Chapter 9 - Martial arts and Hand to Hand combat training.

Shanks Pov : As soon as he saw me , he grinned as he jumped off the boulder and threw away the now empty wine bottle. He unsheathed his cutlass as armament haki smoothly flowed through the sword before he said " Silver Road " and released a huge silver wind slash mixed silver lightning that traveled in a straight line. I responded in kind with a Ryou coated " Hunting sovereign" that resulted in the large silver wind slash meeting a red wind slash in the middle. Both attacks canceled each other out after a brief struggle that none won. We grinned at each other before we both disappeared from our initial positions only to meet in the middle with our swords clashing which created large amounts of silver and red lightning that continuously affected the environment and shook the entirety of the island of Ruskaina . Both of our swords were coated in Ryou and emission that continuously continued to cancel each other out as we both tried to push each other back to win. I eventually lost after a two minute struggle, which was impressive compared to my initial time which was ten seconds a month ago. I was pushed back three meters from my initial position as Rayleigh sheathed his cutlass back while still grinning from ear to ear. I too sheathed my saber back into its blue colored sheath on my left hip while my gun holster rested on my right holster. I eyed him for a moment before asking in a inquiring tone ,"What's the occasion Rayleigh sensei? We usually duke it out every time until I inevitably lose by either knockout or exhaustion." His lips seemed to twitch for a second before he sighed and said," we'll be moving on to the next part of your training ,hand to hand combat and improving your footwork'', I nodded at his words as walked to a shade under a tree next to the boulder he was previously sitting on. He sat near me as I gestured for him to continue from where he left off ,'' Hand to hand combat: we'll work on it through me teaching you the basics of the marine secret arts ,Rokushiki." A flash of surprise passed through my eyes for a moment , which he seemed to have caught as he said, " Don't be surprised that i know it. Most experienced pirates that have sailed the new world and some in paradise know of it through two ways.They either acquire the knowledge of how to use the arts through the black market, or for some lucky ones who have encountered the CP agency and survived, copy and change some of it to suit their combat style. Most devil fruit users especially adapt to the use of the Rokushiki due to techniques like Geppo helping them fight on the properly. An example of this would be the pirates like whitebeard and people like Linlin and Rocks. All of them are devil fruit users who have to inevitably fight on the sea and Geppo is a huge help to them. Although they might also have others to fight on, they all used or still use Geppo as it's probably less taxing on their stamina. Which isn't a problem due to their monstrous physiology. Now , I'll teach you the basics of what I know and the rest is up to you. Instead of sparring with me for a long time , you'll be sparring with the animals on the island with your hands and the Rokushiki techniques that i teach you. You'll also be blindfolded and have to use your observation haki almost constantly during the fights. You'll do this until the sun sets. You don't have to do the ten kilometer run ,but you still have to do your punching sessions with the biggest mountain on the island with no armament coating. You can use armament when fighting the animals though. And finally, you'll be working on using your gun properly and imbuing armament haki in your bullets during fights as although it's not your main weapon,it helps with saving your energy during fights. Using armament haki by imbuing it into both your fists and guns will also help you increase your control of haki to my level of control. If you get that control, you'll waste less haki and stamina in fights as you'll know the exact output to imbue in your weapons. At the end of the month,we'll spar and I'll evaluate your increase in strength. " I took a moment to digest his new training regime before I nodded after a minute. He hummed in response before he stood up and started to stretch. A minute later he looked like he was ready. He took a moment to readjust himself as he said ," The first move that you'll be learning and the most fundamental one in my opinion is Soru. The fundamental principle behind it is to kick the ground ten times in the blink of an eye. Masters of it can attack and use it to dodge the attacks of others by enhancing their base speed with it. You should have an easier time mastering it since you have a strong body that can bear the burden of it with little to no difficulty." I watched him disappear for a second before appeared fifty meters away from his initial position in a second. I blinked and he laughed before he got into a stance to perform the technique again. This time, I had my observation on standby as I saw his movements as he performed the technique. He appeared fifty meters farther from his position . I took a moment to recount how he moved before I also tried to perform the technique. I opened my eyes as I moved faster than my base speed and the change in scenery was almost trippy but I stopped two meters before a large tree. I took a moment to readjust myself. For the next thirty-minutes , I repeatedly used Soru before some sweat started to appear on my head. My legs felt kinda sore but I had little to no problem getting used to using Soru. I requested Rayleigh to show the other techniques after drinking some wine. The rest of the whole day was spent getting accustomed to the moves I could perform which included Geppo, Shigen and Rankyaku. The other two were hard to perform due to requiring superb muscle and overall body control that I did not currently have. Geppo was a little harder to get used to due to it requiring greater effort to perform than Soru but i got it down in its basic form. Shigen was a little harder but punching mountains seemed to have built up the required strength my hands need to perform the technique. Rankyaku was easier to perform in contrast to Shigen and Geppo due to me already having a greater understanding of the principles behind it. Being a skilled swordsman,according to Rayleigh, also helped. By the end of the day,my arms and legs were sore but I had a huge grin on my face. After all, the pain was worth it as I got down four of the seven techniques . I was so engrossed in getting down the basics that I forgot to have my first hand to hand combat sparring session with the animals on the island, though Rayleigh gave me a pass on it for the day which I appreciated.