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 struck

to draw his strike away while simultaneously

just barely managed to throw up a guard as Rui pummeled him with short range blows boosted with the power of

Gale leaped back, grimacing.

his bearings, he rushed in. Gale panicked when he saw Rui dashing in, feeling an immense amount of mental pressure from Rui's

another feint. This time he was a bit more prepared, he didn't want to be

didn't dodge

CLASP

strike hit him, moving with it to reduce the impact

The Binding Lash technique.

counter as the most apt way of defeating Gale, dragging outside the realm of

CRACK

Lash technique allowed the user to dislocate and break

of these conditions

as well, allowing him to increase the accuracy of his timing immensely. The VOID algorithm

by virtue of being much older, but Rui had nailed the timing too well, that

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

had no qualms about inflicting pain and damage to Gale, had this been on Earth, this might have been a career ending injury, but in the world of Gaea, within the Martial Art, this wasn't

excruciating and even if Gale somehow

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

deeply, getting up slowly, before throwing a bitter smile at Rui. "You're truly

He meant it.

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

man." Rui offered a hand to Gale's good hand.

that he had lost to Rui this cleanly, even if he won every other fight, he almost would not be chosen as the representative of the Academy. "I haven't given up yet though. On becoming the