Overcoming

As things were progressing on many parts of the Grand Line as the crew had split up to undergo a form of training, build up their skills or to gain more experience while building up their power patiently, a month had passed by and some had begun to be moved to new places already as planned.

Various supplies were dropped off at Baldimore along with Tristan and Medea who were able to be transported there by Alfred.

Under the water, underneath the ship that dropped them off there was many Kungfu Dugongs practicing fighting poses and punching.

Each of their punches carried a similarity to Tristan's punches that had been trained to have the effects of the Eight Impact Fist but they did not nearly have as much mastery as herself.

However one at the front of the group had shown it's talents early and established its place as the leader of the group.

Each of their punches were evolving underwater as they continued to experiment with the effects the Eight Impact Fist created underwater.

Far away there was a figure not too far away that continued to look at their movements with a look of realisation in her eyes.

Nearby Alyssia was Tristan who stayed underneath the water and watch their movements carefully.

The Kungfu Dugong were honing their techniques and using the water to hone and adapt to another environment.

As they created a shockwave in the water, the water would act as if it was being pushed aside as the force created from each punch pushed forward.

As the force disappeared, the location where the gap had been created was filled up with water again like it was desperately trying to fill up that void creating a small whirlpool like movement towards the centre.

The spiral continued to move until the space was filled with water again but as the second punch was delivered it broke apart again to repeat.

The punches became faster and each of the Kungfu Dugong followed the same rythym creating a small distortion in the sea underneath the boat.

Each punch would add more power to the shockwave as if granting it more power to push a nail further into a wall with a second or third hit without wasting any movements and hitting in exactly the same place each time.

As she watched them gaining this mastery, Alyssia closed her eyes and bought their unique skill that they had been developing named 'Sea Impact Fist'.

When she swam up and climbed onto the ship, Tristan joined her and asked. "I kind of understand a little more why you suggested this but what is your true goal?"

Alyssia shrugged. "Of course it was to let you see that martial arts are not just limited to land and normal conditions. They can be developed to be used in different environments and to counter different kinds of enemies. When faced with certain devil fruits your strength may be reduced or underwater you may be weak against Fishmen or sea creatures. Each race or tribe has its own advantages that they can exploit. We have our higher agility, reflexes and battle sense with the addition of Electro and Sulong but if you put us in the water or in a hot environment we will not be able to do our best because of various restrictions. For now just join me underwated and you will understand."

Most of the Mink tribe would be at a disadvantage underwater just like humans against Fishmen and sea creatures so if they one day lose their ship or fall into the sea, they would have a difficult time fighting any enemy.

Moonwalk or Geppo would help to avoid such things but not everyone would be able to master it unless they had very strong leg strength already and could get enough time to slowly grasp the technique.

It also did not help that the Mink tribe were full of furr and when it became wet, their bodies would become heavier underwater.

Their overall speed would be greatly reduced no matter how good swimmers they may be because their furr would absorb the water and the overall body mass would increase after being submerged for some time.

Alyssia dived back into the water after briefly scanning through the movements that the system had been adjusting to better suit her own body and began to slowly adjust her body after finding a space to practice.

She started with some simple movements that focussed on punches but as she continued she found herself adding some kicks, knee and elbow strikes while adjusting her swimming movements.

The longer she stayed under the water, the more difficult and exhausting her movements would become.

It was as if she training on a mountain peak with very low air and heavy pressure on her body but instead she could only focus on holding her breathe while trying to improve her lung capacity as she continued to make her movements more efficient.

All of her experiences had lead her closer and closer to mastering her own style of martial arts and this was just another step to help her do so.

Whether it was water, ice, fire or heat, thunder and lightning, wind or any of the other elements like darkness and light, she wished to overcome them one by one and only then could she be able to truly say that she is the strongest or most invincible being in this world.

Each Devil Fruit has weird powers and even an awakening would make things worse to deal with so it did not hurt to prepare her own body and martial arts to the extreme to combat everything.

One of her biggest fears right now was passing through Fishmen Island because of its current troubles with Hody Jones and the fishmen district.

She did not fear him or their followers at all as they were right now but they were still in the possession of the energy steroids and could burst the coating done to her ship resulting in her being crushed by the pressure from being deep under the sea.

Even if she were to survive, it may result in a large loss of her own crew members so it was not worth risking right now and it was difficult to determine if she could defeat Hody as she was, especially underwater since Zoro had to defeat him with his single sword strike after his two years of training.

After practicing underwater for some time with Tristan, they both came up for some air before continueing to practice each of their movements.

Each of Alyssia's kicks were improving at a fast rate and becoming much smoother with every movement reducing the burden on her body and she slowly started to incorporate her own mastery over the Eight Impact Fist and the Sea Impact Fist, although she lacked the experience from Fishmen Karate there would always be some opportunities to grasp some secrets to it in her own way using her own skills.

She began to wonder what her movements would become like once the restraints and burden on her body had been removed and would become light and free to move as she pleased.

It would be like undergoing weight training wearing a weighted training suit and then removing it.

As Tristan found her own place to train alone, she continued to watch both the Kungfu Dugong's and Alyssia's movements and she began to slowly adjust how she kicked her legs to keep her body positioned well enough to allow her to follow through with her punch just like how she had been watching the others practice.

One gave examples on how to punch but was a sea creature so it had more ease moving underwater but the other was the opposite and was usong their legs to move and adjust their body while also attacking in various ways with her feet so she had many examples to follow.

However after a little practice she found that it was very difficult to grasp and it was something that required practice and training to overcome.

Silently in her mind, she looked over at Alyssia's quick progress and thought. 'Freak of nature.'

However she could not just put sich labels on her friend so easily and dismiss her efforts since she had been by her side the longest.

She had witnessed the many times that Alyssia came back beaten up and exhausted after many training exercises and battles against stronger opponents so she could only steadily work on herself so that she could catch up to her friend who continued forging a path ahead and leaving everyone further behind.

The friendship and bonds that they had built over the years were not so weak that she would give up so easily to catch up and help her friend with her goals no matter what they may be.

Her friend held back many things from her and seemed as if being chased by something but Tristan wished to become her strength and reduce some of the burden she carried.