[MA] 192. Nothing More (Patreon)

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"I've had many opportunities to learn different spear styles in my lifetime," Liya said, fine-tuning the pressure she exerted so that Feng Shen could understand her words. "Thirteen were good enough for me, and I mastered them. Of those, three are better compatible with your Path and can teach you valuable things. I'll impart all three onto you."

Feng Shen was too early in his True Path to be able to learn moves from other Paths without merging them with his own. His entire being rejected the idea of using different styles. Going against that instinct required more willpower than he had.

Few True Path Walkers ever cared about it. There were only so many benefits to using a style that wasn't your own. One was for teaching others. Another was for extra unpredictability on the battlefield, though most believed it was better to invest the time it would take to learn it in improving your own Path or style instead.

Liya fit into all categories. She taught people and saw value in being unpredictable, but she had only spent so much time with it. She stopped learning new styles after the thirteenth one, which she considered the point of diminishing returns.

"What about movement arts?" Feng Shen asked with slurred speech due to the mental pressure.

"I don't know any," she replied. "Not categorized separately, at least.

"You've learned how to position and move your body to make the most out of unarmed combat, then to make the most out of the drow basic spearmanship. Now, you'll learn how to move accordingly to three different spear styles.

"It's up to you to extrapolate that knowledge into non-combat situations. Do you need to sprint to win a competition? Your body is a weapon, and the distance is your enemy. For how long do you need to run? How far away is your objective? What obstacles are on the way? Analyze everything as you would an enemy and apply the correct techniques to crush them."

He nodded like a drunk. Good. If he could ask questions and nod at the right time, he was listening.

Liya continued, "Now, I'll teach you the first style I mentioned: the Inexorable Tide.

"It's a C+, borderline B- Spear-cored style supported by Water and Earth. Or, in your words, the Laws of the Spear are foundational, and the Laws of Water and Earth are secondary."

Liya couldn't use Laws that didn't belong in her Path, and most other styles she had learned had different Laws, but she could use Concepts shared between the Laws to fake them to a point. She could also somewhat fake the moves' emotions, feelings, hopes, and goals.

Fortunately, Feng Shen couldn't touch on Laws or adequately analyze the intent of domains even when his mind wasn't suppressed. Therefore, watching Liya show him the styles would be the same as if he were watching the styles' creators themselves.

She decreased the pressure on his mind slightly and kept explaining and showing things to him.

= - = - =

The first few days were the most challenging.

Liya had to find her charge's mental limits and ensure he stayed right by the line between being unable to hold a spear and copying her moves. She got the gist of it soon enough. Feng Shen's newfound emotional control also made it easier for him to handle his body, which made up for his pressured and unfocused mind somewhat.

The Inexorable Tide was all about building pressure and keeping the momentum. It focused on the inevitability of one's victory, so it had a lot to do with willpower. It also drank deeply from the stability of Earth Laws and the patience of the Tides coming and going.

Its primary idea was that the waters would eventually swallow the world whole as long as they kept at it.

Feng Shen had trouble with the stable part of the style because his Path lacked Earth-based Concepts. He replaced it with the insistence of his gentle-breeze-like Concept and the continuity of his Flow.

Turning Earth into Wind and Water wasn't a novel idea, but it came with personal flavors whenever it was used. In his case, the Inexorable Tide became more of an Inescapable Annoyance. He would attack and attack and attack and attack and attack and attack and attack and attack, and so forth and so on, constantly, without stopping, uncaring of his attack's strength, forever and ever.

Liya deeply suspected some enemies might let themselves get killed just to make him stop.

She had bothered to learn that spear style primarily from how it approached using momentum in a fight. It was an interesting trick based on the Concept of the Tide that came to life with chain attacks. It made each strike stronger than the previous one until their power peaked, then they became weaker instead. It was crucial to keep the right tempo and ensure the most potent strike would come at the place at the right time.

Feng Shen did an excellent job of replacing the Concept of the Tide with his Concept of the Flow and keeping that idea going—at first.

Soon enough, he also used Flow to let him keep his peak strength for longer.

"There are good reasons this technique's peak C-rank creator chose to do things in certain ways," she admonished. "But you, a mere D-rank, think you know better. Stop it right now. Absorb everything you can from the style, every insight, every idea. Then decide how you'll make it more compatible with your Path."

It wasn't easy for him at first because it significantly differed from his own fighting style. He eventually got it, though.

Feng Shen understood how to wait for the right moment to use his peak strength, break his enemy's momentum, and prepare and act for when he knew he would have only weak attacks. As expected, that led him to further improve when and how to exploit his enemy's every move. It also provided a first-hand touch on the style's weaknesses and how to take advantage of them.

It took him two months to master what he could understand of the Inexorable Tide. The technique was almost B- and wasn't Lawless like the basic styles the drow had created. That meant it contained many moves that required touching on Laws.

Feng Shen wasn't there yet. He could only become one of the strongest D-rank warriors Liya had ever met, maybe strong enough to kill a weak C-rank without an aura.

Nothing more.

= - = - =

There were many reasons Liya beat Feng Shen in their spars instead of lowering herself to her level.

One of them was the impact he would feel when he fought someone after the training. By then, he would only have memories of his previous fights and recall how weak he felt when battling her. The boy knew he was growing stronger, but experiencing his newfound power against an actual enemy in a real battle situation would be something else altogether. When the time came, and he did so, it would be the trigger to solidify all her teachings in his Path once and for all.

Yet, it took him two months to reach an acceptable level on the first style, so she decided to give him a preview of his gains. Two months was way too long. Maybe feeling his new power would give him extra drive.

Liya found a seven-foot-wide round boulder with her domain and teleported it closer. She placed it in front of him.

"Show me your mastery of the Inexorable Tide," she commanded. "Crush this rock into tiny pieces of equal size. Before you attack, call out the effect you believe your attack will have on the boulder. The result must be exactly as you said."

Feng Shen obeyed, and he proved he knew what he was doing. His enthusiasm for the training also increased considerably.

Unfortunately, Feng Shen enjoyed using his new power a little too much.

"I'll create a half-millimeter tear two feet into the stone," he called and proceeded to do just that with the technique.

"Now, I'll make it shake slightly three hundred times to create a two-millimeter crack right in the middle without affecting its structural integrity." He did just that.

"I'll feign a feint," he declared. "The enemy will believe it was a feint and won't notice my attack succeeded. I'll pull back at the last instant, and the rock won't notice the vibration the air caused moved it one-third degree upwards. It also won't notice that I kicked a minuscule pebble underneath it, right on its edge. Then, I'll kick the ground, and the shockwave will make the pebble perfectly positioned to unbalance the boulder for my next attacks."

So he kept doing for an entire minute. Two. Five. Ten.

The tide came and went. His power peaked and weakened. Repeatedly, over and over again.

Liya didn't stop because the exercise was serving its purpose, but it was just sad to see someone drunken on so little power. He really hadn't noticed how outstanding his improvements were until now. She was just too good at her job.

"I'll break it," Feng Shen finally said.

His spear's thrust exploded the human-sized bolder into a fine powder that could pass up as human makeup.

"I like this style," he said with a dumb smile.

Liya had to admit his control was impressive. The microtears were on a level she hadn't expected just from seeing him moving. It came from how he utilized qi in critical moments in a way mana couldn't be used. While mana could enhance a body, it was almost always slower and more permanent.

She also had to acknowledge his Inevitable Annoyance was second to none in the multiverse.

As she had foretold, she was sure the rock had just exploded itself out of aggravation. It had feared that resisting his last attack would have meant Liya telling him to keep attacking it for all eternity.

"May your enemies' gods have mercy on them," Liya whispered. She then raised her voice and spoke seriously. "Next is the Elusive Light. It is a B- style, so we'll be dealing with mastered Laws. I'll do my best to dumb them down so you can understand as much as possible.

"The Laws of the Light are at the style's core, and Spear and Wind support it. Light is the fastest physical thing in Reality, and it focuses on speed the most. However, the creator of this style didn't use speed to potentialize direct clashes. The Elusive Light focuses on avoiding defenses, then using speed for extra power in unprotected places. It's all about speed-powered intangibility."

She showed it to him.

= - = - =

Feng Shen kept changing what he learned to use it with his Path. Earth had become Wind and Water previously. Now, the Laws of Light were replaced with Lightning and Spear.

Or, to be more precise, Liya used the Concepts that her Path's Laws shared with the Laws of Light to simulate Light—mastered Light, no less. Shen replaced what he could perceive with his own Path's Concepts. In this case, he used a mix of his Lightning-based Concept and his Spear-based one, which was about going beyond his boundaries—

Boundlessness.

At last, Liya got it. A tricky Concept to learn from any set of Laws, for sure, maybe even harder from a Weapon Law.

Whatever Lightning-based Concept he knew wasn't about speed, but he used Boundlessness to make up for it and get closer to Light. Also, he usually heavily favored agility in his battle style, despite having no speed-focused Concept in his Path, so he took to it rather quickly.

His Wind-based gentle-breeze-like Concept was also at home with the style's elusive aspect and was further potentialized by his Flow.

Feng Shen felt so at home that he learned everything he could from it in a month.

Liya didn't let him test the style against any rock this time. The drow enemies called them heartless, but putting another boulder through such suffering would be too much even for her.

Plus, she didn't want to waste any more time when he was already enthusiastic enough.

= - = - =

"And finally comes the Final Dusk," Liya declared at last. "It's a B- style bothering on B. It's Annihilation-cored and supported by Darkness and Spear. It seeks to obliterate the enemy as effectively as possible.

"Obliterating the enemy, in this case, is essentially doing the most damage where, when, and however it hurts the most. This style seeks to crush the enemy thoroughly. It is akin to impossible to use it if you aren't willing to utterly destroy whatever or whoever is against you."

Feng Shen wouldn't have to worry about that after he adapted the style to his soft Path. However, one of the things she sought to teach this time was decisiveness. He had been terrible at it in the rift.

She also wanted to teach him a methodical goal-oriented approach to battle. He fought with technique, but much of what he did came from instincts and depended too much on his Concepts.

Now that he wasn't overthinking his every move, Liya would pull all decisions back where they belonged: his mind, assisted but not controlled by his Concepts.

She continued, "The style's effectiveness might mean speed to you kill your enemy quickly; knowledge about your enemies' and your own strengths and weaknesses not to waste power in senseless moves; flexibility to employ any tools you might have at your disposal; adaptability not to insist on a subpar approach; quick-thinking and sound judgment not to pick a flawed method; and the self-awareness and elusiveness not to get hurt or tired.

"Yes, being effective also means not getting hurt or tired unless needed. You must be ready to kill millions of other enemies after each one you deal with. Therefore, the Final Dusk's dodging moves are only behind its destructive potential. The style accomplishes it by drinking heavily from Darkness.

"It might sound similar to Elusive Light, but it's completely different. Elusive Light is about speed-based elusiveness; speed is required in everything it does. However, Final Dusk has no such requirements.

"The Final Dusk style is about being fast only if and when needed—and even then, only in the amounts that make doing so more effective. As I said, effectiveness might be many things; speed is only one of them. Moreover, the elusiveness of this style's Darkness comes predominantly from being beyond your enemy's sight by subterfuge rather than being too fast for him to see."

Presenting him with two opposing ways of doing the same thing was another reason she was teaching him those three specific styles.

The order was also important. The Inexorable Tide, for instance, took forever to build momentum and analyze things instead of just being done with them. However, it helped Feng Shen acknowledge and internalize more intelligent ways of using little strength for more significant gains. Now, he would also take advantage of it, as much as he did of certain traits of the Elusive Light, to push everything an extra mile.

The superior method was naturally kept for last.

"There are many things Final Dusk can do," Liya continued, "all for the ultimate goal of Annihilation. It doesn't care how it'll happen, only that it is accomplished. To put it another way, Final Dusk isn't an assassination style but can be used as such. It isn't made for breaking shields in a direct confrontation but can be used as such. It isn't made for besieging but can be used as such.

"It paradoxically sees its own self and its every technique as but a tool that might or not be used to accomplish said ultimate goal.

"It's only bad for defense. It contains moves to gain time while waiting for the right opportunity to cause maximum damage but no dedicated set of insurmountable blocks. It focuses more on dodging than resisting damage."

Final Dusk was Liya's best style—her own. It was only B- because she was still C-rank. Despite having mastered all her Path's Laws, she still didn't know what being a B-rank felt like. Her body, soul, and mind were still limited to a little beyond peak C-rank. That was also why she couldn't push her Path further before ranking up. Therefore, her moves were somewhat lacking.

After finishing her introductory speed, she taught Feng Shen, focusing on that style the most. It was the one she knew best and believed to be the best.

She also took the opportunity to teach Feng Shen how to properly drink from other styles to bring new things into his Path. Everything he had learned until now was pushed on a filtered version of Final Dusk style while he saw it, then into his Path.

His Lightning-based Concept—she was sure it was something about electrical arcs but hadn't studied the subject—focused on giving him an extra punch. He used it with Sharpness, Combat, and Boundlessness to replace Annihilation.

Once more, the gentle breeze and Flow replaced the elusiveness of Darkness, though differently from the Elusive Light. In the latter, it had been about moving around the enemy. Now, it was about not being where the enemy expected, staying hidden, breaking their light of sight, or being where the enemy couldn't attack.

Unfortunately, the coldness of a mind fully immersed in her mastered Laws of Darkness was beyond Feng Shen. He tried to make up for it with War and Boundlessness, and it did help him with cold logic to some extent, but his Path was clearly much more passionate than hers, emotional control notwithstanding. Pushing him into being colder without years of dedicated training would require him to depend too much on War, the opposite of what she was seeking.

In the end, his Path was his own. His was the will that had to determine what he was.

They spent three months learning her style and finishing up with everything.

Almost ten months after the training started, he was the best warrior he could be without an aura, and it was finally time to ask his question.

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