Chapter 215: Mastery

The Collector clicked its mandibles as it listened to the fighter known as Kui while simultaneously working out the mechanics of this technique known as the 'Moon Grasp'. The fighter specimen was speaking about how to develop full usage of the Moon Grasp, a specimen required a high level of predictive insight, and indeed, that was certainly true.

To control how another moved using the grip alone, one needed to know how their foe would move beforehand so as to adjust the grip to accommodate for it. Yet, this did not explain how the fighter specimen could affect the Collector's body to such a large degree through a simple and small point of contact like the grip alone.

If the fighter specimen gripped the Collector's shoulder, then it made sense that it could have some input into the energy flow on the Collector's arm and, perhaps considering the fighter specimen's mastery and remarkable predictive insight, his [Eye of the Mind] as it was called, the fighter could reliably affect the Collector's balance on that one side of its body.

But the fighter specimen was capable of remotely affecting the Collector's body seemingly at any point regardless of where he gripped the Collector.

"I have sufficient data to formulate a nearly complete hypothesis regarding the mechanisms of this 'Moon Grasp'," said the Collector, interrupting Kui's martial arts lecturing. "I merely require one more simulation in order to fully analyze this ability."

The Collector held out its hand. "Again."

Kui faintly smiled and grasped the Collector's wrist again in his firm yet reserved hold.

This time, without much warning, the Collector clamped its own grip down on Kui's forearm and pushed off the ground backwards, utilizing its flight propulsion to blast it backwards with even more force.

Kui's calm and composed expression did not change, and he reacted instantaneously. He grasped the Collector's wrist tight and twisted it before the Collector's flight sent both of them hurtling into the air. Like this, Kui used the initial burst of momentum from the Collector and redirected it into whirling force against the Collector, sending the Collector tumbling through the air.

This time, however, the Collector kept its own grip tight on Kui and used its own version of the Moon Grasp, or at the very least, a version it thought approximated it, countering Kui's manipulations and forcing both of them to start surging through the air in rapid circles, like a Federation fighter ship spiraling out of control in an atmosphere with a shattered wing.

How would the fighter specimen deal with this? When his grip, the very thing he relied upon to control the Collector, was used against him using forces capable of airborne movement?

Kui twisted the Collector's wrist again, and this time, a surge of magical energy became sensible from him. This time, the Collector felt itself driven to the ground with Kui taking a dominant position atop the Collector.

The Collector slammed into the ground of the Vanguard with significant yet controlled force, shaking the Vanguard with a heavy crash that lined out a sizable, fissured crater.

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The Collector loosed its grip on Kui, and Kui did the same. Kui leaped out of the crater while the Collector floated in the air. The crater began to seal up, flesh regenerating and forming anew to patch up the minor wound to the Vanguard.

Kui patted away chunks of solidified, rock-like Vanguard flesh from his robes and nodded to himself with a broad smile, one far broader than any he had ever exhibited before.

"You…you have used it. You used the Moon Grasp," said Kui. He shook his head, more at himself than anyone else. "No, I should have known you would master it quickly. Your perception, your ability to master the martial arts, it is truly unfathomable and unsurpassed.

I should say that there has been none ever born in this ream or any others that possess your level of martial insight."

"That is the Sovnar for you!" said Thokk.

The Collector clicked its mandibles in understanding.

"The Moon Grasp is a simple technique. Far simpler than I had initially conceptualized," said the Collector. Through a more thorough analysis using [Sense] and multiple chances to more closely view and experience the technique, the Collector could grasp the mechanics of the technique.

Just as the fighter specimen had said, the Moon Grasp was a basic technique in principle.

It comprised of the grip, then a sheath of magical energy around the grip, and using the hold generated by the grip, the sheath was thinned out and transferred around the enemy the hold was initiated on.

Using that extended sheath, the fighter specimen could essentially extend additional points of contact to manipulate the Collector's body. It was as if the fighter specimen's grip was projected all around the Collector, putting the Collector figuratively in the palm of the fighter's hand.

However, this technique had significant hurdles needed to overcome to make it practically usable. As with Sapia, any form of controlling energy that served to completely encompass another living being was difficult to maintain, especially against beings with similar or higher mana levels.

The greater the area of magical energy enforced upon another living being directly, the more difficult it was to sustain that energy.

What the fighter specimen did was far more precise. He used only the barest amounts of projected magical energy to affect only the most critical areas for instantaneous moments. Thus, he used his grip and initial strength to knock the Collector off balance and then surgically directed points of magical contact in various locations around the Collector's body to send it whirling through the air or continue to knock it off balance.

"Come," said Kui as he extended another hand, this time outside of the boundaries of the ring. His green aura of flow emanated around him in curls of flickering, flowing strength. "You have reached near mastery of the Moon Grasp. Topple me in a test of grips, and prove to me you are worthy of a status as a master."

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The Collector floated over to Kui and they entered the same grip contest from before, with each of them holding the other's forearm. The Collector perfectly replicated the mannerisms of Kui's grip, the firm yet reserved hold that had enough fluidity to 'flow' with the enemy's movements and react against them.

This was in contrast to Kandak's 'hard' grasp that sought to enforce a tight grip and power to overpower an enemy, robbing them of their movements and forcing them to submit.

The Collector's red mana surged outwards around itself in fiery peals, gathering around its hand and curling around Kui's body, running up his blue scaled arms and invading his own green aura. In response, Kui's aura also moved its way around the Collector's arm, traveling in stream-like strands of flowing green, carving out paths in the Collector's blazing aura of red chaos.

In a contest of 'soft' grips like this where both the Collector and Kui sought to try and manipulate the other's movements through projections of mana utilizing perception and prediction, whoever saw 'furthest' would win.

Whoever could out-predict the other would have the upper hand.

Kui twisted the Collector's arm, trying to send the Collector whirling sideways again, but the Collector twisted Kui's arm in the opposite direction, completely negating the move. Next, Kui dug his fingers into the Collector's carapace, easily cracking it, and attempted to drive pressure forwards.

Flowing streams of Kui's projected mana curled around the Collector's back and knees, trying to force the Collector to bend backwards and collapse on its knees.

The Collector did not use flight anymore. It wanted to best the fighter specimen purely on even grounds.

The Collector countered by using Kui's forward strength against him, relaxing for a millisecond and allowing Kui to temporarily overpower him, causing Kui to slouch forwards due. The Collector tensed up immediately afterwards and used Kui's strength now against him.

Flickering red tendrils of red mana blazed around the Collector's body, taking over the green streams of Kui and redirecting the force imbued into them against Kui. The flame like red tendrils extended to Kui's lower back and legs, breaking his balance.

The Collector twisted its grip and sent Kui hurtling into the air, but Kui kept his grip tight on the Collector and countered this, spinning backwards and using the acceleration of his spin to pull the Collector off the ground and slam it behind Kui with a backflip.

The Collector soared in an arc over Kui's head, a mere moment away from slamming head first into the ground.

This entire exchange, this battle of grips where the Collector's red tendrils of chaos mana vied against Kui's smooth flowing streams of flow mana, lasted mere instants, but in those few instants, the Collector had calculated countless possibilities for how Kui would react.

Kui, on the other hand, did not actively calculate so much as he relied on his own honed instinct, innately knowing by how the Collector moved how to react due to training to the point where every possibility in a scenario like this was ingrained into his being.

In a tight battle like this, one single miscalculation would be lethal, leading into a throw that would deal severe damage or an opening for a counter-attack. To the goblins that could barely keep up with the battle, it felt as if they were watching two natural disasters attempting to overpower each other.

Would the wildfire burn through the storm? Or would the storm douse the flames?

This was, however, the decisive moment.

Before the Collector slammed into the ground, it twisted Kui's forearm in mid-air, breaking the flow of the throw and sending Kui off his feet. The Collector then pushed down, aiming to send the now mid air Kui slamming into the ground faster than the Collector.

Kui broke free of his grip and slammed his free palm into the ground while taking a knee, stopping himself from falling face first into the ground at high velocity. Kui's palm made a powerful cracking sound as he broke his fall, the shockwave of the blow reverberating across the Holding Bay.

The Collector let go of Kui's arm and stood over Kui in clear sign of victory.

"Marvelous…," said Kui. He cracked his neck and stood up tall, almost meeting the Collector's eyes with his own prodigious bulk. His eyes had widened to uncharacteristic emotional expression that exhibited clear admiration. "Simply marvelous. You have mastered the Moon Grasp. Like the moon that controls the ebb and flow of the tides, the grip controls the ebb and flow of movement and power in the body."

"You seem to express positive emotion in the fact that I have been able to assimilate your abilities and surpass you in them," stated the Collector.

"Of course," said Kui. "It is a pleasure reserved only to a master to see a student become a master themselves. It is a pleasure I had long forgotten, one taken from me, one I had thought I would never make mine again."

The Collector clicked and before it could respond a protest about the questionable dichotomy of 'student' and 'master' placing the fighter specimen definitively above the Collector, a disturbance brought attention to the Collector.

The Vanguard unit's internals shook as if struck from severe external impact.

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There was no mistake about this: this was an attack.

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