The Basics of Martial Arts 3

Sido left Arnik at the center of the building and went to a corner in the room, he stopped in front of a shelf that had been created in the wall and took three scrolls from it. He then went back to Arnik and handed the three scrolls to him.

"These scrolls contain the basic forms of all three subjects. You'll need to master all of them to have a solid foundation in martial arts " Sido said as Arnik began opening the scrolls and examining their contents.

They contained diagrammatic representations of different stances and forms on each subject.

"Your elemental affinity is lightning, it's quite rare to find a Lighting mage in Lirdunia, that's probably one of the reasons why the academy accepted you, well that and your smarts I'm guessing", Sido said with a smile on his face.

Arnik could only fake a smile in return. He was a bit bothered that he couldn't tell Sido about his fire affinity but he decided to trust Olea's judgment.

"Lightning mages are well known for their sheer destructiveness and penetrative force, so eventually you'll have to give top priority to the attack aspect of your martial arts, movement should be next, and lastly defense

Analyzing yourself and deploying protective measures in place to protect your weaknesses is very important. The amount of protection you have can quickly decide if you'll come out of a life and death situation safely".

Arnik gulped down saliva as he heard Sido mention life and death. Sido was right, dealing with magical creatures as well as dark mages was dangerous work and Sido's bluntness had reminded him of that.

"Better to be safe than sorry " he quietly muttered to himself.

"Take off your kimono", Sido said to Arnik as he began taking his off. Arnik hesitated before taking his off as well.

He had seen Sido in just trunks before, but seeing him like that again up close made Arnik realize something he hadn't before.

Sido had a lean muscular frame, and his body looked to be in peak condition. His muscles were toned and his overall figure had a sturdy and well-defined composition. He had several scars on his body as well as a small tattoo on his shoulder.

"Could you stop staring at my body like that, it's embarrassing " Sido said in a soft voice, only then did Arnik realize that he had actually been staring at his teacher while analyzing his body structure. He quickly retracted his gaze and turned to look at the floor.

Seeing Arnik's reaction made Sido let out a laugh before he began speaking again,

"It's ok I'm just teasing you, it's a very good idea to study and analyze one's opponents before and during a fight. That analysis can eventually lead to the discovery of a flaw or weakness in your opponent and victory.

Arnik raised his head after that and nodded at Sido who smiled back before continuing,

"After mastering the basis of martial arts, I trained my body to better suit my elemental affinity.

My personal martial arts are heavily based on movement as such I created a set of intricate footwork that can help me dodge my opponent's attacks as well as deliver quick and effective attacks.

That type of martial art requires a light yet sturdy body to execute so I adjusted my physical training to improve that aspect of my body".

Arnik nodded as Sido began jumping on his tiptoes,

"My legs play an important role in my movement, and I spent a lot of time training them. As such, I was able to diversify my attacks and include kicks In my arsenal.

It's all about setting a realistic goal in mind and working hard to fulfill that goal. Several new modifications and ideas are sure to come along the way and you can inculcate those to get even better results ".

That signaled the end of Sido's long explanation. He told Arnik to begin practicing the basic forms as well as stances and even gave him demonstrations for him to emulate.

Arnik began an endless cycle of practicing those forms. Initially, Sido would point out his mistakes and sometimes even moved to correct him by adjusting certain body parts but eventually, Arnik began executing the stances flawlessly.

He repeated the same stances over and over again until they began to feel natural to him. After several hours of practice, Sido finally told him to stop.

Arnik was exhausted, beads of sweat ran down his face and covered his entire body.

He didn't hesitate to gulp the bottle of water that Sido gave to him. He finished a second bottle and only seemed to calm down midway through his third bottle of water.

"You did pretty well for your first day, " Sido said as he sat down beside Arnik,

"I'm guessing you'll need a month to completely master these forms. When you're done with them I'll give you the scrolls for the next level. I've also prepared a list of exercises that you should engage in to start training your body, find some way to fit them into your schedule" he said as he handed another sheet of paper to Arnik who simply nodded at him.

Sido rose to his feet and walked towards one of the training dummies in the room , he then dragged it to the center of the room close to where Arnik was still sitting, the dummy looked to be made of some time of metal and appeared really heavy in Arnik's eyes but Sido dragged it with relative ease

"Check this out," he said as he began performing the same stances Arnik had spent the whole day performing.

Arnik couldn't help but gape at the sight of Sido performing those stances, he repeated those stances to the point that even Sido called them flawless but seeing Sido replicating them reminded him that he still had a lot to learn.

Arnik could perform each stance perfectly but his stances lacked synergy, he performed them like they were separate entities. Sido however connected all those stances moving gently from one foot to another, that was a master that had spent several years perfecting his arts and Arnik's admiration knew no bounds.

"I can tell that you already see the differences between us when we both perform these stances, one of the most important things in Martial Arts is harmony.

Harmony is what allows a Martial Artist to fuse his elemental affinity with his Arts"

As Sido said this, a gentle breeze began to blow in the training area. Arnik watched Sido repeat those stances over and over again, but his movements became harder and harder to read. Arnik was completely focused on Sido and even then he still had a hard time keeping up with his movements.

The soft breeze began picking up speed as Sido began to reach the end of the different stances, eventually the relatively strong breeze condensed in Sido's right fist as he threw a punch at the training dummy.

Everything in the room slowed down as Sido threw the punch and Arnik could clearly see its effects on the training dummy.

The dummy began to move backward before Sido's punch even reached it, the force of the punch was strong enough to shift it from its previous spot and it seemed like Sido's punch would even miss its target, however that didn't even phase Sido.

His left leg was in front of his right leg as he began throwing the punch, they were both firmly planted in the ground to give more power to the punch, however when the training dummy shifted from its previous spot, Sido simply reacted to that event by kicking an almost invisible force with his right leg.

The event was almost instantaneous and Arnik could only see it due to how slow everything was in the room, but the effects of the simple movement became evident.

The force behind Sido's right leg propelled him forward and gave more momentum to his punch which landed on the training dummy, time seemed to stop for a bit before everything continued normally.

The force of the attack caused Arnik to instinctively cover his face in a defensive posture, and when he opened his eyes, he found the training dummy on the other side of the room with several cracks on its surface.

Arnik's eyes opened wider as he inspected the damage on the training dummy, it looked to be on the verge of completely collapsing after flying across the room, he turned to face Sido who was calmly staring at his fist with a comical look on his face.

"I'm pretty sure I held back on that attack " he muttered to himself, he scratched his hair for a bit before eventually bursting into laughter.

He eventually calmed down and looked at Arnik who was still staring at him with a stunned expression.

"You can see the difference in power when elemental affinity comes into play and now you have something clear to strive towards.

By the end of the month we'll move on to more interesting subjects, that's enough for today"

Arnik could only nod in response as he bowed to his teacher and began preparing to leave.