Primordial Expanse: I have the Strongest Talent!

Alex followed along, mimicking the Professor's movements as closely as possible.

"At first, this will feel unnatural," Professor Will said.

"Your body isn't used to moving this way. But with practice, these movements will become second nature. The key is repetition."

For the next several hours, Professor Will guided Alex through a series of basic movements, correcting his form, and emphasising the importance of precision.

Alex could feel the strain on his body, but he pushed through.

"It's harder than I thought."

Alex wiped the sweat from his forehead, taking a swig of his water.

"But I can feel it starting to click."

"By doing this, you're building up your muscle memory." Professor Will spoke, giving Alex guidance even while he was taking a short break.

"By practising the same movements over and over, your body learns to perform them instinctively, allowing you to react quickly and effectively in combat, without needing to think."

"These instincts built up by practice and muscle memory are different from the instincts you are used to using; those were crude, untrained and inexperienced. They are the most basic instincts that every living thing is born with and they will only hold you back in a real fight."

The two of them spent the day drilling basic techniques and movements, repeating them until Alex's muscles ached.

But he could feel the difference it made.

Even though the differences at the moment were too miniscule to have a real effect in battle.

***

Over the next few days, Alex and Professor Will worked on the many different basic principles that made up Martial Arts.

Overall, there were six core principles that Professor Will had practically drilled into Alex's brain.

The first, was Mind-Body synchronisation which Alex had already gotten a hang of any only needed to work on his meditation daily to strengthen his mind and his ability to enter a state of focus and awareness so that he could achieve perfect harmony between his body and mind.

The second core principle was Precision and Efficiency, which Professor Will summarised as 'Movement with purpose'.

Over time Alex would learn to minimise wasteful motions and focus on efficiency, understanding the mechanics of his own body to deliver strikes with pinpoint accuracy.

The third principle only really applied to lower lifeforms, aka awakened below B tier.

And since Alex was still a while away from becoming a higher life form, Professor Will had to teach him it.

It is Breath Control.

While being a lower life form, breathing is essential in everything, even for Alex, who had a much more enhanced respiratory system thanks to his perfected Heart of the Phoenix technique.

Controlled breathing enhances focus, maintains stamina, and can significantly increase the force behind each movement.

Alex had to learn this principle, though it would become essentially useless when he becomes a higher life form.

The fourth principle Alex was also familiar with.

Muscle memory and reflexes.

This needs no explanation, other than the fact that it ties in with all of the other principles combined.

The fifth principle was balance and stability.

Maintaining balance is crucial in a fight. Awakened who had learned this would ground themselves, distributing their weight evenly and maintaining a stable centre of gravity.

Though this only applied to fights that stayed grounded.

If it involved fighting mid air, then Alex would have to rely on the next, and last principle.

Adaptability and flow.

Martial Arts at its core teaches adaptability. Alex was taught by Professor Will to be encouraged to flow with the dynamics of combat rather than resist them.

Unable to keep your grip on the ground steady? Use it to your advantage and sweep the opponent off their feet.

Your opponent keeps up a strong offence, not letting you get an attack in yourself? Switch up your technique, become unpredictable in your approach.

The fluid approach of adaptability is all in the effort to respond to changes in the opponent's movements, turning potential disadvantages into opportunities.

These were the six core principles that Professor Will taught Alex, though it would take him months or years to master each one of them.

That was if he could master them at all.

Most practitioners of the Martial Arts technique fail to progress past a certain point, whether it was due to a lack of effort on their part, they weren't talented enough, or they were simply killed before they could do so.

To help Alex learn all of these, Professor Will made him a training regimen that would enable him to practise all of these principles.

Meditation and focus drills, Basic movement and stances, Breath control exercises, Strength and flexibility training, Repetitive drills, and sparring.

Each one of these encompassed one or many of the principles Alex had to learn if he wanted to actually become a true powerhouse in the world of the awakened.

***

"Now that you've learned all of the basics of Martial Arts, it's time I taught you some real swordsmanship."

Alex and Professor Will stood in the open grounds of Alex's garden/training arena, with Professor Will finally breaking some good news that Alex was waiting to hear ever since his demonstration.

He couldn't get that memory of Professor Will completely overwhelming him with his wooden sword even though just moments before he had blocked an attack with the exact same power.

Alex was interested in Martial Arts and he could tell it would be immensely helpful to him to make him a much better fighter.

But the real thing he was interested in was swordsmanship.

He hadn't had the time to test out Virtue's Edge, the new sword the Principle had gifted to him, but he had no doubt that if he combined that with the swordsmanship he was about to learn, he would be unstoppable.

But of course, he still had a few hurdles to cross first.

Like becoming good enough with the swordsmanship for it to actually be effective in battle.

As well as having to level up Virtue's Edge, since it was still currently F- rank…

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