Dragon God: Reincarnated As the Last Dragon in a Cultivation World Chapter 45: Martial Techniques

Sitting down on the floor, his tail curled up, wrapped around one of the shelves, holding the basics of the Martial Path, Caelus blinked slowly, looking down at the book. He opened it.

The first Chapter was titled "The Iron Will Begins With the Body."

"I forgot these were written during Nyx’s age... No wonder the title is like that."

Taking a mont, he paused. A few seconds later, he went back to reading, continuing through it. "A cultivator should never waste a movent. Every step, every breath, every shift of weight is a weapon if used correctly, even if soone holds their own breath, for it can mask presence."

"Ah. So that’s what I was doing wrong, hm, just like when I threw Yunlei, I let go of him instead- finishing- continuing my attack."

[Thirty Minutes Later]

Closing the book, he placed it away. "Aphro, is there a manual for dragon martial arts or...?"

[Indeed. There is :3]

"Can I have or do sothing to get it?"

[New Mission!]

[Defeat Minerva in a Spar with more than 80% of your Mana! And hit her with at least 5 Physical attacks.]

[Reward - Draconic Manual]

"...You know what, might as well do that, but... I’ll probably train my physical attacks first." Getting up, Caelus left the Pavilion and teleported to Tianyun Peak. He ford the dummy once more, staring at it, and he changed its composition to match his own physical structure.

Standing in what he believed was a fighting stance, he threw a punch with his left hand, instinctively forming a fist, striking the stone right in the chest. Caelus paused, his hand still there, looking at it, uncurling it as he stayed silent for five minutes.

"...Why do I just- Curl my hand but other tis I don’t panic???"

Looking at himself, Caelus sighed, recalling how the human body worked in his old life, though only barely; he was half-asleep in class, having almost failed.

"Oh, yeah, the body is stupid. Hiccups exist. Of course, my hand curls, but I don’t panic. Why wouldn’t it?"

Holding his hand open, Caelus slashes down, thin marks of where his scales scratched against, flinching as he absolutely hated the sound, like scratching tal with fingernails. "I have to get past that... Well, this is going to take so ti."

"I won’t make it like Minerva; it’d be better if I had to change to adapt to her body structure."

Looking at his tail, taking so control, he swung it to the left. As it uncurled, it reached almost three tis his own height and smacked into the wall. "OW- Okay, so that hurts as well."

Pulling his tail back. "I’ll probably use that to trip her or stop her so I can kick... But, I still need to work on my Literature Path; it’s barely even Foundation." Sighing once, he turned back to the dummy.

[Five Hours Later]

Sitting down, curled into a ball, Caelus looked done with himself. "...Fine, I’ll try one more ti, I have nothing else to do."

Getting up, Caelus noticed another Mission.

"Two?"

[Understand the basics of the Martial Path!]

[Reward - Progression Level of Martial Path (Not Cultivation Caelus) :3]

"...Fair enough, I would’ve stopped maybe right after the basics if I didn’t get this."

Looking at the dummy once more, covered in scratches yet he felt no improvent, not even an incrental change, he knew sothing was wrong, but he couldn’t tell what it was, looking at every area he attacked, each way it was hit wasn’t hard to block, in fact, it was quite easy to step out of the way simply. "Ah, I’m predictable. That’s what."

Moving his fingers up to his chin, he took a mont to think about how he could make his attack hard to block. Humans only had two hands, though, so did he.

Though his tail gave an advantage, he wanted to land a hit without that help; his claws would make it harder to predict fully, longer hands, scales, it wasn’t like a normal human hand, and since no human other than presumably Theresia and Nyx had fought a Dragon, he could count on them not knowing about how Dragons worked.

Finally, he repositioned himself into a fighting stance. However, still his body remaining unnaturally relaxed, though it wasn’t much of a bother, punching the dummy with his right hand, while it was flying forward, he uncurled it, shifting his body to make it fly up, since he punched at the normal speed it was a lot easier, especially since he could make sharp turns at his maximum speed.

"Hm, weird, well, I’m not that good at physics, but shouldn’t that be impossible?" Pausing once, "Not my problem, as long as I can do crazy stuff." Shrugging, he assud it was just Mana being sowhat inconsistent.

Pulling his hand out of the dummy’s chin, he watched debris fall from where his scales pierced through. "They wouldn’t expect sothing like that, even then, if they tried blocking my attack, they’d still have to stop the scales from piercing their hand."

"...But that feels too much like brute force... Dammit. What did that book say again?" Taking another mont, he looked through his mory, finding exactly what it said, and he applied it right to his own attacks. Blinking for a few seconds, his face turned lightly red. Turning away from the dummy, not realizing what he was doing.

"A cultivator should never waste movent."

He was relying on his Draconic nature to do the work for him, not his technique. "The book ntioned every breath and shift of weight is a weapon, even the absence of breath."

"I really need to stop treating my hands like they’re really long nails, huh?" A soft chuckle, letting it go, Caelus repositioned his body. Closing his eyes, he slowed his breathing. Instead of forcing his body into a rigid human stance, he relaxed, letting his center of gravity sink, and his coiled tail loosened like a spring.

Taking one step, he moved forward, not with a jerky human step but with a sliding, liquid motion. He let out one breath as he moved.

Shift. As he threw a punch, he didn’t just use his arm, nor did he curl his hand into a fist, pivoting his hips and engaging his spine; he let his montum pass from his foot, through his scales, to his knuckles.

CRACK!

The sound was different from before, not the shallow tallic scratching his scales did before, It was a deep resounding thud along with the claws piercing the dummy, He didn’t pull his hand back imdiately, following the flow, he flipped his wrist mid contact turning the dummy into a dragging slash, simultaneously using his tail to strike the side of the dummy.

BOOM!

The dummy, a perfect replica of his durability, staggered without any Mana.

Blinking, he pulled his hand back, unlodging his claw from the inside of the dummy as he looked at his own hand; his knuckles didn’t hurt, and with that, the movents felt efficient. It wasn’t brute force; it felt like controlling the weight of his entire body, amplified by his own biology.

Shaking his hand, a grin spread across his face as he felt an unnatural sense of accomplishnt; he didn’t feel at all like he did in his past life. Always being bored, almost. Unable to feel it like sothing hindered his ability to do so. It felt almost alien here.

[Understanding of Basic Martial Path Complete!]

[Progress into Martial Arts... 6%]

"...I an, fair enough, I just got started, I can’t expect it to be like 30% or sothing."

Still lingering on how he felt weird about actually being rewarded for completing a small task like this. He sighed, though more in relief than anything.

"I guess I have to go fight Minerva now, might as well train the rest of my techniques as well. Rupture, Rend and Erosion, Ah, and I have to use Paradox movent more and make a few more techniques."

Taking a mont to process the manner in which he’d do each one. "First, Rupture, Rend and Erosion, then new techniques, and then finally Paradox Movent against Minerva."

[A Day Later]

"Ughhhh, okay, techniques are incredibly hard now." Looking at the ground, he put his hands on his knees while standing. "How long have I been training?"

[One day has passed :>]

Standing upright now, the walls of the mountain are covered in damage. "It feels a lot easier to use my techniques now. Though Erosion could use so more training."

Content with this, he disappeared, appearing in the Empire once more, looking around, seeing how the place looked, trying to get a better grasp of the place. "I need a layout of this place before I actually stay here for longer. An entire month and I know barely anything."

His eyes scanned the area as he took notice of the paths, four paths, each one in a different direction, two of them connected, houses filled the streets, both on the outer area, and also more paths between two houses, every five blocks.

Though so places didn’t have hos, there were primarily areas for rchants, with all the stalls; looking in the other direction, no hos were there. Or at least places shaped like hos, he saw a tavern. "I’ll stay there for now when I’m too lazy for Tianyun."

Walking to the left, stalls covered the streets, this ti more for food, while he’d love to taste it, he was busy as of right now. Though it looked very different from his old world, only a few dishes looked familiar when he looked at them.

Stopping midway through, Sol sat on a nearby bench, eating so food, though Caelus doubted he needed to eat it in the first place.

"It’s best if I don’t try to talk all the ti."

Not paying attention to them now, he continued forward, finally reaching the end of this pathway, making sure to look to each side to map the entire place.

"Hm..."

Looking more closely, the houses were made of stone, not wood, as the outer area was just used to create a more atmospheric effect. From what he could rember from Tellus’s ho, it wasn’t bland. "Though.. She’s a viscount, so maybe I’d have to get close to a normal person to find out, or try and get a ho of my own."

Turning back, he reached the exact place he teleported from quite fast; the houses here looked incredibly similar to the ones he’d seen before in his old world.

"Look who’s standing around like an Idiot." A familiar voice nearby.

His eyes shifted to look down, noticing Adrastia. "Ah, Tellus’s sister. Have you heard from her, or is she quiet about it?"

"Heard what? That she finally stopped being friends with you? Honestly, it would be a good thing that she-"

"I had my first date with her." A smile on his face grew as he spoke. He almost forgot that Adrastia even existed until right now.

"I-I Huh!? No, there’s no way she started dating YOU. You’re just trying to get on my nerves-"

"I an, if I were, I wouldn’t say sothing you’d deny... Though, at this point, I feel like you’d be denying everything I said as long as it proved you wrong, am I right?" Caelus sat in the air to keep himself at eye level with her; he didn’t want to break his neck over it.

"Well, no, I would still listen! I’m not going to ignore you, I’m just going to tell what you say to the Church since they know how you really act."

"Really? Then you should know that the Church says I’m Mindless according to the Church. I’m a Dragon, not a Wyvern, rember." His clothes blew in the wind, and people nearby kept their distance, though not because of the argunt, but because his tail swung around side to side.