Special Guest

Michael said goodbye to his two friends and headed to the computer lab while scarfing down a snack. No food was allowed in the lab so he had to stand outside and finish it before he entered. Once done, he quickly slid into his seat and started his typing practice.

He tried to use the focus and breathing he had been practicing while doing the typing drills, but found that the pace and rapid changes in movements made it far too challenging. He wondered if this was actually useful in the context of the drills. Then, he remembered that one of the physique aspects described had been manual dexterity - this certainly seemed to apply! He guessed that it might just be too challenging for him at the moment - especially at the speeds he was used to.

Ultimately, he decided that he could either run as he usually had, allowing his fingers to move without his brain having to really think about it, or he could slow down his speed and try to control every aspect of the process. Once again, the concept of "right, then fast" came to mind - though he imagined that it would take a long time to be able to manually control the entire process from seeing the image to determining which specific muscles needed to move in order to press the corresponding keys.

Which would be better to improve? His muscle memory and unconscious movements, or his visual processing and fine motor control? It was a bit of a conundrum - and this was just a simple typing exercise! If he really thought about it, this type of dilemma could be applied to most exercise and practice. This new concept of body sensation and essence was really sending him down a rabbit hole…

He decided to split his time in half, since there was no testing today. Effectively the "focused" time just seemed slower. He couldn't put his finger on any advantages at this point, but he was confident that further investigation in this vein would help. "Maybe I can do some research on additional manual dexterity exercises," he mused. He decided to put the thought aside for today, though, and switched over to his previous speed challenges. He saw minor increases in his abilities, as he had in the past, though they were less pronounced since he was now splitting his time. He'd have to wait for the other side of things to bear fruit.

The second half of computer lab was a surprise quiz on the various office applications they'd been introduced to. The whole thing was pretty trivial for Michael, and he was confident that he got full marks on it. It did replace their independent project time, though, so he didn't have a chance to continue on his research for both the project and the extra credit mission.

Once class ended, he immediately went over to the library. Today's lunch was a salad with grilled chicken on it, so he didn't need to warm it up. This saved him a few minutes - he planned on trying to wrap up his Chemistry and Algebra homework as quickly as possible between lunch and his Free Period, before gathering and 'scanning' all of the available mathematics texts. Luckily, he had a couple of hours to do it in.

He quickly shelved the outstanding books before hunkering down behind the desk to help students, eat his lunch, and plough through his homework. By about 15 minutes into his free period he had finished both Algebra and Chemistry and could start searching for the textbooks he needed. He hauled a huge stack of them back to the desk and started pouring over them as quickly as he could. This not only included the Algebra texts for the subsequent years, but also Geometry, Trigonometry, and Calculus. He even found books on Combinatorics, Topology, Probability and Statistical Analysis. He soon had more books than he could reasonably scan in the remaining time, so he figured he'd cover as many as he could now and then finish the rest after school.

Page after page of numbers, figures, descriptions and equations poured into his brain as he flipped them as quickly as his eye could capture them. Luckily, most of the books - specifically those that were intended to be school textbooks - included an answer key in the back of the book. Michael discussed it with the System and they came up with an approach where Michael could work on the exercises and the System would handle the marking based on the contents in the answer keys - Michael had only looked at them briefly enough for the System to scan them, but wouldn't be able to recall the answers when he was working on the problems, whether he did it in his Lucid Space or in reality.

Mr. Maddox was once again occupied with tutoring some other students, so Michael was left to his own devices. This worked out rather well for his purposes this afternoon, and his behaviour barely even aroused the Librarian's curiosity at this point - he'd seen him 'flip through' many books by now. Michael wasn't worried about drawing suspicion, if he ever had been.

Eventually the bell rang and Michael had to store the remaining books behind the desk before getting changed and heading to the field. He recalled that the tesserarius had mentioned that there would be a special guest lecturer today. He wondered who it would be. He quickly filed out with everyone else before the tesserarius called for laps. The tesserarius then went back inside - probably to go receive the guest, Michael assumed.

Michael kept his pace and followed his breathing. He was able to maintain the lead of the main pack, once again behind the five, though today he was less concerned with that, as he was trying to recapture that 'spinning top' sensation from before. Sadly, the laps were done almost as soon as they started, and he didn't truly get the opportunity. Slightly disappointed, he returned to his position in the ranks.

"Today, we have a very distinct honour!", the Tesserarius called out in a crisp voice that betrayed a little excitement. "You all have the privilege of meeting one of my mentors, a soldier and citizen who has served the empire with great dedication and received many accolades. Greet Centurion Densus, students!"

"Ave, Centurio!", the class called out.

The bald, mahogany-skinned man looked out over the class with a face that seemed to be hewn out of stone. His eyes scanned over the rows of teenagers like a farmer observing his crops. He nodded contemplatively before speaking.

"At ease, students. Your Tesserarius, a man I have served with for decades, says that some of you show promise. I trust that you will not dishonour your region when the time comes. He has asked me to share my insights on the pancratium, a critical aspect of the upcoming Games.

"In an era of relative peace, it is through honour of sport and excellence in the games that we can bring glory to our families, our schools, and our teachers. The pancratium is the perfect synthesis of many aspects of individual performance - it is combat at its most essential, without weapon, and with very limited rules. Everyone competes as equal, without category other than age, and it is up to you to use all of your skills to their utmost and prove your worth.

"Pancratium means 'all power', after all, and has a lengthy history. Its origins are in Graecia before the rise of the empire - over two and a half millennia ago. Thousands of years of honing and refining have led to a competition that truly distils the essence of personal combat into this event.

"Of course, there are as many styles of combat as there are grains of sand on the beach, but for our purposes today we will discuss the primary categories of the art: striking, locking, choking, throws and most importantly strategy."

"Now, " he continued as he began to remove his outer garments, exposing a figure sculpted from countless hours of drilling and fighting, "The Tesserarius and I will demonstrate the traditional style as covered in basic military training. This is the style most readily available to those of you who may not have your own schools of combat to adhere to. That is not to say that they are in any way limited - these are the foundations of our military force. We will begin with the basic striking stance. Observe how my weight is primarily placed on my back leg, with the forward leg always ready to strike. See how my body is positioned at an angle, so as to protect the centre line of the body while allowing for maximum striking range. Now, let's proceed with the basic set of strikes..."

The Centurion continued with his demonstration as all of the students looked on intently. Michael etched every movement and word into his memory so that he could retrieve the information later when practising at home.

"I bet those five have their family styles to rely on," Michael grumbled internally. "Like Centurion Densus said, it's not that they're necessarily better, but they're certainly better for them."

<<Affirmative. Identifying the correct style of combat for the Subject is critical. Generating Mission...>>