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.

his mind had bloomed across two

He focused.

of physical

in amazement despite

sheer focus. It grew by the second, pouring onto him from a boundless

how strong was

Nel wanted to know.

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

mental pressure the two boys generated

one

person could

supervisor commenced the

RUMBLE

Nel had launched himself

he

WHOOSH

powerful swing crashed into a feint, hitting

BAM!

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

POW POW POW

of swift jabs. Rui leapt back, having calmly mitigated the strikes with Inner Divergence, Elastic

of two mid-grade defensive techniques

He grinned.

ordinary jabs

capable

WHOOSH

forth with shocking explosive speed, launching a flying

BAM

grimaced as he bruised his

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

another

to try

WHOOSH

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

BAM BAM BAM

a flurry

with

was not

reflexes were too quick to allow Rui to land a clean strike on a vital, and when

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

ordinary attacks aren't doing the

WHOOSH

the help of Primordial Instinct, stepping back to open

Or so everyone thought.

at him with a

BOOM!!

shook the

gaped at the sheer display of

had charged up his momentum to the max with Balanced Direction and Parallel Walk,

fist

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

things up with Phantom Step

than his speed did, and