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 mind had bloomed across

He focused.

every ounce of physical energy

in amazement despite the

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

strong

Nel wanted to know.

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

the two boys generated burdened every

one

a single person could draw

the supervisor commenced

RUMBLE

force with which Nel had launched himself sent tremors across the

He snarled as he launched

WHOOSH

into a feint, hitting empty

BAM!

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

POW POW POW

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

two mid-grade defensive techniques as well as one high-grade

He grinned.

what if ordinary

was capable of much

WHOOSH

explosive speed, launching a flying

BAM

he bruised his arm visibly despite his defensive

now had he confirmed that he could not take too

launched another loaded

try and tank it

WHOOSH

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

BAM BAM BAM

launched a flurry

was powered with Outer Convergence and

was

quick to allow Rui to land a clean strike

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

ordinary attacks aren't doing the trick.') He

WHOOSH

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

Or so everyone thought.

with a punch, Rui

BOOM!!

clash shook the

sheer

charged up his momentum to the max with Balanced

Nel's fist hadn't

five Apprentice-level techniques with his

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 was

things up with

did, and allowed him to land