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

amazement despite

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

strong

Nel wanted to know.

as the savage weight of an

mental pressure the two

one could

could draw their eyes

supervisor commenced the

RUMBLE

with which Nel had launched himself sent tremors across

He snarled as he launched a

WHOOSH

crashed into

BAM!

from the side,

POW POW POW

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

two mid-grade defensive techniques

He grinned.

if ordinary jabs

was capable of

WHOOSH

burst forth with shocking explosive speed, launching

BAM

his

confirmed that he could

launched another loaded

wasn't going to try and tank it this

WHOOSH

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

BAM BAM BAM

launched a

powered with Outer Convergence and

was not

Nel's guard. His reflexes were too quick to allow Rui to land a clean strike on a vital, and when defended, his defense was too

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

attacks aren't

WHOOSH

a kick cleanly with the help of Primordial Instinct, stepping

Or so everyone thought.

charged at him with a punch, Rui charged right back with

BOOM!!

shook

gaped at the sheer display of raw

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 and Vital

Nel's fist

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!

and speed were lower than Nel's. A symmetric battle was

switched things up with Phantom Step

avoid more strikes than his speed did, and allowed him