Be water

Three months had passed since the duel between Nel and Felix. Rui had already mostly transitioned into basic Martial Art practice from physical and performative training. The Martial Path could be likened to building a big tower. A tall tower required extremely strong foundations, otherwise it would crumble. In this case, the tower had not one, but two layers of foundations. The first was the physical foundation, this was honing and tempering the body so that it became fit to perform Martial Art optimally. This was the training that Rui had undergone since the Academy began.

The second was the Martial Foundation, every Martial Artist had to learn the basics of all fields. Even a pure striker Martial Artist had to learn the basics of grappling and wrestling, even a pure wrestler had to learn striking. This was to give them basic experience in all forms of conventional combat. After all, you never get to choose your opponent when you're in the field completing a Martial mission. The Martial Foundation allowed Martial Artists to gain bare basic proficiency in all fields.

Only after mastering these two fields could the process of constructing and building one's own Martial Art begin.

Normally, reaching this stage would take years, just the physical training alone would take a year. But recently, rumors and tales of a boy who was already into the Martial Foundation stage had spread through the Academy. It was said that the boy was a demon. He would train for many, many days continuously with only shortest of mandatory breaks halting his training.

This absurd training schedule allowed him to soar through what would otherwise be a long arduous process. Allowing him to accomplish progress at close to record-breaking speeds.

The reasons for Rui completing the physical training stage were numerous, but the two largest contributing factors was the foundation he had already built. He had begun honing his body from an extremely young age although with severely lowered intensity. He had already formed a lot of the physical foundation needed, furthermore his growth speed spiked astronomically thanks to rejuvenation and healing potions, putting his productivity at levels he never even imagined possible.

He had also decided to take the leeway in training in the most efficient way possible in his extra time as much as he could.

Rui breathed in deeply, taking a stance. He nodded at his opponent, a student he was paired up against. Sparring sessions were a regular for students who had reached the Martial Foundation stage. It was the best way to hone what they had learnt, and know how to apply it. The sparring training system was rather simple, half of the students in the sparring training would enter a ring and would be challenged be assigned to fight other students, they would remain on the mat and constantly fight until they lost, when they would then be replaved by the student who just defeated them.

The boy took a simple guarded stance, shifting about before launching himself at Rui, before throwing a kick from mid-range. The kick was rather quick and sharp, which made it harder to exploit. However, to his surprise; Rui closed the distance, and caught his thigh in an arm lock, before driving forward and pushing the boy off-balance, throwing him off his one leg.

BAM

Rui mercilessly threw a full-powered kick to the boy's chin while he was down, knocking him out.

In his previous life, this would be dangerous and unacceptable for a spar. However, his instructors encouraged them to go all-out; the presence of healing potions eliminated all risks. The Martial Academy wanted its students to experience real, full-on unrestricted combat. Not some highly safe and restricted exchange. The Martial Academy was grooming its students to one day fight with their lives on the line, with a real possibility of death, when they became Martial Squires. In order to shape up, competent Martial Artists, they would need to get used to the feeling of pain, battering, exhaustion. Only after experiencing things like these that they would regularly experience in the field, would they not falter in the field due to inexperience.

Rui exhaled as the paramedics of a medical team quickly moved the unconscious boy off the platform, preparing himself for the next match.

The girl who succeeded him, kept her distance from him warily. Rui had already defeated several students quickly.

('Not coming? Well, something needs to happen.') He mused as he started shifting, slowly closing the distance.

When he reached CQC range; close-quarters-combat range. She threw a jab at his face, it was quick but light. She was hoping to startle him before launching a full-powered punch. But Rui had ducked even as she began the jab, throwing a straight punch to her abdomen, impacting her diaphragm.

She hunched down, gasping for air, but Rui had already launched his knee to her face.

BAM

She fell back flat on the ground, rolling as she cradled her bleeding nose. The supervisor signalled the end of the match.

Rui closed his eyes focusing on his breathing, ignoring the attention of his peers.

Rui had only recently joined the Martial Foundation Stage, how could he be so good.

The key was in applying some of the research in his past.

In the later half of his life, Rui had already begun dedicating himself into creating the most optimal fighting style possible. Although many of the popular styles were all tried and tested, things that had withstood competition and proved they were viable, Rui was a bit of an idealist at heart.

"Be Water, My Friend.

Empty your mind.

Be formless, shapeless, like water.

You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup.

You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle.

You put it into a teapot, it becomes the teapot.

Now water can flow or it can crash.

Be water, my friend."

These words he'd heard in his childhood from his greatest idol, Bruce Lee, were once merely awe-inspiring words, yet feeding upon years of successful research, they had grown and molded into his life's ambition. Was it possible to develop a viable fighting style that could adapt to all fighting styles? Was it possible to train someone to use this style? And most importantly, even if creating such a fictious hypothetical martial art was possible, would it, in practice, in the cold real world, succeed? Would it surpass the existing mixed martial arts foundation?

('I have to try, I want to.') John Falken had thought to himself. He had already begun the process of gathering a research team and acquiring research funds. He was going to go all-out. It would take a long time to develop such a fighting style.

But alas, come age fifty-seven, his asthama had escalated, he was forced into permanent medical supervision and near bed-ridden restrictions. He could not push his lungs any further. He didn't give up. In the age of 2022, communication technology made it possible for him to engage in research by coordinating with his staff from afar. He pushed himself as much as he could, but that only hastened the inevitable.

At age fifty-nine he passed away, failing to fulfill his ambition, he was close, there was only one final hurdle left, but fate would not allow it.

Rui exhaled solemnly as he tapped off, walking out of the arena in exhaustion.

The final obstacle he had left in his previous life was making the Martial Art viable and practical in real life. Developing a training program that allowed human beings to learn this incredibly difficult fighting style.

Rui had only applied a handful of principles of the fighting style he'd developed. He had only applied the very foundations of it.

It was possible to predict what a person would do based on evaluating several parameters, the earliest prototype algorithm he had developed involved reading an opponent's center of gravity and range to predict what they would do.

There were several rules that constrained human fighting;

Firstly, humans subconsciously maintained balance at all time. Their weight had to be equally divided otherwise they would fall. It was like removing a card from the bottom of a house of cards, the entire thing would crumble due to unsupported and unbalanced weight.

Secondly, for an attack to land, it had to be within range. No one ever launched an attack out of range, this was common sense, thus range could be used to judge their intentions.

This, in combination with the fact that humans had four limbs meant it was possible to predict what they would probably do to some degree.

Against his earlier opponent; the boy that Rui had knocked out, the boy had rushed in immediately, he had paused at kicking range from Rui. This already told Rui that he was not going to punch, punches were too short to hit him from kicking distance, that left a kick from one of the legs. Secondly, the boy had shifted his weight onto his left leg before the attack. Meaning that leg could not be moved because otherwise balance would blatantly be destroyed and he would fall, violating the first rule.

This implied he was going to launch a kick with his right leg. Of course, Rui didn't know whether the kick would be high, mid, low. Or whether it would be a roundhouse or a straight. But that didn't matter all too much. Knowing that the boy would be launching a right kick was enough. He immediately close the distance as the kick was being launched.

Kicks were only dangerous past the knee, they grew much weaker above the knee. Once Rui reached the thigh, the match was already over.

Against the girl whose nose he'd broken, Rui had noticed that her weight was evenly distributed as he approached her, meaning the likelihood of a kick was low, she would lose balance. Thus that only left her arms. In this regard, she could only really throw a straight punch with her right fist, which was behind or with her left fist which was the closest. However, in order to throw a punch with her distant right fist she would need to close the distance, by shifting her weight, which she wasn't doing.

This left her left fist. But he had no idea what she would do with it. However, statistically, in his previous life, that fighter rarely threw an upper-cut with their guarding forearm, thus he immediately crouched to waist level and dashed while preparing a straight punch to her gut, which ended up allowing him to win easily after. Thus, by evaluating range and balance, he could act in a way that was remarkably optimal.

However, this was not a flawless method. In fact, it was quite flawed and limited. This model could not account for more complicated maneuvering, furthermore there were several ways to launch attacks with an unbalanced frame. The model had a hard time accounting for higher level fakes and feints. Ultimately it would fail in the long run. It was too flawed.

"But it did serve as a foundation for things that came after." Rui muttered after consuming a physical rejuvenation potion.

He didn't know what his Martial Art would end up looking like, but he intended to make use of every ounce of research he had engaged in, in his previous life. Using bits and pieces from his previous life gave him an advantage over other Martial Artists.

('I can't wait to discover my Martial Path.') He thought for the umpteenth time.