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.

energy his

He focused.

physical energy his body

amazement

felt immense amounts of pressure from Rui's sheer focus. It grew by the second, pouring onto him from a boundless abyss.

how strong was

Nel wanted to know.

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

pressure the two

one could

single person could draw their eyes

supervisor commenced the

RUMBLE

sheer force with which Nel had launched himself

as he launched

WHOOSH

into a

BAM!

at his ribs from the

POW POW POW

of swift jabs. Rui leapt back, having calmly mitigated

he couldn't overcome the combination of two mid-grade defensive techniques as well as one

He grinned.

what if ordinary jabs

capable

WHOOSH

burst forth with shocking explosive speed, launching

BAM

he bruised his arm visibly despite his defensive

he confirmed that he could not

another

to try

WHOOSH

it with a feint. He used Balanced Direction and Parallel Walk,

BAM BAM BAM

a

with

it was

against Nel's guard. His reflexes were too quick to allow Rui to land a clean strike on a vital, and

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

ordinary attacks aren't

WHOOSH

avoided a kick cleanly with the help of Primordial Instinct,

Or so everyone thought.

him with a punch, Rui charged right back with

BOOM!!

shook

at the sheer

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

fist hadn't

the power of five Apprentice-level techniques

The boys furiously fought.

Fists were exchanged.

Kicks were dodged.

Attacks were endured.

And defenses were sieged!

his average offense, defense and speed were lower than Nel's. A

things up with Phantom Step and Primordial

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