Proficiency

13th of Adun, year 991

Blink savored the aroma of the coffee he had brewed. The aroma wasn't as good as the ones his sister had brewed, the taste even less so.

Since leaving Kasgar, he had been brewing and drinking coffee in the morning, at around the time he used to drink coffee with Magra and Jogr, his adoptive sister and his brother-in-law.

He had promised to his brother-in-law that he would drink coffee at about the same time they always did together. Jogr reasoned that if Blink did so, he and Magra would feel Blink's presence inside their cozy kitchen and feel good about the rest of their day. As it was the least comfort he could provide them, he swore to it and had never missed his coffee at the appointed hour since the day after he left.

For his part Blink kept his promise turning the brewing and drinking of coffee almost into a ritual because it gave him a sense of connection to his family.

Since the meat of the monster beast he killed in the Kasgar forest had been proven to toughen the eater's constitution, Blink made a broth of it in the morning while meditating after training in martial arts and magic, in that order. In the evening, he would barbecue a portion of it, which he ate prior to his evening training with magic.

Blink kept a daily training regimen of three times a day for magic and once a day for martial arts. He would always start his day with martial arts training at dawn. There were, however, times when he would integrate martial arts with his magic training in the early afternoon.

He had added a personal close-combat fire spell just a few days back. He called it the [[Tri-Blade Claw]]. It was similar to his [[Flame Dagger]] except that it emerged from the back of his knuckle instead of his finger. Although his original design was for three blades with a length of thirty centimeters each, for the meantime Blink had to be content with just one fifteen-centimetre blade. As it was, the name of the spell didn't fit the actual form of the spell, but Blink was determined to eventually attain the spell structure he had originally intended.

Since coming up with the spell, Blink had been practicing with it every morning and afternoon. He had devised a set of martial arts techniques for when he should use it in an actual fight. Since the spell extended out of his knuckle, some of the techniques were adapted from his punching routines.

There was one drawback with this recent spell. It only had a duration of five minutes. Blink didn't know any reason why that was so, but it was also the same in the case of his [[Flame Daggers]].

Realistically, five minutes was a long time. Besides, Blink could just simply cast the spell again. However, Blink hated being interrupted during his training.

Blink valued these close-combat spells as he fancied himself as a martial artist first and a magician second. Spells such as [[Tri-Blade Claw]] and [[Flame Daggers]] allowed him to do both at the same time.

The best thing about these spell-based weapons was that they didn't harm him at all unlike a real bladed weapon which would cut him just as much as it would cut his enemies. Like any form of physical combat, fighting with bladed weapons had its own share of self-inflicted wounds form accidents and careless maneuvers. Not having to worry about getting hurt by some careless mistake, Blink could go all out in case of a fight.

However, despite the many advantages of being a spellcaster to that of being a pure physical fighter, Blink didn't dare to flaunt his arcane abilities. The old man by the river left a very stern warning in his journal for a magician to avoid using magic in front of "non-magical folks" unless the situation turned desperate. He warned that normal people were usually right to be scared of something they didn't understand. He even cited several instances from his past wherein people's ignorance regarding magic led to some of the most horrifying tragedies involving wizards and acolytes. In some of the worst cases, the magician's family also got implicated.

It was for this reason that Blink had to constantly immerse himself in martial arts training.

Among all his techniques, the fist techniques Blink had learned or created inside the Ragha Martial Arts Academy were the closest to attaining perfection.

His standard techniques like [Roaring Tiger], [Three Fists], and [Leaping Tiger, Flashing Thunder] had all broken through the Adept Proficiency level while he was still in the academy.

[Roaring Tiger] is a simple forward punch to the chest, but the timing and delivery could be adjusted, giving the striker a rich variation of possibilities. Blink would often delay the punch by a bit, and sometimes by a full second, and also never limited his target to the opponent's chest. Sometimes he would also hit the face, lower abdomen or the shoulder joints. In the entire academy, only Blink still extensively used [Roaring Tiger] in a fight.

The second technique, [Three Fists] starts with a reverse punch to the chest, followed by an upward punch to the face then ended with a downward punch to the solar plexus area. The key to the technique is the speed of the combination. In some of his fights Blink would slide in for the closing punch. There were also times when he turned the second punch into a feint then sneaked in the closing punch.

[Leaping Tiger, Flashing Thunder] was a flashier technique. It starts with a downward slap to the opponent's wrist whether the opponent was punching or merely extending his hand. The slapping hand then snaps a fist strike to the opponent's jaw (leaping tiger). The punch was intended to set up the finishing strike (flashing thunder) or keep the opponent off-balanced for a punch to the face or a crushing blow to the ribcage. If the opponent got struck by the first punch, he would get a straight to the jaw. If the opponent blocked or covered up, he would take one on his ribcage. If the opponent dodged the first punch, a swinging hook would land to the opponent's head or back. The opponent could always slide back to avoid getting flashed with a thunderous punch. But against Blink and his insanely long kicking range, that usually turned out to be a bad idea.

With the three techniques every possibility had been covered by Blink and ingrained deeply into his muscle memory.

Blink created two fist techniques inside the academy: [The Serpent Bares Its Fangs] and [A View of Heaven].

The first technique starts with feet close together with the fighter facing the opponent sideways. The fist rests close to the hip. The fighter then steps towards his opponent as his fist flew forward. As with the [Roaring Tiger], Blink often varied his timing and the height of his bend. Often, a high bend would mean a punch to the face while a low bend meant a punch to the abdomen. However, there were times Blink bent low only to strike to the chest or face.

A key element to the technique was the punch was vertical, which meant the knuckles were aligned vertically. Blink preferred a vertical punch for this technique as he wanted to avoid having the elbow extend outward as the punch launched towards its target. While the punch would have already been on its way before the other guy saw the very slight elbow extension, Blink had the notion that it was enough for an experienced fighter to see that protruding elbow to be able to dodge, block or parry the blow quickly enough. By utilizing a vertical punch, there would be no excess movement at all.

This deceptively simple technique was only effective as a counterattack although Blink sometimes used it as a set-up for [Three-Fist Strike] or some other attacking technique.

The other technique, [A View of Heaven], was much simpler. It would start out as a lunging straight that Blink often intentionally projected. However, the straight would be pulled at the last moment and a huge lead uppercut would tilt back the head of the opponent, giving the stunned wretch a view of the sky and some time spent in dreamland. The strike didn't always hit home, but when it did, it was a thing of real beauty.

These five techniques had been honed by Blink to the Adept level of proficiency a full year before leaving the academy.

Martial arts techniques had four levels of proficiency: Beginner, Advanced, Adept and Master.

Proficiency in martial arts simply meant the extent by which a practitioner had honed the execution of a technique to perfection. Really strong techniques, when trained to Master Proficiency, would be almost impossible to block, parry or dodge.

Proficiency levels applied to individual techniques or combinations of techniques. It could also be used to gauge attainments in the movement sets created by Blink.

A practitioner was considered to have a Beginner Proficiency with a technique if he were able to properly execute the movements required by the technique.

Advanced Proficiency meant that the martial artist could already execute the technique with power, speed and precision. A trained martial artist usually needed three to six months to hone his technique to this proficiency level. Upon breaking through to Advanced Proficiency, a fighter must hone the technique through actual fight experience. While practicing the technique regularly was enough for it to reach Advance Proficiency, only an actual fight would allow the fighter's understanding of the technique to expand.

Adept Proficiency meant the martial artist had grasped the essentials of the technique such that the practitioner is able to use it to devastating effects on the battlefield. A technique honed to Adept Proficiency could disable, maim or knock out an opponent of similar strength with a single strike. Again, this could only be attained through countless combat experience.

Master Proficiency referred to the level when a martial artist's execution of a technique borders into perfection. Aside from the usual increase in power, speed and precision, the practitioner is able to utilize the technique in such a way that it would slip past the opponent's defenses.

Normally, an average martial artist could attain Adept Proficiency with a technique through fighting or sparring regularly in at least five years. It would take another five years before he could reach Master Proficiency with the technique. Geniuses would need only about half the time to achieve the same.

Blink's palm techniques could only be said to have reached Advanced Proficiency because he still couldn't use them to incapacitate an opponent in one go. He could do it on bandits, but those bandits were nowhere near his level of strength. Other than that, the damage from his palm strikes was amplified by his practice of [Collapsing Mountain].

As for the five fist techniques mentioned earlier, Blink only needed a few really good fights to gain the necessary insights to allow his practice of the techniques to reach Master Proficiency level.