“Now we’ll go over general defense and offense actions, now give me your best defensive position.”

I thought fast and did an open stance, pushed my right leg forward, and stretched my groin back, I also cuffed up my arm forward vertically blocking my body and face.

It might not be perfect, but it'll definitely block most attacks, is what I thought.

But almost immediately I saw the old man reach forward, stretch his hand behind my back and accelerate fast to slap the back of my head.

“OWWW! What the hell was that for?!”

“You left the sides and back of your head open. I couldn't help myself. Alright alright here give it another shot”

I did the same stance, but this time I put my arms parallel to my head and elbows forward. This time I was sure he would be more hard-pressed.

In the gaps in between my elbows, I saw him walk forward slowly. If he was trying to punch me through the gap, no dice!

I'll just move my head slightly and make him hit my elbows.

As he got close I was ready to see any movement of his head whatsoever so that I could react in time. But all I saw was him looking towards the ground with a grin.

I felt a tap at the side of my foot and as a result, I felt my balance become non-existent.

Towards the end of my journey to the ground, I had felt a pain worse than death in the middle of my legs, followed by my face slapping the inside of my arms.

I was a complete mess, completely exposed, and sprawled out in the ground, inwardly crying, hoping that the pain hadn’t affected my babies.

“You were too over-exerted, that stance was too wide and any small push to your base completely ruined your balance, but a good attempt nonetheless, I think that's enough for now you probably get the point. Your body isn't really all that optimal for a perfect defense. You will always have holes and weaknesses no matter what stance, posture, or guard you have. Now stand up and throw me a punch.”

I stood up immediately, I was already itching with the feeling of punching him in the face. But first I have to make sure.

“Are you sure? How hard? And are you going to fight back? Are we sparring?”

“Nope, I won't hit you back, hit me as hard as you can with your best strike, you know what as long as it's a strike anything works, kicks are allowed to, as well as elbows, knees, and head, as long as it's a strike I allow it.”

Those were exactly the words I was looking for. Finally, a chance for me to vent my frustration. If he thought it was only going to be one punch, he had another thing coming I was going to hit him with a savage combo.

I had to admit after beginning to learn the old man's fighting Method I've realized how shitty the Military’s Reserve training was.

They didn’t teach us anything about stance, posture, or go into detail about the nature of fighting.

They only had us in a wide stance and had us copy a couple of kicking and punching combinations they used and that were mixed in with the physical training they had us do like push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, and running.

Thinking back on it the specific combo probably wouldn’t even work in a real fight, but right now the old man isn’t going to strike back so I'm going to hit him with it.

I got into the basic wide stance and struck out with my strongest right hook, after that I had planned to hit him with a punch to the gut followed by a leg kick.

This basic 3 move combo was the culmination of my time in reserve training, and I was going to finally put it to good use.

But as soon as my fist was about to hit his face he pulled his face back making me miss by the split of a hair, he then moved his face and body forward making me startled and worsening the forward momentum I had created by swinging at air.

I stumbled forward and tripped over his foot.

“You said you weren't going to fight back, what the heck was that.”

“I never said I wasn't going to dodge, what was I supposed to stand there and let you hit me in the face?”

I was fuming with anger.

The one chance I had of venting it all away, was gone, up until now I had lost count of how many times this old man had made me look like a fool.

I was starting to get really tired of it.

“Alright old man so what was the point of that exercise.”

“You still can’t tell, the human body not only isn't all that adept at defending it's also pretty terrible at attacking, I only slightly moved backward and your strike was rendered almost completely useless, the range, force, speed, and area of effect, through which you can properly cause damage is pitiful compared to most creatures that are out here in this wilderness. In fact, a common human without a weapon might as well put itself on a platter for even the lowest tier predator out here.”

Those words resonated deeply in me, it seemed to be something that I had always known but had never really wanted to think about.

It was only when I was wandering the wilderness injured that I was forced to deal with the fear caused by that reality, a reality most humans were subject to.

“Nevertheless we do have some upsides, which are range and flexibility of movement, and our stamina. In general, we humans have very good stamina, it is said ancient humans could tire out game for days on end before they killed it, I’m no Scientific Expert, but my decent understanding of the human body tells me that's just our innate natural ability. One that we don't use often enough, in my opinion.”

The old man went and sat down on a rock before continuing. Seems I was in for another long one.

“We also have an upright mobile type physique, we are not unique in this, almost all other Sentient Races on this Planet do so as well, some have an even more physically adept version of this physique type, but everything comes at a cost. This type of physique grants vision range boost, as well as mobility and dexterity boost in certain aspects, but this comes at the cost of speed, power, and stability, and ultimately balance. Quadruped creatures will almost always be more dynamic and powerful than you. But still we humans didn't get it so bad when compared to other bipeds. Our almost perfect balance of limb proportions, well-developed senses, High intelligence on average among Sentient Beings, and average size, has made us one of the most flexible sentient races, as well as one of the quickest and adaptable, able to run, crawl, sprawl, jump, swim, climb, crouch, flip, turn, throw and almost everything in between. Our limbs are also quite dexterous in comparison to some Beast People and Monster Races, or even Fiend and Magical Races. “

He stood upon a rock and got into a weird stance, he then scooped up a large stone with his foot that would be hard to pick up with hands and flung high into the air on its way down he lowered his torso and body and raised his leg quickly kicking the large stone and sending it flying at incredible speed at a nearby tree.

Although the tree remained standing a large hole was punched into its side permanently scarring its trunk.

“To make up for our lacking defensive and offensive capabilities and to maximize our strongest attributes, that is the goal of Martial Arts, and that is the reason the Human Race has pushed the Martial Path to its highest limits, constantly raising the threshold on how far you can go on this route. Today you will learn that for a Human the most effective way to cause and avoid damage is by utilizing every part of your body….”

He stuttered for a little while scrounging his eyebrows.

“No! not just every part, but every possible range of movement and action you can do with your body. Throw a large spread of stones at me.”

I grabbed a good amount of small pebbles and threw them at him.

I had to admit it felt good maybe my chance at venting had not disappeared after all.

But then I saw the old man twist and squirm his body in mid-air dodging most of the rocks and the ones he couldn't dodge he grabbed or swatted away.

In the end, he landed safely back on the rock with a handful of rocks on both of his hands.

“Some people say the best form of defense is a good offense, although I don't completely disagree with that philosophy I do think there is a better one, the best form of defense is one in which you never get hit at all, that will be our first exercise in defensive action.”

The next thing I knew a small pebble hit my shoulder.

“I thought we weren't doing resistance training right now, what the heck was that for!”

“No this isn't resistance training, this is evasion training, we're gonna work on your ability to dodge and avoid attacks. These pebbles when thrown are pretty fast and hard to see, this will push your reaction and motor abilities to the max when trying to evade, now let us begin well do this for half an hour then well move on to the next exercise, do your best.”

He battered me for half an hour straight. I only got good at dodging the stones towards the end of the exercise.

Afterward, we continued defensive action training where he swung at me with a stick and I tried to dodge.

Although it was obvious he was holding back a lot, it still hurt like hell.

Lastly, he finally had me dodge punches and kicks, even though he was almost going at a snail pace his technique was so great I still had a hard time dodging.

Later on, in contemplation, it had me puzzled why we hadn't started off with punches in the first place as that was more related to the stances he showed me, but I decided to hold off on that question as I had started to realize that everything the old man did was for specific purposes.

Even though we had planned on doing defensive and offensive action today by the end of the last defensive action training I was beat and so we took a pause on the intense training.

Sometimes the old man did have a heart.