11 Imitating Mystical Beasts

There were many types of martial arts that Aleksei Ming experienced on Earth which were transmitted to Vidyut Vajra through his memories. Among them, most stressed on personal defence and physical well being. Unable to use them, Vidyut thought about the two ancient martial arts that Aleksei Ming came across during his stay in India. The first was Kalaripayattu (1), supposedly the earliest codified martial arts originating from Southern India and the predecessor of popular martial arts like kung-fu. This martial art utilizes the actions made by wild animals and integrates them within barehanded and weaponized combat. The other was Shastravidya, which was more like a legacy of Kshatriyas (a warrior class) which was refined through generations of warfare. It stressed on battlefield situations, battle formations, tactics etc. Although these two could form a solid basis, they by themselves weren't enough. Without utilising any spiritual force, the destructive power produced would be very less compared to wuxia-style martial arts of this world. What he wanted was a way to skip the entire qi-to-true essence conversion because he found such techniques wasteful. To build upon his hypothesis, Vidyut asked the hunters employed by the royal family to accompany him as he ventured into forests to observe mystical beasts in their natural habitat. Due to several millennia of evolution, some wild animals developed their own methods for usage of qi which was different from humans' because they skip the entire qi-to-true essence conversion part and directly use inner qi to manifest or control the 4 elements- fire, water, earth and air.

The four animals Vidyut focused on were- Blaze tiger, Horned mongoose, Flying lemur and River-King alligator. Blaze tigers were solitary beasts, hunting in grasslands where it used fire attacks to isolate and encircle its prey. Horned mongoose hunted for snakes or other burrowing creatures. It specializes in manipulating earth to capture and kill its prey. It is also known for making elaborate structures using earth-manipulation. Flying lemurs had webbed structures between its limbs. Using its ability to freely manipulate wind, it could fly with extreme speed and agility and attack unpredictably. It often completed with larger birds of prey for supremacy of the sky. River-King alligator lived up to its name as it was the top predator in the rivers. Reaching over 5 metres in length, it has the ability to create whirlpools to trap prey, shoot streams to shoot down birds flying as high as 20 metres overhead. It also has the ability to control water temperatures to manipulate shoals of fish for a feast wherever it felt like. Fortunately, it is extremely prudent in its hunting otherwise all other river creatures would have been hunted to extinction by it.

Vidyut spent two weeks analysing these animals. Other than improved intelligence and superior physique, these animals were not that different from others of the same gene tree. So to find the differences, Vidyut spent extra effort in observing their hunting habits, sleeping habits and normal state when not alert. Afterwards, he caught specimens of each breed and observed its reactions when cornered, giving special attention to breathing. After sedating them, he used specially-made needles to use acupuncture techniques to study the meridian structure and qi flow and the results they produced were beyond extraordinary. He found out that these animals did not directly convert their qi to elemental energy. Instead, they used their inner qi as a beacon to guide a specific elemental qi from among the chaotic mix in nature to manifest the particular element. It was like a conductor who guided a portion of the orchestra to produce the required result. It was an extremely energy conserving method as compared to human techniques where attacks solely relied upon true essence to manifest. Well then the question arises, why did human practitioners not adopt similar techniques? - in the next few days, Vidyut was going to find out, painfully so...