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.

mental energy his

He focused.

of physical energy his

in amazement

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

how strong

Nel wanted to know.

grinned as the savage weight

the two boys generated burdened every

one could

single person could draw

the supervisor commenced

RUMBLE

had launched

He snarled as he

WHOOSH

into a feint, hitting

BAM!

kick at his ribs from the side, but Nel simply blocked it, pushing the

POW POW POW

threw a series of swift jabs. Rui leapt back, having calmly mitigated the strikes with Inner Divergence, Elastic Shift and Acute

combination of two mid-grade defensive techniques

He grinned.

if ordinary

was capable of much

WHOOSH

forth with shocking explosive speed,

BAM

he bruised his arm visibly despite his defensive

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

another loaded

wasn't going to try

WHOOSH

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

BAM BAM BAM

a flurry of

strike was powered with Outer Convergence and Vital

was not

His reflexes were too quick to allow Rui to land

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

aren't

WHOOSH

avoided a kick cleanly with the help of Primordial Instinct, stepping back to open

Or so everyone thought.

a punch, Rui charged right back

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

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!

his average offense, defense and speed were lower than Nel's. A symmetric battle

switched things up with Phantom Step and Primordial

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