The Martial Unity

"Take your stances." The supervisor instructed.

Hever shifted as he took his modest stance. He distributed his weight equally between both feet, putting his left foot forward and his right foot back as a support. His hands were open, placed at a height precisely in between his chest and waist. They were in interception position, ready to intercept all attacks that Rui threw at him.

"I'm looking forward to fighting you." Rui said as he hopped lightly between his feet, with both hands in front of him perfectly positioned for speedy jabs.

This stance sacrificed power for speed and mobility. Rui had seen that Hever was comfortably able to handle even the power of Nel without any problems for an extended period of time. There was no point in trying to overpower Hever. The only person who had chance of accomplishing that in the entire Academy was Fae, everybody else could only lower their head to his obtuse counter-offensive mastery.

"As am I." Hever calmly replied. Rui was not the only one paying attention to his rivals and contenders. Hever had long since identified Rui as one of the biggest obstacles in the entire Academy for the preliminary contest.

Especially since Rui was also ranked higher than he was at the moment.

"Begin!" The supervisor commenced the match.

Rui shuffled as he drew closer to Hever.

Hever simply waited.

Rui threw a jab only for Hever calmly intercept it.

WHOOSH

A feint. The Phantom Step technique.

Rui exploited the opening to throw the quickest jab he could!

the very

BAM!

he skidded away. Even with the application of Inner Divergence and Elastic Shift. The throw hurt like hell. Even with Primordial Instinct, his reactions were

up, launching himself at Hever

WHOOSH

BAM!

away groaning in

as he got up. If Hever was not aware of the Phantom Step technique, then Rui was certain he would be able to use it at the right moment and at the right place to create an opening he could successfully

the Phantom Step technique many times in this preliminary contest, and Hever was clearly prepared for it, anticipating that Rui would use this

this realization the second he saw

Phantom Step. The biggest reason had to do with the Hever's muscle memory

but admire his sheer mastery of a single technique, that allowed him to crush

Having already cleanly failed twice, he did not expect anything to change even if he continued, it was a fool's errand. He was not going to fight foolhardily like Nel and

Hever was that Rui did not have to worry about being voluntarily attacked. Hever had mastered only one technique, and it purely counter-offensive, he had no pure offensive potential. This meant

his time, thinking and

shifted; rotating to ensure Rui was always directly in front of him at all

facing his opponent.') Rui conjectured. ('Or perhaps it works worst or not

thought of ways he could exploit this, but eventually shook his head, it

I really have to use that?"

as his own into the VOID algorithm, and had long begun analyzing their fight with algorithmic procedures of the VOID algorithm. It wasn't that

least, Dalen was

his final trump card against

"Fuuu..." Rui focused.

again were lower than the first time. Such was the nature

Especially for this one.