Lately, my days have grown a lot busier than usual. I'm 7 years old now and while I haven't made any advancements in my ranks, I have been training my body and honing the essentials.

My father convinced my mother to let me get a martial arts tutor, but he only on the condition that I exercise with him every morning. Needless to say, my bulky and fit father left me in the dust when it came to working out. At first, I cheated a little by augmenting my body, but he got upset with me.

"You can't cheat yourself on this, boy! You have to put the effort in, and your body will repay you in kind! The more it hurts the more in tune with your body you will become."

Despite being my father, all relation was thrown out the window during training. He was like an entirely different person. Back in my world, they had a perfect name for it: a gym bro.

After morning exercise, I trained in energy manipulation with my mom. She was a lot less strict than my father but remained a stern, but loving teacher. If I didn't get anything she would explain it to me from the beginning, in even more detail.

She was also patient. She would repeat herself as many times as it took for me to grasp the content, and she'd always smile and congratulate me once I figured it out.

All Biotics had an affinity to a certain kind of energy. For my mother, it was divine energy. The way the affinity worked, you could also have an affinity for others near it. The energy affinity could be seen as similar to the color wheel. Divine energy was neighbored by water and fire energy, so my mother was proficient in those, however, dark energy, and by extension wind and ground energy, my mother struggled with.

She could cast ascendant divine spells, which mainly included healing and buffs, and expert-level fire and water magic, fire being a devastating force on the battlefield and water providing a solid balance of control and power. However, she could only cast intermediate-level ground and wind spells, and couldn't cast any dark spells at all.

As for my affinity, I seemed to have the capability to learn them all, however, I performed best with electric energy. It relied on cost-effective, wide-range control spells and rapid-fire, long-range destructive spells. A perfect balance for me as a young kid with a low energy pool.

I could cast intermediate electric spells with ease, and by extension, fire and wind spell at the beginner level. As far as the other two go, beginner-level spells are fairly weak in combat. They are clunky and don't have much area of effect, making them easy to miss for someone with an unpracticed aim. Fire spells had a slow casting time, but solid damage output and wind spells had a quick casting time, but abysmally low damage output.

All-in-all, my best bet was to stick with electric energy in combat and train the others on the side.

After Biotic training, it was time for martial arts. I was being trained in the basics, footwork, and such, but they planned for me to learn a form of martial arts they called Flow-style.

It relied on using patience and balance to nimbly dodge your opponents' attacks, waiting for an opportunity to release an attack of your own. Once you got that first attack in it was all about rapid precise strikes and maintaining the tempo of the fight. It required a lot of stamina and patience, as well as a strong balance due to the emphasis it placed on explosive kicks.

Since I'm not brawny like my father, but more balanced and slim-cut, it would prove to be the perfect martial art for me. All I did when training with my dad was calisthenics, so I'd gained strong balance and with it, the ability to use my legs to deadly advantage. After another year of training, I had finally reached the intermediate tier for Augmenters. This meant that I could now perform partial transformations, but I still had a long way to go to get to an expert.

Unlike the distance between beginner and intermediate, it was an exponentially bigger distance to go from intermediate to expert. The best way I could describe it is that if the beginner tier was the moon, the intermediate tier was the earth, and if the intermediate tier was the earth, then the expert tier was Neptune.

It's a long leap but once I get there, I could perform full-body transformations! The options would be rather limitless, so long as I could grasp the genetic makeup of the creature I wanted to mimic. That being said, the partial transformation was no small feat either. Currently, I could only transform one of my arms at a time, but with enough training, I could soon transform both.

The idea of it invigorated me so much that I gave my absolute all in today's martial arts training session. According to my father, while working out is still a good way to grow your Ki, mastering martial arts was even better. Part of mastering a martial art is becoming one with the parts of your body necessary to complete the maneuvers. Because of the amount of technicality it required, it produced a higher Ki yield.

After I finished my martial arts training, I was physically exhausted. Balance training along with the fundamentals, and then finally sparring left me drained. As I lay back in my chair, my teacher bowed to me.

He was a tall and lanky old man by the name of Rajin. Despite his looks, he was the creator and master of the flow-style technique, and almost fought the God of Augmenters, Hanabi, to a standstill. The latter even admitted that had Rajin been young, Hanabi would have lost.

With all this emphasis on how strong his martial arts were, you'd assume he was an augmenter, but you'd be dead wrong. He was a Demi-God tier biotic who has mastered the electric tree, including wind and fire magic.

Because of his discipline and trust in his own body to work reflexively, independent of his mind, he can concentrate enough to cast spells in melee combat, making him a ruthless and terrifying foe to face on the battlefield. His nickname as an adventurer was Rajin the Uncounterable. This was because of how well he had mastered the ordinarily bad matchup that Biotics have with Augmenters. Others have called him the 5th God, God of Technique Rajin.

He was looking for a disciple to pass down his martial arts to, and while many learned the style, none had been able to even approach the level of the master he required. Despite this, with enough coin he came to tutor me, only to become convinced that I would certainly surpass him and evolve the Flow style to a higher level than anyone, including himself, ever could.

I didn't see how I was ever going to surpass this monster but to each his own. Sometimes they get delusional in their old age, after all, lord knows I did. I thought to myself after first talking with him.

This is why I was surprised when he bowed to me. What the heck did I do? I frowned, trying to think.

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"It seems you have already mastered the fundamentals of my technique, I am proud to report that when we next meet, I can begin teaching you the true moves of the flow style." He said as he rose from his bow to meet my gaze

"Surely there must be some mistake in your thoughts, there's absolutely no way in he- ow!" he cut me off by flicking me on my forehead. It wasn't a harsh flick but it left a big red blotch on the center of my forehead

"Young one, I don't flatter you by saying those words, I truly mean it. As the only practitioner of this style, you have mastered the fundamentals required. There is still much for you to learn, do not fret. Your next phase of training begins tomorrow. It will be rigorous, but I know you'll be able to keep up." he said with a wide grin forming on his face.

This old man is going to be the death of me! I cried out internally. He already had me balancing on one leg with the other extended at a perfect 90-degree angle for 30 minutes at a time, and as if that wasn't excruciating enough, the sparring after was even worse.

I was told that I was unable to fight back and instead had to focus on surviving his barrage of attacks for as long as possible. The longest I could manage at the current was 30 seconds. We'd repeat the loop of 30-minute balance on each leg, then another session of sparring for 3 hours straight. This time around, however, I was able to last a full minute during our first round of sparring.

Unfortunately, recovering with divine magic didn't allow your muscles to grow, so my aching body would just have to endure the exhaustion. Dinner was more delicious than normal, perhaps that was only because of how haggard I was.

On the dawn of the next day, my father allowed me to forgo my morning exercise, as Master Rajin requested it.

What kind of monstrous things will I be doing today that requires me to skip out on my morning routine? I wondered, shuddering. My legs were still sore from yesterday's session, and my whole body felt dull and aching.

Breakfast was rather bland and as I stood before Master Rajin, I couldn't help but sigh.

"Whatever seems to be the matter, young one?" he asked while cocking his head to the side.

I don't feel like I'm in the mood to get my ass handed to me, I think. I snickered to myself. "Just not exactly excited to eat more dirt." I finally responded.

"Not to worry, young one. Today is a day of rest. We do not train your body, but rather your mind." he said tapping his finger against his temple. "It doesn't matter how powerful the soldier is, if they have no tactics, the battle will be destined to lose."

Ah good. Rest. I felt at ease now, like a weight had been lifted off my chest. Feeling light and energized now, I sat crisscrossed in front of my master. "Where do I start!" I exclaimed with an excited smile.

"Come, sit with me," he beckoned. I moved to sit beside him. For the next 3 and a half hours, we went back and forth on different styles and how to combat them using flow-style. I was told to spend this week studying them, and at the end of the week, there would be a quiz where I'd actually be allowed to strike back.

I was excited, to say the least. I've done a lot of training and sparring but I've yet to be in actual combat. Granted it is still technically sparring, but it's a lot closer to real combat than I was before.

The days from then on resumed as normal. Wake up, exercise, do some Biotic training and martial arts, then the rest of the day I had to myself to study and read at the library. There was a serious wealth of knowledge inside this library, and it had been an immense help in sorting things out in my younger years.

Thank you, oh sweet Ariel. Your kindness knows no bounds! I thought to myself. Surely if she heard me she'd make some smug face and say something like "Please focus on the task at hand, sir hero."

Cone to think of it, I wonder if she's watching me right now. She did say she liked to watch all the different worlds for entertainment, so I wouldn't be surprised to hear if she was.

I had to admit the thought of a beauty like Ariel watching over me from above made me want to blush. I wonder what women are like in this world? I thought to myself, a grin creeping onto my face.

My mom was... well endowed to say the least, as was Lilith. Lilith was a bit distant, but she treated me kindly enough. Mom on the other hand was doting and sweet but also had a scary temper.

Otherwise, they looked pretty similar to the women from my world, though I'm sure there are more hair colors than there were in my world. That kinda comes with the whole isekai territory. I'd never gotten much into anime, but I watched a few during my teenage years, so I had a rough idea of what I was working with here.

Eventually, it finally came to the last day of the week. Once again, Master Rajin allowed me to skip on morning exercise. Once it was time, we made our way to the backyard. We stood 10 paces away from each other and bowed. Time seemed to slow down around me as my master readied his stance. His fingers curled up so that only his palms were out, and he positioned them in front of him while sweeping one leg behind. That's the Tiger stance. So I need to take the defensive Boar stance.

I got my torso down low, with my legs bent at a 45-degree angle. My legs would ne be focused on dodging, while my hands would be focused on blocking or redirecting his blows.

Tiger stance used a flurry of nonstop attacks that lead into each other. Comparable to an infinite combo in fighting games from my world. Boar stance was the perfect counter to the Tiger stance because of its defensive prowess. Being able to reflexively dodge and block all of his attacks allowed me to keep my eye out for openings where I could release a strike of my own.

Master Rajin said nothing, only nodding his head in agreement. "Begin!" he shouted and as soon as he said it, he launched himelf toward me. His speed was astonishing but manageable. By focusing Ki to my eyes I was able to follow his movements. I dodged and blocked as best I could, and while I did end up catching some glancing blows, they weren't enough to take me out.

After about 3 minutes straight of dodging I saw my opening, and I eagerly went straight for it. Redirecting his strike at my face, I grabbed his arm and slid myself in between the arm I was grasping and his other arm, which was mid-punch. I shoved my shoulder into him, which caused him to stagger. At that moment, I unleashed a wide-sweeping kick to his face with my left leg. It connected and I followed it up with a lunge to get within closer range, and after the lunge, I was going to start my own flurry of attacks, but instead, what caught me off guard was the knee heading straight for my face at breakneck speed.

Oh shit, I can't dodge it! Gotta blo- but it was too late. I was sent flying upward, and my master wasted no time following through. Although I was still in the air he jumped up and began to kick me around mid-air similar to the way a person juggled a soccer ball. I was left completely at his mercy and he ended the combo with a swift downward kick to my stomach that sent me straight into the ground.

Pain shot throughout my body and I thought at that moment I might have died, but to my surprise, my vision wasn't darkening. With my unfocused eyes, I saw my master land gracefully on the ground and bow to me, before picking me up and taking me to my mother.

My mom scolded Master Rajin, but he retorted back that "The only way for one to learn from their failure is for them to be hurt so much by it they never want to experience it again." which left my mom speechless. Kind of hard to argue with a martial arts master and the 5th strongest man in the world.

Thankfully, my mom was an ascendant in divine healing magic, so I was restored in no time. After I was healed up, Master gave me a glass of water and we sat down across from each other to do a debrief.

"You did well choosing the Boar stance," he said nonchalantly as he poured himself a glass of water as well. "You're dodging was perfect, as well as your follow-through. Your shove used my own fists momentum against me, and sent me reeling," he continued. "You didn't even hesitate to go in for the next attack, but that's just the thing. For some reason, when you saw my staggering you lost all thought on what to do next, but you went through with it anyways, which led you to a swift knee in the face." He reprimanded, then paused to take a sip of his water.

"In the heat of battle it's pretty hard to keep myself thinking straight," I said apologetically. "Precisely, and that is the purpose of exercises like these. To teach you to think and fight, not give way to wild unhinged strikes with no thought behind them. We will continue next week, and repeat the process until you can effectively start your own flurry of attacks." he resolved.

That training method continued through the weeks as months passed by but I stayed excited throughout...