Lunar Awakening-Chapter 53: Moon God’s Battle Art

Several minutes passed with Leo still left paralysed and deep in thought, it was one thing being turned into a damn monster and it was another being forced to turn others at the cost of his own life.

Leo however did not have much time to spend on this thoughts, it was late in the night and he still had a lot to think about.

He pushed back all these thoughts and proceeded to click the second video which had the name—

Moon God’s Battle Art.

Having a battle art or a battle style was a great boon to any superhuman looking to improve their battle prowess and survive in Hellscape. These battle techniques were as a accumulation of several decades of trainings and dedication.

In academies many were thought the basics of combat with simple battle styles that were not particularly versed in any area. The real battle styles were kept sacred in legacy clans like treasures, they were only thought to their clan members. While the Surge military alliance had quite a number of battle styles ranging from special grade to the rarest it was what kept most of them at the zenith of power.

Leo saw the name of the battle art and wondered just how special it was. First of all he had never heard of a moon god or any god in particular, he never even believed such things existed.

Kevin had left him a while back to do something important, but Leo knew he simply could not stomach all that he had witnessed that night.

It was already getting late but Leo did not feel even the slightest bit tired, but he did not mind about that. He clicked on the video and watched a new screen being displayed, it showed the image of George Lüdovic Kriston wearing dark battle clothes and white strips of clothes wrapped around his hands and ankles.

The room was a dojo with many wooden mannequins that stood several feet apart from each other.

"The moon god’s battle art is a battle style I derived from the legacy, it is most effective with the Moonfall’s Bride but let’s focus on the basics." The man said before going into a strange battle stance.

Leo looked at the screen with deep interest, he half expected to see the man summon a barbaric battle axe or something other weapon befitting the brutish nature of a werewolf. Or perhaps maybe even a simple-- elegant sword. To his surprise however George did not summon a weapon he simply dashed forward at the wooden mannequin that came to life and charged forward.

Leo watched in anticipation as the man evaded the blow with a strange calm and fluidity and shockingly with his eyes closed.

He repeated the same series of movement and footwork while predicting the attacks of the living mannequins. His weapon of choice were simply his claws.

Leo was a bit disappointed at first, he had expected to see a battle art that used a weapon but he had forgotten that a part of him had already been made into a weapon. The more he watched the moon god’s battle art the more he felt entranced by the lethality of it. It seemed to pass on a message, one that only he could he could understand.

"If you want to beat a beast, you have to fight like one." Perhaps it meant something along this line.

Leo could not understand why the man had his eyes closed or why his movements were so graceful but he knew he would have to learn it. The technique while still a mystery did something quite unique, it merged both attack and defence into one mould of pure defence.

At the end of the video the man stood above several hundreds of broken mannequins torn apart and smashed by his monstrous claws.

George then turned and faced the the screen, "I would not advise fighting with your eyes closed unless you have a higher aura." The video then came to an end.

Leo’s eyes perked up for the first time in minutes, "Aura, there’s that word again?"

Leo watched the video a few more times, trying to get a grasp of the technique implemented in every move but it seemed nearly impossible for him to follow the movement of a man who had his eyes closed.

He eventually had to ask Kevin if he could create a more detailed version of the video, Kevin was happy to help. He began work on a displaying the battle art in a simulation room for him to learn.

In the short span of time he had to wait Leo went back to his old habits and started to think about his priorities at the moment.

He still had to go back home to his family to ensure that they were safe, he still had the job with Mr Neuman which he did not know how long that would take, now he had to learn this battle style if he was to get better at fighting overall, he also had to plan his return to Hellscape if he was to keep providing for his family.

All these problems weighing down on him made his head feel on the verge of exploding. To make matters worse his impending death was barely a year away.

"Curses." The word slipped out of his breath.

Kevin stole a glance over at him from his work table where he tapped on his laptop with acute precision. "Got a problem?"

Leo hesitated for a bit-- debating whether to keep it personal or not. But chose not to, what was the point in having friends in higher places if he could not capitalise on it? Or at least he had heard something on that line before.

He cleared his throat and said in a low tone, "Kevin, my family is in need of a good lawyer. I know it’s a bit soon but my dad can lose his gym."

He waited for a bit and watched Kevin freeze for a moment, he saw a cold shiver in his eyes. He could almost feel the genuine pain in them. "You old man really loved that gym, don’t worry I’ve got you."

Leo let out a sigh of relief, that was one problem off his table. "Thanks, please let it be a good lawyer." It was still odd to him to thank others. It surprised him even more when Kevin scoffed, "Who needs a damn lawyer when I know the judge."

Leo’s jaw dropped as his eyes widened for several seconds before he finally mustered the sanity to speak. "You— know the judge?"

Kevin waved a finger in his face before picking up his phone, "Lemme place a call first."

Leo waited and watched Kevin make a call while putting the finishing touches on the simulation. When he dropped the phone he turned and faced Leo with a heartwarming smile. "Well, now I do."

Leo’s eyes widened.

Kevin continued. "It won’t be a big deal, as long as the case is somewhat justifiable the judge will be on my side."

Leo could not help but smile genuinely for the first time in a long while, "Is that even legal?"

Kevin chuckled. "In a sense. Now here’s the complete simulation, knock yourself out."

With the touch of a button the room he was in was filled the three dimensional holograms of the video, it projected a realness one could not perceive from simply watching behind a screen.

Before Leo could thank his friend, he was already waving him goodbye with a persistent yawn as he went off to sleep.

Leo dedicated the entire night to his strenuous training trying to understand the man’s movement and replicate it as best as he could.

For the first hour he barely managed to comprehend the first couple of steps and patterns, he studied and practiced it over and over trying to understand what the battle style actually meant.

Without any tip of advice on what to do, all he could do was repeat it over and over again till he felt something. After a couple more hours Leo finally managed to grasp what he believed to be the bare basics of the battle art, George had done it without looking—

Leo could only replicate the moves if he used all of his wolf senses, in a way it heightened all of his movements slightly. Kevin had set up some practice dummies for him to unleash the fury of his claws on them. After several hits he realised that he was unable to use his claws to strike deep enough.

He knew his power was adequate enough but he still lacked the adeptness to use his claws. He spent more time trying to understand how to use his claws and increase it’s lethality, practicing the man’s battle art did not seem to impact him in any given way at first.

Still he persisted till he could properly imitate it to the best of his ability, by the time he finally managed to get a grasp of it he was lying on his back drowning in a pool of hot sweat.

He could hardly catch his own breath, his body was so heavy he could not move. In the last few seconds before he collapsed he felt that he had achieved something, it was hard to describe.

A few seconds later he heard a familiar chime.