A lesson in understanding...

John took a few minutes before going up to the fighting ring. Not just to rid himself of his fatigued effect, but also to let the uncomfortable steel of his boner dissipate. When he finally did go up to the ring, the change happened quickly, almost too quickly for him to notice.

The man that John assumed to be Michel's trainer turned out to be an old, tired man who despite his age still seemed rather beefy. When John got close though, he spurred to life, practically slamming into John with a pile of fighting equipment tucked under each arm.

For John it was like he blinked and suddenly he was in a bunch of padded armor.

"Alright. Let me see you punch," Michel said after he helped John climb into the ring and held up a hand. It took a couple seconds for John to catch his meaning but after he did, he threw what he thought was a solid punch into Michel's hand.

"Okay..." Michel sighed when John's fist slid off of Michel's open palm. "First off, you're gonna have to punch a lot harder than that. When you punch you want to put everything you have behind it." So John swung again. "Whoa!" Michel cried and deftly danced out of the way of his fist. "Hold on a moment! If you swing like that, you're gonna hurt yourself. Come here, let me show you."

The next few minutes were filled with moments where Michel just talked and moved John as much as he wanted to. He gave him what seemed like hundreds of tips in the span of a dozen minutes. He talked to him about keeping his wrist straight, locked in a line with his forearm to prevent it from twisting or turning on impact and injuring himself. He told him about moving as he punched or kicked, and how the singular movement that he made throughout his whole body would help to put the strength of his whole body behind the hit. There were even moments when he told him whether or not he just stood too far away.

"You don't want to get too close, but closer than you realize you should. Give your opponent just a few inches of your own space so when you hit, your strike sinks into him a few inches. It'll do more damage." Michel told him, and went on to talk about even more. It wasn't an easy thing to keep track of, and John got lost... a lot.

He learned about ways to hold his body, how he ought to keep his back straight, and slightly bent at the knees. He learned about different ways to hold his hands and to look for positions in his stance that would leave his body braced against itself, so if he took a hit and tried to block it with his arm, it might have the support of another arm or his leg or his chest. He learned to twist and move, to search for the stances that he could take that would prevent him from crossing his feet and tripping over himself.

"It's easier if you think about it like this," Michel told him. "If you're moving forward, then the foot that you have bracing you in front has to move forward first, then the back one. If you're moving backwards it's reversed. You want to move right, your right foot has to go first and vice versa."

"Okay," John mumbled, barely able to keep up by this point.

"Fighting...fighting isn't running." Michel waved his hands around as he tried to explain. "You don't want to have to run to the side of your enemy to get around him, it'll you off balance, and then all he has to do is turn in your direction to adjust." He paused and stepped into John's space. "It's about micro-movements. You don't dart around someone's side to attack them. You step into their side, into their space." Michel emphasized this by stepping right up against John, his massive chest shoving hard into John's own as he spoke. "You search for that mistake in their stance, their posture and use it against them." John barely noticed it; it happened so quickly. There was a slight pivot in Michel's form as he stood up to John and, by simply finishing his step into John's space, the chest bump Michel gave him threw John off of his feet and onto his ass. "Throw them off balance; if you break their stance, they can't block you."

There was a silent pause, and John turned to look around the gym. His eyes widened as he noticed Dina watching from the door to her office with Grace, both of them smiling softly at the two of them. Other than them, the trainer, and the two of them in the ring, there was nobody else in the gym by this point.

"What if my enemy doesn't have a mistake in their stance?" John asked as Michel helped him up.

"They will," Michel answered confidently. "It's like that saying... what is it?" Michel turned to ask his trainer. "There's always someone better or something like that?" All he got was a nod from the balding old man. "It's like that. Some stances are good and strong, but they aren't perfect. If it seems like they are, you're going at it the wrong way and you need to change tactics. The trick comes from finding the weak point in a person's style." That made sense to John. He did that all the time in video games. "If the style or stance seems like it may be perfect, switch the one you've been using. You'll find the weak point eventually." The gym fell silent for a moment, and John watched as pop-ups appeared next to him.

Achievement Unlocked! "Of two minds..."
You have reached an understanding with an ability so strongly that you have started to become connected to it! You gained attunement to an ability!

Fighter's Eyes has reached attunement!
Fighter's Eyes: Attuned increased to level 2!

Fighter's Eyes: Attuned. Level 2, Toggled, 0.9 mp cost per second that the ability is active.
Fighter's Eyes: Focuses the user's gaze on the centered point of balance and instinct within an enemy to find the subtle shifts made between movements and to help predict their actions. When used while combined with a fighting style, Fighter's Eyes can be used to help find weak points in an opponent's stance and posture.

You have reached a point where your fighting can no longer be called senseless. If chosen, your general sense of skill can shift and shape to fit an actual fighting style. Do you want to create a fighting style?

Below the question on his last pop-up, John spotted a box for typing. Inside the box he could make out a bunch of words that explained what it was he was supposed to do.

Enter style name here.

"I think I get it," John said after a long moment. He wasn't sure what the attunement to the ability itself meant, but he felt fairly certain that he understood what it was that Michel was trying to say.

"Good," the blond man said and walked back to one of the corner's of the ring, "then are you ready?"