The Discarded

Alone Chapter 10 - 5

Cesare nodded his understanding, not just of the words but of the underneath the syllables. None of it mattered, not his pain, fear, self-hatred, or any of it. All that mattered was living. A wolf didn't care what it had to do to survive, because they had no give up in them. Cesare straightened his shoulders, casting off the self-pity that mired his soul with a shake, he'd lived this long, he wouldn't roll over now.

Tamlin noted the change in posture, muscles moving and rearranging. A slowly bleeding boy transforming into a feral monster ready to fight, dull eyes shedding their murky film, sharpening with terrible intensity. "Good. You've come a long way, but a building only exists because of its foundation. The stronger and deeper the foundation, the taller a wise man can build."

Bonelessly, the man slipped into his ready stance. "You've learned technique's, now we'll work on foundations. A man once said there is only one sword stroke, to kill. Everything else is words."

Tamlin's fists darted toward him, kicks hammering with bruising force. Hitting with explosive force, they left him scrambling to get his feet under him. Each punch, kick, elbow, and knee carved another line into Cesare's body, branding technique into bones.

Tamlin pulled everything from Cesare, from the beginning work on stances to the most recent meditations on Sen. As hours passed, Cesare fell into the moment, reacting on a level more basic than thought. Counters flowed from him, finding openings he couldn't see, dodging became a thing without thought. He dwelled in now, hot power, predatory and needy running through him in pure streams of savage truth. Cesare embraced the feral clarity, sinking into its fleshy presence.

Shifting, Tamlin moved close, hands hooked into bony claws that sought to cage. Twisting with the holds, they locked and tangled, grips, counters, and elbows moving in a never-ending engagement. The room echoed with the slap of flesh, punctuated with grunts of pain, layered under heavy breaths of brutality. Gripping his arm, fingers digging in with bruising strength, Tamlin tossed him to the ground with a hip throw. The battle changed to leverage and distance as they worked to subvert the others strength.

Stepping back, Tamlin ended the hours long test. The world slammed into Cesare as the trance broke around him. Legs wavering, Cesare collapsed gasping as his body revolted. Falling onto his back, sweat pooled around him. Muscles burned with the steady pain of a body riding the razors edge.

Panting frantically, Cesare closed his eyes, willing his body calm. Tamlin's voice intruded into his consciousness. "You've picked up Go no Sen, but you still have a long way to go." Cesare tracked the man's quiet walk as he disappeared from the room.

Tamlin had always been a bastard. With pain and bruises, he pushed Cesare beyond anything he'd reach on his own. The man wouldn't let him settle for exhausted, he was intent on dragging Cesare to the bleeding edge of his ability, holding him at that point, demanding he stay there until the end of the spar. It was brutal, unforgiving work, and if his life didn't depend on getting as good as he could as quick as he could, Cesare would tell the man to take a long fuck on a big dick.

Groaning, Cesare stripped, sponging himself off with the bucket of water. Tamlin had pushed him from the beginning, sinking a barbed meat hook into his flesh, dragging him past his limits with casual cruelty. Cesare had found his real limits where flesh wept blood and exhaustion threatened to pull him down into unconsciousness. Once Tamlin had shown Cesare that line, he'd pushed him to walk deeper into the salted wasteland of exhaustion.

His steps faltered as he left the room, a twisting, sick feeling, tightening in his gut as the wolfs presence leaked away. Little by little, it drifted away as the world lost an electric vitality. Creeping misery as virulent as cancer, only ever at the edges of his life, surged into the hurting void. It was the pain of a birthday gift shining and beautiful found to be made from diseased shit. Without realizing it, he'd settled into a slow prowl that sent students skittering away, ducking his cruel eyes.