The Martial Unity
Chapter 38: Apprentice level

The third bout began, and this time, Kane made the first move.

('He's coming.') Rui tensed in alertness.

Kane exhaled and suddenly, taking his first step, he blurred. In an instant he accelerated to top speed, moving so fast that he crossed the distance in a moment.

BAM.

Rui barely managed to intercept Kane's punch with hastily cobbled guard.

('Fast! His speed before was basically child's play!')

Rui haphazardly threw a punch at him, hoping to catch him off-guard, but Kane attacked in such a way that the strike would naturally be avoided by the attacking motion. Attacking in a manner that naturally avoids the attack of your opponent, this was Kane was doing.

BAM

Kane managed to slip an attack through Rui's guard.

('Damn, this is different from before. Before he was evading first while countering a slip second later. But right now, he's perfectly choosing an attack such that the attacking motion naturally avoided Rui's attack.') Rui realized.

For example, a jump kick naturally avoided a leg sweep. A leg sweep naturally dodged a jump kick. Kicks possessed greater range than punches thus, if well timed, they could be used to avoid punches by hitting the opponent first.

"Hehe, dealing with Anti-Cadence is difficult, isn't it? Especially considering you're a newbie."

Rui got up, taking up another stance. "You haven't mastered it yet, right?" He could feel Kane's choices weren't entirely optimal.

Kane shrugged. "I learnt it a few months ago. It's also one of those foundational techniques in counter-offensive maneuvering that doesn't have an upper limit, you just get better and better at it with experience."

That made sense to Rui. Anti-Cadence was a technique that relied on judgement, which grew with experience. Analysis and judgement were Rui's strong suits. Among all the techniques he had seen, he was most interested in Anti-Cadence. It had a lot of synergy with Rui's affinities and interests.

"How'd you cross the distance between us so quickly?" Kane was moving at a speed that should be way above what someone of his physical stature should be capable of moving like.

"Oh, that's another Apprentice level maneuvering technique called Parallel Walk."

"Parallel Walk?"

"Yeah, normally people walk and run by twisting their upper body and swinging their arms in the opposite direction to the legs, right?"

This was true, at a young age, humans naturally developed the habit of walking with their arms swinging opposite to that of their legs. This was because it was the most natural way to maintain balance by countering the torque generated by the legs.

"Parallel Walk is a technique where you run with your arms and upper body swinging in-line with and parallel to your legs. It's a technique that allows you to run faster."

Rui's eyes widened. This made sense, twisting your upper body and swinging your arms required a lot of energy, all of that energy was being wasted in maintaining balance. Parallel Walk seemed to be a technique where one moved with their arms moving in the same direction as their legs. This avoided the immense waste of energy that occurred with the twisting of the upper half of the body. All the energy that would otherwise be wasted with twisting the upper half would now be directed into the legs and be converted into speed, thus allowing the user to run at significantly higher speeds.

"It feels really weird when you learn it, balance is maintained in a totally different way after all, so it takes a while to get used to it. But once you do get used it, you move at wayyy faster speeds way easier. I'm telling you, it was a blessing to my Martial Art." Kane explained.

Rui nodded, it made sense. In truth, this wasn't the first he'd heard of this concept. Back on Earth there was a Japanese form of walking and running known as Namba Aruki or Namba Walking. Namba Walking was the running style of the express runners, during the Edo Period, whose job it was to run messages quickly and efficiently between Edo and the other provinces. Usually they would travel in pairs, one having a pole with a box or package on the end, and another that had a pole with a lantern on it inscribed with the characters official business.

Needless to say, communication was key to an effective government, so these express runners had to be very, well, express. They would regularly run from Edo to Kyoto in six-eight days, a distance of approximately 480 kilometers on foot. They were highly efficient and wasted lesser energy that could otherwise be used for more speed or stamina, thanks to this form of maneuvering.

('I just didn't think it was legit. But it seems that, at the very least, it's legit in this world.')

"Can you teach it to me?" Rui asked.

"I'm not qualified to. The training process isn't as straightforward as it seems. I had a Martial Senior monitoring my training, and he put me through a ton of training that I didn't really understand. Half-assed erroneous training is worse than no training, trust me." Kane replied, earning a downcast expression from Rui.

"Don't worry though." He consoled. "I told you this is an Apprentice level technique for maneuvering, right? That means you absolutely can learn this in the Academy as long as you reach Apprentice level."

Rui's expression lit up. Yet another reason to look forward to the Academy. He strongly looked forward to the day he learnt this technique in the academy.

"How many Apprentice maneuvering techniques are there?"

"Oh, there are tons of Apprentice level techniques. That being said, each field has a set of basic Apprentice level techniques, these are the easiest techniques to learn that help a brand-new Martial Apprentice grow accustomed to Apprentice level techniques. After all, the transition from Foundational techniques to Apprentice level techniques can be tough, it took me a whole month before I could even get used to it." Kane sighed, recalling a painful memory.

"To, answer your question though, as far as pure maneuvering goes, there's four. Parallel Walk is one of them, meant for physical travel, there's one for combat speed, combat agility, travel agility etc." Kane explained.