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

meteoric impact struck

draw his strike away while

into Gale, leaving him reeling. He just barely managed to throw up a guard as Rui pummeled him with short range

Gale leaped back, grimacing.

and regain his bearings, he rushed in. Gale panicked when he

strike at Rui, expecting another feint. This time he was

Rui didn't

CLASP

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

The Binding Lash technique.

outputted a grapple counter as the most apt way of defeating Gale, dragging outside the realm of striking which is where his specialty lied. In

CRACK

Rui managed to cleanly dislocate his arm. The Binding Lash technique allowed the user to dislocate and break arms as long as the timing was

of these

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

Rui had nailed the

he felt, Gale did give up, struggling with everything he had. Despite the advantageous position Rui had,

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 much of a big deal. Healing potions ensured that Gale would make a fully

arm three times, indicating his resignation. The pain was far too excruciating and even if Gale somehow broke through, he had no chance of winning with a mangled

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

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

He meant it.

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, Gale was

Rui offered a hand to Gale's

luck." Gale 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 of the Academy. "I haven't given up