The Martial Unity

The exercises involved strengthening the diaphragm, in ways that were very similar to exercising the rest of the body. Muscles were generally trained and strengthened by expanding and contracting them against resistance, usually a weight load. One would shift weights by expanding and contracting particular muscle groups across the body, leading to them growing stronger over time.

The diaphragm was no different in this regard. Rui spent a lot of time inhaling and exhaling through a breathing contraption that severely hindered breathing, this meant the user had to push his diaphragm to the absolute limit if he or she wanted to breathe normally.

As Rui gasped and wheezed during this exercise, for the very first time in his second life, he came to hate a training regime.

Up until now he had taken all the different and various training sessions in stride, even though they were difficult and new to him, he truly enjoyed the feeling of his proficiency of a technique growing better and better, it was an addictive feeling.

Yet this training was truly unpleasant, the reason for that was simple.

('This sensation of strained respiration is identical to that of the asthma attacks I used to suffer back on Earth.') He gasped and wheezed.

Those moments were the worst of his life, and now he had to experience them continuously for hours.

Still, he realized this training would ultimately improve his breathing and stamina, so he swallowed the bitter pill and earnestly dedicated himself to the training.

Once he was done, he quickly bade the supervisor farewell and scurried out of the facility as fast as he could.

"I can't wait till I've mastered this technique so I don't ever have to do that training ever again in my life."

Still, that training made normal breathing feel like a luxury, making him appreciate things he had come to take for granted in his second life.

He shook his head putting aside such thoughts, before heading to the next training facility to start learning the next of the five new techniques he had procured. He had already decided which technique he wanted to look at next.

('I'm quite curious about Mirage Dive.')

This was the offensive grappling technique he had decided to learn. It was a technique in which the user feinted an upper takedown only to exploit the opening created by the feint to instead go for a lower takedown.

It was one of the measures he taken to improve his offense and expand his offensive options in combat.

What surprised him was how different the facility for this, and other similar techniques, was from other facilities. Then again, this was his first time visiting the training facility for an Apprentice-level grappling training facility. He had not learnt any Apprentice-level technique prior, after all.

The training equipment was quite different from what he was used to compared to the other training facilities he had trained in.

"Mirage Dive eh?" The supervisor mused. "Alright, no problem." He nodded. "Mirage Dive, as a technique, can be divided into three different stages; the feint, the transition and the actual takedown. The training regime for the technique involve working on each separately and then all together."

Rui nodded, listening closely.

"The feint is the most difficult part of the technique. In order to create a real opportunity and opening for the real takedown, the feint needs to be convincing, a regular faking motion ain't gonna cut it, kid."

"I did go through the recommended training regime for the feint, it is a bit strange.

The supervisor nodded. "The training regime for the feint requires being hooked up to a bodysuit that we can manually freeze at any time we want, its fabric and structure is made from multiple different kinds of esoteric bestial and floral substances, and it operates on strange principles, but that doesn't matter. We'll have you practice the perfect upper takedown until you master the form and trajectory, then we'll have you wear the suit and perform the upper takedowns, except we'll freeze the suit in the middle of the takedown, we'll do this over and over and over. This helps your body physically understand what the perfect upper takedown feint looks and physically feels like. The perfect upper takedown feint is an incomplete real upper takedown, a real upper takedown cut in half, this way no one call easily tell it's fake"

Rui nodded. Doing this would teach his body the timing of the feint and the trajectory of the feint. Mirage Dive was a technique whose feint trajectory and timing is meant to be indistinguishable from the real deal. That's what made it effective, that's what made it an Apprentice-level technique. The sheer convincingness would force his targets to subconsciously raise their guard to intercept the upper charge, giving the user a huge opening that could be exploited with a real takedown, but the quality of the feint was made it the technique Apprentice-level, and what made the technique a finisher.

Furthermore, this technique had a flipside to it. If someone was very familiar with this technique and predicted an upper takedown feint and prepared for a lower takedown, then Rui could simply turn the upper takedown feint into an actual real upper takedown!

In the Mirage Dive technique, the upper takedown and upper takedown feint were absolutely the same until the halfway point.

Meaning Rui could choose to feint, or actually perform the takedown if he wanted! Because there was no difference between the feint and the actual takedown, Rui could choose to do either depending on how his opponent responded. He could adapt to his opponent's response and reaction!

This was part of the reason he chose this technique, although it had only two possible scenario applications, because of the fact that he could cater and had the ability to make the choice after analyzing his opponent, it had more flexibility than one would expect of a technique with two possibilities.

"But that's not all." The supervisor grinned toothily. "Once you truly and fully master this technique, your feint becomes so good, that your opponent sees an illusion!"