The Martial Unity

The two dashed towards each other.

('I'm faster.') Rui realized.

Yet despite this, Gale's strike reached first.

WHOOSH

Rui dodged the strike.

Gale continued dishing an onslaught of strikes and Rui avoided all of them cleanly. Ever since he mastered Primordial Instinct, his timing had grown much sharper and more accurate. Its synergy with the VOID algorithm was truly impressive.

Gale didn't stop, his strikes were straight forward and had a huge range. He launched all of them from outside Rui's striking range, so Rui wasn't able to do much.

('He's a long-range striking specialist.') Rui realized. Each strike had a huge reach, and he launched them in a way that deliberately prevented Rui from reaching close enough to launch his own attacks.

Rui keenly observed this before making a decision, he stopped avoiding Gale and instead dashed against him once more.

A flash of surprise morphed into Gale's expression as he quickly launched a straight jab at Rui, growing even more surprised when he saw Rui didn't avoid them, and instead ran into it even faster. Just as the strike was about to hit Rui

WHOOSH

Rui disappeared.

('A feint!') Gale realized.

BAM

impact

had feinted with Phantom Step to draw his strike away while

reeling. He just barely managed to throw up a guard as Rui pummeled him with short range blows boosted with the power of Outer Convergence and Vital

Gale leaped back, grimacing.

in. Gale panicked when he saw Rui dashing

Rui, expecting another feint. This time he was a bit more prepared, he didn't want to be caught off-guard yet

didn't dodge or

CLASP

the strike hit him, moving with it to reduce the impact while simultaneously grasping

The Binding Lash technique.

this situation, the VOID algorithm outputted a grapple counter as the most apt way of defeating Gale, dragging outside the realm of

CRACK

allowed the user to dislocate and break arms as long as

of these conditions were

Instinct technique had improved not just his defense but counter-offense as well, allowing him to increase the accuracy of his timing immensely. The VOID algorithm allowed him to consciously and actively analyze, evaluate and make a decision, while the Primordial Instinct technique

older, but Rui had

up, struggling with everything he had. Despite the advantageous position Rui had, he didn't give up and

on Earth, this might have been a career ending injury, but in the world of Gaea, within the Martial Art, this wasn't much of a big deal. Healing potions ensured

even if Gale somehow broke through, he

the act of inflicting pain on others. He carefully let go of Gale's arm, not wanting hurt

getting up slowly, before throwing a bitter smile at

He meant it.

the perfect fight that he'd displayed from start to finish. Rui had shown him just how big the gap between them was. Gale had spent a long time in the Academy, and even with his mediocre growth, he had come to accumulate more power than most Apprentices in the Academy currently. But Rui still beat him

a hand to Gale's good hand. "You're strong

luck." Gale said, now that he had lost to Rui this cleanly, even if he won every other fight, he almost would not