The punches kept landing on the pillar. The blood spewed, as if someone was throwing red paint against a canvas.
Kiernan breathed heavily, the burning sensation spreading across his arms, but he did not stop punching as if he were possessed.
Sabbath tapped against his lips and was surprised at Kiernan's willpower to keep punching at the pillar.
More than a few would've stopped after a few punches. It definitely hurt like hell. However, he had probably thrown a thousand punches already.
Those punches weren't weak either.
In every single punch, Kiernan was using Iron Smash!
Kiernan stopped his punch and looked over his shoulder with a frown. His expression screamed, 'What the hell? Why did you stop me?'
"Wipe the blood off your fists."
Sabbath handed him a napkin.
Kiernan wiped the blood off his bruised fingers and saw that some of his skin had peeled off along with the blood.
He wasn't a stranger to this kind of training.
Back on Earth, he used a similar kind of training to improve the conditioning of his body. However, instead of hitting an indestructible pillar, he was punching a sand pit filled with gravel and rocks.
"It looks like I've underestimated you. I need to do another way of gauging your current level of strength. Let's have a sparring match."
Sabbath removed his shirt, revealing his chiseled physique. It almost looked like his chest had been carved from solid stone and had a life of its own as it rippled with each movement he made.
Julian was sitting back, drawing something in his notepad. He was drawing sketches of martial arts techniques based on Kiernan's movements.
He looked at them as they were about to start fighting.
Kiernan raised his arms against his chest, slowly approached the muscle-massed Sabbath, and then landed a couple of jabs against his bare chest.
Sabbath laughed and tanked the jabs as if they were nothing but mosquito bites. It barely made him flinch.
"Is that all? Come on, put some effort into it!"
Kiernan gritted his teeth, lunged at him, and smashed his feet at his thigh. The kick sounded like a gunshot.
Yet, Sabbath only laughed.
"Haha! I've had worse tickles from a feather!"
Kiernan punched him in the chest. It earned him another laugh. He then lifted his leg and kicked him in the neck.
"Iron Style, Celestial Scythe!"
Sabbath's thick neck muscles blocked the surprisingly high kick with ease.
He yawned with boredom.
Kiernan's gaze turned cold. He kicked Sabbath in the groin. It finally made his expression change.
Sabbath's legs shook, and his knees buckled slightly as if he was about to kneel down but stopped before his knees made contact with the ground.
Kiernan's fists came crashing down on Sabbath's head with incredible force. The face got a new makeover as blood spurted from his nose and mouth.
Kiernan screamed as his knuckles were stained with blood. He didn't hold back. His punches kept going faster and faster.
Sabbath's head kept being pushed backwards. He didn't stop the punches. Instead, he straightened his legs and stood back up.
"That's more like it!"
He laughed, his eyes shining with excitement.
Sabbath then suddenly grabbed Kiernan by his face. It was so fast that Kiernan didn't even have time to react. He then pushed him away.
Kiernan stumbled backwards in a surprise.
Sabbath touched his nose, pinched it, and sneezed the blood out of it.
"I can tell that you're holding back. You wanted to use different techniques, didn't you? But you couldn't because your body would break apart.
"It must be annoying for you."
Kiernan listened to Sabbath's explanation and nodded briefly. He wasn't wrong.
There were a couple of moves he would've liked to execute, but he didn't think that the injuries were worth it.
It was only a sparring match, after all.
"Ever heard of the Bath of Pain? Or also known as the Bath of Rebirth?"
Kiernan shook his head. He hadn't heard either of them.
"It is a bath of pure pain. It feels like thousands of knives are stabbing you all at once, moving at the speed of the rain. It's used as another method to improve one's body conditioning.
"It's painful though, and you can die while taking that bath. If you desire so, I can create the path for you."
Sabbath said with a serious one.
"The bath will break apart your body. I do have a medicine to heal your wounds afterwards, but I can't do anything about the pain.
"It's your choice if you desire to do so."
Sabbath looked deeply at Kiernan. This decided whether he would keep training Kiernan. He didn't want a disciple who wasn't ready to embrace pain to become stronger.
The first test to become his disciple was lifting the pillar. This was the second test. The third test was the bath itself.
"Alright, I'll do it."
Kiernan didn't hesitate. He accepted almost immediately. It sounded very tempting to him.
'I am fucking tired of my weak self. I want to be able to use the entirety of Iron Style, and this bath might be the answer to unlocking it.'
Sabbath laughed and clapped his hands.
"Good! Good! I shall make the preparations!"
Sabbath headed out, but when he was passing Julian, he saw some of his sketches and stopped in his tracks.
"Julian, what're you drawing?"
"…My new martial arts."
Sabbath leaned closer to him, looked at the sketches deeply, and then whispered.
"You do realize that you must create your own martial arts to fix your broken martial soul, right?"
"Why are you copying him then?"
"I am not. This will be my own, improved martial arts."
"Oh? You think you can improve on the original?"
"What is Kiernan thinking about this? I don't think he will be happy about you blatantly copying his techniques."
"I don't care what he thinks. I just take what works and make it better."
Sabbath smirked, and walked away while whistling a tune.