UNLIMITED SPEED

Noah sat on the ground of the sparring room, attentively listening to lady Sarah talk.

“There are three martial arts styles in this style, and the first one incorporated into it was called Jorak,” she continued. “Jorak is a mostly offensive martial art that focuses on decimating your opponent by disorienting them through quick movements and disruptive attacks. The primary focus lies on both open hand techniques and quick movements and it often relies on the endurance and speed of the attacker.”

“The biggest strength of Jorak is incredible close-range power and agility. By taking advantage of the quick movements of both fighters your opponent can be driven into a position you want them to be, allowing you to become an overwhelming force.” 𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝘭.𝘦𝑡

“However the biggest weakness of Jorak at the time was its lack of very crucial applicable skills. So if you’re in a real fight it’s really difficult to gain the upper hand. Things changed as you can see.” Elder Sarah had started pacing again.

“The second martial art was named Cershim. Cershim is a strictly offensive martial art that focuses on overthrowing your opponent through quick strikes and utilizing different centers of gravity. The primary focus lies on both throws and punches and it often relies on the quick thinking and endurance of yourself primarily, but also of your opponent.”

“The biggest strength of Cershim is physical flexibility, allowing you to move and take punishments in ways others can’t. By taking advantage of the pressure points of yourself your opponent often lacks the knowledge to respond well enough, making them easy to overmaster.”

“On the other hand, the biggest weakness of Cershim is that it requires you to react incredibly fast. So until you’ve trained your reflexes you could quickly end up overpowered.”

“This is where I find you wanting. You’re fast but you react too slowly many times, allowing for shortcomings that could have been avoided if you had thought of your next move beforehand. In short, you hesitate too much. But we’re going to deal with it,” she explained.

Noah furrowed his brows at her words but understood they were right, yet he felt forced to ask a question.

“Aren’t both of the martial arts similar, at least in the majority of their focus?” he questioned, beginning to wonder himself.

“Well mainly, yes, actually all three are almost similar, but both pretty much complement each other. Consider Jorak a beginner stage martial, while Cershim takes you deeper into that world,’ she gave him insights before continuing.

“The last martial art is called Lin-do, it is a defensive and offensive martial art that focuses on overthrowing your opponent through swift dodges, quick movements, and even faster attacks. The primary focus lies on agility and headbutts and it often relies on your opponent’s agility and endurance, or lack thereof.”

“The biggest strength of Lin-do is an incredibly strong sense of balance, making you almost immovable. By utilizing the speed of both fighters your opponent tends to tire out pretty quickly, further giving your strengths the upper hand.”

“On the other hand, the biggest weakness of Lin-do is that it often requires the opponent to make the first move. If you’re facing an opponent that doesn’t all you can do is try to force your opponent into a position you can dominate from.”

“All this polished and combined into one creates the martial art I’m about to teach you. Its focus is on sheer explosive speed, quick reflexes, agility, flexibility, witty but devastating blows, maintaining balance, and finally an addition of mine; keeping energy usage to its minimum, at least for most techniques.”

“My martial art is called the Roiling thunder technique,” She stopped talking, raising her hand, as an air of pride quickly became evident. Noah however, simply continued to stare, while processing the information he had gotten.

“Is that even supposed to be possible? As far as I know, that’s what every martial art needs. It’s complete,” Noah frowned deeply.

“It’s not complete. This technique is mainly focused on the quote “offense in the best defense”, you’ll have to learn to defend yourself through other means if you find yourself losing ground. This is where body tempering comes in. After all, taking blows many can’t be required most of the time, especially with individuals equally as strong or experienced as you,” She explained almost immediately.

Seeing his struggle to completely comprehend her words Elder Sarah opened her mouth to speak.

“You may not understand now, but when you partake in the vigorous training required, you’ll pretty much not need anyone telling you that your goal is possible, only unorthodox in nature,” she insisted.

“Couldn’t you have left that detail out? What if I get scared and leave,” Noah joked, even if he meant his words. Unfortunately, his words weren’t taken lightly.

“I’d have to kill you if you decided to do that,” Sarah replied with such intensity that Noah feared for his life.

“Seriously, what have I gotten into” Noah would have normally said inwardly, yet he only found himself wondering who she really was, to be able to do such to him if required. In truth he barely knew anything about Elder Sarah, a lot concerning her past and identity in the guild were still in a deep cloud of mystery, and the hints at what she was capable of within the guild managed to keep him on edge.

A few moments of silence passed before any other words were spoken, and they belonged to Noah.

“Is there any manual I can utilize before the actual sessions begin,” he inquired already accepting his fate.

“Unfortunately there isn’t, my technique is too important and dangerous for books, which is why its passed down. I am the only person able to currently teach anyone.” She explained shattering his hopes of speed reading, but also gave him another hint at how important the whole ordeal was. And truth be told, Noah felt excited and honored to even be allowed to learn it. He could already tell that it would be powerful.

“Why did you decide to accept me,” Noah found himself asking. His eyes stared blankly at the cream-colored floor, as he recalled himself asking a similar question to the blinding man in his trance of sorts in Mariwa. He still didn’t know in detail why he had been chosen by the system.

“We’ve not even started and you’re already feeling important,” Elder Sarah snorted throwing Noah off, nevertheless her answer came a few seconds later.

“It’s pretty simple, your astonishing movement speed is a quality required for learning the technique. Just that alone has reduces my work load by more than half, since its focused on speed in all aspects which leads to power and with enough experience, precision The three important key aspects of martial arts.”

“In short you are the best possible individual that can hope to receive this technique without dying half way through the training.” After those surprisingly inspiring words, Lady Sarah sent Noah to his room, their training was to begin the next day, but he already felt prepared.