Limits-Chapter 26: On The Path of Stealth

Nick said "Today's training will involve the art of stealth. If you are better able to hide yourself and your presence than learning the art of hidden weapons will be much more practical for you". I nodded my head in understanding and awaited an explanation or demonstration of what should I do.

Instead of that I got a question "How would you hide if your life depended on it?" I was confused and Nick continued "I just want some of your ideas on how would you do things, I don't need you to show my anything". I thought about it and said "I would hide in a place hard to find" to which Nick responded "What if there was no such place, what would you do?" I thought about it more and said "Then I would attack".

Nick smiled and said "What if you can't win, the result would be death. Do you have any other ideas?" I furrowed my brows. After a while I said "What could I do. If I can't win and there is nowhere to hide, where would I hide then. The result would be death anyway!".

Nick looked at me and said "No, you are wrong" he then continued "There is always a way to hide. Remember that if there is light, there is dark. You just have to follow the dark". I didn't understand what he meant and I thought 'What can he mean? Why does he always talk in some cryptic bullcrap?', so I asked him "What do you mean exactly?"

He said "It's simple. When there is light there is always shadow to hide in. If you can't hide in object's shadow then your opponent will also possess shadow". I thought about it and said "What if there is so much light, it can't create a shadow?" to which he said "Then you are done for. Exception to that would be the masters of the art of stealth". I was confused a bit and asked "So you mean that even you can't hide if there is no shadow but someone who truly mastered the art of stealth can?".

After awhile of thinking, Nick said "Apparently, yes. That is how history describes them" he then continued "I told you that there were a few people who truly mastered the art of stealth. It was said that they couldn't be found even if they stood next to you". I was sceptical and said "That is only based on history. You've never seen anyone reach that point did you?" to which he answered "No, the supposed masters were alive hundreds of years ago but I believe that there were these type of people. History has its twists and turns. Maybe in the future you will understand something more than I ever could".

I was confused again and said "How so? You clearly know more than I do" to which Nick smiled and said "There is an old saying: The old makes way for the new. With time comes wisdom and with age comes death. The cycle repeats but one variable remains. Progress". I didn't understand what he meant exactly and he saw that on my face, so he added "When you reach the same level as I, you will come to understand these words. Or maybe you will never understand them".

Nick then said "That is enough for now. Let us focus on your art of stealth". I was getting excited, I would finally learn something. Nick continued "You will practice with this" and he showed me 6 wooden poles of varying height and breadth. I thought 'Wasn't this supposed to be stealth training? Why the poles?'. With the puzzlement on my face Nick continued "You will walk on them, so that you don't fall but also they don't move".

I looked at him as if I was looking at an idiot and said "You are joking right?" to which Nick placed all poles on the floor and jumped up. He landed on one and started moving through them. None of the poles moved and he never lost balance. This sight in itself was amazing. It looked like magic, an impossible task! These poles were not even stuck in the ground or floor, no. They were just standing there and could topple at any slight push.

When he came down he said "As you can see, it can be done quite neatly". My mouth was agape 'I'm supposed to repeat this? How the hell am I going to do that!?'. Nick then said "Take your time. This is not an easy exercise and before you ask, yes this is a vital part of your training". I then stood in front of the poles and decided to jump on the shortest one. As you may have expect already, my jump resulted in a fall. I picked myself up and tried again. After couple of tries I got nowhere, so I asked Nick "Are there any tricks or something that will help me?" to which Nick responded "Are you giving up that easily?"

I was a bit stunned 'He said he will teach me but what he did is just put some poles up and told me to jump on them'. Nevertheless, I wasn't going to give up just like that. I practiced and practiced and so on and so forth to no avail. After over an hour of falling constantly, I was tired and so I decided to rest a bit. Because I was focused on my training, I didn't notice that Nick was already gone but he left some food for me. I ate the food as I took my break.

It was late already but I decided I would spend a bit more time practicing, otherwise how else can I do it if not by doing it 1000s of times. If that was not enough I would do it 100,000 times. He showed me that it was possible to achieve that and so I thought 'If he could do it so can I. I just need to practice a lot'.

The minutes passed and turned into hours. It was already late in the night, I was all sweaty and tired. I fell countless times but with more practice, I started to get the hang of it. I needed to be perfectly balanced in order to stay on that pole and not fall. My jump onto the pole also counted. If I didn't land in a specific way, I would fall. It was very hard to achieve this balance and precision but I didn't want to give up. I thought to myself 'If this stage is so difficult I wonder how difficult would the other stages be?'.

With that in my mind I went to bed. I still had to do my tasks in the morning and thanks to Nick and his constant food supply, I was able to get back some of my strength.