A day later, a Martial Squire stopped by the Orphanage. He immediately found another Martial Squire waiting for him at the gate.
“Squire Casen.” Rui greeted him. “You’re here.”
“Squire Quarrier.” The woman replied. She looked several years older than Rui, with brown eyes and green hair extending to her waist.
“Let’s go,” Rui told her, as he began sky walking.
“Where to?” She frowned, as she followed along.
“To where we’ll be training,” Rui told her as he led her deep into the forest near the Orphanage, towards a hill.
Rui had cleared himself a lot of land, suspecting that he’d need the space for what he was planning.
“You do have a striking technique, right?” Rui asked for confirmation. He had made that one of the conditions of the commission. He was going to be testing the idea he had come up with for the Bounce Project. He needed his training partner to possess at least one striking Martial Art technique.
“Of course.” She replied.
“Good.” Rui nodded.
“What kind of training do you wish for me to aid you in?” She asked.
Rui hadn’t been specific in the commission, he had simply mentioned that he simply needed a training partner that could strike.
“It’s a defensive technique that I’m currently working on,” Rui told her. “All I need you to do I launch straight punches when I tell you to.”
“Okay.” She nodded, shrugging. This was a simple enough matter.
Rui walked up to her before taking a forward-leaning stance with his left arm reaching, facing her.
She frowned at the bizarre stance, before proceeding to wind up a right punch and swinging it.
POW!
Her fist struck his open palm, pushing it aside as it shot forward, striking his chest.
(‘Tsk, that was a failure.’) “Again, this time aim for my palm.”
She nodded, before striking him again.
POW!
Once again, the strike flew past his palm, landing on his chest.
“Again.”
POW!
“Again!”
POW!
…
Only after the tenth time did Rui take pause.
What he was trying to achieve was effectively trying to turn his arm into a spring that would intercept strikes in the same manner that springs would. The spring needed to be positioned between himself and his opponent for it to be effective. An incoming strike’s power would push against the ‘spring’ causing it to contract and in turn push his entire body backward, sending him flying.
This way, instead of the strike hitting him and causing damage, it would hit him and launch his body into motion. The spring would act as the middleman between the strike and Rui, ensuring that no damage would be inflicted on Rui and that he would only be launched into a motion.
However, in order for this to be possible, his arm needed to function in the same way a spring did. Springs linearly increased the force they exerted the more they were contracted. Which was a fancy way of saying that springs became harder to press the more they were pressed.
His arm would need to intercept the incoming strike and mimic that mechanism.
(‘The problem is that it’s hard for me to properly intercept an attack with my palm.’) Rui sighed. (‘I need to intercept it at the base of my palm that is reinforced by arm and ensure it stays there.’)
“Alright, let’s get back to it,” Rui told her.
She nodded before they both took their respective stances.
As she threw a straight punch, Rui adjusted his palm ever so slightly.
POW
FSSS…
Rui’s eyes widened in elation as he realized he had skidded a few meters away from her. (‘A hint of success!’)
The fact that he had managed to push himself away meant that he had at least partially managed to convert a portion of her attack into kinetic energy instead of damage. (‘But it’s still really rough, an overwhelming majority of her strike hurt my hand.’)
That was fine, of course. It was commendable progress considering he had just begun!
“Again.”
The two got into position again, before she once more pulled back her right fist, winding up for a punch. Rui’s sharp eyes were fixed on her fist.
POW!
FSSS…
“Tsk.” He tutted. This time, he had only skidded a single meter. (‘Inefficient, my angle was wrong.’)
“Again.”𝓥𝐞𝐿𝐞xt.𝐜𝒪𝔪
POW!
This time, he completely failed as his palm was pushed aside, striking his face.
A few hours of practice went into this singular exercise. Rui had managed to make very minor general improvements as he figured out some flaws in his maneuver that were causing his arm to be flung out of the way.
The biggest change he had to make was offering no resistance to the strike with his palm to the strike as it arrived. He needed to flow with the strike and only after ten centimeters begin slowly offering increasing resistance like springs being pressed would. This would cause his whole body to move backward, converting the attack’s power into harmless kinetic energy.
(‘It feels like pushing a wall to go backward on roller skates.’) Rui likened the sensation to a memory from his previous life. (‘A wall that is moving towards you. You can either let it hit you and get hurt or slowly push it as it approaches you and roll backwards away from the wall on your skates.’)
That was the best analogy he could come up with, and it helped him get a better idea of how he ought to treat incoming strikes.
By the end of the allocated daily training sessions, he had managed to reach a stage where he shifted by about a few meters at least. His record was five meters, which was pretty respectable progress for the very first session.
More importantly, he had received confirmation that it was most likely viable, considering the rate of progress he was making. He had found the answer to converting his opponent’s attack into harmless kinetic energy. Now, if he could find a viable way to get rid of all the kinetic energy instantaneously, then he would be very satisfied!