Luke's expression changed to one of disappointment. "Ehm.. No, not really," He said, disheartened, "It's more complicated than that. Jeff!" Luke turned to Jeff first and pointed at him, "You learned that Oz's normal attacks could easily dispatch your ranged spheres. Based on the rate he was using them to engage you while not moving, one could easily discern that they were weak, meant to probe! Then, you used a slightly stronger attack, only to noticed his barrier blocked it with no problems whatsoever. So that told you his defense was crazy strong. You ranged attacks were at a clear disadvantage. Oz had the initiative from the start!" Luke paused and looked at the ground. "When he did the vortex crap, it could be imagined that he was still testing your abilities, since he didn't attack directly afterwards. But you... You kept throwing attacks out like crazy, taking not even a moment while attempting to overwhelm him with your projectiles. You did this, even after confirming, your long range attacks were worthless... Here's the issue!" Luke rose his hand and index finger.
"You continued to enact the same strategy, despite confirming it was worthless! This is the equivalent to beating you head against a brick wall! Your attacks lack raw power, and Oz's defence is superior, so attempting to overwhelm him wasn't going to work!" He pointed at Oswald. "Then Oswald went on the attack! Why? Because you made it glaringly obvious that you couldn't hurt him or break his shield!" Luke waggled his finger. "Then, you attempted to break his shield with a large attack. I was expecting it to do more, but ultimately, it was only able to immobilise Oz for a small period of time, while immobilising you as well. Showing such a strong attack, confidently, only proved to him that you had no options to fight him with. At that point, you'd lost the initiative in knowledge, and damage, and without those, attitude was soon to follow!" Luke pointed to Oz.
"However, Oz, standing firm to take such a powerful attack was foolish of you. Although you know Jeff is physically weaker, what if you didn't? What if that large attack was hiding a more focused attack in its belly? You wouldn't have been able to dodge, your shield would have been compromised, and you'd lose the initiative in damage then and there! Possibly attitude as well." He pointed back to Jeff. "But once he confirmed that your ranged attacks were not a threat, Oz prepared himself for close combat immediately, summoning his staff. That made it even more difficult to approach him. However.." Luke raised his middle finger.
"You didn't change your strategy at all! In fact, it's almost as if you didn't have one! Oz may have made a crucial mistake, but his strategy was well thought out. He was reading you like a book, and you were turning the pages for him. Even after learning that your ranged attacks, the most powerful of which, had no effect on him, you threw tornadoes at mid-range. You kept doing so many things at once, not planning ahead, and feeding your opponent information with each attack. Oz did none of this, and maintained the initiative in knowledge by miles." He shook his head.
"Oz, do not overestimate your shields. They may not always be able to save you. Even if you knew Jeff's strength was lower than usual, there's no telling what he could have been hiding. Don't jump to the conclusion that your barrier is resolute. Find a way to test its durability against the enemy, without putting yourself behind it!" Luke smirked as he offered his advice. "A buddy of mine used to carry a shield, and small balls made of the same material. Weak stuff, but pretty smart. He'd throw the balls as if he were using them as a weapon, to see if the opponent could break them with their own weapons. If they could, he wouldn't even bother pulling his shield out." He nodded and smiled. "Think about it!"
"Jeff, you need to stop thinking so straight-forward. You don't have the power to fight like Jenso, or Alvios. You have the speed. Use that offensively, and defensively. Don't reveal too many techniques straight away. Don't use attacks of the same type, or maintain a strategy, if it isn't working. Change things up. And most importantly, don't ever get close to an opponent until you learn what they can do." He sighed. "You're fast, but not that fast." Your body can't move at Mach 1, and while you're midair, changing trajectory must take enough time for people to counter you. Unless of course.." He smiled and pointed up. "You approach without the intention to even attack in the first place." Luke grabbed his chin and smiled. "I had another friend who used to fist fight a lot. He was quick, too quick for even me to keep up with him. But he wasn't so fast that we couldn't hit him. He would trick us! He'd throw so many feints that it was damned near impossible to read his movements." Luke looked to Jenso for this was well. "But feints are hard to use. You can't feint, and follow it up with a counter every time. Sometimes it's better to feint and run, without even planning on attacking, to read an enemy. That's how you steal the initiative, find openings in their defences, and ultimately win the battle." He looked back to Jeff.
"Jeff, it might have seemed that you couldn't harm Oz, but you never attempted to simply use your ground-speed to flank his main shield, or use any melee attacks. Not only that, but your wind techniques seem weak and blunt. They're unfocused. Think of that Dacer kid's arrows, for one. They seem tiny, but just one of those things packs the same amount of destructive power as your Wind Cannon technique, on a smaller scale." Luke scratched his stubble and scoffed. "Mikey was telling me about his battle bubble before. It's designed to disperse damage along its entire surface. That would have made your wind-cannon useless as well, come to think of it. It might be hard to dodge, but to block? I think you need to focus more on smaller-scale techniques, things that move faster and are harder to dodge. Maybe even attacks that are hard to see. Not only that, but you need to ease up a bit. Stop being so aggressive. Fighting is not about who can hit harder and faster. It's about who can make the right play at the right time." He nodded and walked over to Jeff, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Use what you're good at. Stop trying to be what you're not," He said with a smile.
"Oh, those nano-bot things though, when they made that shield?" He nodded and smirked. "That was pretty cool."
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