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.

every ounce of physical

grinned in amazement

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

strong

Nel wanted to know.

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

maelstrom of mental pressure the

no one

single person could draw their eyes

the supervisor commenced the

RUMBLE

with which Nel had launched himself sent tremors across the

He snarled as he launched a

WHOOSH

crashed into a feint, hitting empty

BAM!

the side, but Nel simply blocked

POW POW POW

having calmly mitigated the strikes with

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

He grinned.

what if ordinary jabs didn't

capable of much

WHOOSH

explosive

BAM

bruised his arm visibly

confirmed that he

another

Rui wasn't going to try and

WHOOSH

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

BAM BAM BAM

launched a flurry

with Outer Convergence and Vital

was not

Nel's guard. His reflexes were too quick to allow Rui to land

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

expected, ordinary attacks aren't doing the trick.') He

WHOOSH

the help of Primordial Instinct, stepping back to open up

Or so everyone thought.

Nel charged at him with a

BOOM!!

clash shook the

the sheer display

most weighted 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 hadn't backed

matched the power of five Apprentice-level techniques with his sheer

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

things up with Phantom Step

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