[SP-F2] <<Breaking the Unbreakable>> COMPLETE

[Kane 0]

A big, stupid rock. That's what all the fuss was about?

Standing in the mid-day sun, his pale steel armor and emerald garb drowned out by the scorching light of the second floor's harsh sun, Kane stood pondering what exactly it was that people with. It was just a rock; surely somebody could have come up with half an idea as to how to get it out of the way! But for some reason, every time somebody seemed to break the rock, it kept re-appearing. Folks were figuring it was part of some elaborate quest, but only the people who had bypassed the rock (or been lucky enough to get by soon after somebody else had destroyed it) knew how to deal with it.

[Kane 0]

Taking his <>, Kane figured that his STR score would be enough to grind the rock down with a series of well placed blows. He didn't want to bother getting his larger sword out of his inventory. Obviously, he thought, the others who have tried this just weren't swinging hard enough. Drawing his blade, he activated a series of Sword Skills. His blade flashed green, then blue, then orange as his sword swept through the air; Vertical! Horizontal! Slant!

[Kane 0]

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! His blade was having no effect on the giant boulder!? With one more mighty swing, Kane brought the longsword down on the boulder, hoping to smash it with one final blow.

SNAP.

The blade of his <> went flying off behind him, landing in the dust. Kane stood, shocked by the impact, staring at the hilt in his hands until it disappeared in a crystalline shower, along with the blade.

[Kane 0]

Kane was frustrated, to say the least. He huffed discontentedly as he sat on the ground in front of the rock, wondering how he was going to break it. Maybe I can just stare it into submission... he thought, his mind uttering traitorous murmurs until he finally stood, and started pushing on the rock, hard. Maybe he didn't have to break it, just push it out of the way?

[Kane 0]

Kane was straining against the rock, putting his back into moving it. He was tall by Aincrad's standards, being an American, and well built, giving him a natural STR advantage. And yet, the rock didn't budge. Kane straightened up his back, stretching after having failed to push the boulder away. "It's not an <>, so it must be breakable somehow..."

[Kane 0]

Kane decided to examine the rock as close as possible, using his <> ability. There seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary about it; it was just a giant rock. And sometimes, that was enough. But when he concentrated, there seemed to be something trapped under the rock on the other side... it looked like a piece of paper? A note?

[Kane 0]

He bent down and tugged on the scrap of parchment, carefully wresting it away from the grasp of the boulder. Unfolding the crinkled paper, Kane discovered that it was indeed a note. Fear not the man who practices one thousand techniques once each, fear the man who practices one technique one thousand times.

[Kane 0]

Huh. Well, that was pointless.

Kane started to throw the note away, then thought better of it and added it to his inventory. He was growing frustrated, and he didn't see a good way to finally smash that rock. Sighing heavily, he punched the rock lightly with his fist... and chipped a tiny piece off of it.

[Kane 0]

Kane's eyes widened as he watched a tiny, tiny piece of the rock chip off under the force of his hand. That's something new... Examining the rock again, it now had an HP bar! What?!?

Swords hadn't been able to touch this thing, but somehow, his bare hand had done damage? But the rock had 1,000 HP... well, 999 now. Finally, it dawned on him.

[Kane 0]

Eureka! That was what the note had meant; he had to strike the stone 1,000 times for it to break! But Kane was still left with a problem: Even with his decent STR score, his END, or endurance, wouldn't let him be able to hit the rock that many times in a row without it damaging his HP, or shattering his virtual hand. It would regenerate eventually, but Kane would prefer not to lose a limb.

[Kane 0]

Hmmm... What to do... Kane smacked his fist against his palm in determination. There was no other thing for it; he'd have to try using the martial arts training he'd used in the real world to build up his Endurance stats.

-----------------------

By the time that night had fallen Kane was still practicing martial arts. In the real world, he had been a black belt in Tae-Kwon Do, and had studied western fencing, Kendo, Krav-Maga, and other combat arts. However, since he had gone to college, he had gotten out of practice. It felt good to be back in the swing of things, practicing the moves of his forms once again.

[Kane 0]

Going through the movements of his old black belt form, something seemed to click in Kane's mind, and he turned to the rock. He had read about the ten forms of martial arts in Aincrad, and how each one had a respective signature technique. I don't have to simply punch the rock 1000 times, I can do each signature move 100 times and that should do it!

The first move was the <>. Raising his hands like claws, Kane struck the rock over and over again, his hands pounding away at the boulder. After a hundred strikes, his hands were glowing with an orange light, as if he were using a sword technique. The rock remained standing, so Kane shifted into the 2nd style.

[Kane 0]

The second move was the <>. His hands held loosely in two semi-closed fists, Kane pounded away at the boulder with both fists at the same time, mimicking Monkey style Kung-Fu. The pressure was on, and Kane could see that 20% of the rock's HP was depleted. Time to switch it up!

[Kane 0]

His hands were starting to grow numb from the impact, but Kane couldn't stop now. Smoothly transitioning, he assumed a curved hand gesture, and began striking the rock with the <>, an attack that used the wrist bones in the back of the hands to target joints and other vulnerable spots on the body. He knocked pieces off of the rock left and right as his hands flew through the air.

[Kane 0]

Kane's hands felt as if they'd fall off as he completed the last of his 100 Crane-style attacks. Deciding to try something different, Kane set his elbow against the rock, then went to town on it using the <> technique. This involved smashing one's elbows into the target at great speeds, while using the forearms to protect the head region in combat.

[Kane 0]

Completing his last elbow strike, Kane was sweating virtual beads of condensation in the hot Floor-2 atmosphere. Turning sharply, he whipped his foot up and across, cracking it into a rock. The staple technique of the Snake style, the <> involved a spinning whip kick, that after 100 was making Kane quite whipped himself.

[Kane 0]

The world was spinning, but Kane knew that he had only a little ways further to go. Trying to remember the techniques he had read up on, he started using palm thrusts, the flats of his hands striking the surface of the stone hard. This was the cornerstone of the <>, a martial technique said to be able to stop an opponent from being able to use Sword Skills.

[Kane 0]

Stopping his palm thrusts, Kane caught his breath for a full three seconds. Not wanting to lose the momentum, he then launched into the next assault: A vicious side kick that delivered the power of Kane's full weight behind it, the <>. The rock was showing visible cracks now, adding to Kane's determination to bust this thing wide open.

[Kane 0]

His one hundred wolf style kicks complete, Kane switched back to his hands. He needed to end this trial quickly, all his nerves were grinding down from all of the impacts. This was going to suck. Hard. Striking the hard surface with is fingertips, (ouch) Kane used the <>, a technique designed to strike between an opponent's armor plates. The rock was crumbling, slowly but surely! It was only a matter of time!

[Kane 0]

Only two left! Angrily drawing his hands back into traditional fists, Kane struck the rock in quick succession like a boxer, executing the <> attack. A large crack appeared in the side of the boulder as time after time, Kane shook it to its core. The sun was slowly rising in the east; how long had he been here?