The Martial Unity

"Apprentice Rui Quarrier." A staff member called out to him, breaking him out of his reverie. "Your scheduled fight is soon to commence, please wait by the assigned ring."

"Sure." Rui nodded. "Alright, see you guys later."

Rui left after they bade him good luck. Once he reached the ring, he saw Feela Garron waiting at the ring.

She was a tall and lean woman with brown hair and eyes. She had a heavy aura, and was one of the few Martial Apprentices that could make his Primordial Sense tingle with alarm.

"Sorry for the wait." He said with a friendly smile.

"No problem." She replied calmly.

"Take your stances." The supervisor instructed.

Feela proceeded to take the most bizarre stance Rui had ever seen in his life. Her right arm went back, with her hand hanging behind her. Her left arm went to the right side under her right armpit, as though she was trying to hug herself. She shifted all her weight onto her left leg, and her right leg was behind her with heels lifted off the ground, merely touching the ground at the toes.

It was a bizarre stance, but it made sense when one knew what her Martial Art was.

The arms were positioned the way they were because her attacks were extended swings, and chops that required a large amount of swinging distance, thus she was merely coiling up her arms and giving them as much room as possible. It was like stretching rubber band as far as possible so that it would hit back as hard as possible.

She had shifted all her weight onto one leg because she was an immobile fighter. She generally planted herself at the extremes of the ring and sniped her opponents with ranged swings from the corner of the ring. It was easier to launch strikes with one leg quicker if that leg didn't have any weight it was forced to support.

"Fuuu..." Rui exhaled. He had already begun constructing an adapted Martial Art in his mind.

She was a ranged Martial Artist and Rui's range was significantly shorter. He would be unable to strike her if he fights her at range.

Thus, the first trait his adapted fighting style would need to have was being able to close the distance between them. This way, he would be at a range where he could actually do damage to her. Another reason this train was important was because ranged strikes were useless in close quarters. What was the point of striking ten meters away if your opponent was one meter away?

exchange normal arm-length and leg-length close quarters blows with Rui which he could

Why?

the best at ranged combat and beating people at range, it logically followed that

this first condition he had set for the adapted fighting style

Rui adopted his stance.

close to each other, weight equally distributed and constantly

at ease maneuvering and defending against attacks. Since Rui could not attack, he did not need to take up a stance that catered to ease of offense. His primary goal was closing in

supervisor commenced

moment,

Then, Feela's arm blurred.

hell broke

BOOM

narrowly avoided an impact where he was standing a tenth of a second prior. Just as he paused, his instincts tingled as he felt danger swinging

BOOM

narrowly avoided yet another

have knocked me out if I hadn't

than Rui was. The reason he was able to dodge them despite that was because they had to travel a longer distance than Rui had to avoid them. But as

BOOM

a gust of disheveled his hair. She'd almost got him that

BOOM

BOOM

BOOM

time he tried closing in, she launched swift and powerful blow, cutting off his path. Her timing and placement were spectacular. Rui could tell

to come this far with zero losses.

the distance between them before