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 mind

He focused.

every ounce of physical energy his

amazement

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

strong was

Nel wanted to know.

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

maelstrom of mental pressure the two boys generated burdened

one could look

single person could draw their

supervisor commenced the

RUMBLE

force with which Nel had launched himself sent tremors across the

He snarled as he launched a wild

WHOOSH

crashed into a feint, hitting

BAM!

the side, but Nel simply blocked

POW POW POW

back, having calmly mitigated the strikes with

was, even he couldn't overcome the combination of two mid-grade

He grinned.

ordinary jabs

was capable

WHOOSH

shocking explosive

BAM

his arm visibly

but only now had he confirmed that

launched another loaded

going to try and tank it

WHOOSH

feint. He used Balanced Direction and Parallel

BAM BAM BAM

launched a flurry of

was powered with Outer Convergence and Vital

it was

were too quick to allow Rui to land a clean strike

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

attacks aren't doing the trick.')

WHOOSH

help of Primordial Instinct, stepping

Or so everyone thought.

charged at him with a punch, Rui charged right back

BOOM!!

clash shook

at the sheer display of

up his momentum to the max with Balanced Direction and

fist hadn't

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 was

switched things up with Phantom Step and

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