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!

skidded away. Even with the application of Inner Divergence and Elastic Shift. The throw hurt like hell. Even

up, launching himself at

WHOOSH

BAM!

away groaning

Rui mused 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

Hever was clearly prepared for it, anticipating that Rui

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

Hever's muscle memory quickness, it was so quick, that even after falling

his sheer mastery of a single technique, that allowed him to crush so many

continued, it was a fool's errand. He was not going to fight

guard, circling around Hever at a distance. The best part 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.

took his time, thinking and

ensure Rui was always directly in front of

he's facing his opponent.') Rui conjectured. ('Or perhaps it

thought of ways he could exploit this, but eventually shook

really have to use that?" Rui

of the VOID algorithm. It wasn't that

choice.') He shook his head. At the very least, Dalen was easily in the top five, if not

took solace that he wouldn't be wasting his final trump card against someone who

"Fuuu..." Rui focused.

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

Especially for this one.