Chapter 9: 9 Reborn

Splash!!

Falling into the cold water, Conor felt like he was enveloped by a dark, endless void.

He already woke up this morning experiencing torture like never before. It wasn’t just carrying the usual boulders and logs through the forest but rather being beaten by Victoria until his bones cracked. 

Hell, he even fell unconscious several times. Conor had some rough days behind him but this day surpassed everything that came before. 

Yet, it didn’t compare to what she did last. It was something he never imagined to happen, especially at the hands of his adopted mother. She was cruel at times, yes, but never as homicidal as this.

Never in his wildest dreams would he have imagined her throwing him down a fucking cliff!

Not to mention…

“Dammit. This crazy two-faced witch-… argh!”

He can’t swim!

That’s right. As an orphan, he never had the chance to learn it. After all, getting to read the few books in the orphanage every once in a while was already a privilege. 

Conor wildly threw his arms around as the violent waves crashed into him from all sides, pushing him deeply underwater. Unfortunately, even there he wasn’t spared due to the strong currents tearing him apart.

With each second that passed, he was slowly losing his breath and stamina. Panic became evident in his eyes, only making him struggle further. 

That’s when he remembered Victoria’s words from before.

‘Find your rhythm to survive.’

What the heck does that mean?!

He was just a kid who turned eleven two weeks ago and this crazy madwoman preached him solutions with esoteric meanings! Not everyone could be outstandingly talented and inhumanly strong. 

He’s nothing like her!

At that moment, something in his mind vanished. It was comparable to a clogged nose becoming clear, making him able to breathe again. He felt like a huge burden was taken from his shoulders.

Immediately, Conor knew it was the mental barrier he unknowingly placed on himself that kept him from feeling inner force.

After all, who can blame him? Since day one, Victoria has shown him unimaginable feats, such as destroying boulders as easily as breathing or doing Conor’s brutal training without breaking a sweat. He endured constant beatings under the disguise of sparring while she wasn’t even trying.

Almost instinctively, he refused to believe he could ever stand up to her. They just lived in different worlds.

However, this changed the moment he simply let go of that thought. It didn’t matter if he could never rival her strength as long as he went as far as he could go.

Developing his full potential. That was his new goal.

With newfound determination, Conor tried to feel the latent energy in his body which soon made itself noticeable in the corner of his heart. Then, he used the Hawkes family training method to redirect the energy to flow through his veins and arteries.

Being underwater made breathing impossible, meaning he needed to rely on his willpower alone. Luckily, the fact that his other senses were severely limited and his life was at stake made it much easier to focus.

He had to succeed or he would die.

Conor recalled all the instructions from the training method he learned until he was sick of it before circulating the energy in a periodic pattern through his body. 

It appeared unstable at first but soon enough became steadier and brighter. That’s when a strange resonance connected with him through his surroundings, making the process easier.

A short while, later the stream of energy rushing through his body gradually turned into something innate, something he could control like his own limbs.

He finally acquired inner force.

As the energy reached his cells, Conor felt rejuvenated as all his fatigue decreased at once. Moving in the water became less of a challenge and it didn’t seem as scary as before.

Yet, he couldn’t prevent the unavoidable.

Despite obtaining the strength to resist the currents now, he lacked the technique to actually put it into action. He still couldn’t swim. Plus, he was quickly running out of air due to moving around too much.

Conor’s vision turned blurry as his muscles turned stiff. He knew he couldn’t pull himself out of the water in time. 

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Shortly before passing out, he felt a hand grabbing the back of his shirt and pulling him out of the water like a cannonball. Conor flew through the air before roughly hitting the ground, coughing out the water he accidentally swallowed.

“Bwuahh! Shit… it hurts, cough, Cough!”

“Why didn’t you come out?”

“What?” Conor glanced up at Victoria’s confused gaze, dumbfounded. He didn’t know why but he could sense a slight glint of happiness in her eyes.

“I saw the moment when you acquired inner force, so why didn’t you get out of the water? You should have been strong enough to withstand the currents.” The blonde beauty commented, leaving his mind blank.

A moment later, Conor replied as if being wronged. “I can’t swim.”

“Y-You can’t swim? Which 10-year-old can’t swim.” Victoria thought Conor was joking.

“I mean it… and I’m eleven now.”

Thinking about it for a moment, Victoria didn’t know what to say. Then, she erupted in laughter.

“Hahaha, how pathetic. Unbelievable. I guess that is the next thing you’re going to learn, little bug.”

Meanwhile, Conor stared at her emotionless lay while sneering inside. One day, he will pay her back. For sure.

“Anyway, now that you finally have inner force, we can start with the real training. I’ve been waiting for this.”

“The r-real… excuse me what? Then what have we been doing so far?” Conor asked, thinking something might be wrong with his ears.

“Huh, all we’ve done over the last year were preparations for this. Or did you think after doing some measly muscle training you’re done?”

Measly…training?

“Right now, you’re a beginner Inner Shell Practitioner, nothing special. That means that you can only use inner force internally to strengthen your body.”

Conor was still agitated after what just happened but his experiences over the last year already made him numb to what other people considered lunatic. His common sense was thoroughly screwed up, already.

As a result, he calmed down relatively quickly and listened intently to Victoria’s words while asking his questions in return.

“What is the next step?”

“Outer Manifestation, the ability to project your inner force beyond the body. At that level, you’re considered to be quite strong but most people practicing martial arts never reach it in their lifetime.”

Conor was wondering if Victoria would be at that stage but he quickly denied it. She was probably way beyond that, for sure. After all, he didn’t even see her getting serious.

“Let me ask you a question, little bug. Did you notice something unnatural when you awakened inner force in the water?”

Hearing her question, Conor fell into thoughts. 

‘Something unnatural, hmm.’

The question itself was rather vague, especially because everything happened so fast. Besides the fear of death, he also got this refreshing feeling when he circulated energy for the first time in his body.

Though, when talking about something unnatural then it could only be that.

“There was this resonance I felt in the water.” He said, looking at Victoria. She nodded and explained.

“The resonance was due to the characteristics of our family’s inner force training method and the unique properties of the water. The associating martial arts skills and techniques rely on periodic flow like waves and vibrations, creating a powerful synergy.”

Going with one knee on the ground, Victoria put her palm on the ground. The next moment, a dim white light covered her hand which gradually turned blurry. Conor was skeptical about what was going on until wide, uneven cracks appeared on the ground.

“I only used a minute amount of inner force to accomplish this. Our energy is influenced by the Hawkes training method to swing back and forth. This not only makes it difficult to control but also much more powerful.”

Conor still looked at the expanding cracks in the ground that slowly became wider and deeper.

“So, what do you say, little bug?"

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