Chapter 58: Fruitful Endeavor
Fruitful Endeavor
Usually, fighting at such high intensity for a long time was a surefire way to burn through your stamina fast, so people tended to gradually ramp up the intensity throughout a fight, trying to see if they could take out their opponent without going all out from the start to save energy.
That didn’t apply to Mike. The only reason he didn’t immediately go crazy from the start was due to the need to start building momentum for Crimson Ladder. When he started going, he started going.
Many might question this, perhaps call it reckless or needlessly wasteful, and under normal circumstances, they’d be correct. However, they also weren’t Lupines, so they weren’t aware of the insane endurance they possessed.
Hence, many of the people who were watching Mike’s fight who expected him to burn out quickly were shocked when they saw him keeping his intense pace for the entirety of the fight without faltering once.
’So he’s not all bark. Interesting.’ Namor Vortan watched from the corner of his eye after getting a brief breather from his own opponent. The sight of Mike going toe to toe with the hologram in such a way only excited him.
’It seems like I won’t break you so easily. Good.’
Meanwhile, Mike had continued to learn more about Crimson Ladder and the way his body reacted to it, and the more he used it, the more amazed he was at just how compatible it was with him.
He was no expert, but he assumed there was bound to be a certain level of compatibility between a user and the style they were being taught or were using. For instance, it didn’t exactly make sense for someone with a weak physique to use a physique-heavy combat style, or someone with an ability focused on light attacks using a style that prompted them to perform heavy hits.
Mike wasn’t sure of what styles he was and wasn’t compatible with, but the level of compatibility he had with Crimson Ladder was surely abnormal, right?
That said, the technique wasn’t perfect, but it suited him just fine as it was.
One thing he found to be interesting was the momentum-building aspect.
At some point during the fight, he wasn’t able to keep accumulating momentum without partially transforming, and for a style that heavily emphasized the need to keep building momentum, he’d been worried that all his progress would reset.
To his surprise and elation, though, he realized he could reach a sort of stable state where he didn’t actively try to compound his momentum, but when it started to fade, he would accumulate it again to keep it topped up, preventing it from falling too rapidly.
Another thing was the concept of building his momentum in the first place. At first, Mike thought he simply could not stop moving, however, there had been multiple points during the fight when he’d been staggered or forced to pause for a moment, even after he’d started beating back the hologram.
It took a moment, but he figured out that this was due to the flow of his energy and how it controlled his muscles. After the flow reached a certain speed, it could more or less sustain the speed and power he was exhibiting unless he stopped it, which would set his momentum back to 0.
So as long as he could keep his energy going, his momentum should remain, but this made him consider techniques people could employ to disrupt his flow of energy. That was something he’d need to look out for.
The next thing was his upgrade to Predator’s Foresight.
The easiest assumption would be that the skill simply got better at doing what it did, which was true, but it went further than that, and when Mike saw the change in the description, he couldn’t help but be surprised, but it made a few things make sense.
Predator’s Foresight (Level 1) – It’s only natural for a predator to excel at hunting, and to excel at hunting, the predator must know how to read their prey. Allows the Host to see an outline of their target that alludes to how the target will move immediately after. Effectiveness of Predator’s Foresight scales with energy output and mental energy expended
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Predator’s Foresight (Level 2) – It’s only natural for a predator to excel at hunting, and to excel at hunting, the predator must know how to read their prey. Allows the host to see an outline of their target that alludes to how the target will move after, while also analyzing the flow of their movements and rhythm, allowing the Host to better memorize the way they move, and the Host’s mind can unconsciously memorize these patterns to be repeated precisely. Effectiveness of Predator’s Foresight scales with energy output and mental energy expended.
There was quite a bit to unpack from the new description. First of all, the part where it says "Allows the Host to see an outline of their target that alludes to how the target will move immediately after." Had changed to "Allows the host to see an outline of their target that alludes to how the target will move after."
It was a small change in that particular sentence, the removal of the word ’immediately’. However, the meaning was clear, as it meant that the window for how long Mike would see the outline of his opponent’s movement before they moved wasn’t as short anymore, which was already quite the boon, but everything that came after just made it even better.
"while also analyzing the flow of their movements and rhythm, allowing the Host to better memorize the way they move,". From this, Mike inferred that now, even if he didn’t precisely anticipate what move his opponent would make, he could still study the way they fought and moved, allowing him to come up with countermeasures as the fight progressed, which was apparent in the way Mike kept matching and countering the hologram whenever it switched up the way it fought before he could fall into a disadvantage.
"and the Host’s mind can unconsciously memorize these patterns to be repeated precisely." This was the part that truly appealed to Mike. The ability to memorize and then repeat certain patterns used by his opponent, which was how he pretty much copied the Manji Kick the hologram used despite having only seen it once.
His instincts had guided him there as Predator’s Foresight read its intention to grapple him, making him respond with a quick attack that was both effective and swift, hence the counter.
Mike had done this a few more times during the fight, copying other moves he thought to be useful and tentatively used them against the hologram at key moments.
Tentatively because he didn’t accidentally want to bite off more than he could chew and screw himself over.
But all in all, it had been a fruitful ordeal
As for how the fight ended? Well, it had been pretty anticlimactic as when class ended, Masha simply deactivated the holograms, making Mike’s calf kick hit nothing as the hologram dissipated into sparks of energy.
It took him a moment to realize the fight was ended, but once he did, he exhaled and slowly stopped using Crimson Ladder.
His energy slowed to a stop, and he resisted the urge to wince as a level of weakness overtook him. It wasn’t crazy, but he certainly felt it.
Thankfully, his passive skill immediately came into play as his stamina started to regenerate quickly.
"Alright everyone, that was a little better than yesterday. Most of you are still horrific, but you’re getting there." Masha said with a nod as the energy barriers slowly faded, allowing the students to leave.
Mike sighed and rolled his shoulders to let his muscles relax, taking advantage of the brief time between classes he had to let off some of the strain.
"Mike, come here.’ Mike blinked and turned towards Masha who was beckoning him with a finger.
He lingered before jogging over, ignoring the stares of everyone. Those seemed to be a constant now.
As soon as he got close, Masha snapped her fingers, and Mike felt a wave of energy wash over him, and all of a sudden, he couldn’t hear anything happening outside.
"So you managed to learn the first step, huh?" Masha said lightly, but Mike could feel her interest as she spoke.
"Oh, yeah. Turns out you were right about the style being easy to learn." Mike scratched his head.
"Thank you, by the way. I didn’t think a combat style would be so useful until just now. It also suits me really well." Mike said genuinely, and Masha nodded.
"You’re welcome, and yeah, I could see that. I guessed your body would suit it well, but the level of compatibility was above anything I had expected. So the style wasn’t lost on you, which I’m glad for." Hearing this, Mike let out a sigh of relief. A small part of him had been worried he’d done something incorrect or missed something important with the style, so hearing that he’d used it well was a relief.
"That said, you aren’t using it to its fullest potential. I think you noticed that you can’t go beyond the first step, right?" She suddenly said, and Mike blinked before nodding slowly.
He’d tried it during the fight, but similar to his ability, there was an odd wall he couldn’t get by simply by forcing his way through.
"Thought so." She nodded thoughtfully. "In that case, what do you say about me giving you some pointers during the weekend?" She offered, and Mike paused.
"Wait, what?" Mike’s eyes widened.
"Well, yeah. I’m the one who gave the style to use, it’s only fair I teach you how to use it properly." She reiterated.
"I-I get that, but you want to teach ME?" Mike asked with some disbelief, making Masha roll her eyes.
"Is the notion of a teacher wanting to teach their students so foreign to you? Yes I want to teach you, so do you want to do it or not?" She asked with slight impatience, and Mike took only a second more before his eyes turned determined.
His instincts were practically screaming at him.to take the offer.
"Yes. I’d like that."