The Martial Unity

The point of this training was to maximize her ability to cope with omnidirectional attacks from multiple opponents around her. He knew from experience that the Martial entrance exam did not necessarily have its students fight one on one in fair bouts. Rui recalled how much of a target he had been in the third round of the Martial entrance exam from multiple opponents that he struggled to keep at bay.

Coping was an important skill for all applicants of the Martial entrance exam. Crea didn't need to decisively win, she needed to decisively not lose. She needed to hang on till the very end and only then was there a chance that she would be selected as a student of the Martial Academy.

And one important avenue to know how to cope with was learning to deal with attacks that could from anywhere. In the past three months, this form of combat training was one that Rui had ground her through. She had been quite miserable at coping with Rui's attacks, but in the span of three months, she had developed a truly respectable amount of cope.

She would most likely not go down easily even against multiple opponents who were most likely older.

One thing Rui respected about the girl was her tenacity. He truly hoped that she would somehow make it through, even if her odds were quite low.

A few hours later, the training session came to an end.

"Alright, that's all for today." Rui nodded.

"Wait, that's it?" She frowned. "Mental fortitude training and omnidirectional defense training? No standard sparring, no maneuvering training? No offensive training?"

Rui shook his head. "Those are nowhere near as important as your mental fortitude and your cope. At this point, I'm merely polishing your most important assets. Unfortunately, I cannot train what I would consider the single most important asset that all Martial Artists ought to have like I train other things."

"And what is that?" She asked.

"I've told you, haven't I?" Rui shook his head. "It's your mind."

"I'm already training my mind." She huffed.

"I'm not talking about your fortitude." He sighed. "I'm talking about your intellect. The decisions you make are going to affect your attempt to the entrance exam more than any other parameter."

"Martial Art isn't like studies, being smart is not more important than being strong." She furrowed her eyebrows.

Rui snorted, resigned to shaking his head. "Being smart is part of being strong. And isn't intelligence that is the most important parameter, but your rationality."

He crouched down to her. "An intelligent irrational person will always lose to a dumb rational person. You don't have to be smart, you just have to use the smarts you have up here..." He tapped her temple. "...to their absolute most. This is relevant not just to the entrance exam, but also to your Martial Path."

"It is?" She grew confused.

"Martial Art, in a way, teaches you how to walk," Rui told her. "But what is just as important as knowing how to walk is knowing which direction to walk in."

"Ah, that makes sense." She nodded. "Does this direction have something to do with the Martial Path?"

"Er, in a way?" Rui scratched his head. This was where his analogy started becoming strange, but it was more or less on track.

"Anyways, I have delayed my leave enough. This will be our last class before the entrance exam. You've worked hard, you've put in almost every conceivable effort to maximize your chances in the entrance exam. Now you just have to go all out and not worry about the outcome." Rui calmly encouraged her. "I believe in you."

Well, that last part wasn't strictly true. He did believe she would do her best and perform excellently, but statistically, she was too unlikely to crack the exam. Of course, nothing was impossible. But Rui only believed in science and himself.

"I'll make you proud, teacher!" She bowed deeply. "Thank you for all your guidance."

"Good luck, and goodbye." He smiled at her as he sky-walked away, sighing inwardly.

He had mixed feelings because as much as he had come to care about the little shrimp, he cared for Max and Mana even more. The two had followed and admired him for a long time and had even made great progress in Martial Art over the many years through his guidance. And they would be competitors with Crea unless she applied to a different branch for some strange reason.

Though, as much as he didn't want to admit it, he had to. She was stronger than Max or Mana individually. She had much richer foundations than the two. While the two had only truly taken their training seriously after Rui got into the Martial Academy, that was only five years of meaningful training. He had taught them basic mixed martial art while letting them personalize their comforts and strengths in a very natural and organic way.

However, Crea had clearly been training longer than them, even if not Martial Art, she had access to vastly better training and growth resources that the siblings most certainly didn't have access to. In fact, they had only recently gotten access to what Crea had her entire life. While Crea did turn out to be more of a spoiled brat than those two, she had also tempered herself with extreme determination.

('If those two run into her in the Martial entrance exam, it would be interesting to see the outcome, at least.') Rui pondered the matter deeply. ('She can beat them individually, but she would lose if she fought them both, which is likelier to happen than fighting them alone.')

He had trained up their teamwork, and together, they were able to cope much better than in the more chaotic rounds of the entrance exam because they could cover each other's backs and blind spots. Rui didn't intend to tell any of them about each other, if they all passed and found out anyway, then that was that.