Aiden sized the new man up while Denzel spoke in his head, “You have literally zero battle experience don’t you?”

“I think that should be obvious considering I spent the last twelve years in a place where there was no one to fight.”, 

“Well there’s a first time for everything.”, Denzel spoke matter-of-factly.

“Here’s something you can do”, Denzel added, “If you keep a steady flow of mana throughout your body while fighting, you should be able to gain a better advantage in terms of reaction speed and overall strength. When you are about to throw a punch, try to concentrate the mana into the muscles that you will specifically use for it, as if giving them juice to run on.”

“That sounds pretty simple.” Aiden did as he was told and tugged at his core for mana to flow through his body. Immediately he felt his body was much lighter and his muscles felt highly invigorated. His senses were clearer than before and he felt like time was running a tad bit slower too.

“That’s not even gonna be near enough to defeat an experienced martial artist or physical arts practitioner, but I think it  should at least help against a bunch of street goons. Just make sure not to drag it too long and go for a decisive punch immediately as soon as you get the chance”, Denzel warned him calmly.

“Well only one way to find out how much this helps.” Saying this, Aiden rushed towards the man. 

“Ya brat!! Don’t think I’ll ‘esitate to slice ya up just ‘cause yer a kid.” The guy with the knife yelled as he took a steady stance while drawing the knife with his right hand and holding it up.

As Aiden closed in, the guy with the knife stabbed directly forward along his centre line.

Avoiding it closely with a side step to the right, Aiden pulled his right hand back for a punch but stopped immediately and put his left hand up to guard against the knee jab that his enemy started.

The jab was actually strong and hurt his hand, but Aiden didn’t feel any force behind the jab. It was a strange sensation. Feeling the pain from the force but not the force itself that could push you back.

His opponent was startled to see such a young kid take the force of his knee jab without flinching. 

Using this moment of hesitation to his advantage, Aiden delivered a solid punch to the man’s gut.

The force with which his punch connected, sent the man about 6 steps back before he slumped back and fell on the ground. A trail of blood leaked from the corner of his lips as his eyes had rolled back from the pain.

“Oh wait, Denzel. Sorry I forgot to imbue my muscles with mana when punching.”, Aiden said, realising that he had missed doing something.

“No, that the punch was strong enough since it almost killed him. Sigh……..pathetic mortals and their weak bodies. Further, while fighting, don’t use blocks too often. They are a waste of valuable energy and also don’t negate damage. Always try to deflect it or use their momentum to your advantage. For example, instead of putting your guard up against the knee jab, you could have twisted your body counter-clockwise while grabbing his leg from underneath. A small push upwards after that would throw him off balance and you would be able to hit him after he fell. Instead you took it head on, sigh. But this is your first time in a real fight, so it is still acceptable.”

Aiden listened to Denzel’s criticism patiently making sure to absorb every word he spoke.

Meanwhile, Ethan was seriously considering if Aiden was really as young as he looked. 

'Weren't you just a kid? Why do you have so much strength that it rivals an adult', he thought as he looked on in helplessness and disbelief.

Just then another guy came running from the same house due to the commotion outside. He was bald, had a brown moustache and muscular build.

“What’s happening here? Wha……”, he looked at Aiden, then at Ethan then finally at his partner lying on the ground.
“Ok, which one of your runts did that?”

Ethan was almost at the brink of tears at this moment, ‘Is this a bad comedy skit? Am I being pranked? Why is everything just repeating at this point?’

Denzel spoke, “Hey look. Another practice dummy. Go and practice deflection like I told you. I don’t want you to use blocks. And this guy doesn’t have a knife so it won’t be as dangerous.”

Aiden replied, “Got it!” and started moving towards the other person with slow steps.

The man didn't say anything but took a stance that minimised his openings*.

Aiden carefully came close and threw a punch towards his chest. The man intercepted his punch with his left hand. The force of the punch moved him back a step but didn't harm him.

"A mana practitioner? Are you from the Trimshire academy or a different school of magic?", The man backed off and questioned.

Denzel spoke, "Aiden, careful, that person is also a cultivator. Thankfully he hasn't reached consummation but is still in the intermediate stage of core formation realm. You'll really have to imbue mana into your muscles if you want to have a chance of beating him. And remember, deflect, don't block."

Aiden replied briskly, "Got it. I'll keep that in mind."

With this he rushed forward without answering the man's question.

This time his opponent took the initiative and sent a solid kick towards Aiden’s chest. Aiden had almost started moving both hands up to stop the incoming kick, but then remembered about deflecting rather than blocking.

Thus he changed intentions mid-way and instead of using his hands to put up a guard, he used them to give a solid push to the incoming kick from its left such that the kick got deflected and brushed past his right shoulder. This gave him a chance to counter attack and he imbued mana into his arm muscles. As he did so he felt them brimming with explosive power and he finally threw the punch aiming at the man’s torso. 

His opponent went flying into the wall of the house he had emerged from and crashed with a loud thud, after which he fell down slumping on the ground.

“You are really strong Aiden…..Thanks for helping me out.”, said Ethan looking on in admiration.

“You really don’t have to thank me.”, Aiden said, smiling a bit in embarrassment. He had never been complimented or thanked by anyone else other than Matilda. He slowly stopped circulating mana from his core and felt drained. Like a shrunken balloon that had lost all its air.

“Don't put your head in the clouds from just this much. You are actually pretty weak, if we compare you to a innate meridian cultivator. Just this street brawl has already drained your core of mana.”, Denzel said.

“Innate Meridian?”, Aiden asked curiously

“It’s the second dan of the foundation realm. I’ll explain it some other time.”, Denzel then went silent.

Ethan asked Aiden, “Oh I almost forgot to ask you. Are you new here in Whittens? I don’t think I’ve seen your face around these parts.”

“Yeah I arrived in town today.” Aiden scratched the back of his head.

“Oh….you’ve got some terrible luck being kidnapped on the very first day you arrived here. Did you come here with someone or alone?”

“I…”, Aiden was unsure of whether to tell the truth or not.

Ethan noticed his hesitation and said, “Oh you don’t have to say it if you aren’t comfortable. You only just met me after all. Actually wait you said you arrived just today right? You probably don't have a place to stay do you? Why don’t you come over with me to my place? My parents would also love to meet the person who saved my life.”

“Oh no I wouldn’t want to impose on your hospitality unnecessarily. And I have some other things to do too, so don’t worry about me. You should go back home.”

Ethan spoke, “That’s not a problem but if that’s your wish, I won’t insist further. Please come visit me anytime you want. Just ask around in town for the Ramiel household and they’ll lead you to my house.” 

And with those words, Ethan bid Aiden goodbye, thanking him once again and walked off.

“He doesn’t look like a bad kid but he won’t survive very long in such a world.”, Denzel said lethargically, as Aiden looked at Ethan’s back.

“You really need to learn some optimism, you know?”, saying this he proceeded into the house that the two kidnappers came out of.

The inside was pretty simple, with mattresses lying on the wooden floor and a few bowls and spoons in the corner. The only noticeably strange thing was a floorboard that was bent upwards at an odd angle. For a dusty house this would have been considered normal.  There was no sign of the lady who had kidnapped him anywhere. “Good for me”, Aiden told himself.

Going over to the floorboard, he tugged on it, pulling it right off. Underneath was a huge pouch. Opening the pouch Aiden observed there were quite a number of coins in there.

It weighed almost 3 to 4 dom**.

Seeing through what Aiden was thinking of doing, Denzel started speaking, “Well at least you have some brains.”

“I am still not sure if I should do this.”, Aiden said, clearly conflicted.

“Sigh”, Denzel explained, “Listen. In the path you have started walking on, you will have to do much worse things than just stealing. The world is a heartless and cruel place. Righteousness is seldom rewarded. What is good or bad in fact? Good is merely your selfish standardisation of how you view a matter from a moral or profitable perspective. So instead of thinking whether something is good or bad, you must do what you need to do. Establish ideals for yourself that you will follow irrespective of what and stick to them disregarding the notion of ‘good’ or ‘bad’.”

“It’ll take a lot of time to think of an ideal.”

“Ok fine.”, Denzel resigned himself to Aiden’s indecisiveness. “For now, just think of it like this : Stealing from a thief isn’t considered stealing.”

Aiden smiled, “I think I can work with that.”