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 had

He focused.

of physical energy his body could

in amazement despite the

sheer focus. It grew by the second, pouring onto him from a boundless abyss. It was

how strong

Nel wanted to know.

the savage weight of an apex predator oozed out of

pressure the two boys generated

no one could

a single person could draw

the supervisor

RUMBLE

force with which Nel had launched himself sent tremors across

snarled as he launched

WHOOSH

into a feint, hitting

BAM!

from the side, but

POW POW POW

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

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

He grinned.

what if ordinary jabs

capable of much

WHOOSH

shocking explosive speed, launching

BAM

as he bruised his arm visibly

that he could not take too many of Nel's more

launched another loaded

to try and tank it this

WHOOSH

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

BAM BAM BAM

a flurry

was powered with Outer Convergence

it was

land a clean strike on a vital,

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

ordinary attacks aren't doing the trick.')

WHOOSH

the help of Primordial Instinct,

Or so everyone thought.

when Nel charged at him with a punch,

BOOM!!

clash shook the

at the sheer display of

weighted strike, while Rui had charged up his momentum to the max with Balanced Direction and Parallel Walk, and launched a Flowing Canon attack

Nel's fist hadn't backed

power of five Apprentice-level techniques with his

The boys furiously fought.

Fists were exchanged.

Kicks were dodged.

Attacks were endured.

And defenses were sieged!

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

with

his speed did, and allowed him to