Noticing Roman's slow and strange movements, William hesitates. “Am I supposed to defend in a different kind of way than before?” William guesses but still takes a regular defensive stance. He lowers his leg, and by placing his right forearm towards Roman's direction, his whole Vector Hand is facing his shadowy fist.
In a couple of seconds, Roman's fist strikes his hand, causing William's posture to shake, and push him 5 feet away. Thanks to the placement of his feet far from each other, he had enough ground to tank this slow, yet powerful hit.
“What was that? It still felt like I was hit with a hammer!” William wonders out loud. Though Roman doesn't answer, since he places another hand forward. It is a little faster than the one before, and it's coming to William's left side.
“Not talking? Right... I guess this is about 10 minutes of torture... I swear...” William scowls inside and uses the same strategy then before.
Figuring this by himself is by no means bad. William has no chance but to face and place the same amount of defense to his left side this time.
He knows this isn't that great, considering his obvious previous hit that shook his core. He isn't enough to tank this hit, but he feels he could do so with some time. That, or he needs to figure out his weakness, which is the placement of his right hand.
Though, William forgets one thing. His left side doesn't have shit, and Roman knows it.
The best that William figures are simple. He steps forward with his right foot and forces his right hand forward by turning his upper body sideways. Like this, the right side of his body is facing Roman's strike, while his right hand is the most forward. Even when the attack is coming from the left side, he could change his own posture to make this difference obsolete, but he has to be fast and quick about it.
Roman sees William's change and acknowledges the fact that he knows his weakness as well.
Though, not like it would matter all that much, since changing posture like this is one of the core basics of boxing and all kinds of martial arts.
With this kind of posture, one could change from left to right, but in William's case, it is different. His right side is more dominant. The leg position is less firm, unlike the previous one.
William faces the hit with a less wide kind of stance, and less stability because of his experimental change.
This kind of stance is good for a straightforward exchange of blows, or for quick dodges. It is more flexible than the wider stance that is far more universal, but not all that different. Either is good for attacks that can come directly, but this one requires some experience that William lacks.
With the palm facing the strike as before, William is facing the attack, that strikes his Vectors. They are unable to withstand this, which, in turn, causes his hand to bend backward. It hits his head, while the upper body follows, while the right frontal facing hand slips.
This causes William to fly back for 14 feet, with the end result being his back on the ground.
“Next.” Roman's voice echoes in the room.
Jolting himself up, William isn't injured, but he wonders what he did wrong. “No words for what I did wrong?” he asks.
“Isn't it obvious? Your lack the experience.”
William sights and gets on his feet. Taking the same stance as before, he imagines for himself what went wrong.
“Is it the stance and my use of stability within my right hand?”
“Indeed,” Roman tells, and this time leaps forward fast, but slowed down right about the next attack.
This time, a high kick is flying in the air, less than 3 seconds away from William, who is still in the same posture.
“What Am I supposed to do?” he panics amidst a significantly faster attack than before.
Before changing his posture, an idea comes to his mind. A high smack with his right hand? Deflect? No.
William lowers his posture even lower and dodges this attack in a nick of time.
Roman attacks and misses, but he spins around, for another one that is right around the corner. Roman twists his hips, with a backward kick with his second leg.
This is a lower kind, towards the center of William's gravity. He can't dodge it, as he just dodged the first attack. He could only watch the upcoming attack, that is coming to his right hand that is before his body.
With the right kick, the attack pierces William's poor defense.
Stumbling, William barely manages to take this hit before another third one started.
“W-what? They are so slow... yet they are coming nonstop? I need to figure this out, but I guess this isn't as bad. Considering my lack of experience when it comes to facing such attacks, Roman is really considered of myself.” William guesses while finding this situation quite interesting. Roman is striking with lower kind of speeds, making him come to a decision neither quickly, nor slowly.
Roman's next attack is a straight forward series of jabs that force William to defend.
Roman is bigger in this form, so William is managing to dodge some by changing his stances. Though the majority still hits him, but not so hard as before, since they have less power behind them.
William faces everything with his Crimson Hand, which shows no change. He continues with the flow of his Vectors under his command, yet he still feels great after minutes and hits strike his hand.
Though he feels like an eternity passed, less than 2 minutes are within the timer, which William doesn't know. If he could, he would be surprised, since this already felt like more than 6 minutes passed.
Backing away from the continuous pressure of jabs, soon enough William is facing the wall with his back. He doesn't notice how come he came here, or when.
It surprises him that much more since it is Roman's intention to corner him. A much stronger fist comes right afterward William's poor realization.
Concrete cracking, William is pushed into the wall with his upper body. Blood dripping from his nose, his Inner Enchantment helps only so much when it comes to heavy forward attacks.
Backing with his fist, Romam gestures for him to stand up and get back from the wall.
Not telling a word, William complies and faces another series of hits that send him staggering left and right. Roman uses his punches, kicks, sweeps, and so on to push William around. He wants to see his limits, and what he is capable of at the moment.
“Your posture is lacking. It's your knees and hips. You should train your lower body more.” Roman gives rare advice, but so much can change in the flow of the combat.
6 minutes pass in the 1st round.
William is gasping for breath but still forces his hand to follow his orders.
At least for the first one, he wants to prevail and will go with the full amount of time.
And in fact, he does follow through with his 10-minute timer.
Roman stops his last attack, which is less than 1 second from the last.
Stopping his flow of Vectors away, he appears fine as if nothing happened. Even his face is looking at William without a word or care for it.
Meanwhile, William falls to the ground in a sitting position and tries to give his best to retain some strength for the 2nd round. He deactivates his emblem, and the strain on his mind is will get better in a couple of minutes.
“My god... This has been so freaking intense...” He complains in his heart, not giving the option to Roman to hear this.
“You went for the full 1st round? I guess you tried your best, but the next won't be anything less than the 1st.” Roman says, standing not so far from him.
“Yea. yea... I know that.” William says, dismissing his words in an attempt to rest as much as he could.
“Alright. Since you wait, here is the rundown of the strikes...”
To William's unexpected shock, Roman tasks a seat right in front of him and starts explaining every coordination, possibility, and defense measure against every one of the attacks he used. He explains the benefits, possible solutions, counterattacks, mistakes on his part, and how to follow up after taking the different kinds of attacks. He goes little into detail in the remaining minutes, but William listens to everything hoping to take everything that he is telling him to heart.
“... lastly, the way to move when you are exhausted is to minimize the further damages. Your legs are a weakness, so the movement should be lessened. Either crouching down or going towards the clinching attack is recommended. Making the enemies' attacks stop before they come is also a possibility. Grappling, or something like that too, is useful. Though, this could be hard to do against the beasts, which have jaws, unlike humans. Counterattacks from the Dark beings vary a lot. That is about everything, so it's time for the next round. Get ready.” Roman tells at last and gets up.
This leaves William flabbergasted and speechless. He probably never listened to someone talk like that with such keen perception and imagination.
William starts to have another firm belief that Roman is really a great teacher who knows his staff more than he shows.
As the second round starts, Samuel is sitting far away but watches most of it with keen interest. This is a form of research as well, and combat for a full 10-minute mark with such intensity is very rare for beginner Walkers. This shows high stability with Vectors, a firm mind, and most importantly, not giving up against attacks from someone much more powerful.
“Oh... I am rather surprised that he is using such tactical training so early, but I guess this will do. In a few rounds, I expect his Emblem to start destabilizing much earlier. 10 minutes with 1st, 7 with 2nd, 6 with 3rd, and maybe the 3rd will be end? With such intensity, if he will go beyond the 4th, making it 1 hour of this training, with 45 minutes of combat, and 15 minutes of rest. That is a general routine of the 1st year in the Academy. How unconventional.” Samuel assumes and continues to write down stuff in his diary. He took a seat on his suitcase, so he doesn't have to sit on the cold concrete, and catch a cold.
As the 2 round continues, William struggles the same as before, but his footwork slightly improves. He doesn't make mistakes often, but with the flow of the combat, he slips from time to time while Roman isn't gentle this round as well. Roman doesn't give him any advice, leaving William in a constant state of focus, and figuring things out at his own pace.
Of course, this sort of training, full of attacks, leaves him no choice but to curse inside his mind.
Flying from another high kick, because of his inability to crouch down in time, William ends up in a similar position as many times before.
Gasping for breath, he forces himself up with his Vector Hand which is much stronger. With ease, he gets up, which doesn't seem natural, but how could it be natural? If he wills it, the Vector Hand and Claw can become bigger than his whole body.
The problem is that it will become harder to control and harder to move. Not because of the mass of Vectors, which are outside of physical rules, but because their numbers still share some rule sets.
For example, the cause for the lack of controls will stem from an inability to follow the connections in Walker's mind. One has to be consciously aware of this connection for it to not dissipate, and it's part of the Feel of the Annihilation.
These simple rules can be a constant fear of going against life and death. Fighting as a Walker stems from never losing the connections, and control over the Emblem.
Of course, there is a certain oversight when it comes to this problem. That solution and reason are higher rank Walkers. They will fuse more with the Arcanite matter and can use skills without the need for Emblem's activation.
Their power could still be tremendous. Rank 8, or even 7s, can be very terrifying opponents, but facing the Dark beings.... that is another question altogether.
“Ughhhh...” Moaning in pain, another kick ends up quite heavy on William's right side of the face.
Dropping to the ground, there is a gushing wound on his head as his Inner Enchanted breaks up, and his head smacks against the concrete. There is a small blood dropping down, while dizziness envelopes William's mind. William lost the connection in the 8th minute and 49th second.
Ending his Emblem, Roman sights, and walks toward William who is quite hurt by his regular attacking patterns.
“Damn, I think I overdid it with that quick flying kick.” is his excuse, while looking at his wound.
“Ahh, what are you so scowling about? This is but a scratch!” he says, downplaying this wound.
Willian scowls, but he rather not voices anything. He gulps down any curses that could fly out of his mouth, towards this innocent-looking man, whose age he can't even discern.