Chapter 64: Zen vs The Dummy

Zen kicked the door off its hinge and marched in.

“Hey dummy, prepare yourself!” Zen shouted.

The two dots that made up the mannequin’s face lit flashed orange.

Zen poured as much qi as he could in his fist and thrust it out to the mannequin’s face. His fist was stopped when the mannequin grabbed it.

Its eyes flashed red before returning to black before the mannequin oved forward and threw Zen over its shoulder and hard onto the floor. It kneeled over him and punched him twice. Zen recovered, throwing the mannequin off of him while holding his jaw.

The mannequin rushed for him again. Zen blocked its strikes and countered with a kick to its centre. It stumbled back but regained its footing before colliding with the still standing box it had come from. Zen pressed forward where he and the mannequin exchanged punches and kicks.

Zen was growing more impressed with the mannequin. The mannequin had perfected the fighting style he had learned while growing up and the one he mainly used now. This allowed it to match his moves and was actually showing him some new ones.

“So you know my main fighting style!” Zen said through gritted teeth. “But I’ve learned some new things since I was here!”

Zen changed his main style to one of the others he had learned during his time at the academy. He landed kick at the mannequin and sent it tumbling back into the box. It quickly rolled up to its feet, prompting Zen forward. The broken box on the ground caused him to stumble and the mannequin took advantage of that by round house kicking him onto a bed.

Zen rolled away before the mannequin could lay another punch at him, which broke one of the frames of the bed. Zen stumbled back, pushing some lamps over. The mannequin hopped forward, initiating another bout of punches and kicks.

Zen got closer and ran his qi through his arms. “Blits Punch!” Zen’s fists throttled into the mannequin’s body and with his last punch, it was sent into the wardrobe, sending clothes flying out. Zen was disappointed to see that his fists had not caused as much damage as he had expected, only a few dents at some places.

The mannequin flew out with a kick that Zen blocked but was sent sliding back. He stumbled on the broken box the mannequin came in and fell back. He rolled to of the way before the mannequin could finish the job but broke the rest of the box into splinters.

“I will break you!” Zen shouted as they fought again. He jumped up to dodge a kick and as he landed, “Blits Punch!” Zen’s punches hit true and floored the mannequin. When his punches had ended, he activated his punches again and again and again into the mannequin beneath him.

After the tenth time, his knuckles were bruised and the mannequin a more dents. With a palm strike, the mannequin sent Zen off of it. He swayed to his feet only to be rewarded by a flyng kick to the chest which sent his upper body through the window. He sat up, blood trickling from some cuts in his head.

The mannequin came forward and he did the same, ending in them punching each other and being sent hurled back away from each other.

Zen sat up to see the mannequin coming for him when it got to its feet. “Stop!” he held out a hand and the mannequin stopped before going limp, as if it had never moved at all. Zen was breathing heavily as he watched the inactive mannequin. “Wow, you’re quite good.” He got up and walked to the mannequin. “Fine, I won’t smash you up today but it’s not because that I can’t!”

He heard gasps and leaned to the side to look past the mannequin. At the doorway stood his roommates and a confused Shibi as they looked at the mess that the room had become. “Uh… hey guys. This is not as bad as it looks.”