Rui quickly consumed a rejuvenation potion himself. He had wasted enough time watching Kane’s match against Fae, he needed to engage in sparring others himself. Watching Kane’s sparring match against Fae had inspired him, he felt strongly motivated to reach that level of power himself as soon as possible.
(‘Both Fae and Kane are way ahead of me in so far as the expansion and development of their Martial Art goes.’) Rui reminded himself.
Unlike him, who had only just barely learnt six Apprentice-level techniques, they had learnt enough number of techniques for their Martial Art to be considered actual Martial Art.
On the other hand, he was still quite far away from this level. He glanced at the nearest ring, looking for a defender to challenge.
(‘Milliana, huh?’) Rui recalled meeting her several times. She was a stamina-oriented Martial Artist, fighting her was truly a test of perseverance. Stamina-oriented Martial Art were a type VI Martial Art; A Martial Art centered around a physical attribute or parameter.
He immediately chose to challenge her.
There were several reasons for his decision. Firstly, Stamina-oriented Martial Art did not possess any overwhelming advantage over other Martial Art asides from the longevity it granted the Martial Artist. Meaning it was quite likely that Milliana did not possess any overwhelming advantage over her in regards to any physical attribute or parameter like strength, speed, or durability, she likely did not possess any overwhelming advantage in so far as Martial Art techniques went; Be it offensive, defensive or maneuvering.
What this ultimately meant that before Rui tired out, there was a high chance they would be roughly equal.
Furthermore, he was aware that Milliana’s Martial Art was also a Type I Martial Art in addition to being a Type VI Martial Art. She was an all-rounder after she was a stamina-oriented Martial Art. This was a valuable opportunity to Rui, because Rui rarely had a chance to fight a stamina-oriented Martial Artist like Milliana. After Rui became a Martial Artist, he quickly learnt that most Martial Art had strong flavor to them that pushed them away from being well-rounded. Usually most Martial Apprentices had strong affinity to some field or physical attribute, making a vast majority of them be of Type II to Type VII Martial Art.
One reason Rui wanted to find an all-rounder was, of course for the experience, but also because all-rounders were the most challenging to the VOID algorithm.
The reason was simple; all-rounder Martial Art possessed no obvious weakness.
The VOID algorithm worked by adapting to the opponent’s fighting style. Naturally, this was easier if the opponent’s fighting style had straightforward and obvious shortcomings
Offense-oriented Martial Art generally weren’t as good as good at defense. Defense-oriented Martial Art generally lacked strong offense. Grappling Martial Art lacked range, and striking-type Martial Art were not good at full-contact combat or grappling etc. These usually couldn’t be considered a great weakness, but they were, without a doubt, shortcomings and areas of higher vulnerability.
The VOID algorithm loved these openings and shortcomings, it made the adaptive evolutionary process much more straightforward and simpler.
However, all-rounders lacked such obvious and straightforward shortcomings, thus the adaptive evolutionary process of the VOID algorithm for such styles was much more complex and long-winded.
This was what Rui wanted. He needed to push his Martial Art to the limit in order to improve it. The VOID algorithm was a system by which one could develop a style of fighting statistically most suited to obtain victory. However, the framework was based on the martial arts of Earth. Martial Art in Gaea was much more convoluted and far more parameters and variables. It was not equipped to deal with the fantastical and supernatural Martial Art techniques of Gaea.
This was one of the two biggest hurdles of developing his Martial Art and traversing his Martial Path. He could not perform the rigorous empirical research he did in his previous life, so there really was only way to completely expand the VOID algorithm to completely suit Gaea as far as Rui could see;
Sheer, raw experience!
(‘How much experience will it take for me to complete the upgradation of the VOID algorithm?’) Rui wondered as he got onto the ring.
He looked up at Milliana, who nodded in response, she was a girl of very few words, she let her Martial Art do the talking.
(‘And boy can it talk.’)
“Take your stance.” The supervisor instructed.
Milliana balled her fists and brought her arms close to her abdomen in a guarded stance, balancing her weight between both legs equally.
(‘A conservative but ultimately flexible fighting stance.’) Rui noted.
He adopted a similar stance, but one that was more committed to attacking. Left arm and left leg forward, right arm and right leg back. He kept his weight mostly on his left leg, freeing up his right leg, allowing him to launch kicks with it.
In this stance the left arm was able to launch speed jabs in quick succession while the right arm was able to launch powerful blows that could knock a person down if well-landed.
“Begin!” The supervisor declared the match started.
Rui rapidly shuffled over to Milliana, feeling out her movements and responses to his weight shifts.
(‘She’s always moving with the intent of reducing energy consumption.’) Rui realized. By constantly maintaining as low an energy consumption possible, she could outlast her opponent.
(‘Not on my watch.’)
POW POW POW
Rui threw a few quick jabs that she promptly blocked with a stiff guard. She threw a pushing kick that served as a check, opening up the distance.
Rui decided to go all out and use Vital Pressure, launching a flurry of strikes to specific points and angles along her joints.
This was one way by which he could apply pressure on her. The continuous damage which eventually weaken her defense. This was the best utility of Vital Pressure.
Suddenly, she abruptly shifted her weight to her left leg.
(‘A kic-!’) Rui barely realized, before;
BAM
Her right foot slammed into his side. Rui mitigated the damage with both Elastic Shift and Acute Edge, having foreseen an attack, but just barely. He quickly followed up with a high kick
WHOOSH
The powerful attack sweeped through empty air as Milliana crouched to avoid it.
She attempted a takedown from her position, only to narrowly move out of the way of an axe kick from Rui. He had foreseen the possibility and forced her to abandon the attack with a powerful axe-kick. He immediately rushed in after her.
POW POW POW
Launching a flurry of strikes with Vital Pressure, looking for an opening, but he never could find one.
Milliana was incredibly good at maintaining a stalemate. She never tried to make too much progress with her offense, but she never allowed her opponent to make much progress either.
Block
Parry
Dodge
Shift
Check
These were her mantras.
Rui backed away, putting some distance between her. The VOID algorithm worked best when there were even the tiniest openings or shortcomings to exploit. However, when someone turtled up as much as she did, it was hard to exploit any glaring openings, those were mostly created by attacks or some offensive maneuver.
(‘This can’t continue.’) Rui established. (‘I’ll just tire myself out and she’ll only begin her offense after I’ve burnt my primary stamina reserve.’)
He needed to find a hole in her stalemating fighting style, but nothing came to mind.
(‘There has to be some effective approach that can work here.’) The problem was, he didn’t know what that was. (‘Her greatest strength is that her defense pursues minimalistic energy consumption… Not only does it prolong her stamina, but I’m sure it’s easy for her to maintain this mentally. She probably doesn’t need to think much, since there is usually only one or few ways of movements in any situation to minimize energy-consumpt-!’) Rui paused eyes-wide as an epiphany struck his mind.
In any given situation, there were was really only a few options that truly minimize energy consumption; the minimum motion needed to block the attack, the minimum motion needed to dodge the attack, the minimum motion needed to parry or redirect the attack.
(‘Since she always aims to minimize energy consumption… that restricts her options to a few solutions! And if her options are restricted…’) Rui directed a measured gaze at her. (‘…Then her choices become more predictable, and that is a weakness I can exploit.’)
It had taken him a while to realize this because combat sports on Earth didn’t really have the concept of “hyper-minimalistic energy consumption”. One either fought hard and won, or fought too passively and got knocked out, those were the only two outcomes. Milliana’s fighting style would have fallen in the latter back on Earth.
But in Gaea, Martial Art turned what was a losing strategy in his previous world into a formidable fighting style!
He hadn’t fully transitioned to from the mindset of his previous life, it was hard to, but he had taken another step in the middle of this match.
(‘I need to move in a manner that creates predictable minimal-energy counters, and then exploit the tiny brief opening when she’s performing the counter to launch a swift but powerful attack.’)
“Fuuuu…” Rui exhaled, adopting a new stance. A new wave of determination saturated his figure!