Hellish Cultivation (2)

The brook babbled, the spring tinkled, and leaves rustled... What flowed beneath the sunlight was tranquility, beauty—and murderous intent!

Hidden beneath the dense foliage, Reg watched the approaching figure from the corner of his eye... Colin had both hands in his pockets, looking like a tourist out for a leisurely stroll.

His expression was relaxed as he looked around, his face full of ease and contentment... That posture was simply far too arrogant.

Yet Reg felt no inward relief... The more Colin acted like this, the more terrifying he was.

Closer, closer... Reg, who had held his breath several seconds ago, had every muscle in his body tensed under the strain of intense concentration.

Squeak, squeak... A squirrel emerged from a tree hollow, twitching its nose and tilting its head in confusion. Why did the atmosphere seem a little cold?

"Damn it..."

The squirrel that appeared drew Colin's attention... Then, at precisely the right moment, he stopped just outside the range of Reg's charged strike.

"0 seconds left... 9, 8..."

Reg counted down silently without any impatience... He would save his patience for the final second.

Fifteen seconds later, Colin withdrew his gaze... and continued forward, completely unaware of Reg's presence.

As a prospective P9 member, with time to prepare... it was impossible for him to fail at even this.

"Nearby, huh... 5, 4..."

Colin counted silently, his eyelids twitching slightly... Whoosh!

Squeak... Accompanied by the squirrel's panicked cry, Reg's body instantly appeared before Colin.

The dagger in his hand reflected a bright gleam beneath the sunlight, carrying utter resolve... Colin, who had opened his eyes, leaned backward, and the imagined throat stab never came.

Reg twisted his wrist in what seemed like a killing blow, and the dagger flew from his hand... Thud!!

It had failed... From the moment Reg twisted his wrist, Colin had moved his right foot.

"Not bad..."

After praising him, Colin's left hand slapped the airborne Reg toward the ground, while his right foot, which had stepped back, suddenly exerted force with the twist of his waist.

Bang... Reg raised his arms and slid across the ground.

There was no need for pointless words, nor any need to reply... Reg climbed back up and lunged forward again.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh... Colin easily evaded two punches and three kicks, then casually sent Reg flying with another punch.

Colin possessed a trace of Observation Haki brought by Paper Art... but he did not use it.

Reg saw it clearly... Relying solely on bodily instinct and experience, while maintaining roughly the same Doriki as him, Colin had anticipated every one of his attacks in advance.

Wasn't physical training and fighting others meant to awaken such bodily instincts?

Though the beating hurt terribly, Reg still launched one futile attack after another.

"Just taking a beating isn't very efficient."

Colin took the initiative to attack... Their feet collided once on the grass, but his backhand punch landed on Reg's chest a moment earlier.

The surging blood and pain in his body made Reg's vision go dark... Bang!

Then Colin brought down a high kick straight onto his head, leaving Reg utterly disoriented.

"Get up."

"Of course."

Colin spared Reg, giving him a chance to catch his breath... He had truly learned quite a lot.

Every one of Colin's movements flowed continuously without any pause... The moment he launched his first move, the second was already following behind it.

Reg himself, meanwhile, was always one beat slower... That seemingly insignificant difference was enough to leave him completely unable to fight back.

Having learned his lesson, Reg attacked again, consciously making his attacks flow together... Yet Colin did not dodge as before. Instead, he imitated Reg's movements and countered them one by one.

Bang, bang, bang... With every collision, Reg was forced a step backward.

Colin, on the other hand, kept advancing... Though they were clearly using similar amounts of strength, the difference in results was enormous.

Despair and unwillingness surged into Reg's heart... There was no need to make a choice. His body moved naturally on its own.

Catching that emotion, Colin's movements changed. A flurry of fists and kicks struck Reg's body... Even his vulnerable groin was not spared.

Fortunately, Reg reacted quickly enough to block it... But because of that, he suffered several more merciless blows.

If Reg had not understood why Colin had set the time limit at five minutes before... he understood now: under such relentless attacks, simply holding on would already be impressive.

"Reg, it's already been minutes... You should have changed a little by now, right?"

After nearly slaughtering Reg one-sidedly for minutes, Colin heavily kicked him into the thick tree trunk behind him, temporarily halting his attack.

"Sorry... Teacher Colin, I'm learning a little slowly."

Reg wiped away his nosebleed, then casually grabbed a venomous snake he had disturbed and crushed it in his hand.

"Didn't you learn something? It's true that I'm accompanying you in training, but the other creatures don't know that. Fine, I'll let you have both hands."

Colin casually slipped both hands into his pockets, his posture dripping with contempt... Even though Reg knew it was a provocation, his face still flushed bright red.

Thud!

After stomping the ground, Reg charged forward... only to be kicked back by Colin.

"Idiot."

"I know."

Pain and the gap between them quickly doused Reg's anger... no matter how furious he was, he could not defeat the opponent before him.

What he needed to do was let his body remember every ache through attacking and being beaten, using his eyes and ears to sense every change in Colin's movements and breathing.

"An enemy won't be kind enough to beat some sense into you."

"But you're Teacher Colin."

Reg laughed and launched another attack... how interesting—the strongest creature in this primeval forest was also the one least likely to kill him.

"You can't slack off like that... punishment."

Smack, smack, smack... As if dancing tap, Colin's legs became a blur of shadows, kicking Reg from every angle until his whole body throbbed with pain.

"Looks like you've improved a little."

A bright light shone in Reg's large eyes... he had successfully blocked two attacks.

Even though his mind had not reacted in time, his body had still made its choice according to some pattern... that was growth.

"Not enough, not enough... accept more pain. Only then will your body become stronger!!"

Seeing that Reg had improved, Colin sped up his footwork... and Reg was once again reduced to taking a beating from start to finish.

But Reg handled it far better than before... he no longer hoped to find an opening to counterattack while being struck. Instead, he focused entirely on defense.

To Reg, it felt fair... if he wanted to beat people up in the future, then he had to first learn how to take a beating.

He refused to believe that, over the coming years... Colin would be able to beat him one-sidedly until he left.

"Five minutes are up... want to continue?"

Colin suddenly stopped. Reg, still shielding his head with his arms, grinned. "I can keep going for another minute. Teacher, you're being too gentle."

"Oh? Then let's end it after one minute."

Colin lowered his hands, and attacks like a violent storm came crashing down one after another... Reg simply gritted his teeth and endured them: there were barely any wounds anyway. Once he got back and ate a meal, he would be good as new.

If once wasn't enough, then a hundred times. A thousand times, ten thousand times... one day, he would be able to trade blows with Colin, even with Colin suppressing his strength!