Child of Destiny

……

Shin logged out of the game, with a huge grin on his face. And as usual, his nose was assaulted by a foul smell the moment the Gaming Cabin was opened. But he just ignored that smell as he got out of the Cabin, then he activated its auto-cleaning feature before going to the bathroom for a shower.

After that, donned with his martial-art suit, he went to the garden to do his ‘morning’ training routine, though the actual time was already noon. And as usual, Shin did two sets of his foundation training before doing a deep meditation later.

He didn’t do skill training this time as he tried to familiarize himself with his ‘Qi Reinforcement Skill, the ‘Reinforce Iron Bone’. Though, he was still not done at engraving the entire rune series on the whole internal framework of his body, he still could feel the changes on the bones of his arms and legs.

Not only did they have more strength and power now, but they also became even tougher than before. He could feel that he could break the bones of a Martial-Artist on the same level even if he was just using his raw strength alone.

And if he empowered them with his Internal Qi, he was sure that each of his attacks would surely be a very strong one; much stronger than his usual attacks and almost comparable with some common Martial-Art Skills.

After his was done with the whole cycle of his training, Shin planned to complete the ‘Reinforce Iron Bone’ skill by engraving the rune series on his chest and upper back bones together with his pelvis and lower back bones.

But before he was able to do it, Shin felt a gaze looking at him. And when he turned his head in the direction where that gaze was coming from, he saw Arthur was looking at him with a bored look on his face.

Seeing that Shin was finally looking at his direction, Arthur said. “Are you still not done? Come on, let’s have a sparring match. What you are doing is too boring.”

Shin knitted his brows as he looked at Arthur. Even though they were usually doing some sparring matches before, those things were just their daily routine. But this time, he could feel an overwhelming confidence coming from this brother of his.

Shin pursed his lips upwards and said. “Looks like you are really confident on your current strength now, huh?”

Then he stood up from his sitting position before turning at Arthur and said. “Alright, let’s see how much you improve this last month of training.”

Arthur suddenly formed a huge grin with his lips after hearing Shin. Then he also stood up and said at the latter. “Hehe… This time, I am going to destroy you completely.”

‘For some reason, this guy seemed to be even more annoying than his usual attitude.’ Seeing that cheeky attitude, Shin couldn’t take it anymore and took his battle stance.

He took a step forward with his left foot while having both of his feet pointing forward. Then he lowered his hips a little and made his thighs parallel to the ground. He pushed his buttocks out and made his back to arch up a little so that he could keep his upper body from leaning forward.

After that, he raised both of his hands to chest level while forming a relaxed fist with each of those hands before inhaling and exhaling deeply to regulate his breathing.

‘Heh! Looks like he is taking this one a little seriously, huh?’ Seeing that Shin was getting ready for the battle, Arthur formed yet another huge grin before taking a battle stance of his own.

He spread his legs a little outwards and slightly lowered his hips to make his thighs parallel on the ground and have his toes to point towards his point. Then he clenched both of his hands and formed a fist before raising both of them in front of his chest while having one in front of the other.

After that, he squinted his eyes and looked at Shin while observing even a minuscule movement of his body.

Noticing that Arthur didn’t plan to deliver the first blow, Shin felt that there was something strange. If it was like before, then Arthur was really going to grab that opportunity to take the first move. But currently, it seemed that he was waiting for Shin to attack first before going to respond.

‘Huh? This guy is really strange right now. It seems like he is able to get rid of that impatient personality of his, during the battle,’ when Shin saw that Arthur had no intention of attacking first, he decided to seize the initiative instead.

And on the very next instant, Shin suddenly disappeared from his current spot before appearing two meters away from Arthur while turning his body in the air to throw a side-back kick at the latter.

Seeing that, Arthur lowered his right arm and positioned it in the path of the incoming kick with an intention of blocking it.

Pak! 𝑏𝑒𝑑𝑛𝘰𝑣𝑒𝘭.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Arthur’s feet seemed to be planted on the ground as he didn’t move even for an inch despite taking the strong force behind Shin’s attack.

When Shin saw that, he used Arthur??s arm that blocked his kick, to maintain his position in the air before doing a quick spin towards the opposite direction while also throwing a high kick immediately after.

Arthur, on the other hand, quickly pulled his right hand and positioned it beside his waist while also raising his left arm at the same time so that he could block the next kick coming from Shin.

Pak!

Yet another successful block was executed by Arthur. But it seemed like Shin was expecting that and quickly folding his right leg a little before using the momentum of his previous attack to continue his spinning motion. At the same time, he switched his other let to throw a reverse kick that was targeting Arthur’s head.

Even if Shin’s maneuvers were quite fast and hard to keep up with, Arthur was still able to respond to them almost immediately.

The moment Shin folded his right leg, Arthur was already pulling his left arm and positioning its fist on the side of his waist. And at the same time, his other fist was already pushing forward to throw a punch at Shin’s back.

Seeing the quick movements and counters of each other, the two of them quickly adjusted their moments so that they could either dodge or block the incoming attacks.

Shin quickly raised his left arm and arched his waist a little further so that he could adjust his balance in the air. With those simple movements, he was able to let Arthur’s right-hand fist to brush past the left side of his waist, barely avoiding the punch while also not affecting his kick in the process.

At the same time, Arthur was also raising his left arm so that he could block the incoming kick without stopping the punch of his other hand.

Bang!

With this another successful block from Arthur, Shin was able to understand that this guy was now able to perfect his defense without weakening his attacking ability.

‘Hmm? You now have a tough defense to crack, huh? How about you try blocking this one.’ Having his in mind, Shin quickly clenched his right-hand fist before gathering a bunch of Internal Qi in it.

With the stimulation of his Internal Qi, the runes engraved on Shin’s right arm suddenly lit up, triggering the activation of his ‘Qi Reinforcement’ skill. And immediately after that, Shin quickly turned his body around while throwing a straight punch at Arthur.

‘Qi Reinforcement Skill: (Incomplete) Reinforce Iron Bones’

Swoosh!

The pupils on Arthur’s eyes suddenly contracted when he saw the incoming first; from the looks of it, he could already guess that even if that attack was not martial-art skill, it was still something with similar strength and power.

Having that thought in mind, he quickly pulled both of his arms and crossed them in front of his chest while also enfolding them with his Internal Qi. And when those Qi spread through both of his arms, they formed a layer of energy on the surface of his skin that looked like a bunch of scales.

‘Qi Reinforcement Skill: (Lesser) Dragon Scales’

Bang!

Shin attack landed on Arthur’s defense which pretty much what he had expected. But there was something surprised him in that exchange. When his fist landed on Arthur’s arm, he felt that punched a very hard object that couldn’t be broken.

‘What was that? Did he also learn some ‘Qi Reinforcement Skill’ that was as strong as that Old Geezer had given me?’ thought Shin for a moment before smiling bitter to himself. “Why am I surprised? It is just natural for him to learn since this Family already has a very long history.”

Then he raised his head and looked at Arthur who he had sent sliding backwards, and saw that the latter was looking at him with a cheeky look on his face. “D*mn! How can you learn a high-ranking Qi Reinforcement Skill in less than a month? Well, I don’t really care about it actually. At least, that is going to make this match even better. I am pretty sure that this is going to even more exciting that way.”

He paused for a moment to stretch his head left and right before saying to Shin. “Alright, that should be enough for the warm up. Let’s go straight to round 2,” in a very excited tone.

But before they could resume at battle, Shin suddenly raised both of his hands and said. “Whoa! Wait! Time Out!”

The corner of Arthur’s mouth suddenly twitched when he saw that. Then he sneered at Shin a litter later. “Heh! What? Getting cold feet this early? Come on~! We are still not starting yet.”

Hearing that, Shin couldn’t help but click his tongue and said. “Tsk! Getting too ahead of yourself, huh? Don’t worry, we will still continue this match. It just, we need to change location. I don’t want to get caught by Auntie again for ruining this garden.”

Realizing what Shin really meant, Arthur immediately shifted his mood and said. “Oh! That is right! Let’s look for a place where we can go all-out. I also don’t want for mom to use this against us once again. How about one the shore of the lake?”

After saying all of those, Arthur immediately turned his body around and started heading outside the Villa. “Let’s go! We need to make it quick; I still need to report something to Uncle Nathan after this.”

Watching Arthur’s back, Shin suddenly shook his head and muttered himself. “This guy is really too carefree. I am starting to become interested in how strong he becomes after those special training sessions that he had.”

…