Rogue Villain-Chapter 219: Signature Punch

Ackster’s fist arrived at the shark’s forehead. As if locked in space, the shark didn’t dare move after being targeted by Ackster’s fist. It felt to the depths of its soul that it was in unfathomable trouble. It was frozen stiff and just lay on the boat’s railing when Ackster’s strike arrived.

The flat of Ackster’s fist struck the shark before stopping dead in its tracks as soon as it made contact. But that wasn’t the end of his attack.

A wave of mana and force succeeded Ackster’s bare fist and sent ripples through the shark and at a straight angle through the air.

After somehow passing ripples through the shark’s solid flesh like it was water, the force dissipated, and Ackster opened his eyes to see the shark crash to the ground and slump over the railing like it was a large sack of water with a shark design and not an animal.

A moment later, its skin burst all over like there were a thousand tiny ruptures and cracks that were too much for the shark’s dead body to handle.

Ackster’s punch had obliterated the shark.

"What the...?!"

There was no other way to put it.

Ackster’s punch would have almost certainly killed the shark anyway since it was relatively weak. But breaking through its skull and crushing its brain was a whole lot different from turning the entire shark into minced meat, spine included.

Ackster couldn’t help but think that the shark’s fate was what might happen to him if he fucked up Nold’s secret technique hard enough.

He admired his work but only for a moment before getting confused.

However, Ackster quickly realized why his punch had transformed from a simple blow to an overpowered killing move.

"’Unimportant Whatever Arts’ my ass. This shit is not normal."

Of course, Ackster already knew that Bo hadn’t handed him just any random martial arts he had lying around gathering dust in a corner. He could tell that just from the depth and potential decades he could spend furthering his understanding of the martial art. But turning a shark into smithereens when he didn’t even know what he was doing? That was a little more than he had expected.

Ackster paused as he sensed the mana inside his body and realized that it might have been partly thanks to his mana training method that allowed him such explosive power.

But he had just started training his mana. Ackster had made some progress, especially recently. But he had gone from a couple of drops to a medium-sized glass on the smaller side of things. What would happen when he leveled up from glasses to bowls or puddles or maybe even larger collections of water like pools and ponds?

The extreme idea of throwing such a punch when an ocean of mana lay behind it frightened and excited Ackster.

He wanted to both master the strike and train his mana at once. But regardless of how much mana he had, it didn’t matter if he couldn’t reliably control the strike. So, he wanted to practice his form and figure out why that punch, after more than a hundred just like it, had such a devastating effect.

However, Ackster was forced to stop before he could even begin. As he took a deep breath to control his excitement, Ackster realized that his arm was ragged, like he had just used it to carry a mountain.

It was completely drained and exhausted, and based on the bruise-like spots that appeared beneath his skin, he had probably ruptured a vessel or two.

’Ah...’

Ackster’s explosively powerful mana training method hadn’t only increased the power of his martial arts. It had also upped the requirements. His body couldn’t withstand the power of his own blows.

’For every reaction, there’s an equal and opposite reaction, is it?’

Ackster wasn’t sure. But it made sense that he had to be appropriately strong to be able to unleash such devastating attacks.

Fortunately, if there was anything Ackster was confident in, it was his body and physical strength.

However, he didn’t forget that the essence of a martial artist was control over their own strength and technique, not just brute force. And it was likely that the fatigue and injuries were worse than necessary because he couldn’t control the power he had unleashed.

Still, Ackster held off on training his mana until he could master the amount he already possessed. Instead, he gave the other two sections of his routine more time each.

After nolding his skeleton with renewed determination since it would be one of the keys to becoming strong enough to handle the weight of his punches, Ackster spent more time focusing on his vitality. It was in part because he wanted to heal faster. But Ackster was also aware of his life force as a second source of energy inside his body, not much unlike his mana.

What if he could use life force in his martial arts instead of mana? Would that change anything? Or maybe he could use his life force to shield his body from the raging power of mana necessary to unleash the Unimportant Whatever Arts’ signature punch.

Whatever he could do with it, Ackster only stood to gain from mastering control over his life force.

But he couldn’t do that all the time, and when he didn’t, he focused on his martial arts. He didn’t only fight for experience as he tried to deepen his understanding of the moves.

He meditated and visualized the basic moves Bo had taught him. Sometimes, he executed them so slowly, trying to understand their finest details, that it could take half a day for one move.

Like before, Ackster made some progress, the most tangible with his nolding. It wasn’t much, but this time, Ackster also wasn’t obsessed with improving in great leaps. He had realized after the fact that his breakthrough came when his mind relaxed. So, he let the ocean waves lapping against his boat soothe his thoughts as he indulged in his training.