Class A was being trained by Professor Nobu like every day, the students attacked him individually and after the fight Professor Nobu commented on their bad habits or weaknesses and gave them tips on how to deal with them.
I was not the exception, Mr. Nobu told me to practice a ranged attack technique because the Niako style is very aggressive and uses up my stamina very fast, so I asked Ria to teach me his wind blade technique, it was not difficult, it was just concentrate the mana in the blade of the sword and then release it when attacking, I mastered it in 1 week and as it was from my element I called it lightning blade, very original right?
Now I was fighting with Mr. Nobu, using my lightning blade to create an opening and then approach to attack, clearly I could not connect any hit, but I lasted longer than last time.
Then Mr. Nobu threw a punch that as usual I could feel with my instinct but I couldn't dodge.
When I was on the ground exhausted Professor Nobu approached me and started to tell me his analysis of today's fight.
"You have improved Noah, using the ranged attack to create an opening is a simple but effective strategy considering your fighting style, but there are 2 faults that are fatal to your fighting style."
After disarming in the improved he began to comment on what I needed to correct and my ears pricked up.
"When you move even if you don't realize it you follow a pattern that eventually becomes predictable, find different ways to move, attack and take advantage of your terrain and what is the biggest mistake you always make, you rely too much on your instinct to avoid attacks. While it's good to rely on instinct in combat we don't have to forget about critical thinking, your instincts are very impressive when it comes to perceiving attacks, but when you perceive an attack that you can't avoid you get blocked and are not able to think of another way to avoid it."
These shortcomings that Mr. Nobu mentioned are things that I had noticed too, especially on the last point, I rely too much on my instincts and when they don't work I don't know what to do.
"Unfortunately these are problems that only you can fix by training and gaining experience, so I can't give you any advice to help you."
"That's fine, thank you for commenting."
After that the class ended and I headed with Ria to the dorm for our morning workout while I weighed in on how to cover my weaknesses.
"Hey Ria how did your training go?"
"Good, Professor Nobu said I needed to work more on my physical strength because my attacks lack power."
"Maybe you should learn a technique for-"
As he spoke my spotlight went on.
"I need a technique that can cover my deficiencies quickly."
I know Nobu-san said that this will be covered as I train and gain experience, but solving it quickly is never a bad option and having a useful technique would be helpful in the future, but how?
My main problem is that I rely too much on my instincts and while fighting I end up following a pattern that becomes predictable, so I need something that can counteract these things, something like....
"Mmm...mmm...mmm."
"What are you doing?"
"I'm thinking about something"
Something that allows me to be aware of my movements while fighting so I don't follow a pattern and that I can find a way to dodge a hit that I can't avoid with my instincts...something like...think faster?
!!!
"That's it!!!"
"Ahh!!! what's wrong with you!!!?"
"I'm sorry Riri, but I won't be able to train with you for a while!"
I said and then ran into the dorm.
"What the-? Don't call me that!"
When I arrived, I headed to the mana room, and as I was about to grab the doorknob the door opened and out of it came a green haired girl with a flower on her head and some white marks on her skin covered in sweat.
"Hi-"
"Hiiii!!!"
Before I could greet her he let out a shriek and ran off.
"Ah, I forgot her personality was like that."
But leaving that aside I walked into the room and automatically felt like I was having a hard time breathing, that was because the mana density compared to outside was much higher.
I sat in the middle of the room in meditation position and started to move the mana inside my body.
"It is extremely difficult."
The density of mana in the environment made my own control difficult, mages use these rooms to learn how to better use their mana so that their spells have enough circulation to not disappear.
"But it's just what I'm looking for."
If the thing I thought of is possible, to try it I need extremely precise control of my mana.
After about 1 hour I was already totally exhausted, and went to my room to rest.
Ria woke me up as usual and we headed to class as usual, but when we were on our way a green haired girl came towards us looking extremely nervous.
After a minute with the girl in front of us she seemed to be thinking about what to say, Ria who was already getting annoyed spoke up.
"What do you want?
"Um...I...I...I."
After thinking about it some more, the green haired girl made a 90° bow and shouted at the top of her lungs.
"Sorry about this afternoon!!!"
After that she straightened up and ran off leaving me and Ria not knowing what the hell was going on.