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

He focused.

ounce of physical

grinned in amazement despite the

felt immense amounts of pressure from Rui's sheer focus. It grew by

how strong

Nel wanted to know.

the savage weight of an apex predator

of mental pressure the two boys generated

no one could look

single person could

supervisor commenced the

RUMBLE

sheer force with which Nel had launched himself sent tremors

snarled as he

WHOOSH

into a feint, hitting

BAM!

powerful kick at his ribs from the side, but

POW POW POW

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

strong as Nel was, even he couldn't overcome the combination of two mid-grade defensive techniques as

He grinned.

what if ordinary jabs

capable

WHOOSH

burst forth with shocking explosive speed, launching

BAM

his

had he confirmed that he could not take too many

another

try and tank

WHOOSH

it with a feint. He used Balanced Direction and Parallel

BAM BAM BAM

a flurry of

with Outer Convergence

it was not

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

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

expected, ordinary attacks aren't

WHOOSH

the help of Primordial Instinct, stepping back

Or so everyone thought.

Nel charged at him with a punch,

BOOM!!

shook

the sheer display of

momentum to the max with Balanced Direction

fist

the power of five

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

things up with Phantom Step and Primordial

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