Capítulo 27: Friction
('What a wild card...') Rui thought to himself as he exited the Presentation Hall with Julian.
"It's a little worrisome that you're going to be attending the Martial Academy in the same batch as him. Be wary of the boy." Julian advised.
"Will do. I doubt he'd go out of his way to bully a thirteen-year-old child, though."
"You never know."
Rui didn't think the probability of him running into Nel was high. The training and grouping system were not like they were on Earth, where batchmates were of the same age and entered the schooling system in the same year. Since the Martial Path varied drastically from person to person, it made little sense to just thoughtlessly toss people of the same age into the same category.
People developed their Martial Art at different rates, people like Kane were far ahead of other students despite being much younger, it made little sense to treat them the same, and train them the same. Furthermore, since Martial Art was so drastically unique and personal, different people required different trainings. It made little sense for one to be tossed into the same training regime. A large portion of their Academic time would also be exploration of one's volition. Self- training and self-learning were part of the journey.
Just as Rui was contemplating about the nuances of his Academic curriculum-
"Rui! I'm glad you made it."
Kane called out to him. His green eyes wide with delight, he jogged over to Rui.
"Hey man, it's been a while." Rui offered in return, smiling.
"Yeah, it has."
Rui glanced at his guardian escort. A middle-aged man, with neatly combed hair and a well-groomed attire. He wore lavish clothes which, while not enough to draw a lot of attention, indicated he wasn't just some small assistant. Rui noted a crest like symbol embroidered onto his formal clothing, one identical to that of Kane's.
('A family crest, eh?')
"Tell me, how did you pass?" Kane inquired curiously. "I know I saw someone taking your badge."
"I have no idea, I was just as surprised as your when I received the letter of admission."
"That's strange, but still, who cares? You passed, we can hang together now." Kane grinned.
"Yeah, thankfully I was lucky enough to have passed."
Suddenly a voice called out to him.
"It wasn't luck, Rui Quarrier."
Rui didn't even need to turn around to see who called out. He recognized her voice instantly.
"Fae..." He said. She was alone, as an adult, she did not need a Guardian. She wore what Rui could swear was a fake smile. It was a perfect inscrutable mask that hid her emotions remarkably well, preventing those around her from getting a read on her.
Rui narrowed his eyes, clenching his fist as his expression turned stern. He was not a vindictive person, rather than pursuing something as dumb as revenge for getting knocked out by her, he would rather make the best out of that experience and grow strong enough to never let it happen again. As long as he didn't suffer an immoral injustice, he was used to looking forward. Still, he could not look fondly at a person who basically bullied others for fun.
"What do you want?"
"My, you sound a little hostile."
"Tends to happen when people knock me out for amusement. It would be one thing if you attacked me for my badge, it's another thing to torment others for fun. I don't like people like that."
"Technically that self-defense, I didn't intend to knock you out, merely spar with you till Nel was free, but you were strong enough to force me to go all-out." She shrugged.
"That's sophistry, you know." Rui sighed in exasperation.
Fae's eyes twinkled. "Regardless, you passed of your own merit. The Martial Academy's Admission department is not incompetent."
"I lost my badge, that's zero points for me, clearly below the average. I failed in the criteria for passing."
Fae giggled softly.
"Who said the points had anything to do with the criterion?"
Rui threw her a confused look. "Master Aronian said so."
"Master Aronian..." She continued. "..Said that the criterion was up to their discretion. He never said the fulfillment of the objective was a guaranteed pass. Nor did he said failing the objective was a fail."
Rui glanced at her, unamused. Technically, she was right. Master Aronian's phrasing did indeed match what she said, from what he remenbered. Still, if an objective is provided with the goal of evaluating the applicants, wasn't it obvious that the outcome of your attempt would be relevant to your evaluation?
"You're splitting hairs again." He retorted.
"The outcome of the badges was frankly irrelevant from the very start. The examiners merely wished to throw the applicants into conflict with each other and evaluate their performance given their circumstances." She explained. "You were a target for applicants from the very start. Yet you managed to retain your badge almost till the very end despite being younger, and thus weaker than most other applicants, you accomplished this through resourceful tactics. Although, you did lose your badge, you lost your badge to me, the strongest applicant. And even then, your performance against me was quite impressive, all things considered. All these data-points factored into the admission department's evaluation of you."
Rui threw a skeptical expression at her. So she attacked him knowing his performance against her would do him good rather than bad? Seemed convenient. "You seem awfully informed about matters that should be classified within the Academy. How could you possibly know all this?"
"She has a Martial Sage for a grandmother." Kane interjected. "there's nothing the Academy can keep hidden from a Martial Sage. She must have gotten a ton of information and used that to her advantage."
Rui could hear a bit of spite in his tone. Fae threw him a courteous smile in response.
"My, it's been a while, young master Kane."
"Wish it had been a bit longer, not gonna lie." Kane scowled.
"Is it just me or do I hear a bit of resentment in your voice. Ah, are you perhaps jealous that I played with Rui here instead of you in the Exam, you must be at that age, after all."
Kane, being the teenager that he was, took her bait.
"You-!" Rui put a hand on his shoulder, pulling him back.
"Calm down, Kane." He advised, before throwing an exasperated glance at Fae.
('She's egging him on and she enjoys it.') Rui mused helplessly. ('These two clearly have some history. There's no way such passive hostility springs out of nowhere. Is it because of their prides as descendants of Martial Sages? Kane never struck me as the proud type, and Fae seems to be half-trolling, though I can't make out a damn thing about her under that mask.')
Still, the conversation had confirmed his suspicions that she was from a Martial family, that partly explained her great combat prowess, she didn't strike him as a genius like Kane was.
('Kane has raw talent and limitless potential, but her prowess strikes me more as the product of maddening training and willpower, and sheer experience.')
Even if he wasn't particularly fond of her façade of a temperament, he had to acknowledge and respect the sheer drive with which she reached her current level of power.
"Let's chill guys." He tried alleviating the prickly atmosphere. He wasn't sure what the deal between these two was, but he'd rather it didn't escalate.
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Capítulo 28: Limitless
Rui was still pondering about Fae's words earlier. They made more and more sense in hindsight.
('I do recall Master Aronian saying the criteria was left to their discretion. But I didn't think the criteria would be so independent of the outcome of the objective.')
Rui didn't think the decision to accept it could have been too easy, the outcome likely still mattered to some extent. Maybe there was some degree of a controversy within the Union.
He shrugged, he couldn't possibly know and probably never would. And frankly, he had no interest either. He glanced at Fae before asking her something that had been bugging him for a while.
"How did you knock me out?" He really wanted to know what she'd done.
"I struck you with my palm." She smiled at him.
"How did you strike me hard enough to knock me out in that position and range?" He squinted his eyes in confusion.
"I can't go around revealing my trump cards so easily, now can I?" Fae threw a mischievous smile at him
"It's a technique called Outer Convergence, it's a technique that allows you to gather power from all over your body into a single strike. It allows you to strike with a great amount of power, above your weight class, from practically any position if fully mastered." Kane explained.
Rui's eyes flew wide open, while Fae's eyes narrowed, throwing a subtle, yet sharp glare at Kane, who basked in her hostility with a smug grin. It sparked another bout of bickering provoked by Fae. But Rui couldn't be bothered by their tantrums.
('Gathering power from all across the body into a single strike. That's normally impossible except in a perfectly-suited position allowing you to leverage torque from all muscle groups. It's interesting she could accumulate and summate torque from muscle groups all across the body in that position. It seems like a much more advanced version of the One-Inch Punch back on Earth.')
The One-Inch Punch was an iconic strike that worked similarly to how Kane described Outer Convergence. Obviously, Rui knew absolutely everything fathomable there was to fathom about the One-Inch Punch. The reason he failed to realize that Fae had hit him with a One-Inch Punch was because it made no sense to him, a person from Earth. It was true that the One-Inch Punch was a good demomstration of the channeling and convergence of power, it was also flashy and cool.
Except the One-Inch Punch was useless in actual fights; it was completely unpractical and worthless to launch strikes from one inch away, which is why no MMA/UFC fighter did that. Whereas Outer Convergence allowed Fae to perform feats that would be physically impossible on Earth.
('Martial Art, techniques and skills in this universe and world are not limited the way they were on Earth.')
Well, duh. Rui had known this ever since he saw a Martial Artist destroy a massive tree trunk with a single punch. But back then, it was all veiled in mystery, seeing exactly how they defied the laws of physics was shocking to him.
('It's almost as if the world is warping in and of itself, conspiring to allow techniques and skills such as this to surpass their limits. The laws of physics seemed to be just so ever slightly different such that his scientific background was relevant, while still different enough to allow such phenomena to occur.')
That was, of course, still speculation. He didn't dive deeper into the profound ontological gripes to be had between the differences of this world and his own. Frankly, he didn't care to, it wasn't his main interest. He put the issue at rest, for now.
"How do you know about the technique Kane? Have you also learnt it?" Rui asked.
"I haven't, it's not particularly relevant to the direction in which I'm developing my Martial Art. I know of it because it's a somewhat common technique in offensive striking oriented Martial Arts, I've come across it before several times, it's hard to deal with."
It made sense, Outer Convergence certainly seemed to be a technique that was aimed at maximizing offense at the cost of maneuvering, this would run contrary to what Rui knew about Kane's Martial Art.
"So the fact that you use Outer Convergence means your Martial Art is probably centered around offense, right?" He asked Fae.
"My Martial Art is indeed a short-range striking-oriented offensive Martial Art."
"Short-range because of the palm-centric offensive style, right?"
Fae nodded in return, smiling.
Within the domain of close-quarters combat, kicking length was treated long-range, punching length was treated as mid-range, and elbowing/kneeing range was treated as short range. Fae's striking style fell just short of mid-range CQC(close-quarters combat), thus being short range.
"Speaking of personal Martial Art, I wonder what yours will end up looking like." Fae told him with a hint of curiosity on her face.
"I'd observed you for quite a while during the third-round, you never particularly demonstrated an affinity for any one particular domain, range, or technique" She continued. "From what I can see, you've been dedicating at least a large portion of your life to preparing for your Martial Path. It's rather odd you haven't developed affinities. Usually, signs of one's Martial Art can be seen to atleast some degree even prior to the Martial Apprentice stage."
Rui shrugged. "I'm not particularly drawn into any one particular style of fighting. I might become an all-rounder."
"...Interesting, all-rounder styles are obviously more flexible than specialized styles, so that is a good choice." Kane pointed out.
"Indeed, but there are also downsides to all-rounder styles. All-rounder styles have a greater variety of types of approaches in a fight, however, this means that the analysis and judgement needed to accurately choose the most efficient and effective choice, is much more difficult. The greater the variety of choices, the harder it is to choose correctly. Furthermore, the longer it takes to choose. This is the downside to all-rounder styles." Rui continued.
On Earth, of course, the benefits that all-rounder styles, like the generic MMA fighting style, brought to the table surpassed the benefits bought by specialized styles. The empirical data was clear, fighters who hyper-specialized lost in a UFC/MMA setting, which was the closest thing to real combat.
Pure strikers were unable to deal with grapplers once the grapplers closed in point-blank, pure grapplers were unable to cope with ranged nature of striking that prevented pure grapplers from reaching point-blank, not without getting severely hurt or knocked out.
However, this was not Earth. This was Gaea. The Martial Art in this world was vastly different from that of the martial arts on Earth. This meant that things that shackled the fighters of Earth did not exist in this world!
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