The Martial Unity

“Hmmm… You don’t seem confused.” The supervisor noted. “Generally, I have to explain the matter to those learning the technique.”

“Do students even care to learn about the mechanisms and principles behind techniques?” Rui chuckled.

“Generally, no.” She shrugged. “But it’s necessary. Knowing how your techniques work is vital to knowing how to use them adequately. In many a scenario, using a certain technique might not be the right answer in that scenario due to bad compatibility, but you would never know why unless you understood your techniques intimately.”

Rui nodded. Techniques were like tools; their application was just as important as their quality and functioning. Even the greatest tools were worthless in the hands of one who did not know how to use them.

“Alright, now that I’ve explained the technique more thoroughly. Let’s begin training.”

Rui nodded.

“As I’m sure you already know if you’ve gone through the scroll, the training for this technique is extremely straightforward. You need to simply keep trying until you get the hang of it. Start by using the technique on the punching bag from three meters away. Since you’re just starting out, I’d advise not using any Apprentice-level techniques for the run-up. Also, use a simple and easy attack to begin with, once you get the hang of those you can execute more complicated attacks.”

Rui nodded. “I’ll start with a straight punch then.”

Using momentum to amplify a straight punch was actually a popular karate technique that was frequently used in MMA, it was known as the blitz-punch. However, the Flowing Canon wasn’t limited to punch, furthermore, its efficiency far exceeded that of the blitz punch technique used in MMA, this was why it was an Apprentice-level technique.

Rui spent the next few hours performing the same maneuver over and over again.

“It’s better to land the attack earlier in the maneuver than you normally would.” She called out. “Normally, you would land a punch when you’ve fully extended your arm, or just a bit before for maximum power, but in this case, landing a bit before that will prolong the impact allowing you more time and distance to convert all your momentum into striking power.”

Rui nodded, and immediately, his blitz punch Flowing Canon technique was getting more and more powerful.

“How long will it take me to master?” He asked, once he decided to end his training session.

She shrugged. “This is one of those techniques that you just keep getting better and better at. There is no clear line where you can declare you’ve mastered the technique like there are for certain other techniques.” She continued. “Still, once you reach a stage where you can smoothly convert most of your travelling momentum to striking power easily, I suppose you need not train any longer.”

Once his training with Flowing Canon ended. He moved onto the remaining techniques that he learnt.

Shifting Silhouette and Binding Lash. These two remaining techniques were grappling oriented techniques Rui had decided to learn to round of his foundation. Shifting Silhouette was the least flashy technique of his most recent set of techniques, it was purely defensive that allowed him to be able to cope and handle grappling attacks and disengage with them.

Binding Lash was another technique lower flexibility but decent efficiency, allowing him to clinch incoming strikes and lock them with his entire body, allowing him to potentially dislocate the joints in question or at the very least gain a huge initiative in the grappling battle.

These two techniques along with Mirage Dive made him quite confident in his grappling solutions. Shifting Silhouette for defense, Mirage Dive for offense and Binding Lash for counter-offense.

Furthermore, the training methodologies for the remaining two techniques was much simpler than the prior techniques. For one, they weren’t all that different from the grappling training that could be found back on Earth in martial arts like Judo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and Sambo. Each of these martial arts were heavily, if not entirely, centered around grappling and wrestling.

For Shifting Silhouette, he simply trained his ability to read the change in the center of gravity and how to shift his weight in exactly the correct manner needed to counter the change in the center of gravity.

“This technique does have shortcomings.” The supervisor warned. “It is limited against people in higher weight classes. Furthermore, this technique cannot counter takedown or throwing Apprentice-level techniques of higher efficiency by itself.”

Rui nodded. He had already grounded his expectations for the effectivity of this technique. If it could singlehandedly counter all grappling offense, it wouldn’t be free in the first place.

(‘The more powerful defensive grappling techniques are certainly not free of cost.’) He was sure.

He had already decided to begin completing missions once he mastered the five techniques he had picked, he was finally confident of completing missions with ten Apprentice-level techniques.

“Don’t get distracted.” His supervisor instructed. “Binding Lash is a technique that requires delicate timing, you ain’t gonna nail it if you’re staring off into space like that.”

“Yes, supervisor Fayne.” Rui put his aside his thoughts and began focusing on the technique.

He was currently in the first training session of the fifth and final technique. For the past twenty-four techniques, he had been immersing himself in the training sessions of each technique, he wanted to get a taste of each technique as soon as possible.

The reason for this was so that he could plan the most optimal schedule for himself in the next few months.

“Ready?” Supervisor Fayne asked. “Here I come.”

DASH

He blitzed over to Rui, crossing the distance in an instant launching a straightforward punch to Rui’s face.

POW

Rui tried intercepting by wrapping his arms and legs around it, but much to his chagrin, he failed.

“Hahaha!” His supervisor laughed. “Nah you got it all wrong. You’re supposed to move with the strike young man, not stand in one place. It’s pretty much identical to the Elastic Shift technique in that regard, it’s just now you have to simultaneously cling the attack while executing the Elastic Shift technique, making it much harder.”

Rui got up, rubbing his bruise before taking another stance.

“Once again, please.”