The difference between the minks fighting style and the humans is a big one…
While minks do what feels natural, they can be considered fighting geniuses with their wild and free style of fighting but sometimes without proper physical and martial training they lack what it takes to take down tougher opponents without the use of Electro or Sulong unless it is a haki user but even then there are often many risks of death in those high levels of fights.
Even the two best fighters of the minks who had trained hard as vassals to Kozuki Oden could only get so far without additional techniques or martial arts in their arsenal.
The beast instinct is overpowered to say the least to help with evasion, combat sense and other things but it is a bad idea to be controlled completely by and follow it blindly.
After visiting many martial halls and challenging them but also going near the Islands military posts and training grounds she learned an important point.
Many types of martial arts require strict discipline and repetition to be able to master it with her body so that it has memories the movement so that they become natural, each foot movement, stance and kick or punch has a certain principal and aim behind it.
Although she could overpower many people on the island, in truth she was not as disciplined as them, especially the military people who tirelessly honed and refined their killing techniques.
Many of their techniques had one purpose which was to kill in one strike but some were also there to defend, parry, disarm or subdue their opponent depending on their role as an army veteran or as a royal bodyguard.
Meanwhile the martial halls techniques focussed more on self defence, ranging from kicking, punching or weapon techniques but also used counters and many other moves to attack.
One that she had visited was more of a karate based fighting style a little similar to Fishmen karate while another had used more serpentine like movements and flexibility so she also learned a lot from each of them whether it was from their stances and forms or their practicing and training techniques to increase their bodies flexibility, balance, toughness and overall muscle strength.
Back at Zou, she had been training in a primitive way by doing odd chores, sparring and doing heavy lifting and other types of chores but on occasion she would stretch and bend her body and follow the basic knowledge that she had to keep a healthy body and build it up.
That training and hard work got her to her current level where she could be considered a superhuman in terms of physical fitness and power but a lot of her knowledge was mainly a concept that she was following without the core teachings.
She got this far thanks to her beast instinct and the basics that she had built up along with heavy training and many fighting experiences against the monks but when she came into the outside world she realised on the first fight with the Sea King is that even Minks can make mistakes as they go for an attack and it either fails or does not do enough damage to the target.
If the opponent can shrug off the electro and is left unhurt by the attack then if they are quick or big enough they can counter quickly or use their large body to knock her or her crew members away.
Even against humans… she found that although she had the basics ingrained in her body and used them while matching their strength, they were able to use certain kicks or punches to counter and turn her kick against her.
Although she was able to adjust to their changes with her beasts instinct and evade with her higher agility to reset the flow of the fight or quickly counter with her own attack, she realised that she did have some flaws in some places that she wouldn't have noticed if she just stayed on Zou.
Perhaps against ordinary people or natural talents she did not learn much but against those more experienced in the martial halls and the military she was able to learn a lot more of the principals and the foundation needed to develop her own style.
Besides practicing the basic moves, she needed to find out which types of kicks most suited her and for what type of situation would she use it.
She also needed to spend time investing in learning from other styles of combat but also different types of body arts that she can practice.
Much like on Zou again… her climbing/jumping or parkour skills had reached a high level and she could do it naturally but she still lacked the necessary basic training and techniques that were required to properly use her bodies advantages to the best of her ability.
After a long day of duels and more visits to different places, Alyssia's kicking forms were slowly becoming more precise and controlled but she still felt as though she was missing many things, however she still tried hard to add different variations after gaining many things from various different perspectives of each place she visited but also it helped to gather and fill up the flaws in her skills again.
Thanks to learning from many others she was able to put various techniques into different categories for their individual uses or the body parts that it uses to attack or defend.
First she practiced her kicking techniques repeatedly using her heel which were the axe, back, crescent, inward and outward crescent, hook kick and sidekick but many of these moves did have other versions that could be used while jumping or spinning or an example of the side kick or other kicks would be another way to kick using the knife-edge of the foot.
Then when she was done she moved onto more defensive moves to defend against an attack or push her opponent to a further distance so she has more range to kick which were the push kick and knee strike.
After that she worked on using the ball of her feet and practiced a front kick but also a roundhouse kick which had the additional point of contact with the instep of her foot while the reverse roundhouses point of contact also used the top of the foot for range but depending on the range it would sometimes hit with the heel or shin for a roundhouse or the reverse.
Many of these moves were already very ingrained in her body from her basics but as she was learning more and making up for her previous flaws, her technique was becoming more refined and she had a clear purpose for each technique.
Although she had yet to reach the stage of shadow boxing, she had a certain mastery of the basic forms that required one leg to kick and connecting those moves.
What she lacked most was complete control, balance and precision to assist her with the other techniques so that they could be executed while jumping or spinning.
Luckily however she was in a place where many people had a variety of skills and her climbing/jumping or parkour skill was beginning to gather more personal experiences and the principals behind them so that she could correct her faults and fill in the errors of her skills.
Many techniques and basic movements were available to her so that she could practice but the system broke them down for her to make things more simple so after her martial arts practice began the next step of her training.
She stepped onto the ship and then began to address her crew members that weren't busy at the moment. "Carrot and Tristan! Come and practice with me but anyone else that is interested.. you may join too."
Carrot's eyes lit up after discovering that she would probably be learning something new and Tristan displayed a little curiosity on her face.
Suddenly Alyssia spoke up and broke them out of their excitement. "We are learning nothing you have not already learned or experienced but this time we are going back to the basics to further refine our forms and control of our power and balance needed for climbing, jumping, vaulting and spinning. So let us begin!"
Right away they began spartan like training learning the basics of Safety Roll, Quadrupedal Movement, Balance, Precision Jumping, Safety Vault, Wall Running, Turn Vault, Jump Spin and Bar Swing/Leap so that they could get a basic grasp of the body forms and their individual uses.
The safety roll allows the body to roll into a landing from a standing position or even from a high place so they began with that even if it seemed pointless.
Although it is a simple move, for the minks who had a much higher physical strength and agility they may lack the basic control of strength needed to use these movements to perfection but with enough practice they will be able to master them and put them into practice in their next time when they are climbing and jumping which will make their moves much more efficient and smooth.
At first Carrot and Tristan overused their strength so their roll was under less control which ended up with them landing wrong but after a couple of attempts.
The quadrupedal movement was an easy one for a half beast human but it was still a basic movement that was used in parkour from vaults or climbing positions and helps to go under things or create stability while being up high.
As expected even Alyssia found herself gaining more familiarity with it along with her crew while Nica who had just came out from researching and looked at them as if they were being stupid. "What are you doing?"
Alyssia looked at her and replied as she was getting up to do the next movement. "If you have time to ask questions, you have time to train too."
Nica rolled her eyes and sighed before replying. "Fine… I will join."
While teaching her the first two moves, Nica found that these were actually quite suited to her and perhaps even Carrot's style of combat so she had no choice but to give it a try."
Balance was one of the more difficult tasks that required a little more practice for them so some of them started small while Alyssia was seen on the side of the ship carefully taking a step forward while balancing with her other foot on the the railing and then slowly placing her forward foot down.
She did it slow at first but after a couple of steps she was slowly gaining more familiarity and control over her balance so she slowly began to increase her speed of movement but there was also the unpredictable movements of the ship that although docked could move a little unexpectedly.
Meanwhile Carrot who was was getting used to just balancing and walking on the end of the steps decided that she was ready to join her so got up with her.
Alyssia responded by asking. "Are you sure that you are ready for this?"
However the ship suddenly moved without warning and then a sound of something falling into the sea followed.
Meanwhile the rest of the crew facepalmed and began laughing at Carrot who had fallen off the ship.
Below the ship was a wet rabbit mink who looked very distressed and was weeping so Alyssia couldn't help but look down at her with pity in her eyes and ordered everyone. "Hurry and get her out of there before she drowns. This should be a lesson not to skip the stages and move onto the more difficult parts."
Not long after the wet rabbit girl was fished out of the water and reluctantly went to dry herself off buffer joining them for training once again after the delay.