Chapter 41: Learning
Learning
Masha observed quietly as the different students engaged their respective holograms.
As she expected, pretty much all of them thrashed their holograms in the beginning, but that didn’t last long as the projections soon adapted, and within the next couple of minutes, things started to change rapidly, and she couldn’t help but sigh to herself.
As she had anticipated, most of the students weren’t used to being out in harm’s way. At least, not directly. Hence, many of them either had low pain tolerances or just didn’t handle the concept well.
More often than not, she’d see them scrambling back if they got hit cleanly, which happened due to their odd desire to use flashy moves with little practicality, something the holograms had no qualms exploiting.
She also wasn’t surprised when she saw many students get frustrated and activate their abilities. But as soon as they did, the snake around her neck would send a look their way, and they’d be startled when their abilities sputtered off like a car that failed to start, then they’d get punched in the face immediately after as, like she promised, she cranked up the difficulty to near unbearable levels for these people.
The result of all of this was a lot of shouting, cursing, pleading, and some crying.
’Pretty pathetic.’ She hummed lightly. Then again, it’s not like this was her first rodeo, and when it came to wringing out the obnoxious behavior these young people had, she was one of the best.
Stripping them down until they couldn’t even think about their families and only how to fight back and improve, that’s what she wanted. She would give actual lessons in time. But she saw this initial process as a necessary thing to start changing their entitled mindsets.
Granted, they weren’t all bad. There were a few who were properly fighting back.
The 5 people who caught her attention the most were doing quite well.
Namor Vortan, Sunny Nerevas, Kim Caedryn, Seth Zevran, and Kris Fulgur.
Other than Kris, they were all the same people Mike had taken note of, and each of them showed a surprising amount of proficiency when it came to close combat and was holding their own against the holograms quite well.
Their styles differed, which wasn’t surprising, as the Apex Families tended to have their own forms of martial arts that they taught to the younger generation.
While it was a stretch to say that they had an advantage against the holograms since the projections automatically scaled to whatever they were showing off, it’s not like they were in much of a disadvantage either.
In other words, they were stalemating.
Masha nodded to herself. That’s what she wanted to see.
If they could match their holograms, then the hologram would start to scale a small bit higher, enough for it to start exploiting weaknesses, but not so much that they get thrashed. This would give them time to start ironing out mistakes in the way they fought.
She looked around again until her gaze landed on a familiar figure, and she raised a brow slightly.
’His form is horrific.’ Masha thought as she observed Mike and resisted the urge to sigh loudly.
’Too many wasted movements. He keeps throwing haymakers too. He’s leaving himself open with pretty much every attack. His footwork is practically nonexistent... does he even know how to fight?’ She shook her head as she watched him struggle.
Even now, Mike was still getting pummeled by the hologram. Whether it came to attacking, defending, retreating, or advancing, everything was just a mess, and Masha knew that if the hologram was trying to kill him, he’d be dead many times over.
She shook her head slightly.
’Raw strength will only get you so far, kid. You need to... hm?’ Her train of thought was interrupted when she noticed something odd.
She saw how Mike kept on miscalculating dodges and attacks, leaving him open to being hit. However, on the last attack the Hologram let out, Mike read it well and actually managed to counter, catching the thing on the cheek as its head flicked to the side.
It spun and swung its arm which Mike ducked under, then he crossed his arms just as the knee of the hologram tried to smash into his face. Before it could pull away, he grabbed its knee and threw it into the energy wall of the small arena.
’Oh?’ Masha thought with some surprise. He read that surprisingly well.
Mike huffed as he stared at the hologram that was quickly getting up as his mind spun.
When the hologram started to outsmart his instincts, he started to think about how that made any sense.
As the fight progressed and he kept getting beaten around, he started thinking about his instincts again.
He thought back to his conclusion concerning them when he was talking to Kris, and how, when it came to reading someone’s body language, it automatically picked up on subtle signs and physical cues a person displayed, and how his brain automatically filters these cues out, causing him not to notice them unless he actively paid attention.
This was also how he managed to acquire the skill Predator’s Foresight.
He then thought about his fights with Theresa, and while she hadn’t said it outright. Okay, she had, but anyway, she noticed his uncanny ability to anticipate things.
Her solution to this, at least in the context of combat, was attacking him in ways where, even if his instincts warned him of where the attack was coming from, he wouldn’t be able to dodge.
To that, Mike believed that it was a case of learning better ways to move in combat while increasing his control over his aura to allow for more unnatural movements.
However, this hologram chose an approach he’d never even considered, and that was outright fooling his instincts.
When Mike found himself getting thrashed despite his instincts warning him, he was confused because usually, the warnings were on point, and it was simply a matter of whether he could dodge or block in time.
Yet he found himself getting fooled completely.
He wracked his brain as he tried to find a solution, but it finally clicked when he made use of one of his two active skills, Primal Awareness.
As soon as he did, when the next attack came, he noticed a strange inconsistency.
He still had that tingling feeling on the part of his body that was about to get hit, but it felt... off somehow.
He still moved to defend, but as soon as he did, the skill activated again, and this time, the tingle he got was far more legitimate, and without hesitation, he leaned out of the way.
A fist still brushed past his side due to his slightly delayed reaction, but he realized what the issue was almost immediately.
Unlike Predator’s Foresight, Primal Awareness focused more on the intent portion instead of the physical cue portion. Both skills incorporated parts of both, but they each leaned into one side more than the other.
In this case, Mike’s instincts warned him when his opponent showed intent to harm him, and it narrowed down to a particular spot on his body through reading their physical cues.
The hologram somehow managed to feint him by initiating an attack with intent, and his instincts would warn him, and due to how much he trusted said instincts, he’d move without hesitation. As soon as he did, the hologram would immediately move on to another attack and double down on that, essentially feinting Mike with the ’real’ attack.
The truth was, both attacks were technically real, and if Mike decided to take the first one head-on, the hologram would likely double down on it. But as soon as it noticed him avoiding instinctively, it would follow up before he could counter.
That’s why Mike felt so out of touch with the way it was attacking, and it hit him with a pretty cold realization.
Despite their effectiveness, his instincts weren’t omnipotent, and his over-reliance on them could be exploited as shown here.
It was a huge wake-up call, and Mike felt like someone had poured a bucket of cold water over him.
A small part of him was miffed. However...
"Thanks for that." He said as he cracked his neck, watching as the Hologram got back up despite knowing it wasn’t sentient. "I didn’t think there was a weakness like that. Guess this lesson really does help iron out bad habits." He grinned, his slightly sharper canines prominent in the light.
"Now, come at me!"
The hologram charted forward, and the two of them went at it once more. This time, though, Mike started handling things far better.
He was still on the losing end of virtually every exchange due to the vast gap in skill, but the more he fought, the more he sharpened his instincts and attuned them to the hologram.
Moreover, he didn’t just listen to them blindly anymore.
The change was subtle, but it was happening. If he saw a chance to land a hit at the cost of getting hit himself, he’d go for it a few times.
If attacking seemed like the obvious option, he’d take a moment to evaluate before simply rushing in.
He didn’t know it yet, but he was unintentionally doing something Lupines often struggled with, and that was going against his instincts to do what HE wanted to do.
More than that, he was learning.
And that’s probably one of the most important things he could gain in this situation.
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A/N: I Am a DUMBASS. THE NEXT Chapter ISNT FOR THIS BOOK! SKIP IT PLEASE