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 next

BAM!

and Elastic Shift. The throw hurt like hell.

up, launching himself at Hever throwing a

WHOOSH

BAM!

skidded away groaning in

aware of the Phantom Step technique, then Rui was certain he would be able to use it at the right moment and at

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

If he were in Hever's place, he would have made this realization the second he saw himself using the Phantom Step technique. He had anticipated that this would not work against the careful

muscle memory quickness, it was so quick, that even after falling for a feint,

admire his sheer mastery of a single technique, that allowed him to crush so many powerful techniques and

it was a fool's errand. He was not going to fight foolhardily like Nel and continue attacking

about fighting 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.

his time, thinking and

to ensure Rui was always directly in

perhaps it works worst or not at all when his

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

I really have to use that?" Rui

had long begun analyzing their fight with algorithmic procedures of the VOID

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

his final trump card against someone who was unworthy or could

"Fuuu..." Rui focused.

If this failed, the odds of it succeeding again were lower than the

Especially for this one.