" It was like I was projecting my haki outwards, instead of just hardening it. But I can't seem to get it anymore." Markus told the man.
" I see. You want to learn how to direct your haki into others. Well, I can show you that. But whether or not you get the hang of the idea, well that's up to you." Zephyr told the man.
Markus looked up with a smile on his face.
" Really?!"
" Sure, you came to right man. But I don't know if you'll have it down in the month you have off." Zephyr spoke.
" Don't count me out, I'm a fast learner after all." Markus joked. " So, when do we start?"
Zephyr stood up with a smirk on his face and laughed at Markus, giving him a feeling of slight dread in his heart.
.................
Zephyr had quickly grabbed Markus and drug him to training grounds inside his barracks. It was a simple grass field with slabs of steel, wood, and stone filling the general area. Obviously meant for physical practice.
For the sake of training, Zephyr and Markus were stationed at the heavier and denser steel slabs.
" I don't know much to tell you about observation haki, but armament haki... Now that I can handle. So, to start, let's see what your control looks like now." Zephyr spoke.
Markus nodded his head and clenched his fist, focusing all of his energy and focus into channeling his haki into his hand.
Zephyr watched carefully as Markus' energy began focusing on his fist.
" I see. Too rugged. You're focusing too hard." Zephyr exclaimed.
Markus relaxed a bit and looked at Zephyr with a look of confusion on his face.
" What do you mean? I'm trying to relax." Markus told the man.
" You're trying too hard." Zephyr exclaimed. " You're trying too hard to focus on relaxing, instead of just relaxing. Trying to force yourself into relaxing, isn't relaxing. It's just making you more tense and stressed out. Stop fighting your body and just let it go." Zephyr explained.
" What you're looking for is the ultimate step in armament haki, exploding your will into another person or object. To be able to use your own spiritual will power to destroy your enemy, without even touching him. Like this." Zephyr raised his hand and with a flick of his finger a hole exploded open on the other side of the metal wall.
Markus marveled at what he had just witnessed.
" Impressed? You should be. This the greatest technique against devil fruit users, especially Logia's. Sure, regular armament haki will let you hit their true forms, but even then, it is not guaranteed. Some devil fruit users have an innate ability to move their true forms and spread their bodies out over an area. Some have abilities that'll make them hard to hit even with haki, such as the men from the Whitebeard pirates. Marco the Phoenix and Diamond Jozu. Both of them possess devil fruit abilities that make doing physical harm next to impossible. But with this technique, you'll have the ability to hit them no matter how hard their defense is." Zephyr explained to the young man.
" So, how do I do it?" Markus asked.
" Relax and focus on forcing your haki outwards. Focus on keeping your haki active for as long as possible. For the next few days, you're gonna keep trying to hit this metal wall with your fists until you manage to do it. But don't make contact. Nothing on your body should touch this surface. Until you get it, you aren't leaving this room. You'll be here all day, every day and night if that's what it takes. I got one month to get you ready for duty again, and I'll be damned if anyone's getting their ass kicked again under my watch. Now get started!"
" Yes Sir!"
Markus thrusted his fist out at the metal and punched it hard over and over again!
* BANG! BANG! BANG!
.....................
Another week, another new chapter. Beginning to slowly get the flow back. Let me know what you guys think of the chapter by leaving a comment below. See ya!
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