The Martial Unity

"..."

"..."

Rui stared at him.

Nel stared back at him.

"You... what?"

"Broke through without em."

"No, surely..."

"Nope."

Rui tilted his head with incredulous confusion.

Broke through to Martial Apprentice without learning a single technique? What sort of nonsense was that?

Rui wasn't even sure what to say to that.

He wasn't even sure he believed him.

Was he lying to get Rui to lower his guard so he could later unveil them?

Looking at his sincere clueless expression, Rui shook his head, this guy was serious.

But wasn't that even more absurd?

"You... What is your Martial Path?"

"Take your stances." The supervisor had arrived, and quickly told them to be ready.

"Heh." Nel chuckled as he crouched, letting his arms dangle freely.

"My Martial Path is to beat everyone up using my body alone." He declared, his aura growing more feral by the second.

"..."

Rui's eyes flew wide open at those words.

For the very first time, he had run into someone with a Martial Path even more obtuse than his own!

"Take your stance." The supervisor insisted to Rui.

"I see..." Rui ignored him, staring straight at Nel with a boundless fascination and excitement.

He just couldn't wait!

"...My Martial Path is to beat everyone up with my VOID alone."

Rui adopted a neutral all-rounder stance, dividing his weight perfectly, positioning his arms and legs to be equally conducive to offense, defense and maneuvering.

"Fuuu..." He exhaled.

His mind went blank.

There was nothing.

And slowly...

He focused.

the vast mental energy his mind had bloomed across

He focused.

every ounce of physical

grinned in amazement

grew by the second, pouring

strong was

Nel wanted to know.

boy!" He grinned as the savage weight of an apex predator oozed out of

mental pressure the two boys generated burdened every

one could

person could draw

supervisor

RUMBLE

had launched himself sent tremors

snarled as he launched a wild

WHOOSH

powerful swing crashed into a feint, hitting

BAM!

kick at his ribs from the side, but

POW POW POW

calmly mitigated the strikes with Inner Divergence, Elastic Shift and Acute

mid-grade defensive techniques as well as

He grinned.

what if ordinary

capable of

WHOOSH

forth with shocking explosive speed, launching a flying

BAM

bruised his

now had he confirmed that he could not take too many of

another loaded

going to try and tank it this

WHOOSH

used Balanced Direction and Parallel Walk, to

BAM BAM BAM

a flurry

powered with Outer

it was

quick to allow Rui to land a clean strike on a vital, and

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

aren't

WHOOSH

kick cleanly with the help of Primordial Instinct, stepping back to open up

Or so everyone thought.

when Nel charged at him with a punch, Rui

BOOM!!

shook the

gaped at the sheer display

with Balanced Direction and Parallel Walk,

fist hadn't backed

five Apprentice-level techniques

The boys furiously fought.

Fists were exchanged.

Kicks were dodged.

Attacks were endured.

And defenses were sieged!

knew his average offense, defense and speed were lower than Nel's. A symmetric battle was not in

up with Phantom Step

speed did, and allowed him to land more attacks than his