Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

Chapter 75: Dragon Kumite

CH75 Dragon Kumite

***

Alex gazed lovingly or rather sadistically at the training dummy that had endured countless hours of brutal abuse after his lessons under Merlin’s tutelage.

The dummy’s torso was riddled with scars from all manner of techniques and attacks. The only part still mostly intact was its head. Alex had always avoided hitting that part—not out of sentimentality, but because damaging it would mean buying a whole new dummy.

Fortunately, it was finally time to put the battered thing out of its misery.

He rolled it aside and brought out a fresh replacement, one he had prepared long ago.

With a breath, Alex took a simple stance before the new dummy—feet shoulder-width apart, hands raised at chest level. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, almost like he was hypnotising himself.

Merlin’s voice echoed through his mind.

The Art of Killing class had taught him many ways to kill—and more importantly, the many ways he could be killed.

There were countless possibilities, but the Ancient Dragon had broken it down into ten key categories, which Alex was required to memorise, internalise, and master.

Beyond that, Merlin had introduced Alex to a unique combat method—an unnamed fighting style.

It didn’t fit into any conventional category. It wasn’t a martial art or a magic-focused style. Rather, it was a method—a system of adaptable movement and attacks built to exploit the weaknesses exposed in Merlin’s ten categories.

It could be layered onto any proper fighting style Alex might learn in the future.

”The line between Warrior, Mage, and Warlock begins to blur at the Legendary Rank,” Merlin had once said.

”At that stage, all three fight using their mastered Laws. The restrictions that define the branches below that point? They no longer apply. It won’t be strange to see a Warrior shooting elemental bolts, or a Mage fighting bare-handed.”

”Under my tutelage—and with the Astral Training Manual—you are not bound by those same limitations. And so, you must learn to fight without them... like a Legend.”

Rather than train Alex to fight as a Mage, Merlin trained him to fight as needed—with Mage methods, Warrior methods, even Warlock methods.

He didn’t build a single path for Alex.

He built a foundation broad enough for Alex to walk all of them.

Anything less would’ve been a waste of his potential.

Alex’s eyes snapped open, bright with resolve. Sparks of power danced in his gaze—like lightning flashing in a storm.

His body moved, blurring backwards several metres. Energy gathered in his fists—

BOOM!

An energy-infused fist beam exploded from his hand and blasted into the training dummy’s chest, rocking it violently on its base.

But Alex didn’t stop.

His body blurred forward—appearing at the dummy’s side.

Bang!

His fist struck just above its ribs, but the damage didn’t appear where he hit. Instead, a blast of force rippled through the dummy’s reinforced body and erupted from the opposite side, leaving a gaping hole.

A single blow, transferred and detonated from within.

His legs shifted again. A simple step, precise and calculated, brought him behind the dummy.

Punch!

This strike hit the lower back—not a blunt impact, but a piercing force. A narrow hole blasted through from back to front, as if a spike had been driven clean through it.

Another shift.

He moved to the dummy’s ruined left side.

Alex’s hand transformed mid-motion into a chopping palm. With fluid grace, he drew his hand diagonally from the dummy’s left armpit, up and across its head.

Oddly, only the tip of his fingers brushed against those areas—

Yet—

Shhk!

A clean cut rang out along the path of his hand.

The dummy’s head and arm fell to the floor in unison, sliced off cleanly as if by an invisible blade.

Phew~~

Alex let out a deep breath.

Although it took some time to describe everything, the entire sequence had occurred in the blink of an eye.

Just as he was about to release his tense body, his Spirit Sight flared—

—and he sensed a sudden surge of energy from the ruined dummy.

A flood of images flashed in his vision, showing what was occurring within.

’Self-destruct?!’

His thoughts raced.

’Too late to escape the room!’ he quickly assessed.

’In that case...’

A wild smile stretched across his face, his ruby eyes glinting with reckless delight.

Instead of retreating, Alex stepped forward—his feet blurring into strange, precise movements.

He deliberately placed himself right at the heart of the blast radius.

BOOM!

The dummy detonated in a fan-shaped conical explosion that engulfed Alex entirely.

Dust and energy surged across the room.

But when the smoke cleared, Alex still stood tall—right at the centre of the blast zone.

A shimmering hemispherical blue light surrounded his body.

A Mana shield.

But there was no spell circle in sight.

The barrier hadn’t been cast through conventional means.

This was something else entirely.

This was External Mana Control.

A method Merlin had drilled into him relentlessly.

Most Mages channel Mana through their internal pathways and release it outside their bodies, usually in the form of a spell Rune circle—typically at their palms.

But what Merlin taught Alex bypassed the Rune circle entirely.

Instead of casting spells...

Alex learned to release Mana raw and manipulate it externally—

Controlling it with such precision that he could make it behave like a Warrior’s internal energy.

The method blurred the lines between Mage and Warrior.

He could fire Mana like a cannon.

Condense it into a piercing point.

Send it rippling through solid objects to shatter them from the inside.

Or shape it into solid barriers to absorb damage before it ever touched his body.

The possibilities were limitless—

As long as he had the control, the imagination, and the Mana to support it.

Of course, it was far from easy.

This wasn’t something any average Mage could pull off.

Alex could manage it only because of a perfect storm of advantages:

His Mana Heart was filled with Astral Mana, naturally adaptive and responsive to external control.

His Furor Bloodline granted him innate warrior instincts, giving him reflexes and combat intuition most Mages lacked.

His unusually durable Spiritual Force allowed him to control Mana with exceptional precision.

And most importantly, his Extreme Mana Capacity Talent provided the sheer volume of Mana required to execute the method reliably.

Put simply, this was a technique born from the culmination of all his gifts—both natural and acquired.

To Alex, the method reminded him of the advanced mana manipulation techniques he’d read about in countless peak-tier combat novels back on Earth.

So, beyond Merlin’s knowledge, Alex gave the method a name of his own:

Dragon Kumite. (1)

It was the first foundational step in bridging the divide between Mage and Warrior as well as the rite of passage that would guide him on the path to Legendary Rank and beyond.

Oh, and it had been taught to him...

By a Dragon.

Hence, the name.

Leave it to Alex to come up with an ever-functional reasoning for a name.

’With this, I have basic mastery of the method. Now, only true combat and combining it with a proper warrior fighting style will allow me to improve further.’

Alex reflected to himself, feeling a strange sense of satisfaction.

However, his thoughts then drifted back to why he had started his practice in the first place.

Previously, whenever Alex used the Kumite technique, he would be utterly drained after performing two or three actions. The extreme drain on his Mana reserves wasn’t something Mages typically endured, unlike Warriors, who trained by habitually draining their internal energy.

Now, however, despite his exhaustion, he felt far less fatigued than usual. Even more surprising, there was a noticeable improvement in his rate of recovery.

It was at least twice as fast, so much so that he could feel the recovery happening in real-time.

’With half an hour of rest, I should be able to repeat everything again,’ he thought, pleasantly surprised by his progress.

It proved his Everspring Rune was working better than anticipated.

With the results in, Alex no longer felt the need to continue his training. He had reached a bottleneck that simple practice would not break.

***