The Martial Unity

Still, Rui wasn't afraid. He had grown tremendously stronger in the nearly two years he had joined that Academy as well. It was a universal fact that Rui had gained the most amount of power since in the nearly two years since they joined. Not a single student of the Martial Academy could match his growth rate! Especially not Nel, who had taken a whole two years to accomplish what Rui had accomplished in two months.

Did this necessarily mean that Nel was weaker?

No, it did not.

Nel had started out far stronger than anybody else, even if Rui grew stronger much, much faster, he had started out from a much, much weaker place. It would depend on whether or not Rui's astronomical growth was enough to close the astronomical gap.

Rui shook his head.

Speculation didn't matter. Neither did theorizing and conjecture.

Reality would soon demonstrate the truth, and Rui would be able to find out for himself whether he was stronger than Nel, or weaker.

Currently, his three biggest threats were Nel, Kane and Fae. Although there were other strong Martial Artists, like the seniors from the batch before them. Rui had sparred against them, and did not think they were in the top three threats, still he did not dismiss them either.

Soon the matchups were announced. Since there were seventy-nine, one student would be left out every time. But this didn't matter, because every student will have faced every other student by the time the month ended.

Rui skimmed through the matchups, barely able to contain his excitement, looking for his matchup.

He looked.

Looked some more.

And a little more.

he couldn't

wide open. Could it be that his luck was so horrible, that he would be the seventy-ninth person who didn't have an opponent in the first

sake!"

his energy and sit watching while the

that's not such a bad

got to observe the strongest Martial Artists, especially the top three that he was wary of. Giving him a chance to

make a meaningful difference, but it was better than nothing. The others had already dispersed as their matchups and assigned sparring rings had already been decided. He walked over taking a seat at a place where he could observe Kane, Fae

knew a lot about Fae and Kane, he even knew most of their techniques, having spent two years with them. He also knew which technique Kane had

the two it was, it was

once since he joined the Academy. That fight was so long ago, any specific piece of information from back then was utterly irrelevant to his

over to Nel's fight, keeping a close eye on their

had mastered Primordial Instinct, he had been able to do more than just subconsciously evaluate danger. Before, strong creatures and Martial Artists left an invisible pressure on him.

read it, interpret it. Nel very much gave him the impression of a savage wild animal. He didn't know how a normal human

the supervisor of their match

face. Rui frowned; this was the same stance he had taken in his fight against Felix nearly two years ago, how

both of her hands low, as they curved to the other

torque for kicks. She'd placed all her weight on one leg so that her other leg

was going to loose. Primordial Instinct combined with a lifetime of experience and research into combat psychology allowed him to evaluate his opponents far more accurately and precisely than anybody else in his generation. Perhaps even in

to pose a threat to either Rui

narrowed his eyes as he

supervisor commenced the

tried her best to put as much weight on the

BAM

...