" let me ask you something fundamental about strength. what is the best measure of strength really? ". Micheal asked Rudra amidst a sparring session

Rudra thought about it and then replied " Force"

Micheal nodded and said " Force one can generate , however I think a better answer is force generated per unit area , so basically pressure ".

Rudra agreed to this explanation and waited for Micheal to continue.

" Think about breaking twigs with your hand , imagine breaking a single twig , it's easy but breaking maybe 1000 twigs bundeled together is hard. It's not because the 1000 twigs can withstand the force you are applying , it's because being 1000 in number , these twigs are now distributing the applied pressure better".

This made perfect sense to Rudra , it was science 101.action

" If a blade is sharp enough it doesn't matter if it's 1 twig 100 twigs or an entire tree it can slash through the tree with ease.

However imagine , if instead of slashing through the tree at a perfect 90° angle , if you tried to chop it along an imperfect 2-5° angle, then at best you would make a slight slice on its bark or at worse get your sword stuck in its woodwork

And that's the same principle that you need to understand about fighting.

If you want to deal maximum damage then you form a 90° angle. You want to take minimum damage try for 2-5° angle of contact ".

Micheal proceeded to pressure Rudra and the half angel was forced to refine his techniques according to micheals guidance as he saw rapid improvement when he started to defend at a certain angle and attack at another against the archangel .

" Good , good , now understand this. The faster you go the more power you generate. The same reason why sariel makes you go backward to defend which is to lengthen the time of attack decreasing its force , is what you need to reverse when attacking as you want to slam into your opponent as fast as possible to produce higher force ".

Rudra started to sweat profousely as he felt like his brain was about to explode.

Already the fight against Micheal was too fast for even tier 4 generals to see clearly as all the movements appeared to be a blur to an onlooker , however for Rudra to switch between retreating and advancing at the right time in sparring proved to be extremely taxing as missing a single best would cause him to instantly loose against Micheal.

Micheal too understood that he was demanding too much of the mortal in too short of a time , however shockingly Rudra had the potential to keep up with micheals demands eventhough he struggled a lot.The foundations that Raphael, sariel and in a way ozriel helped build gave Rudra a platform to actually undergo micheals training as after 7 days of this hellish beatdown Rudra got the hang of the first two concepts that Micheal taught him.

Be Swift when attacking , and make a 90° angle for maximum damage.

Be even swifter in retreating enlengthening the time of attack and meeting it by making a 2-5° angle

While simultaneously judging which attacks needed to be met head on , which were to be avoided and which to be countered and defended at unimaginable speeds.

The archangel complimented Rudra and said " Good now let's understand how to handle dark attacks and how to use the holy power in your body ".

Rudra seemed confused , he asked " holy power in my body? "

Micheal raised an eyebrow, he could see the immense amount of holy mana flowing within Rudra but apparently the host of the mana himself was not aware of what he was harbouring inside him.

Micheal said " What's your weakest mana based move? "

Rudra replied " Lightning blast "

Micheal said " Try it now ".

Rudra summoned a lightning blast and to his absolute shock , the tier 2 attack displayed far more destructive might than it was supposed to as it rivalled tier 3 might!

Rudra seemed baffled as he asked " How? "

Micheal pointed at him and said " You are half angel now , your body refines the mana from the world and stores it as holy mana naturally in ur body.

Holy mana is much stronger than normal mana giving all ur mana attacks a 33-60% strength boost ".Rudra seemed impressed as he looked at his own body in appreciation and said " that's cool ".

Micheal nodded and said " It is , however what we need to learn now is how to pump mana out of your mana pathways and use it to reinforce your body as that my friend is the ticket to actually defeating Lucifer! ".

Micheals smile flickered away just for a moment as he spoke this , as if having a deja vu , however it came back just as quickly so that Rudra was left wondering what it was all about.

Rudra was naturally here to learn and he was willing to learn whatever Micheal was going to teach him however Micheal himself needed a moment to get rid off the memories of the origin of this technique.

*******

( Meanwhile Sophie and Max )

Max had became an internet sensation , and his fame rose every passing day.

He was labelled the next big thing and many people expected great things from him when the worlds mana barrier eventually broke and the intergalactic integration started.

Max was being seen as the hope of humanity's next generation and some wished for him to transcend even his brother.

The attention was both good and bad for Max as although on one hand it was a massive confidence boost , on the other hand he feared failure even more now because he knew millions of eyes would be watching his every move.

He chose to confide his emotions to Sophie, and the girl manipulated his feelings like a master.

Sophie was 22 and quite elder to Max, having realised the cruelty of the world much sooner.

Ever since she realised that Rudra was against their relationship she secretly started to poison Max against him , but it was a very hard job to do as max would never entertain a single bad word about his brother.

But when Max told her that he was afraid he could never surpass Rudra , she put a slightly dangerous thought in Max's mind.

Sophie said " Ofcourse you will surpass him. He was nothing when he was 17 , you on the other hand have a networth of 1.2 billion dollars !

Although it wont be possible to surpass him in Omega , in life you have the better start and the better looks and a better girlfriend and better talents , ofcourse you will surpass him ".

If Max did not take these words to heart , it would all have been fine . However listening to the woman , Max questioned ' Am i really better than big brother ? '.

It was an extremely dangerous seed of doubt to be planted in a young man.

/// Bonus chapter for the gift by Cervantez, thank him in the comments for this one.

This makes it 3/5 for today , i will resume the last two in 2-3 hours ///