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

feinted with Phantom Step to draw his strike away while simultaneously using

crashed into Gale, leaving him reeling. He just barely managed to throw up a guard as Rui pummeled him with short range blows boosted with the power of Outer

Gale leaped back, grimacing.

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

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

Rui didn't

CLASP

moving with it to reduce the impact while simultaneously

The Binding Lash technique.

outside the realm of striking which is where his specialty lied. In the domain

CRACK

allowed the user to dislocate and break arms as long as the timing was perfect and the physicality

of these conditions

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

physically stronger by virtue of being much older, but Rui had nailed the timing too well, that shoulder's

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

career ending injury, but in the world of Gaea, within the Martial Art, this wasn't

arm three times, indicating his resignation. The pain was far too excruciating and even if Gale somehow broke through, he had

He did not enjoy the act of inflicting pain on others.

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

He meant it.

with 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 cleanly, while holding back too,

man." Rui offered a hand to Gale's

said, now that he had lost to Rui this cleanly, even if he won every other fight, he almost would not be chosen as the representative