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!

very

BAM!

Inner Divergence and Elastic Shift. The throw hurt like hell. Even with Primordial Instinct, his reactions were inferior to

himself at Hever

WHOOSH

BAM!

away groaning in

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

preliminary contest, and Hever was clearly prepared for it, anticipating that Rui would use

have made this realization the second he saw himself using the Phantom Step technique. He had anticipated that this would not work against

not enough to foil a high-grade technique like Phantom Step. The biggest reason had to do with the Hever's muscle memory quickness, it was so quick, that even after falling for a feint, he was still quick

admire his sheer mastery of a single technique, that allowed

attacking. 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

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 that Rui had fully grasped the initiative in this fight. He could leisurely

took his time, thinking

always directly in front of

technique works best when he's facing his opponent.') Rui conjectured. ('Or perhaps it works worst

this, but eventually shook his head,

I really have to

algorithm, and had long begun analyzing their fight with algorithmic procedures of the VOID algorithm. It wasn't that he hadn't obtained

the very least, Dalen was easily in the top five, if not top three

trump card against someone who was

"Fuuu..." Rui focused.

failed, the odds of it succeeding again were lower than the first time. Such was the nature

Especially for this one.