36 Heart of the Beast

I was the first one in the yard this morning. I was currently staring at my weapons. I was trying to see if this blade practitioner thing had changed anything.

Besides feeling that certain movements were more natural, nothing has changed.

In which case I decided to try and take a more general view on how combat works in this world.

This world has magic and people who are completely above the ordinary when it comes to speed and strength. Even with all that, this worlds combat isn't like a video game.

When I take a closer look at combat before rank 6, I realize it's still similar to combat on Earth.

(The reason I say rank 6 is because above that combat apparently becomes based more on affinities and will power.)

In this world I still can't just run away from my opponent swinging a weapon. I have to parry it at least to deflect the direction of someone's swing.

Fights are also quicker. Even though I can reinforce my skin with earth mana, strong enough weapons can still pierce through and debilítate someone.

This isn't an old Karate film where I go "take my dragon claw!" And then my opponent goes "Phoenix kick" and then I attack again with a special move and then he attacks back... so on and so forth.

Fights are brutal. It's even more so for warriors. Druids can at least hang back and strike the enemy. Warriors usually need to be up close.

Side steps and dodging movements can help but like on earth a person, can just take a step and adjust their swing to hit you.

That's why strength to deflect weapons and instincts to fight become so important. Unless someone's at a higher rank than you, your opponent likely has similar speed to you. Therefore it becomes a brutal dance of attack parry move attack parry. There's no dodging here.

Notice how I've mentioned dodging several times is a no go. Whatever Hollywood choreographer or gameplay director came up with dodging someone swinging a weapon at you clearly hasn't had Uncle Vili wack them across the face for being an idiot.

Now let's talk weapons. I'm a blade practitioner so I think I have some authority on this one.

Swords are truly one of the most useful weapons. They can pierce like a spear, chop like an axe, and parry fairly well. Their light weight as well so moving is easy.

And to add on top of that, they have a guard to protect the hand. That's important by the way. Vili nearly cut my fingers a few times while I was using the axe.

Now why don't I just use a sword only. Well because axes and hammers have something to them that the sword doesn't.. weight.

See an axe or hammer can easily break through someone's blocking stance. A spear has it's own role as well. It has long reach and can pierce objects like shield well. Cavalry love using a spear for that reason. They even made a lovely sport about it.. Jousting.

Daggers are faster and are useful for hit and run tactics like assasination. Maces are just smaller hammers so their lighter. The point I am making is that every weapon has its place

For all these reasons I've taken to try and prepare myself for any situation and I ended looking like Geralt of Rivia.

I got potions for all kinds of situations, two main weapons of sword and axe for different situations, and I got magic reinforcement. All I am missing is the signature white hair.

[you wish you were as good as him]

To be honest I never played the Witcher series but, I'm familiar with his fighting style by looking at gameplay clips.

In any case, it's not like Im doing this on purpose. Quite frankly, I'd much rather prefer to launch spells from afar, but since druids don't really do that until later ranks and my life is being threatened currently, so I've been prepared to learn.

Uncle Vili walked in not to long ago and explained the process of reinforcing my body.

[Another science class?]

You know it.

As you know mana can take different forms. The idea behind the first school for warriors is to fill a specific part of your body with an elemental mana permanently to increase your body.

Warriors have come up with all kinds of manuals to do it.

The general rule is Fire for explosive strength, earth for defense, wind for speed and water for healing.

This role isn't solid though and an element can be made to enhance a different body part. Maybe your earth reinforcement makes you heavier as well allowing you to put more power behind your punches. It all depends on what you make of it. For example, one warrior may focus more on leg speed so he may use a wind element manual to help push his legs faster. Another warrior might prefer their arms to be faster so they focus on wind enhancing that portion of your body.

To be honest, I don't know what exactly a wind enhancement would do but I figure it has to do with wind physically making your body more aerodynamic.

In any case, currently my uncle has used memory transfer to teach me an enforcement technique called Ice bones.

I have ice affinity and lightning abilities so I can technically use manuals of fire, water, and wind. Uncle Vili explained to me though that it is better to focus on manuals for my own affinities even if lightning ones are uncommon.

Ice bones reinforce my bones with ice mana. It actually pulls up my defense while also giving me a cool aura around me.

Now people might ask how would Ice bones increase regeneration and speed like wind and water.

Easy, ice bones provides better defense to prevent someone from cutting straight through and helps heal cuts and blunt force trauma using ice to cauterize or lessen swelling. After that it'll be up to me to treat my wounds.

Ice also spreads a freezing aura around my body when in combat. It slows my opponents down making me faster than them.

If I really need regeneration, I can just learn a pure healing water manual at some point or add parts of it to my ice bones.

Manuals are very fluid so adding pieces of one manual to another with similar elements is acceptable.

Uncle Vili explained to me that at some point, all the reinforcements from all my affinity manuals will merge at the start of Rank 6 granting me an entirely new way to reinforce myself. They call this merged body a godly body. At completion, I'll be a rank 9.

Right now I'm poised to becoming a walking glacier. The only reason I can even attempt do this is due to my affinities providing me resistance to ice mana.

That's not to say that ice won't affect me. My ice element affinity only protects me from my own ice mana, not regular ice or someone else's. I will get a slight resistance over time to those two sources eventually.

Technically if you placed me in an ice bath I'll still be really cold.

As I'm filling my bones with ice mana, I can't help but think about how beasts fight while reinforcing their body. They use a mixture of this school and the rage school using pure instinct to fight.

We humans developed similar techniques to fight them that keep us competitive.

Following the rage technique would lead someone to develop a heart of the beast. Basically when their switch is flipped they enter a hunting state that causes them to kill their enemy and possibly their allies if not checked.

This school is powerful but hard to control. Which is why we humans developed a technique to control it and ended up following the opposite path of tranquility.

How do we actually use these two in reality? With mana of course. The school of rage would have you reinforce your body with pure mana only during combat. It does this by etching your heart with a type of rune written in mana.

That rune means rage. Activating it will cause mana to be pumped into my heart, causing it to beat faster and spreading mana enriched blood everywhere. It'll increase my healing rate, strength in my muscles, and over locking my central nervous system.

It's simple but dangerous. People who use it too often develop something called mana poisoning. You see mana, even though it's magical, is still a foreign object. Unless used correctly can cause some serious issues.

The reinforcement school practices mana reinforcement in tested safe manner that will permanently increase your strength.

The school of rage enhances your body with pure mana in a destructive manner that's only temporary. It breaks apart your organs, especially the delicate brain

Recovery times vary depending on how long, but one things for sure. Those who use the rage school can either become dumb from too much use, deteriorate their body from too much use, or become a beast eventually.

That's why warriors typically practice the tranquility school to balance it out.

I am intending on doing the opposite. I'm going to focus on tranquility and add slight rage effects only when necessary. My mind is my most precious tool. I'll be damned if I lose it over raw power. In my opinion knowledge is power.

Therefore after my ice bones are completed I will practice what it means to be tranquil.