Chapter 20 – Combat Theory
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Hello, dear readers!
Here is chapter 20! The combat theory only comes from my superficial understanding of battles between cultivators. Hopefully, it will make sense to you guys.
I hope you enjoy the read! :)
Patreon announcement : Chapter 21 is available on patreon as an advance chapter for every Tier.
May you all reach Immortality and the Peak of Cultivation!
Calm Wanderer
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Mortal Realm, Capital Planet of the Hoborg Empire, Main Continent, Cloudmount City, Divine Fate Mansion.
Despite feeling very excited, it only took him a few minutes to fall asleep, as he was exhausted by the hectic day he just went through.
After a dreamless night he woke up with a few rays of sunlight tickling his sleepy eyes and the natural noises of birds frolicking in the trees outside coupled with the sound of leaves rubbing against each other in the morning breeze.
Recalling the event of yesterday, he sighed at how scary and unpredictable that seemingly simple conversation ended up. However, he was not depressed or fearful because of it. On the contrary, that encounter fueled his mind with motivation for cultivation. Before that event, he thought about cultivation as something interesting and since everyone in his family were doing it, he might as well do it too, right? He also did not want to disappoint his kind and beautiful teacher.
However, when he experienced those feelings of loneliness, fear, blood-thirst and a myriad of other negative ones, he vowed to himself that he would do his absolute best to not have to relive a similar event in the future. As his teacher said, without power, my family and I would be at the mercy of anyone more powerful than us. Which he guessed were a lot of people. At least for him, with his meager Mid Level 2 cultivation.
After a few seconds of thinking, he shook his head to clear his mind and jumped from his bed. He took off the cute fox pajamas he was wearing, which were his favorite, and folded them on his bed. He then chose a training suit from his closet full of beautiful clothes for every occasion. They were all made from rank 3 materials by his teacher who copied the designs found on the Holo-net that his mother and her liked. Because Mortal materials could only slightly change size but not its form and color, she had to create many of them unlike her who wore her Rank 9 battle suit capable of becoming any type of clothes she could think of. One might wonder: Why couldn't she give one of the Divine Layer [A/N: Instead of rank and level for Mortal, Immortal and Divine, what do you guys think about Layer? It sounds pretty good to me. Let me know in the comments.] clothes she had in her spatial ring, or at least an Immortal Layer one. The reason was simply because any Item superior to Mortal Layer ones could not be refined by cultivators in the Mortal Realm with one exception, which was if it was already refined prior to arriving in the Mortal Realm. However, their powers would still be limited to Peak Mortal.
Despite their 'weak powers', rank 3 clothes could still protect the wearer completely against anything below rank 3 and partially against similar rank. The amount of protection depending on the type of clothes and difference between the level of the attack and the level of the clothes coupled with the quality and quantity of mana used to activate it. A welcome fact was that magical clothes (or mana clothes) had two welcome functions, which were cleaning and repair once they were charged with mana. Unless they were obliterated, of course.
Once he wore his new clothes, he called his teacher and parents to ask if they wanted to eat with him. His Teacher answered right away and told him to join her in the patio, which was the favorite place for the inner circle of the family to share a meal and nice conversation. He started in a light jog, which for a mortal without cultivation would make him almost invisible, if not soundless, as he still had to go against the air pressure.
Almost a minute after he took off, he arrived in the wooden patio, illuminated by the sun's rays, rising behind them. The only person at the table was his teacher, as he guessed that the others were too busy, either cultivating, or having other tasks to perform. He sat in front of her, his guess confirmed by the seated woman when, after she bade him good morning, she added. “Your parents are still cultivating. After the little event of yesterday, they found themselves in an agitated state of mind, which after calming down, gave them a few inspirations in their cultivation. They might even have another breakthrough soon.” A tinge of delight could be felt in her tone, while a small smile adorned her face. She continued. “As for the others, they are all busy with some unexpected problems which came up last night. Nothing big though, so you don't have to worry.”
When he heard her explanations, he nodded with an “I knew it” expression on his face. “Did Teacher eat already?” She replied. “I was waiting for you. Let's dig in.” They took their time time to eat and around half an hour after, they were finished. That was when Bai Yue asked him. “Are you ready?” He replied seriously. “Yes.”
“Then let's go to the training ground. Thanks to the formations I set up over there, you 'll be able to go all out without destroying the forest around.” When she finished she used her mana to wrap around the little boy and took off flying over the building and then the forest, until they reached a vast terrain, devoid of any trees. There were racks of weapons of every kind, from Level 1 to Level 9 on one side of the field. While on the other side there were a few enclosed rooms with “Environment Rooms” written on them. They were used as special training rooms that could be used to simulate almost any kind of environment that one could find in the Mortal Realm. They were very useful to learn how to fight in different circumstances, as one did not always get to choose where they had to fight. They could also improve the perception of different Laws, making the comprehension of said Laws, a lot easier.
Numerous unbreakable puppets were available for anyone inside to use for training. Those puppets were made with high quality materials, either at Peak rank 3 or close to it and reinforced with several runes. The end results were puppets unbreakable to all but the most powerful cultivators in the Mortal Realm and capable of adjusting their own strength to what was asked of them by the one fighting them. In addition they all had their own spirit which mastered different Laws, and coupled with Bai Yue who transferred her Mortal Layer's fighting experience to them and their ability to learn, they could prove to be a real challenge to cultivators of every Level in this Realm.
Speaking of puppets, beside those training puppets, there were others all over the property which were connected to the Divine Fate Mansion's spirit and were tasked with guarding against external threat and focused on protecting the people inside it. Unlike the training puppets, those guards would not hesitate to kill. They were also 100% loyal, unlike other Living Beings [A/N: Can you consider puppets with a spirit as living beings? I would tend to say yes. But what do you all think?] who could be prone to betrayal. Even if one did not count on that, 'normal' living beings could not stay 100% focused all the time, unlike puppets which are essentially evolved robots with a spirit.
Back to the training area, Bai Yue stopped in the middle facing the boy and started her explanation about combat. “Alright, let me ask you first: What are the main components of combat? Or the main phases if you will.” Guang Yang took a few seconds to think about the right answer. “Mmhh... Is it exchanging blows?... And maybe winning or losing?... I don't really understand the question...” He said in ashamed tone. Hearing his answer, she kept the indifferent face and replied in a leveled tone. “Yes and no. The part with the exchanging of blows is only one part of combat.” She took a deep breath and continued. “Let's talk about the phases. Combat can be divided into three phases. The first is the engagement, the second is the exchanging of blows and the third is disengagement.”
The boy nodded at the simple but clear division. He, however, did not talk as he wanted to know more details. Seeing that she had his full attention, she resumed her explanation. “What is the engagement about? It is the moment where you meet the enemy or enemies and the preparation or thinking phase. 'Is your enemy stronger than you?', 'Do I know what techniques he uses and can I counter them?', 'Is it a trap?'. The decision of fighting or fleeing is taken at that time. If you're able to, of course. Sometimes, you don't have a choice. Do you understand?”
He thought for a second and nodded. After which he said. ”I think. But teacher, is it also the phase where we plan for the fight or is the second phase?” To which she replied with a small smile. “You're right. In this phase, it is best to prepare a few tactics to take care of the enemy or enemies. And you're also right in the fact that the second phase can be unpredictable, which means you must adapt quickly to the changing situation. Remember this: Have a plan, but be flexible about it!”
He muttered that last sentence in a low voice a few times to etch it in his mind and when he felt that he integrated it in his mind, he looked back at Bai Yue and gestured her respectfully to continue with her explanation. “The second phase now. As I mentioned previously, you need to be flexible and adapt on the fly during the fight. There are many ways to fight. The two 'classic' ones being close combat and spells. Note that spells are the same as techniques and skills. I heard that in some primitive civilizations, they associate techniques with the physical aspect, calling themselves warriors, and spells with the magic aspect, calling themselves wizard. However, if you want to improve physically you will need magic and if you want to wield powerful magic, you'll need a sufficiently powerful body to avoid imploding from the energy. And that's not even touching on the soul aspect...”
She shook her head at those mortal's foolishness and continued. “Beside the 'classic' way of fighting, there exists more varied and also more unpredictable ones, such as poison, talisman, formation, explosive pills...” She shivered a bit as some seemingly frightful memories came to her mind. After shaking her head slightly to dissipate her bad memories, she looked at Guang Yang and warned him seriously. “That last one is for madmen or as a trump card to be used in last resort, when you have no way out. I can not revive you if you die, so you better avoid using those unstable things like explosive pills! Do you understand?”
He nodded in assent. She added. “I'll mostly teach you about those classic way of fighting. As for the others, I'll tell you what I know, but you'll probably have to rely on future fights to be able to counter them perfectly, since I'm not a specialist. Now, let's talk about the victory and defeat, which was the conclusion of the exchanging of blows phase.” She stopped talking for a few seconds to find her words and resumed speaking. “This one is not as straightforward as one might think. It would depend on what your goal is. But for simplicity's sake, let's use the two knock out and kill scenarios. In both cases, do not be arrogant and start to relax before the fight over. Particularly if you feel like your enemy can not retaliate. Many cultivators were killed by their enemies, not because they were weaker than them, but because they were overconfident. That gave an opportunity to the adversary to retaliate and kill them. Or for others to ambush them once they were spent from the fight. Even during the fight you need to keep your 'eyes' out for external threats.” She added to reassure him. “You don't have to worry if you think that you will not be able to apply that during combat. Today will mostly be about the theory behind combat. As for true practice, we will only start when you'll have created your own magic spells. As it wouldn't be very useful otherwise.”
The boy sighed in relief and a smile appeared on his face when he said. “Teacher, that's a lot of things to remember, but I'll do my best to do it quickly!” When she heard him, she laughed lightly and added in a amused tone. “Before saying that, let me finish talking about the third phase of combat.” A wry smile appeared on the boy's face at this moment. He mumbled under his breath, defeated. “Right! there is a third phase... It's so complicated...”
When she heard his muttering, Bai Yue corrected him. “You're only partially correct, little fox. Combat in itself is actually very simple. However, the reason we, as cultivators, make it complicated, is to improve our chance of winning our fights, or at least to increase the probability of our survival.” She then went back to the main subject. “Now, the third phase. Disengagement is extremely important and ties in with what I just told you about ambushes. As you used a certain amount of energy, you might be exhausted after a fight, despite winning. That's when you're most likely to be ambushed. That's why you always need to plan for that. The most dangerous way would be to use self harm techniques were you and your enemies would lose, maybe even die. That doesn't always work since it's dependent on the other's fear of dying or getting hurt. The safest way would be using an escape talisman and having allies around strong enough to protect you. Of course, nothing is certain and your enemy may have a way to restrain those means. So you have to be careful in every fight.”
When she finished her speech, she clapped her hand and said. “That's all for the general explanation. I'll add anything missing when you'll start practicing. So now, let's focus on spells. First, you need to know the type of spells that you absolutely have to learn about. There are four main ones. You will need a movement spell that could ideally be used for traveling faster and with fewer mana consumption, and for combat. Next, you will need two Close, Mid and Long range, with one of the two being unharmed and the other with a weapon. The latter will be used in case you can't or shouldn't get close to your enemy. The former will be used when you will not be able to hit your target from afar or in case he or she has a resistance against energy. It's quite rare, but I've seen it before. As for the two Mid range spells, they will be the link between the other four, making you very flexible.” Once she enumerated all those spells, she added. “Beside all those main ones, there are auxiliary spells that are extremely useful to know in a lot of situations. There are the detection or alarm spells, the healing spells, the detoxification spells, the tracking spells, etc. They are practically endless in number, and even with a basic understanding of them, they can help you tremendously.”
Thinking about all the possibilities, Guang Yang had stars in his eyes, showing his excitement. “So cool!.. Teacher, should I learn all those spells too?” She nodded but shook her head from side to side right after. “Yes and no. Beside the mandatory spells for combat, it would be better to focus on the healing and detoxifying spells.” The boy cut in on the explanation. “Because of my Life Fox Bloodline, right?” She replied. “Exactly. Playing on your strengths will save you a lot of time. And once you master all of those, you will be able to focus on those other spells.”
Seeing him pondering, she waited until he finished, so that she could answer any question he might have. A few seconds later, he asked her. “Teacher, you talked about the different spells... I'm wondering, does the Laws that people comprehend matter in learning all those. For example, let's say someone comprehended the Law of Fire. Can they heal someone?” She answered. “You don't have to worry about that as Laws are extremely versatile. Although some Laws are more geared towards certain aspects, like the Law of Life with Healing, it doesn't change the fact that you can heal with virtually every Laws. The only thing is that it may be a lot more complicated with some Laws than others. And that's when you use one Law for one spell. However if you use two or more Law, not only will it increase the possibilities, but also the strength of your spells. That's why you will need to find a way to incorporate the Laws you comprehended together in your spells.”
Once she made sure that he understood everything, she declared. “Now, let's start with creating your spells.”
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