Fantasy Assassin in a modern world

166 Their own stories (Liam)

Liam was in the backyard of his house practicing a few basic stances, usually, he would be able to continue practicing for a few hours but today he couldn’t concentrate. Liam’s thoughts were all over the place as he remembered his brother in the hospital, the more he thought about it the more irritated he got. Liam then gritted his teeth and punched the ground.

“Damn it! Why the f*ck am I so weak?! Even if do this a thousand times I won’t get stronger.”

Seeing what happened to Loki, Liam felt more and more distressed. He was irritated by his own weakness. Liam tried to calm himself down, but it was to no avail.

‘How the f*ck am I supposed to get stronger?’

Liam had no idea what to do, even if he continued to diligently practice these stances and moves he wasn’t sure if he was getting stronger.

‘Maybe I can go out and have a sparring match against other martial artists. Fighting opponents should make me learn faster than just repeatedly doing the same moves over and over again... I heard there is a sparring ring in the Martial Arts Department Building, should I try going there?’

Liam was quick to take action, the moment he had the thought he went out and headed to the Martial Arts Department Building. Now Liam has been going around challenging a few rank two martial artists to gain some practical experience. He had at least three matches per day.

After a couple of bouts, Liam came to the conclusion that his talent in close-quarters combat was mediocre, meaning no matter how hard he tried he knew that he wouldn’t become as strong as he wanted to be. Liam saw that his strength, endurance, and durability, compared to those of the same rank were below average, but his agility and dexterity were above average.

Liam understood that his fist won’t be enough for him to get stronger, so he went back to the Martial Arts Department Building to try using the weapons they can provide. The weapons there were cold weapons, swords, spears, and the like. Liam tried each one, but most of them didn’t feel right. No matter what close-range weapon he chose his strength and endurance were a major problem. Liam then used a bow and found out that he was extremely good at using it.

.....

Liam noticed that his eyesight was excellent, it was better than most even among martial artists. Even though he was good with the bow, the weapon itself wasn’t what he desired. The bow was used by a few martial artists because the only advantage it had was its silent long-range attack, it was alright to use for surprise attacks, but in a normal battle between martial artists, the bow was hard to use.

If the martial artist was able to close the distance quickly the advantages of the bow will disappear. What Liam wanted was a weapon that could cover his disadvantages and increase his advantages. The only weapon he could think of that matched what he wanted was the weapon that most martial artists abhor to use, the modern-day weapon a gun.

Martial Artists don’t like using guns as they were one of the weapons non martial artists created to defeat them. Another reason martial artists don’t use guns or most hot weapons is that they cannot imbue such weapons with their inner energy, on the other hand, cold weapons like swords, spears, and whatnot were things that they could enhance with inner energy. There were other reasons for martial artists not wanting to use guns but those two are the most popular ones.

Still, Liam did not really care about such things as he simply wanted to get stronger so he asked the only person he knew that could help him in regard to guns, Detective Matsuri.

...

Matsuri who listened to Liam’s request agreed to teach him how to use a gun. She knew how much the Gigantes attack had affected him and Alisa, she also understood how irritating it was being weak and unable to do anything. So she had no reason to refuse his request.

The two of them headed to Matsuri’s favorite shooting range, where she taught him the basics. It was quite easy teaching Liam how to use a gun not only was he a martial artist but he was really good with his hands. At first, Liam was unable to hit the target due to having first experience the recoil of a gun, even though it wasn’t much, especially for a martial artist but it still made Liam’s hands move a little causing a change to the trajectory of the bullet.

After a few more shots, Liam started to get a hang of things, and unlike his accuracy with a bow and arrow which were like his limbs his accuracy with a gun was a little worse. Still, the speed at which he fires each shot is incomparable to when he was using a bow and arrow. This was the direction he was looking for.

“This is the first time I’ve seen a martial artist use a gun, but it’s as I expected. You really are good at this.”

“Thanks, I hope to get a bit better before implementing the next step.”

“The next step?”

“Yeah, I want to create a brand new martial art with guns as the main weapon.”

“Oh, that sounds interesting. If you need my help in creating this martial art I’m all for it.”

“Thank you Matsuri-san, I really do need someone to help me with this. I plan to create a gun-based martial art so that I can use a gun not only in long-range combat but in close range as well.”

“I wonder what that would look like?” Matsuri tried to imagine close-quarters gun combat but all she got was just somebody smashing the butt of the gun on someone’s head.

“I already have an idea about a few moves, I hope that when I try to create them you’ll be able to help me, Matsuri-san.”

“Of course, so what are you going to call this new martial art of yours?”

“I have no name yet, that’s for later, for now, I just hope to create it first before thinking of a name.”

Liam didn’t know it yet but this was going to be the birth of a brand new martial art branch that would later shock the world.