Chapter 191: Chapter One Hundred Ninety Two

The humanoid constructs were waiting in front of the last few  obstacles, spread out so we would have to face them one at a time to get  to the end of the course. So when we came upon the first pair of  constructs we didn't really have time to engage them slowly and figure  out their moves or habits. We just attacked. The pair of them were  different sizes, one short and stocky and one tall and lithe. I left the  tall one to Callie and blitzed the short one as we closed in, figuring  her Perception would let her counter its reach more easily.

Meanwhile,  I came in at the stocky one with the intention to capitalize on my only  real asset. I used my skills. I triggered Flurry of Blows as I  approached, amplifying my attack speed as my cane flashed out in a  whirling circular pattern easily recognizable as one of the Balam forms.

I  expected the construct (who looked like a sort of blank doll of vaguely  human shape) to dodge or block, but he took his cue from me and tried  to counter attack with attack. For such a squat form, the thing had  incredibly quick punches, and used them to devastating effect. Each  punch was carefully aimed to intersect my line of attack before it could  build momentum, disrupting all the power I was trying to generate with  the centrifugal force of my whirling cane.

I was impressed  with the tactics this thing was employing, not just in terms of actual  combat sensibilities, but in using his assets. The squat construct was  wide and powerfully built, and I could see from its movements that even  with equalized Might it was stronger than I was by virtue of its  powerful body and experience using it it. More specifically it wasn't  EXACTLY equalized, more like generally equalized because the variance in  gravity affected the different sized body differently.

Still,  the power it did have it used exceptionally well. While most big strong  entities built like the construct would throw wide, exaggerated punches  to maximize their damage with big swings augmenting their power, the  construct was using a series of light, quick jabs on me. Because it was  stronger, it didn't need to commit to a blow as much to deal damage,  only land a hit with the power it already had, so sacrificing force for  speed was a much more rational decision. It was tough for me to deflect  and intercept the rain of jabs with just the cane to work with.

As  it attacked though, I began to rethink my strategy. The biggest issue  here was that I was focusing too hard on the win. Granted we were doing  this to make an impression, but since this was our first run it was  unlikely we'd have managed. No one was going to hold it against us  having to do this twice, which meant the smart move was to try to learn  as much as possible from the experience.

So I changed my  focus slightly. Rather than push for speed in victory, I decided to  focus on learning more about fighting an opponent like this. In the end,  while we were trying to show off enough to be able to show people what  we could do, even if we didn't have an amazing time we would earn the  right to challenge the other members of the Pavilion and we could work  our way up that way, plus we could always try this again later for a  better time.

In the spirit of that, and of learning what I  could before we actually had to fight one of those challenges, I  started the Balam forms. Not a carefully selected for specifically for  this fight, but running through the list, one form at a time, to probe  this construct and try to learn what its weaknesses and strengths were. I  wanted to figure out how I could find gaps in someone else's combat  style.

I worked my way through the list, getting hit a few  times with glancing blows because of my commitment to learning rather  than winning immediately, but I didn't mind. As I fought, I got a better  grasp on what the construct could do and how and I recognized some of  the fighting style as belonging to Abel. He didn't have Abel's power,  but he still had the same sort of ruthless combat efficiency, and it  taught me a bit about this path.

While 'combat prowess'  sounded like some sort of magical secondary ability that you had to  train on its own based on the way we all talked about it, in reality it  was a pretty simple thing. It was about perspective. People in the  Academy tended to view combat as a math problem. Your opponent has a  value, your attack has a value, you subtract your attack from their  total and repeat until their number is up. It was simple and relatively  easy to accomplish, except when it wasn't, but win or lose was pretty  obvious either way.

Combat prowess was just the ability to  break down those numbers into more detailed chunks. Instead of one  overall value for a person, you needed to look at the values of each  part of the whole. Find the weak spots, both in yourself and in the  enemy, and exploit the latter while doing your best to eliminate the  former. That was what made Abel so scary, I realized, he could see it  all. He'd literally spent to much time in battle that he'd developed an  instinctive grasp on what an enemy could do and could use that apply  maximum pressure in the weakest spot they had instantly.

The  construct couldn't really do the same, but it came close enough to give  me a bit of the same feeling, and I used it to sound out the weak spots  in my forms and to learn more about how they functioned individually  and how they fit together. I checked on Callie to make sure she was ok,  but she was having the same experience from what I could see. Callie had  taken advantage of her battle with the clone earlier to start to  develop her own unique style, and this was an excellent time to polish  that.

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While Skills from Wishes did give you a huge amount  of bulk knowledge, combat styles weren't just move sequences. There were  lots of elements and techniques in any fighting style, and people  picked specific ones to focus on, creating a person style even within  their martial art. Since Callie's was so new, having these scary  constructs that could partly deconstruct our fights was a blessing in  disguise for her just like it was for me.

After seeing she  was ok I got back to work. First form, then second, then third, broken,  I'd done that one wrong, I'd done that one too fast, that one worked  better before the one I'd used two forms ago. It was like a puzzle, and  each movement showed me where pieces fit. Balam was a new skill, and I  hadn't put in as much time with it as I should have. I'd done some  training obviously, since Callie needed to do so for her geas, but I'd  been too distracted to put my all into it.

Sadly, not  every battle is an opportunity to climb to a higher tier of mastery.  Sometimes you learn some things but come away without any marked gains.  All too soon the battle finished. I decided to cut it short because I  was physically exhausted from all the obstacles, and I needed to rest up  a bit. Flurry of Blows let me speed up enough to land a hit, and while I  couldn't have gotten through a solid blow easily, a light tap was  within my capabilities. After all the blocking and deflection my cane  had stored up a solid charge, and I dumped it into the side of the  constructs neck.

It froze, not damaged but having  registered a defeat, and I slumped down to the ground to let my Vitality  overtake the muscle fatigue and exhaustion while I watched Callie  continue her fighting. As I watched her almost dancelike combat style I  noted that Callie was much better at maintaining her condition than I  was. With her years more of training and experience even with her  strength returned to mortal limits she just understood her body and how  to use it better than I did.

It was beautiful to watch,  her evolution as a fighter, and I reveled in the chance to see her show  what she could do as I recovered. Might made combat much easier, but I  could see the reasoning behind the suppression equipment here. It was an  excellent way to polish technique. You had to come up with solutions to  problems that would have otherwise been solved by brute force, and you  learned to deal with enemies stronger than you were despite the  disadvantage.

Finally, Callie too  finished her battle, though whether because she was done training or  just didn't want to waste any more time I wasn't sure. She landed a  final blow with the rapier of shadows she'd constructed and had to  repair multiple times during the battle and the construct registered the  strike as lethal, officially ending the battle. I hopped to my feet,  bolted over and swept her up in a hug, getting a surprised squeak as I  spun her around laughing. "That was amazing! You kicked ass out there."

She  giggled as I whirled her around. "Hey there, we're not done yet. Put me  down you human mountain!" Despite her words she was smiling, and I  would have kissed her if not for my damn mask. Sadly I WAS wearing a  mask, so I just put her down unhappily. She seemed to sense my annoyance  because she pulled me in for a tight hug, just holding me close for a  bit.

I was  riding high on adrenaline, the learning, the growing, the combat, I  loved it all. Doing all of that with Callie alongside me just made it  even better. She obviously loved it too and it was nice to share the  happiness we were feeling, even if we were in front of an audience.  Ignoring the crowd we got back to the course, finishing in far from  record time. It had been over an hour, and based on the way people had  talked about it I was guessing even if we hadn't had to double our time  for working together we would have been far outstripped.

I  was going to challenge someone, but I was exhausted from the gravity,  and everyone was so happy and upbeat it just seemed wrong to kill the  party mood. It felt like we'd been playing some kind of party game.  Everyone was so excited and energetic. Alden came barreling over. "Not  bad kid! No one gets a decent time on the first run, but most people  don't even finish! Sorry we didn't warn you about the obstacles, it's  something of a tradition to keep quiet about the gravity stuff. Forces  the newbies to adjust. So, what did you think of our course?"

He  slapped me on the back roughly and I laughed, able to stand up easily  under it with my returned Might. "I had a blast. I've never tried  anything like that, hell I didn't know you COULD do anything like that.  No wonder you're all so gifted at fighting with that kind of resistance  training to do. It's scaling right? No matter how strong you get it just  increases the difficulty?"

He  nodded. "Mimics the gravity on some of the higher ranked planets for  those of us on the weaker side of things. But it only works on G  rankers." He gave me a wide grin. "If you think that was hard, you  should try running it drunk. Anyway, enough business." He turned to the  crowd. "Our newbies emerged victorious! Let's PARTY!" There was an  echoing roar of acceptance and I felt myself smile under my mask. This  place was turning out to be pretty great.

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