Chapter 57: I Understand It Now
I Understand It Now
"Alright everyone, not much for me to say other than good morning. It’s gonna be the same stuff as yesterday so, create distance between yourselves again." Masha said without a shrug, as there truly wasn’t a lot to say besides getting right into it.
Mike and Kris separated, with the former making distance while ignoring the gazes of the others to the best of his ability. He did sense quite a bit of smugness from two characters, namely Namor and Agnes, and while he wasn’t exactly bothered by this, he still decided to face them, particularly the former.
He turned and locked eyes with Namor who was staring at him with unmasked smugness and disdain, and Mike just smiled before mouthing something and facing his front once more.
The observing students were confused, however, judging by how veins bulged across the latter’s neck and face, whatever Mike said must not have been respectful, to say the least.
As for what Mike mouthed, well?
’You’re an insecure guy, aren’t you?’ A set of simple words, but they had obviously struck a nerve or two.
At the front, Masha noticed this brief altercation and stared at Mike with slight exasperation.
After yesterday, she’d done some digging herself, both on what she could find concerning his background and his behavior in school overall.
’He doesn’t seem like much of a troublemaker unless you provoke him, and so far, in all the situations where he’s been provoked, he manages to come out on top. He also seems to have a knack for pissing people off.’ She shook her head slightly as she began to activate the holograms and energy demarcations.
’Then again, it says he grew up scavenging for scraps to survive. Without any parents, there had to have been a certain level of cunning to appear at some point to let him survive. Needless to say, he isn’t very simple.’ She activated everything and narrowed her eyes slightly.
’And despite seeming unconfrontational, something tells me he’s quite petty.’
Mike let out a breath and rolled his shoulders as he got ready. In truth, he was looking forward to this first class for a simple reason.
To test out Crimson Ladder properly.
The ability of the holograms to adapt would suit him greatly here as he could flesh out any issues in his use of the style, because while he’d certainly gotten better at it, the fact is that he spent the whole time punching air. He didn’t know how to shadow box or anything like that, so he was more or less just smacking the air without a target in mind.
This would change that.
The hologram soon materialized, and Mike wasted no time as he took a heavy step and started to move his energy. He immediately felt Masha’s attention snap towards him, a trace of surprise from it as she seemed to recognize the flow of energy immediately.
’Hopefully, I don’t get penalized. She said we can’t use our abilities, but she never said anything about using our energy. Besides, it’s not like controlling my energy actually makes me stronger, it just makes my movements better. So it should be fine... right?’ He thought with some worry.
However, he couldn’t think about that right now as he soon reached the hologram, making use of Predator’s Foresight and Primal Awareness right off the bat.
As soon as he got close, he attacked, actively reading the movements of the hologram as he started attacking.
Like yesterday, the first part of the fight involved him pummeling the hologram due to its weak stats and skills at the beginning. Mike also used this time to start building momentum while making sure NOT to use Overclocking.
He also slightly divided his attention, half of it was focused on the hologram to read its movements and attack, while the other half was focused on himself for a simple reason.
He didn’t want to accidentally transform partially due to getting too worked up, as that would suck. He instinctively knew that the chances of this happening were low, though, as whenever he created a new skill, it was difficult to activate it without actively thinking about it, hence the ’active’ tag. Still, better safe than sorry.
Also, while he didn’t use Overclocking, he still made his energy flow faster than normal, as while Crimson Ladder was based on momentum, starting too slow was an easy way to get yourself punched in the face, and Mike wanted to build up his momentum to a decent degree before the hologram started to fight back properly.
Something that came quickly, as when Mike was about to make a jab, the leg of the hologram whipped out, aiming for the side of his calf.
He was more or less in the zone, though, as he dodged the attack and blocked the follow-up, his movements far less clumsy than yesterday with Crimson Ladder supporting him.
He gripped the arm of the hologram and threw it away into the energy wall before charging at it. It recovered quickly and charged at Mike as well. When they got close, both pulled back their fists and punched at the same time. Their fists collided in a loud clash that created palpable gusts of wind, but the hologram lost out in a contest of pure strength as it staggered while Mike advanced.
As soon as they got close again, the two of them immediately started to go at it, and after several moves, Mike was on the back foot as the hologram took advantage of his lack of experience, landing several hits on him.
Despite this, though, Mike found himself smiling.
’Good.’ He thought as he stomped while aiming his head towards an incoming fist. Said fist struck his forehead hard, and the hologram reeled as if in pain.
Mike took advantage of this as he charged forward and landed a devastating hit on the chest of the hologram. Despite the hits he was taking, Mike kept his energy flowing, as such, Crimson Ladder hadn’t been interrupted once, making the momentum compound ever more.
The hologram was forced to respond in kind as Mike’s tempo started to surge, and both of them started going at it once more. But to anyone watching, they’d be surprised to see that with every following exchange, Mike was slowly getting the advantage, and not just due to the way his speed and power grew.
You see, after yesterday when the system explained the unique existence that was a Lupine, and how the rationality of their human side and the wildness of their wolf side interacted, he started thinking a bit. Well, he thought as much as he could before the backlash from Overclocking beat the hell out of him..
He specifically thought about its relation to fighting.
He recalled the previous day when he relied too much on his instincts, something the hologram from then gladly took advantage of as Mike found himself getting thrashed for half the fight.
It was only when he stopped leaning solely on those instincts that he wasn’t in as much of a disadvantage. Granted, it wasn’t perfect, and Mike couldn’t rely solely on his rational side as his instincts were too much of a boon to forsake completely.
So instead of leaning into one of the two wholly, why not just embrace that both were a part of him and stand solely in the middle, allowing himself to enjoy the best of both worlds? The analytical mind born from his human side along with the uncanny instincts granted by his wolf side?
And with his heightened perception, Mike found himself doing something he’d been trying to do for a while ever since he got Predator’s Foresight.
Analyzing his opponent and their combat patterns, and applying them to himself.
The hologram worked by allowing whoever it fought to harm it for a while before it got strengthened to match them while also developing a combat style that matched the one its opponent was using.
Why couldn’t Mike do the same?
[Ding. Due to the Host’s efforts, the skill (Predator’s Foresight) has reached Level 2.]
All of a sudden, the fight became far more even, and whenever the hologram strengthened itself to match Mike’s growing momentum, Mike simply pushed himself further, and it became difficult to see who was adapting to who as whenever the hologram tried to switch up its combat style to counter Mike, Mike would spend a few minutes reading it, and would suddenly start countering it sharply.
It was at this point that Mike discovered another boom of Crimson Ladder. It went well with his instincts. The style would sharpen his movements, and his instincts would guide him to stop him from taking a hit strong enough to completely cancel his momentum.
There was also just how flexible the style was, as whenever the hologram switched things up, Mike could easily change the way he moved to combat it.
Every dodge, kick, punch, block, counter, all of it was saturating the immense lack of experience Mike lacked. He was like a sponge soaking up everything around him, the fight serving to boost him further than ever before.
Masha didn’t even try to hide the way she was staring at Mike, the shock in her eyes apparent.
’This kid... I know I made Crimson Ladder easy to understand, but to learn the first step in just one night... Moreover, he truly can handle the strain it exhibits on the body, and with seemingly no problems either.’ She rubbed her face as she saw Mike scrap with the hologram, a large smile on his face as he was clearly enjoying himself.
’Moreover... his rate of improvement is monstrous. He could barely keep up with the hologram yesterday, but now he’s matching almost- What the?!’ Masha’s thoughts halted briefly as she saw something surprising.
The hologram got in close and tried to grapple Mike, but in response, Mike dropped to the ground, one hand catching the floor as his legs swung out in a sharp arc. His heel cut through the air like a blade, just like how the hologram had attacked him at some point earlier in the fight.
Manji Kick.
The hit rocked the hologram hard, caught off guard by the blow as Mike twisted with the spin, rolled with the momentum, and came back to his feet in one smooth motion, his grin as wide as ever.
’... That was one of the few heavy moves the hologram landed throughout this fight, and while popular, it isn’t easy to execute due to the inherent need to time it near perfectly while following the motions cleanly to retain power and avoid losing balance. But he executed it almost perfectly despite having seen it only once.’ Masha thought, her one eye slowly brightening.
’This kid... is something else.
’I did NOT think that would work.’