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. Even with Primordial Instinct, his reactions were inferior to

got up, launching himself at Hever throwing a

WHOOSH

BAM!

skidded away groaning

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

technique many times in this preliminary contest, and Hever was clearly prepared for it, anticipating that

this surprised Rui. If he were in Hever's place, he would have made this realization the second he saw himself using the Phantom Step technique.

just being careful was 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 enough to respond to Rui's real

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

if he continued, it was a fool's errand. He was not going to fight foolhardily like

have to worry about being voluntarily attacked. Hever had mastered only one technique, and it purely counter-offensive, he had no pure offensive

took his time, thinking and

continuously shifted; rotating to ensure Rui was always directly

Rui conjectured. ('Or perhaps

but eventually shook his head, it

to use

VOID algorithm. It wasn't that he hadn't obtained any solutions, it's just that Rui was rather reluctant of using the solutions he had deduced

no choice.') He shook his head. At the very least, Dalen was easily in the top five, if not

final trump card against someone who was unworthy or could be

"Fuuu..." Rui focused.

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

Especially for this one.