Chapter 214: Eye of the Mind

"Agreeable," said the Collector as it felt twinges of warmth echo from its main core at the sound of challenge laden within the fighter specimen Kui's words.

The Collector floated over towards Kui and landed within the smaller arena. A straight groove in the center of the circle indicated a divide splitting the arena into two halves which the Collector and the fighter specimen known as Kui occupied at either ends.

The goblins all excitedly gathered around the small arena as they awaited the confrontation between their revered Sovnar and the mighty Kui, but as the two took their positions in the arena, the goblins began to instinctively back away, giving the two far more space. Even the elite units did this, their honed instincts telling them to move away, that the two mighty warriors before them required far more space than what the arena's lines indicated.

The Collector and Kui were not far apart, but strangely, the distance between them seemed to be unfathomable to the goblins as their innate magical energy started to emanate outwards. The small space between them, wrapped up in curls of red energy from the Collector and green from Kui, began to distort, as if a heat haze had decided to gather.

It was not the physical distance that was far, the goblins realized, it was the sheer power emanating from the Collector and Kui that made that distance seem far larger than it was, pushing the goblins away, making them instinctively feel that they had no place being even within the proximity of such powerful entities.

Kui held out an open hand. It was a large, brick-like hand almost the size of the man's head with thick, scaled fingers possessing a grip strength easily capable of shattering most materials and alloys. Calluses and scales hardened by countless processes of breaking and regrowing like bones binding together stronger after fractures lined the Yinlong's hands, indicating the vast years and intensity of training that had gone into fashioning those deadly hands and the skills behind them.

"The goblins could not break from my Moon Grasp," said Kui. "You are familiar with it already. Allow me to grasp your arm, and from there, you shall attempt to break free of my grip before I throw you."

"I sense that this engagement is one controlled and confined under certain parameters," said the Collector. "What resources am I capable of utilizing to break your grip?"

"Anything barring direct attacks upon me," said Kui.

The Collector held out one of its hands, and Kui grasped the Collector's carapaced wrist in a tight yet controlled hold, one that would allow Kui to make any adjustments as needed.

The Collector kept its senses sharp and its eyes covered in green flow aura, ready to analyze how the fighter specimen known as Kui utilized his power. This 'Moon Grasp', the Collector indeed was familiar with. It had experienced it during its duel with Kui when the fighter had grasped its pliomatter tendril or whenever the fighter made a solid grip with any limb of its body.

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It felt as if the fighter specimen had complete control over the Collector's movements, completely countering his movements and controlling his power simply with minute adjustments in the grip.

For now, however, the Collector kept its ocular systems trained on Kui's hand, but in the next instant, the Collector found itself surging upwards as Kui whirled the Collector's body in the air with a simple sideways flexion of his wrist, keeping his grip on the Collector's arm to use it as a lever to manipulate the Collector's physical form.

It did not matter that the Collector weight nearly a ton or that the Collector had been actively attempting to resist any force on its body. The fighter specimen known as Kui could masterfully push the Collector off balance and manipulate its body as if it weighed as much as a sheet of paper with the slightest of movements using only its grip and immense knowledge of how to apply force. c

Likely, Kui would then use the Collector's current imbalanced state to then slam the Collector into the ground or the ceiling.

The Collector immediately countered by using its flight. Because it could generate flight based energies anywhere on its body, it could counter any force it felt on itself with a counter-force generated by the flight energy.

Its red energy wings flared as the Collector suspended in animation in mid-air, perfectly countering Kui's grip. Kui's hand shook slightly around the Collector's wrist as he kept a hold of the Collector's body. The ground rumbled beneath them, and though it might have seemed like that both the Collector and Kui were simply remaining still, that no power was transferring between them, the opposite was entirely true.

The Collector was using nearly the full extent of its supersonic capable flight speed and Kui was using just as much grip strength to counter it.

Kui nodded, giving a signal for the Collector to stop exerting itself, and the two broke off from the clutch. The Collector landed gracefully on the other side of the arena, and Kui tugged at his pointed beard.

"The Moon Grasp is the most basic technique in the Guiding Current," said Kui. "The Guiding Current's throws are as varied and as flexible as the many currents of the oceans, and yet, there is always, always one element that must be performed before any throw: the hold.

The hold grants you leverage over your opponent. With a powerful and trained grip, you exert your own force over a foe, breaking his balance, and thus, you can throw him.

That is the basics of it. Any grappling or wrestling art knows this. You-," Kui pointed at Kandak's hulking form. "Know this particularly well."

"Gobuk teaches how to grip and how to hold," said Kandak, explaining one of the basic principles of the goblin wrestling art known as 'Gobuk'. This style, the Collector had noted as one that involved taking strong blows and overpowering enemies with powerful holds, throws, and submissions followed by savage blows. "But not like this. We hold. Grab around the waist. Anywhere with strong balance. Break the balance. Use our power. Force the enemy to the ground. Crush them.

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But with you, you do not use power. You grab, and somehow, you make us move."

"The principle is the same. I hold and I manipulate the flow of your strength," said Kui. "But your art is 'hard', focusing on overpowering with brute strength where mine is 'soft', focusing on the delicate control of power. Particularly in using your own power against you.

At the basic level, the Moon Grasp is an ordinary grip and hold. At the highest level, it is far more, breaking the flow of your foe's power, and from there on, he becomes little more than a petal dancing in the storm of your control, his each and every movement to resist you only adding on to the winds that toss him so."

"How?" said Kandak.

"Perception," said Kui. He motioned to his eyes. "To see and feel precisely is the key to any soft manipulation of strength. When you see a Sorcerer or Adventurer exerting their magical energy around them, making it visible, you can easily tell their state of being.

The stability of an aura, its color, its flicker, its brightness, its volume – all of these can indicate the strength of an aura and, at a higher level, shows what it is preparing to do, whether it is channeling into a stronger attack, forming a defensive barrier, and so on.

This external output of mana is called Aura Flow, and it is the easiest to read.

But what of the flow of mana within the body? The type that nourishes all the little parts of our body? The type that manifests in every flexion of our muscles, in the stability of our bones, in the flow of our blood, and the movement that is chained from all these physical parts chaining together?"

"[Sense]," said Thokk. "You use [Sense] to see. Makes it easy to tell what other person is doing."

Kui nodded. "Correct, to a degree. Certainly, by using [Sense] and encasing your eyes in magical energy, you can more deeply see into the body of another. You can see the flow of the power they generate from their muscles, watching how parts of their body become brighter than others, how this brightness chains from their feet up to their hands in a punch, and so on."

Kui then shook his head. "But at the same time, this is not enough. [Sense] is slow. It takes up considerable mana, more so than any [Guard] or [Accel]. It takes up your mind, forcing you to think and react after the foe has channeled their strength.

True perception is one that can be done with the eyes alone. By simply watching the posture of an enemy, the twitch of his movements, the tenseness or slack in his body, the demeanor in his eyes, the speed of his footwork – you can tell how he channels his power.

By knowing the fundamental principles of how force is generated, how every punch is made, every kick is thrown, every hold forced and throw performed, it is possible to not only perceive the flow of strength in a foe, but to know what he will do before he ever moves.

This level of perception is known among the martial artists of Xia as the [Eye of the Mind], and I can count on my two hands the number of martial artists who have mastered it fully."

"And you consider yourself one of them?" said Goromir with crossed arms. He sized Kui up but also gave the Yinlong a respectful nod, fully acknowledging his strength.

"Of course," said Kui in a calm, matter of fact voice, as if stating a simple truth. "Among martial artists, I would say that my [Eye of the Mind] is at the highest level, surpassing or matching the gods."

"Heh, and I thought the Yinlong were supposed to be humble," said Goromir. "Maybe things have changed since I last walked the realms."

"Oh, we are," said Kui. "But the truth is the truth. Humility that veils over the truth is simply deception, and I have no need for such a thing."

Thokk cocked his head, his brows furrowing in thought. "You said using [Sense] is bad and makes you slow, but the Sovnar uses it all the time. Even now, he used it against you."

"Your Sovnar is simply different," said Kui. "Even when he does not predict his foe, when he is relying on pure reflexes and using [Sense] which should burden his reflexes even more, his ability to react in timely fashion is unparalleled.

The speed at which his mind moves is simply incalculable. At the very least, it far outstrips any Common being that I know. And that does not mean he lacks predictive ability, either.

Your Sovnar also possesses a [Eye of the Mind], though he may not call it that. [Eye of the Mind] is simply the ability to predict your opponent reliably, and for martial artists, this is formed through both talent and countless hours of training, but in your Sovnar's case, it is inherent in his mind already."

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