OBTICEO

Chapter 16: EARLY BUT LATE

This is our second day of training, Gio and I agreed to do a warm-up before we leave the house, then we will jog to the headquarters to get a punching bag. We went extra early today, hoping that this time, we will have a standing punching bag, the one that we don't have to hang on a branch of a tree.

I never paid attention to the other cells, it all looked the same anyway but I am somehow familiar with the way to the headquarters. Good thing I don't have to go all by myself since my cellmate has the same work as mine. I was still lucky, somehow.

After a couple of minutes of jogging, we arrived at the headquarters. We saw Aes and Chylus grabbing a standing punching bag and some dumbbells. Each of them had one standing punching bag. Oh no! I hope Ry hasn't gone here. There are only three standing punching bags the rest are all hanging. All my hopes were wiped out when we also bump into Ry carrying a standing punching bag. If only we were 10 minutes early. We went earlier than yesterday but still too late to have the standing punching bag.

"So what we doin' today?" I asked Gio who is busy tying the punching bag on a different branch we used yesterday. We don't want the branch to break on us, so we hang the punching bag on a different branch. Yesterday, before we went home, we talked about how our schedules would go. We finalized that Gio and I will wake up at hour 4, go to the headquarters and get the punching bag until hour 6 because from hour 6 until hour 8 Gio will train me to fight and Caligo will go to the park at hour 8 for stamina training until 30 minutes pass hour 11. Go to Caligo's house for lunch and go back to training at hour 14 until hour 18. Although Caligo would not be with us after lunch since he said he has something to do. Kavan Guard-related works. So it would just be me and Gio after lunch, we don't know what we will do, maybe continue training to fight or do more reps of stamina exercises. We'll just cross the bridge when we get there.

"Since we did not continue training after having lunch at Caligo's cell, today I will continue to teach how to punch. Different ways on how to punch" sounds cool to me. I stood up from sitting on the ground when I saw Gio done with tying the punching bag. I dusted my clothes. I am wearing comfortable clothes today. A simple shirt that said 'My cellmate sucks!' you know, just my little way of annoying my cellmate. And stretchable jeans and comfortable shoes. I did not wear combat shoes. It is heavy and annoying.

"Warm-up! Try releasing a punch" I did as I was told. I give the punching bag a couple of shocks to warm up my knuckles and joints. I recalled everything I learned yesterday and deliver the punches. I hope my punches gets stronger as day pass or I will lose to each of them. I have to win at least once. But it would be better, the best even if I beat all of them. But maybe not on the exam. maybe some other time.

"So I will be teaching you how to punch on close range. As you observe, you can use the basic punch when you are somehow far from your target so it would be really helpful to know how to punch on the close range" I'm not sure if I want to fight with them on close-range especially since I know nothing of their fighting skills. But it is inevitable since everyone wants to pass the exam. Might as well learn to fight them at close range.

"Okay! That's right" I agreed with his statements.

"First put on a fighting stance. Dominant side at the back" he said standing next to me.

"Oh yes! I remember, like this!" I did it just like ho I did yesterday. Dominant legs and arms at the back, non-dominant legs, and arms in front. I looked at Gio after making sure I did it correctly.

"That's right. Now with this kind of punch, you will not use your dominant side more which is your left side. Now first thing is to lift your hand in an angled punching position. Like this" What? Not use the dominant? If that is so then it would be a weak punch. Or I just thought wrong? Whatever I just focused on doing whatever Gio say.

"The angle between your forearm and your bicep will vary on the distance of you and your target. Got it?" Gio also made the stance and demonstrate how to do it. It made me understand faster. I copied his form.

"Yes!" I exclaimed as I did exactly as he did.

"Farther target means bigger angle and closer targets means smaller angle. Now put your right hand up to cover and protect you in case your target attacked you. Keep it up every time your not using it" I brought my arms up pretending to protect it from a punch. Gio eyed me so I focused again, my dominant arm covering my face and a bit of my right side.

"So what you have to do is bring your non-dominant arm up and bring it around. There are two ways to position your hand, its either let your palm face downward or have your palm facing towards you, it depends on which one you are comfortable with. Of course with your hands balled into fists. It is a punch after all" of course his day. would not be complete without being sarcastic. He's Gio after all, sarcasm runs through his veins, that's how I know him.

"Yeah, I get it. Stop with your sarcasm it is annoying" he chuckled at my comment. He keeps on saying to be serious but look at him with his sarcasm. Tsk! He should be thankful that he is helping if bot he could have been dead by now. Who am I fooling? He is way stronger than me, how can I possibly kill him with this weak body of mine. Right now I'm thinking it sucks to grow up in a wealthy family, all we did is self-defense that you can't even use against these monsters. What a life!

"Okay, now you have to focus on lifting your arms up to deliver the punch and also your foot, the non-dominant one who is positioned in front and your hips will turn. Turn as you deliver the punch, you're going to turn and pivot then your body will go behind your punch. You should turn not to bend alright? And also, you have to hit your target. It is the most important thing. Now try it". Okay, so I did. I positioned my body in a fighting stance, lift my arm, made an angle between biceps and forearm, rotate my hips and foot as I deliver my punch oh, and of course with my dominant arm protecting my face. And then repeat! I kept punching the punching bag. Punch! Punch! Punch!

We did it over and over again until my body is familiar with this act. I tried it on the punching bag thousands of times and a couple of times with Gio.

Gio is pretending to punch me while I deliver my punch so I avoided it but made sure that the target receives my punch. We burned the hours by doing this routine, we did not do it with the constant attack we did improvisations too, hopefully, this would help me with my reflex.