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.

ounce of physical energy his

in amazement despite

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

strong was

Nel wanted to know.

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

of mental pressure the

no one could look

could draw their

supervisor

RUMBLE

had launched himself sent

snarled as he launched

WHOOSH

powerful swing crashed into a feint,

BAM!

ribs from the side, but

POW POW POW

Rui leapt back, having calmly mitigated the strikes with Inner Divergence, Elastic Shift and Acute

combination of two mid-grade defensive techniques as well as one high-grade defensive technique with ordinary jabs

He grinned.

if ordinary jabs

was capable

WHOOSH

burst forth with shocking explosive

BAM

his arm visibly

suspected it, but only now had he confirmed that he could not take too many of Nel's

another loaded

wasn't going to try and tank it this

WHOOSH

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

BAM BAM BAM

launched a flurry of

was powered with Outer Convergence

was

allow Rui to land a clean strike on a vital, and when defended, his defense was too

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

aren't doing the trick.')

WHOOSH

help of Primordial Instinct, stepping back to open

Or so everyone thought.

at him with a punch, Rui charged right

BOOM!!

shook the

gaped at the sheer display of raw

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

Nel's fist

matched 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!

were lower than Nel's. A symmetric battle was

up with Phantom Step

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