The Martial Unity

Rui finally got a good look at his aggressor. Not that it helped much because his aggressor was masked. However, there were things that could still be gauged despite this.

('Adult male. His bulky physique probably means he's not a speed or maneuvering oriented Martial Artist, he's definitely a Martial Apprentice though') Rui thought as he struggled to restrain him.

Rui's goal in this fight was not to win. He had two goals:

The first was to survive. His survival was the ultimate priority to him. Although he had gotten closer to Bella during the mission, he was not going sacrifice his life for her. Rui never fancied himself to be a hero or a saint.

The second, was to stall, not win. He did not intend to expend any extra energy on killing his opponent or knocking him out, though if he could, that would be great too. But for the most part, Rui was going to do his best to stall for Bella.

Stalling was easier than defeating, in most cases. Thankfully, this was one of those cases.

This was also how Rui planned to compensate for the weight difference. Rui had grown remarkably physically stronger over the last year, much more so than almost anybody else. However, at the end of the day he was still only a fourteen-year-old.

His opponent seemed to be in his twenties, the prime of his life. An adult Martial Apprentice was stronger than an adolescent Martial Apprentice. Rui had to capitalize on his advantages as much as he could, stalling instead of aiming for a win, was part of the plan.

FOOSH

The masked Martial Apprentice finally managed to untangle himself from Rui's ground grappling.

POW POW POW

Rui immediately began showering him with a barrage of strikes of Vital Pressure, but his opponent managed to block and redirect almost all of them.

WHOOSH

Rui managed to cleanly crouch out of a high kick while simultaneously sweeping his pivot leg with a low kick.

BAM

the difference in power prevented Rui from knocking him out of balance. His opponent

BAM BAM BAM

for merely half a second, regaining their bearings. However, Martial Apprentices processed combat so quickly that even half a second in combat was akin half a dozen seconds. In fact, not even half a minute had passed since the Martial Apprentice ambushed

VOID algorithm. ('The

he relaxed his muscles, shaking and dangling them, while crouching his knees relaxedly. Despite

WHOOSH

stopped and stepped back avoiding a counter haymaker from his opponent before circling

Pow

WHOOSH

frustration at the abrupt change in fighting styles, Rui

('Float like a butterfly...')

WHOOSH

danced out of a straight

like

POW

jab to

he would use if he had to fight Mike Tyson. This strategy was similar

was one key difference. Kane accomplished this

lacking speed and agility with the predictive and counter-deduction measures of the

corresponding move that has the greatest chance for success. Rui himself had painstakingly worked on the counter-deduction system

hand, even if small, in a disadvantaged battle validated Rui to his very core. The Martial Scientist in him

BAM

strike on him. He got up

a