Pressure points

Khan inspected the collapsed dummy and the metal rope attached to its body before lying on the floor. He closed his eyes to enter the meditative state, and mana flowed from his nape to spread through the rest of his body.

The process hurt. Khan's flesh didn't want the mana to take over, but he had grown used to that pain. His mind remained steady as he pushed that energy forward and forced it to weaken the numbness that afflicted his leg, shoulder, and side.

Khan didn't remain in his meditative state for too long. The fifth level was waiting for him. He only wanted to restore his condition enough to approach the next battle.

'These training programs are so useful,' Khan couldn't help but exclaim in his mind when he exited his meditative state. 'They don't only force me to improve. They also allow me to face different battle styles. Nothing in the real world can make me gain experience so quickly.'

Khan didn't know that martial arts capable of targeting his pressure points existed before the previous battle. He was completely unaware of the existence of those spots even.

One incomplete training session with the program had been enough to expand his knowledge in ways that his usual fights against Lieutenant Dyester couldn't accomplish. Even his battle against Citlalli didn't give him that amount of experience.

Moreover, the training program's adaptive features had underlined the weaknesses of the Lightning-demon style. A martial art with seventy-eight points was clearly outstanding, but it had flaws that Khan couldn't help but notice after defeating the fourth level.

'My hands are kind of useless,' Khan thought without bothering to straighten his position. 'They help me balance and give power to my kicks, but I don't have many blows that rely on my arms. I guess only proper high-level martial arts don't have evident flaws.'

Relying mostly on his kicks wasn't an inherent weakness, but Khan understood that he could improve in some fields. His body was even quite strong compared to his peers, so limiting his fighting style to half of his limbs seemed a waste.

Memories about Martha's situation appeared in his mind during that reasoning. She also had a good martial art inherited from her family, but she had to improve it by fusing it with another style.

Khan believed that the same went for most soldiers. Lieutenant Unchai had stressed how every martial art had good and bad matchups, so the best approach was to fuse a few of them and obtain a complete set of abilities.

'Look at me,' Khan eventually thought while a helpless laugh escaped from his mouth. 'I have the chance to use a training hall freely, and my martial art is among the best for recruits, but I'm still unsatisfied. Not even six months outside of the Slums, but I've already lost my humbleness.'

Khan straightened his position and sat on the floor. He rotated his right arm to check his shoulder, and he also bent his leg for the same reason. The numbness had almost completely dispersed. He was ready to approach the fifth level.

"Resume!" Khan ordered, and the training program immediately activated.

The gears spun again and dragged the puppet back inside the workshop. The writings on the walls also moved to the fifth level, and the mechanical voice soon resounded in the hall.

"Level five," The training program announced. "Superior body, medium-level martial arts, superior aggression."

Khan's eyes sharpened at those words, but he didn't need to wait long before understanding their meaning.

The puppet charged ahead as soon as the wires and tubes detached from its body. It wasn't letting Khan gain the upper hand right away anymore.

Khan didn't let that sight scare him. He shot toward the incoming puppet and prepared for the imminent clash. Part of him even preferred that approach.

The puppet's arms shot forward and performed strange movements that tried to trick Khan's eyes. However, he disregarded them and crouched to slide under his opponent.

The dummy's attacks missed as Khan kicked its legs and made it fall forward. The two of them were close, so the puppet tried to stab its fingers toward him. Yet, Khan rolled on his back and pushed with his hands once his feet aligned with his opponent.

Khan resembled a spring when he used his arms to push his whole body toward his opponent. He didn't need to see the puppet to know where it was. There wasn't much that it could do while it was falling toward the floor.

The blow pushed the puppet away and made it fly for a few meters. Khan's feet touched the floor while the dummy was still mid-air, and his ankles twisted to make him turn in an instant and give him enough power to shoot toward his opponent.

The puppet quickly stood up, but Khan's kick arrived before it could resume any battle stance. His shinbone hit the dummy's head and flung it away again.

Khan chased after his opponent. The black metal seemed able to endure his blows now, but he would press forward until that material shattered.

His leg rose when the puppet entered his range. The dummy raised its arms to block the incoming kick, but Khan missed them on purpose. Instead, his descending blow made his heel and his opponent's foot collide.

The puppet's foot bent upward. It wouldn't be useful as a foothold anymore in that condition, but Khan lost his momentum after completing the attack.

His rear leg rose to deliver a kick on the puppet's side, but the latter disregarded the incoming blow and launched its arms toward him.

Khan's kick and the puppet's fingers hit at the same time. The dummy's side caved in, but its hands landed at the center of his chest and hit two different pressure points.

Khan found himself unable to breathe for a second. He struggled to maintain his balance, and the puppet didn't hesitate to exploit that chance. One of its hands clung on Khan's side while the other created a fangs-shaped figure with its fingers that flew toward his collarbone.

Khan pushed himself backward, uncaring that his balance was completely off. He fell on the floor and dodged the incoming attack, but the dummy promptly jumped toward him.

The puppet tried to slam its feet on Khan's chest, but the latter rotated to the side. The dummy's attack landed on the floor, and Khan used that chance to perform a sweep.

The dummy promptly jumped to dodge the incoming leg, but it didn't manage to perform it correctly due to the damage suffered by its foot. Only half of the puppet's body escaped from Khan's range, so his shinbone successfully hit its leg.

The power released by the sweep made the puppet rotate on itself and remain in the air. Meanwhile, Khan continued to spin until his leg returned behind him and became a suitable foothold.

Khan waited until the puppet turned upside-down mid-air before leaping forward and raising his knees toward its head. The dummy managed to protect itself with its arms, but their metal bent beyond recognition after the violent blow.

Khan planted his hand on the puppet's waist while both of them fell. He was ready to smash his opponent on the floor and overwhelm it with a relentless series of techniques, but a sense of numbness suddenly spread from his legs when they touched the black surface.

The puppet had hit the pressure points on his ankles during the fall, and Khan couldn't avoid losing his balance. He bent backward, but his hand promptly grabbed the dummy's leg and dragged it with him.

Khan gave voice to a battle cry as both his arms grabbed the puppet's leg and pulled until it slammed behind him. The dummy tried to point its arms on the floor to stand up, but their damaged structure made it lose its balance and fall again.

Khan rolled on his back. His ankles would be useless for a few minutes, so he had to use gravity to his advantage. His legs bent as he performed a handstand on the puppet's limb before moving the entirety of his body weight toward his knees.

Popping noises came out of the puppet when his knees hit its torso. Something had clearly broken inside the dummy, but it continued to struggle. Its arms were quite useless, but its fingers still worked, and they immediately tried to reach Khans' legs.

Khan rotated on his knees and delivered a hook to the puppet's head. The dummy tried to stand up and use its arms to protect its face, but Khan unleashed a rain of punches that barely cared about their targets.

Most of those attacks landed on the damaged arms, but some managed to reach its face. Moreover, those limbs continued to bend until the metal finally cracked.

Khan couldn't feel anything. The shards of metal were cutting his knuckles, but his punches continued to fall. He wouldn't stop until his opponent went limp.

The arms eventually broke and left the puppet defenseless. Khan punches could finally target its head without hindrances, and the battle ended in a few seconds. The dummy barely had a face anymore when the writings on the walls became green.

"Time-out!" Khan shouted without any hesitation.

The puppet had brought him to his limits at that time. His chest and ankles hurt, and his hands were bleeding. The battle had been relatively even, which made Khan worry about the sixth level.

'I'm almost completely certain that I can't surpass it,' Khan thought while lying on the floor.

There was a high chance that Khan would lose once the training program moved to the next difficulty. Continuing to fight would most likely lead to a beatdown. Recruits would usually stop there and call it a day, but Khan hesitated to make the system reset its data.

'I can learn what might cause me to lose in the future,' Khan thought as a helpless sigh left his mouth.

His mind had already understood which approach would provide the most benefits, and he could only accept that while he let his body recover. Escaping from pain now would only cut his gains short.