Chapter 101 Training The Disciples
The next morning, Mira finished cultivating a bit earlier than usual. She then looked over to Dominique, who was sleeping in her lap and started to wake her up.
"Yawn… G-Good Morning, Mira." Dominique said still half asleep, but Mira just dragged her out of the bed.
"Today, I will be teaching the other disciples some of the basics of unarmed combat. You will be coming with me as well, but only as a spectator. Now get ready." Mira said which immediately woke Dominique up.
"Yes!!" She said with great excitement!
Mira walked out of her bedroom and saw Maria anxiously waiting for her. They both just nodded at each other and waited for Dominique to be ready. Not long, Dominique came out in different clothes than the rags she normally wears and a large piece of dried meat as a snack. Mira guessed that Maria must've gone out and bought some new clothes for her.
"I'm ready!!" Dominique said with an innocent smile and Mira just nodded.
"Let's go." The 3 of them then started heading for the arena.
Once they made it to the large arena, they were greeted with close to every disciple in the Sect. Elder Bridget seemed to be here as well because she immediately approached Mira as soon as she spotted her.
"Hello, Mira! I've brought that thing that you wanted from me 2 days ago! Also, I'd like to sit in on this to see how you handle things!" Elder Bridget handed her a token and said. Mira just nodded her head and the Elder turned around to make an announcement to everyone.
"Alright, Disciples! Mira is now here so shut up and get ready! I'm sure she has something to say before you begin!" Elder Bridget yelled at the disciples which immediately shut them up. Mira then stepped up in front of all of them.
"Unarmed combat is a skill that most people can learn and understand the basics relatively quick, but just like any form of combat true mastery takes years of diligent practice. I've only been instructed to teach you the basics, but since the Elders have a specific purpose in mind for wanting you to learn this then I'll also mention a few extra techniques as a bonus. I'm sure you're all wondering what you'll be learning and what qualifies as basics. Well, I'll teach you how to punch and kick properly, how to defend and parry attacks against someone using a weapon, and also various types of grapples and chokes. As a bonus, I'll also demonstrate how to escape restraints and instill in your minds that if you are ever captured, brutality and savagery should be your first options if you want to escape. Now, I also think that the best way to learn things is through experience, so at the end of every day you'll all have a group battle against me using what you learned. The last 5 standing will then be able to challenge Maria. If you are able to beat Maria, then you'll receive a Cultivation Cave token that will give you unlimited daily uses. The only catch is, you'll be the one being challenged if you have the token and if you lose then you'll have to give it up to the person that beat you. Does everyone understand so far?!" Mira explained what she'll be teaching them over the coming weeks, but there seemed to be a few people that have some problems with it.
"Huh? How can we trust that you are even a good teacher?! I know you beat the Elder in that match the other day, but that doesn't qualify you to teach us!" A few of the disciples said as they stepped out and said. These disciples were also fairly strong and had Stage 8 Qi Condensation Cultivation.
"Oh? Then why don't you stop me? I was kind of hoping this would happen. Hehe. Alright, class, I'll be teaching my first lesson!" Mira said as 15 people stepped out of the crowd and approached her.
"There's 15 of us! I refuse to believe that she can beat us all! Let's get her!" One of the 15 women said and they all ran towards Mira.
"Alright class, lesson 1! Watch my stance and how I rotate my body with every move I make!" Mira said as she rotated her hips and body with every kick or punch. She took out a few of the disciples by throwing normal punches at their faces and stomach.
"Lesson 2! If you don't have proper coordination when you fight in a group then you are only working against each other!" Mira said as she took advantage of their lack of coordination and confusion. This caused some of the disciples to hit each other instead while Mira just stepped in to give the finishing blow.
"Lesson 3! Defending, dodging, and parrying is just as important as attacking!" Mira said as she entered a brawl between 3 disciples, but they weren't able to get a clean hit on her as she blocked, countered, and dodged every attack. Using this method she knocked that 3 unconscious.
"Lesson 4! Grappling and chokeholds can be extremely useful when you encounter stronger opponents or are within close proximity." Mira said as she grabbed one of the disciples and choked them out then took down another disciple, dislocated her shoulder, and knocked her out.
"Lesson 5! Don't hesitate to be as brutal and savage as you can! Anything goes when you are fighting for your life!" Mira said as she grabbed one of the unconscious and used them as a shield and even threw them at the remaining disciples to catch them off guard before knocking them out.
Once all 15 of the disciples were unconscious, she kicked them out of the way which woke them up and put them in a daze.
"You 15 can watch from over there for today! I don't ever want to see such a pathetic display again now that I'm here! If anyone else here has an issue then I don't mind reviewing these 5 lessons with you all again!" Mira said in a commanding tone, but nobody else spoke up.
"It seems you lot aren't that stupid! Alright! We'll start the day off with you recreating the stance that you saw during my first lesson!" Mira said as she took out a barbed whip. Maria immediately wondered where she got such a thing as the only time she remembers, Mira, using a whip is when they first met. But during this last week, Mira actually went out of the Sect and got a whip to use during training.
The disciples were hesitant at first since everything was happening so fast, but soon Mira walked up to the first disciple and whipped her in the back.
"A-Argh!" She groaned in pain.
"What the fuck did I just say?! Were you listening?! I said to recreate the stance I used!" Mira yelled into the girl's face. The disciple felt like crying right now but did as she said. She tried her best to recreate the stance only to get whipped in the legs this time.
"Girl, are you blind?! I said to recreate the stance! You barely moved! Focus!!" Mira yelled like a drill sergeant. The girl still failed to meet her expectations, so she just took hold of both of her thumbs and dislocated them. The girl groaned in pain again, but this time she started crying.
"I said that I'd teach you how to get out of restraints as well, remember? Well, dislocating your thumbs is part of this. Now get into the stance! Once you do that, I'll push your thumbs back into place." Mira said and the girl shivered but tried her best to focus on the scene a few minutes ago. Whether it was due to Mira's harsh training and the girl's survival instincts kicked in or something else, she was able to remember the stance that Mira was in and recreated it. Mira checked the stance and nodded.
"It's not perfect, but it's a pass." Mira said as she popped her thumbs back into place. This was more painful than them dislocating.
"I'll now go down the line and check everyone's stance." Mira said as she went to the next person.
Dominique and Maria were standing away from everything. Mira continued inspecting everyone and whipping them if they got it wrong. Dominique started trying out the stance until she was able to recreate the stance that Mira wanted. Maria looked over and was surprised to see Dominique actually got it correct.
"That looks pretty good to me! Good job, Dominique! I'm sure Mira would give it a pass!" Maria complimented, but Dominique just shook her head.
"I think she'd give it a pass, but I feel like I'm missing something. I can tell that I haven't been able to completely replicate her stance." Dominique explained which greatly surprised Maria.
"You can tell that much from just looking?! That's amazing!" Maria exclaimed.
"Mira told me to pay attention and even announced her lessons during that fight. She said that I need to prove myself for her to teach me personally. The only thing I want right now is for Mira to personally teach me, so the faster I learn then the faster she'll teach me!" Dominque said as she continued trying to recreate the stance. Maria wasn't sure what to think of that response. She wanted to feel bad for Dominique, but she also had a goal and would reach that goal no matter what.
It took Mira a while to get through all of the disciples, but she eventually did and moved onto the next thing.
"Come here, Maria! We're going to demonstrate how to properly attack, defend, counter, and parry!" Mira commanded and Maria dejectedly walked up to Mira and took her stance.
"Next lesson! I will show you how to punch and attack properly, while also how to defend, counter, and parry as well. I will only go over it once so pay attention!" Mira said to the disciples and they all focused as much as they could.
Mira then threw out a basic punch and a basic kick while Maria just blocked them. Then she had Maria do the same thing except she threw out 3 kicks and 3 punches. Mira demonstrated how to defend, counter, and parry each of them. The smart disciples were able to gain a bit extra from Maria, but others were too focused on Mira.
"Now! Get into pairs and have 1 person focused on defending and the other person attacking! I will be walking around to check on you!" Mira said as everyone started forming their pairs and doing what Mira said.
Mira then walked around and started 'correcting' them whenever they got something wrong. And after inspecting every group, she walked up to the front and let them continue doing this for a while.
"Alright! You can stop now! Today, I've been rather lenient on you. Everything you did today was piss poor, but I let it slide! Tomorrow, these things won't slide and I expect a better performance. For now, you can stop what your doing as Maria and I are going to spar with each other to demonstrate how you can use these basic techniques in a fight. Then we'll move onto you all attacking me with what you've learned and the last 5 standing will get a chance to beat Maria!" Mira said as the disciples all stopped what they were doing and Mira dragged Maria back to the front.
The two of them immediately began sparring using only the things Mira taught today. Well, Maria wasn't skilled enough to follow this rule so she just sparred with Mira like normal.
They sparred for about an hour before Mira decided now is a good time to end it. So she just knocked Maria unconscious, tossed her over to Dominique, and told her to wake Maria up. Dominique didn't really know how to do that so she just started slapping Maria's face, but to a mortal child like her, this is like slapping a rock. She was amazed by this but didn't know how to wake Maria up now, so she just started jumping on her stomach. Dominique continued this while Mira told the disciples to fight her.
"All of you, come at me with the techniques you've learned today! If I see you trying something else, then you will be greatly punished!" Mira announced, but people were a bit hesitant to try anything. Mira just shrugged her shoulders.
"Then I'll just come to you!" Mira yelled and started her onslaught!
Even though Mira said to use the techniques they learned today, that's easier said than done. They literally just learned everything today, so when it came to using them during a fight their brain panicked a bit and didn't know what to do. It's like they forgot all of her teachings. But Mira didn't care and just approached the disciples, beat them to a pul, then moved onto the next one. It didn't take her that long to bring the count down to 5, but these 5 disciples were just lucky they weren't beaten up beforehand.
Dominique seemed to wake Maria up with all of her jumping. Mira looked at Maria.
"Fight those 5." She commanded. Maria just looked at the 5 scared disciples and felt pity, but she didn't feel like disobeying Mira because of a little pity. So she just slowly approached them.
"I'm sorry!" Maria said each time she knocked one of them out. It barely took her any time at all to beat these 5 disciples. After everyone was defeated and lying on the ground Mira announced the end of the session.
"This brings an end to the training for today! I'm highly disappointed in all of you! I expected better from some of the strongest women in the city! We will continue doing the same thing we did today for the next 2 days! Be sure to be here tomorrow morning as well! Don't make me find you and drag your ass to training!" Mira said and left with Maria and Dominique. She was going to go drop off Dominique and cultivate at the Cultivation Cave. Maria could also do this now that she had the token that the Elder gave her.
This type of training continued for the next 2 days before the disciples would finally get a break.