The Martial Unity

Rui needed to create some concrete countermeasures against the Void Step technique, but so far all he had were scraps of ideas.

('The biggest threat of the Void Step technique comes from its ability to bypass defense first, allowing the user to launch lethal attacks, and the second most annoying part about is the fact that it's exceedingly difficult to harm the user because they cannot be perceived.')

Rui needed a solution for both of these problems.

('Thankfully, Kane's offense is mediocre at best.') Rui sighed in relief. Kane spent most of his time on maneuvering techniques centered around evasion, agility and speed. His offense was nowhere near as solid as his evasive maneuvering. He also didn't have any high-grade lethal techniques like the Stinger, nor did he have any high-grade potent offensive techniques like Outer Convergence.

He had a much harder time mastering techniques that were not maneuvering or evasive in nature, since that was where his talent and affinity lied. This was also proven by how long he took to beat Gale, if he had a technique like Stinger, the match would have ended in seconds.

What this actually meant was that even if he could make it much more difficult for Rui to defend, it would still take him some amount of time to beat Rui, especially when Rui's defense was as solid as it was.

"What are you so engrossed about?" Kane asked, noticing Rui had zoned out of their discussion.

"Just thinking about how I'm going to fight you." Rui replied. "You've grown incredibly strong Kane."

"You'll figure it out." Kane shrugged, before smirking. "Probably. Maybe. Well, we'll see."

"You sure have faith in me." Rui grumbled grumpily, earning a mischievious chuckle from Kane.

"Don't worry." Fae interjected. "Even if Rui fails, I'll be sure to pummel you to the ground. You can thank me later."

Rui sighed as the two of them immediately began arguing and trash-talking each other again. Just as he was about to resume his brainstorming session on how to beat Kane, a voice drew his attention.

"Fae Dullahan." A staff member called to her. "You second match has been scheduled."

that time already." Fae mused, before

four of them immediately head to witness her match. Fae was a real contender and candidate for

Rui murmured recognizing

Dalen supplied. "She's a senior Martial Apprentice of the Academy, a strong counter-offensive

about Neira, who was also a

probably do well in

your stances." The supervisor

took her standard stance, with one upside-down palm at her waist and her other palm pointed straight at Tarah,

at chest-level, with one

launch a single attack

"Makes sense." Dalen nodded.

be able to intercept Fae's attacks though?"

The sheer amount of potential

said open-mindedly. He didn't think it was really possible, but decided

tricky, because their battles were inherently asymmetric and

was that they used a combination of their own

supervisor commenced

BOOM

leap, sent a mild reverberation across the ring. Just as she reached Tarah, the coiled palm tucked at her waist lashed out

FHWOOP

did she try to block or stop it. Instead, she pulled it

WHOOSH

she summersaulted, landing on the other