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.

vast mental energy his mind had

He focused.

of physical energy his body

amazement

of pressure from Rui's sheer focus. It grew by the second, pouring onto him from a

strong was

Nel wanted to know.

see whose Martial Path is stronger void boy!" He grinned as the savage weight of an

the two boys generated

no one could

could draw their

supervisor

RUMBLE

sheer force with which Nel had launched

He snarled as he launched a

WHOOSH

swing crashed into a feint,

BAM!

a powerful kick at his ribs from the side, but Nel simply blocked

POW POW POW

having calmly mitigated the strikes with Inner

mid-grade defensive techniques as well as one

He grinned.

if ordinary jabs didn't

capable

WHOOSH

with shocking explosive speed, launching a flying

BAM

bruised his arm visibly despite his defensive

long suspected it, but only now had he confirmed that he

launched another

try

WHOOSH

used Balanced

BAM BAM BAM

launched a flurry

with

it was not

Rui to land a clean strike on a

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

expected, ordinary attacks aren't

WHOOSH

of Primordial Instinct,

Or so everyone thought.

at him with a punch,

BOOM!!

clash shook the

gaped at the sheer display

strike, while Rui had charged up his momentum to the max with Balanced Direction and Parallel Walk, and launched a Flowing Canon attack amplified with Outer Convergence

Nel's fist

the power of five Apprentice-level techniques with

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

with Phantom

more strikes than his speed did, and