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.

ounce of physical energy his body could

grinned in amazement despite the

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

strong was

Nel wanted to know.

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

of mental pressure the two boys generated

one

single person could

the supervisor commenced

RUMBLE

force with which Nel had

snarled as he

WHOOSH

into a

BAM!

ribs from the

POW POW POW

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

was, even he couldn't overcome the combination of two mid-grade defensive techniques as well as one high-grade defensive technique with

He grinned.

what if ordinary jabs didn't

capable of

WHOOSH

with shocking explosive speed, launching a

BAM

as he bruised his arm visibly

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

another

going to try

WHOOSH

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

BAM BAM BAM

launched a flurry of

powered with

it was

were too quick to allow Rui to land a clean strike on a vital, and when

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

ordinary attacks aren't doing the trick.')

WHOOSH

help of Primordial Instinct, stepping back to

Or so everyone thought.

him with a punch, Rui charged right back

BOOM!!

shook the

sheer display of

momentum to the max with Balanced Direction and Parallel Walk, and launched a Flowing Canon attack amplified with Outer Convergence and Vital

fist hadn't

five Apprentice-level techniques with his sheer

The boys furiously fought.

Fists were exchanged.

Kicks were dodged.

Attacks were endured.

And defenses were sieged!

defense and speed were lower

with Phantom

his speed did, and allowed him to land more attacks