Combat Forms.

As it seemed, there were many of them.

“Since Faruq knows one, I’ll show you a demonstration of that first,” said momma Jane.

Jane stood in the middle of us, her attire was slightly different from the old grey-furred coats she wore.

She wore leather skinny enough to support her practical movements while showing her muscle and limbs with enough detail to correctly allow us to stare at the movement we would have to repeat.

We had moved to the clearing, where the Monolith stood. And it was clear that both Faruq, who had a fair deal of experience with it, and Roana, which had started learning for a while, would follow the lessons with us.

What first Jane showed us was Faruq’s Combat Form.

The Form of the Spiral was a combat pattern that valued direct confrontation, and it shined while used with a sword, axes, long-knives, and dual-wielding a mix of the aforementioned.

It consisted of unrelenting assaults that would keep enemies at bay and followed the principle that attack was the best form of defense.

However, it was not ideal for closed space, nor for too wide spaces, it shone on a regular battlefield and in the middle of a battleground. It was thus ideal for war.

Although not even remotely her style, Jane was proficient in it. Even more so than Faruq, who, according to her, was too dispersive and Stamina hungry while using it.

“Spiral Form is a gentle form; it does not consist of heavy attacks, but entirely by the opposite. Many weak attacks chained one into the other,” she said.

Faruq’s style was much more violent; it seemed that although he was capable at it, he had yet to learn how to contain his own Skills’ power.

The next Form she showed us was called the Form of the Limit.

A variant of that Form was what Alistar was going to be learning.

The Form of the Limit was ideal for warriors with a heavy build or a lot of Strength. Alistar was such a warrior.

It consisted of creating an impassable stance that heavily punished anyone that threatened to break through the limit the user had placed in front of him.

Although hard to use and very punishing if lost in the middle of battle, it was an invaluable tool that could shape the entire battlefield.

The user would emerge as a barrier, blocking any direct incoming threats and act as a wall for all those behind.

It was heavily punishing because the user would have to punish everyone who managed to break through and failing to do so with an enemy passing through, the limit would break.

But passing through the wall meant getting in range of the heavily built or powerful user, which entailed entering into their massive reach or mighty hits.

However, for Alistar to learn the Form, he would have to let go of his spear and instead focusing on an ax. Of course, it was not ideal; it would render one of his basic Skills entirely unusable. It was not feasible. For that very reason, experts had created a formidable variant of it; it was called the Form of the Grid.

“I’m going to enjoy this,” Alistar said as Jane explained.

“Yes, you are,” added momma Jane. “If you manage to raise your reaction speed and, most importantly, Strength, you will become an indestructible fortress. Your reach is already good, but I believe you’ll become one huge Kobold.”

Alistar grinned, satisfied.

The Grid was a peculiar Form; it was mainly defensive and consisted of creating a space around oneself so that with a long weapon, a spear, a halberd, a greatsword, a glaive, or even a long mace, the user was capable of creating a space around himself that could be reached and covered at a moment’s notice.

Not only did it not leave the user stuck in place, but it also gave them high mobility thanks to the weapons’ reach.

The demonstration momma Jane made was not the same thing without targets to fight with, but when our Kobold repeated it, it became clear right away how talented he was with it.

A grinning Alistar abandoned us and started repeating the Form he had just learned over and over again. Of course, he had learned just the basics of the basics. He had still a lot to learn, but that was already a nice start.

“Well, he’s… inspired, isn’t he?” Said Jane, staring at the seriously driven Kobold.

“He’s going to be the strongest warrior in history,” added Faruq with a smile, “He has got to be at least that motivated. Doesn’t he?”

Jane smiled, “I think I like this kid. He picks up quickly.”

“Thank you, Lady Jane."

Roana chuckled, “Oh, now she’s going to like him even more.”

The next Form momma Jane showed us was called the Form of the Lifeline; people who could directly harness the power of Flow and Shade and use it to their advantage used that Form to keep themselves out of trouble.

Roana was a Medium; her Class was centered around Focus, Perception, and Willpower.

Mediums could become Mages, Shamans like the rare Gnolls, or Druids like the Elves.

With Mages, the most common Classes of Magicians were Cryomancers and Thermomancers, the first bound to use Shade and only Shade, the second bound to Flow.

There were other, rarer types of magicians, but I did not know the details. A veil of mystery surrounded the whole ethereal Medium root-Class. But at least the Form of the Lifeline was well known.

And I had sincerely no idea how Roana had become one in the first place. Even when we were little and asked her how she had managed to, I received only silence.

Anyway, the Form of the Lifeline specialized in keeping the user moving while keeping enemies away with the help of a long weapon, like a pole, a staff, a long-wand. These weapons were useful to casters because of the capacity to not only increase the output or potency of Flow and Shade-based spells but as tools to store many Crystals and Stones.

It was definitely not an attacking Form, but one that relied on defense and keeping the enemy away as much as possible.

Roana had started to use this Form but not because she wanted to be a delver, simply because of her formative years, those in which leveling a Class was the easiest, had long since gone, and her stats were those she could see on her Tracing.

To increase those, she would need to start leveling up a lot. Learning a Form to protect herself better was much, much easier, and given her Class, the use of a long weapon was ideal.

However, Roana lacked any real Skill to protect herself effectively; that was probably why slave traders had so easily kidnapped her.

To put it simply, she was weak, too weak for her own good. She would not always have momma Jane by her side to protect her.

Although I didn’t know the exact values, her Perception and, in this case, more importantly, her Willpower was high, and she would easily find a mind form adept at learning the Form of the Lifeline to perfection.

Especially given her recent experience.

“Roana started learning her Form a month ago, and since then, she has shown great conformity to it; she’s on her way to master the basics. I have trained her in fighting against the other basic forms so that you can rehearse with her anytime you see fit. These days she has the drive and a lot of energy to spend,” announced momma Jane.

“Yeah, I can take you on whenever you want,” Ro added, “I’m so gonna wipe my ass with you lot,” she shook her head maliciously.

And for some reason, even with my much higher Strength and now Constitution, I believed her.

Unsurprisingly, Nova had chosen to learn the Form of the Spiral. She said she wanted to shine on the battlefield and that she would become a Champion, whatever that meant.

According to M.J., the Form of the Spiral was not well suited for a Rogue. Still, it would indeed shape her Advanced Class into something entirely else, probably giving her the option to convert into some light warrior type, which was probably what she aimed to do.

I had no idea what a Champion was, nor did she, but as long as it was something that increased her chance of survival, it was better than nothing. According to Jane, she revealed to be very much suited for a sword and dagger approach, which could make for a good “Tight Spiral."

Having anyone learn the Forms suited for their Classes meant that I was the last one that had still to have his training arranged.

“The most suited Form for a Rogue and a Hunter which relies upon a short bow like you, Loke...” momma Jane paced around the clearing as she spoke and waved her damned cane around; my eyes went instead above and around her.

An Eagle-rock stood ominously on the Monolith's peak, and I was sure another surveilled rom the Treehouse.

At Jane's right, Alistar and Roana were already giving it their all in a mock battle, their Agility and Strength stats being really close. At her left, Faruq had instead started to teach Nova to use the Form of the Spiral.

“...is the Form of the Vector,” she finished, stopping her pacing and turning toward me.

“I wasn’t always a Brawler, I wasn’t even always a Fighter Cass,” she said, getting close to me, “before being one, as weird as it sounds, my Class was that of the Rogue. But after knowing these Eagle-rocks and falling in love with them my life has reshaped me in many ways; it brought me to a complete Class conversion,” her gaze hovered to two more eagles that surveyed the clearing; those ones she couldn't control.

Still, she had quite a few Eagle-rocks. But, she could only connect with up to two pets at the same time, not more.

“I went through Class conversion when I was already well… too high-leveled. I won’t hide from you that it was… a terrible experience. But it started suiting my needs and battle abilities right away. However, I had already been taught by my mother the Form of the Vector.”

“And what is it that you are using now?”

“I’m using a modified version of it, one for Brawlers that uses fisticuffs. It’s called the Form of the Spike. But you don’t need to worry about it. The Form of the Vector will accompany you for the rest of your life.”

“Alright, let’s see it.”

“Get in position, there,” she said, “in front of me. And raise that beautiful knife of yours.”

I smirked, “Thank you.”

She was instantaneous, of course, she was much faster than me; while she could not compare with how I had seen the Sunguard’s move, she managed to take me by surprise; the first time.

Momma Jane entered into my defense with the dagger waster she had surely carved herself, aimed at my throat.

“See?” she said, straightening back, away from my range, “the movement I made was flawless. What did you notice about it?”

“Well,” I rubbed my throat, “that you were fast, focused, and direct. You looked like an arrow.”

“Good,” she answered, “Your Perception will help you a lot in picking up the basics, exactly like it helped Roana.”

“Tell me, what else can you say about what you’ve seen?”

Her movements had been slick, focused, unwavering, like a thrown arrow or a dagger aimed to stab; however, that straightness seemed to be a weakness. Such rigidity of movement was easy to intercept. There was no wavering, no other interpretation to her intentions but one and one only, her direction.

“That it has great flaws."

Jane opened into a satisfied smile, “Precisely. Now raise your guard; I’m going to attack again in the exact same way; answer as you see fit.”

Again, in the same way? Toward the same target? Why?

I prepared myself to block her attack; it would be a joke since I knew exactly what she was going to do.

She dashed at me at a moment’s notice, and although I had my weapon up, and evaded to the right to strike her on her arm, of course, using the wrong side of the blade...

...it did not work; the result was the exact same as her first attack.

I had a weapon pointed at my throat, and we were in the same position as the previous bout.

I was sincerely taken aback.

“How?”

Jane grinned, “Flaws…” she said, and I interrupted her.

“Exactly, then how-”

“... in you."

One of my eyebrows curled up, yet she continued with her explanation.

“There are more flaws in you than in me. That is why no matter how many times we’ll repeat this same attack, the end result will stay the same.”

I could not understand… not right away, but a word she emphasized gave something away.

“Again,” I said.

“On guard.”

As she raised her stance and prepared to attack me, I decided to take a slightly different approach.

Let’s see what happens if the condition changes.

This time, instead of evading after her attack had already started, I backed away, lengthening the distance of the process that would take her to step into my defensive stance.

The result was the same. However, I had gained a slightly bigger margin of escape because her charge had lasted slightly longer.

“Again,” she said.

“Wait, I want to use my Tracking, may I?”

“Sure, go ahead, but the result won’t change.”

We shall see about that.

I Tracked her, and since I was there, I Traced her too.

Jane Varriel, Stone Brawler Level ??, Blue Tamer Level 42 (28597/420.000)

Health: 100%

Stamina: 94%

Agility: Intermediate

Constitution: High

Strength: Moderate

Focus: Intermediate

Perception: Low-Intermediate

Willpower: High

Strengths: Constitution, Willpower

Weaknesses: Leafy Tirrell, Roana Dowson, Her pets

Class Skills: ?(Agility), ?(Constitution), ?(Strength), ?(Focus), ?(Fortune)

Sub-Class Skills: ?(Constitution), ?(Focus), ?(Perception), ?(Willpower)

Race: Half-Human, Half-Elf

Sex: Female

Height: 183 cm

Weight: 85 kg

Age: 36

Origins: Dream Forest

Family: Leafy Tirrell, Roana Dowson, Loke Nightfold, Nova Nightfold

Yet, as it seemed, I could not trace Skills that belonged to someone with an Ultimate Class, or maybe someone with a level much higher than mine. But it was enough to gauge at least what type of Skills she had unlocked.

Her next movements were clear; she would dash straight ahead and pounce on my throat, and again, even though I was able to see them, I could not evade it.

We tried again and again, and even though applying drastic changes, I gained a few meters of safety or moments of life; it became clear that there was just no way in which I could evade that attack.

It left me with one possible conclusion, something which simply could not be avoided because it was a reality superimposed on our physical laws.

“The flaws are the difference between our Attributes, am I right?”

“The Hunter has hit the mark,” she smiled.

“Just… how?” I had to know.

“The Form of the Vector, more so than any other of our Forms, is based on Attributes. There are no possible ways of cheating those,” she explained. “Yes, there can be differences between the Strength of a man and that of a bigger man, even if the Attributes are the same, and because of those minutenesses that Forms have been established. They fill the gap. Like a perfectly balanced weapon, Forms have been forged to be the equalizing pattern.”

Alistar, which had stopped training with Ro to listen, interrupted her, “But why? Although Attributes may vary a little with body size, it is common knowledge that even a small creature can do devastating damage with its Strength, so why not perfect the techniques based on something else? Why Attributes?”

“That’s very simple,” answered momma Jane, “That’s because, as I said before, in a same-parameters stall, in which a bigger, taller man, will have the advantage over a smaller, shorter one, in a determined environment or even the opposite if you want, Forms will be the ones leveling the field.”

Alistar looked pensive; Nova instead just could not follow, “I’m getting lost,” she said.

“If you think about it, it’s easy, look,” said M.J. signaling to me to get ready.

“My Agility is high, higher than Loke’s, and the same could be said about Strength, which means that overall my speed is much higher than his, and although his reaction speed, which Agility and Perception factor, might be higher than mine, the end result is always the same,” she attacked and mock-killed me again.

“But, what would happen if I were not to use Forms? With his higher reaction speed, he might be able to evade and hit back, nullifying my advantages,” she stated.

“And isn’t that fair? The rule of the fittest, no?” Alistar asked.

Jane nodded, “You are right, and it is exactly to fight that rule that Forms have been created. They put in play the hard rules that govern our world, and they do so by utilizing the full brunt of our Attributes.”

“In the movement that I showed you before, each Attribute had its weight, Agility, and Strength for speed, Focus, and Willpower to lock the opponent’s mind in place and drive his responses, Perception, and Agility to respond faster to a counter, Strength, and Constitution to kick out of the floor with the desired power, and many other variables, but in the end, they were dependant on the opponent’s knowledge.”

She continued with her explanation, “Loke had seen what in his eyes were the flaws of my attack in the Form of the Vector, and he would have been right if it wasn’t for the fact that he does not use his Attributes in the right way. If he had, he would have reacted differently, and most importantly, if he knew how to use a Form, and thus his Attributes correctly; he would have noticed right away that the flaws were not in the moves, but in his Attributes and more precisely in the way he needed to use his Attributes to approach a defense against my attack.”

“My head hurts…” said Nova, trying to hide a chuckle.

“Every Form values determined factors more than another, but the baseline is that the Form of the Vector shines with Classes that have a baseline higher Agility and Perception. The Form of the Spiral counts on Agility and Focus; the Form of the Limit relies on Constitution and Strength, and the Form of the Lifeline relies on Focus and Perception. As long as you can harvest the advantages given by these Attributes, in an ideally perfect battle against an enemy that equals these main Attributes and expertise in the Form, the victor will be the Form user whose other Attributes are higher.”

Silence fell upon the clearing for a while.

Alistar was the one breaking the spell.

“But what about my Form? What about the Form of the Grid? Which are its go-to Parameters?”

Jane chuckled, “Constitution, Strength, and Focus.”

“Oh, crap… my Focus sucks."

“That’s not a problem, Star. You have a Skill that draws your target over to you as long as you remain still. It passes right over the Focus obstacle.”

“So do Skills count?” Asked Nova.

“Why wouldn’t they?” Jane answered, “Always remember that in every battle, Skills are superior to Weapons and Armors, which are superior to Forms, which are superior to Attributes. But Attributes remain the baseline; everything is built upon them, and nothing has to be ignored,” she finished sending the other back to training, then turning to me again.

“Wanna try something else now that you know a bit more?” She said to me.

I smiled, Agility, and Perception. Yes, my old Class was heavily reliant on those, but I was not just that; if she beat me in Agility and Perception and I couldn’t answer with the same coin, then all I had to do was switch the bet. What would happen if I started playing with Willpower instead?

I guess I would have to try and see.