I had no idea about martial arts and the levels of power associated with it at that moment.
But even in that ignorant stage, I knew very well that the normal stages of power found within most movies or even novels were complete bullshit in the world of mechas.
There were definitely no body stages or muscle stages to pass, and definitely no dantian or inner power to acquire.
Additionally, there was no freaking way in hell that big fat lumbering mechas could exchange a hundred moves in a second and for personal fights to go on for more than half an hour, much less for days like what we usually find in most stories.
In fights, the slightest mistake could lead to instant defeat or death. And in most battles, mistakes would probably be made within the first minute.
A flawless fight for five full minutes against an equally strong enemy was probably as rare as a unicorn.
For a personal fight to go beyond ten minutes?
A rainbow colored unicorn.
And so effective martial arts that could be applied in real battle were simply made up of six simple tools and three simple philosophies.
Firepower. Speed. Armor. Movement techniques. Fighting techniques. Aiming system.
Knowing at all times your own defensive and offensive capacity.
Knowing at all times your enemy's defensive and offensive capacity.
The wisdom and experience to use all of the above.
If it is a team fight, include teamwork and formations in them. However as you know, I am not much of a team person, and I don't really place much importance in teamwork.
And I hope you noticed that I mentioned firepower first.
Because with sufficient firepower, everything else can be disregarded.
No skill? No speed? No wisdom? No experience? Surrounded by a bunch of enemies? But you're in a golden mecha?
You win.
The way I won against Sherry Lin with my overpowered red mecha energy was a perfect example.
But we won't always find ourselves in a position of superior firepower, and when that happens, every single item below it becomes of critical importance.
Unless of course the enemy is in a golden mecha. Then you're probably screwed.
Back to the story.
That particular training session was intensely beneficial for me.
I already had firepower, speed, armor and an aimbot in the form of a white mecha's targeting system. Against golden mechas, I was nothing more than prey. But against the kiddos in the academy and most of the enemies I would be facing?
I was God.
All I was lacking was a solid foundation in fighting techniques and movement techniques.
For example, I needed to know what is the most efficient response when I am piloting a standard practice mecha in a defensive pose, and an enemy with powerful legs but weak arms comes charging at me with a broadsword in an overhead swing.
In that particular example, I would have a vast selection of responses I could take, and all of them would probably be pretty solid choices.
I could dodge the attack, or even block it with my sword. Both wouldn't be bad choices.
However, with proper fighting and movement techniques, I would be able to execute a better choice.
The right choice would be to raise my shield at the last second so that it would end up bashing the broadsword and cause damage to its weak arms, possibly even damaging them and putting them out of action.
To do that, I needed to have the required movement technique to position myself correctly and the required fighting technique to do a shield bash with such critical timing and positioning.
Still, the above situation was a relatively easy one to deal with.
What if I was in a frankenstein mecha caught completely out of position, and three enemies with powerful everythings come attacking with a spear, sword and hammer swing from three well coordinated positions?
The options available to me would be much, much fewer in number, and a thorough mastery of fighting techniques and movement techniques would allow me to KNOW my options in that situation.
Wisdom would allow me to make the right choice and experience would allow me to make that right choice in less than a split second, possibly even reflexively.
And those critical techniques were the ones flashing in my mind and making their way slowly into my muscle memory.
There may be shortcuts to understanding things, but there are no shortcuts to mastering close combat.
Acceleration due to excellent potential, yes, but not shortcuts.
Everyone, geniuses and idiots alike, have to work hard to train up their skills, gain wisdom and go through hell to gain experience.
And despite being completely unthreatened by the huge number of mechas I was up against, that training session was pretty much hell for me.
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
The spear, sword and hammer landed on me at the same time and took me completely by surprise.
I had been dodging the attacks rather successfully for the past few seconds, and I did not expect three extremely insidious attacks coming from such tricky angles to come at me together that way!
"Oof! These attacks would have killed me if I didn't have my red mecha energy. Damn it, these bastards were taking it easy on me earlier. They're only starting to get serious!" I muttered as I took a step back and tried to reset.
However, the three mechas would have none of it.
WHAM! BAM! BAM!
Once more, they landed three clean hits on me!
"DAMN IT!" I shouted loudly in frustration.
Having managed to increase my fighting and movement skills to the extent of being able to dodge all the other attacks perfectly just seconds ago and then having all of that satisfaction ripped away from me with not one, not two but SIX consecutive clean hits was extremely frustrating, to put it mildly.
"Secret technology or not, this is the end for you." Zac Long's voice sounded calmly from one of the three mechas closest to me.
"Stop bullshitting and try to do some real damage to me, weak ass bastard. You're the shame of all the second graders!" I taunted him mercilessly.
Foll𝑜w current novels on fre(e)w𝒆bnovel