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 two

He focused.

of physical energy

in amazement despite the

by the second, pouring onto him from a

strong was

Nel wanted to know.

void boy!" He grinned as the savage weight of an apex predator oozed out

maelstrom of mental pressure the two boys generated burdened every

no one could

a single person could draw their

supervisor commenced

RUMBLE

had launched himself sent tremors

he

WHOOSH

crashed into a feint, hitting empty

BAM!

from the side, but Nel simply

POW POW POW

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

the combination of two mid-grade defensive techniques as well as one high-grade defensive technique with ordinary

He grinned.

ordinary

capable

WHOOSH

forth with shocking explosive speed, launching

BAM

his arm visibly despite his defensive

now had he confirmed that he could not take too

launched another loaded

wasn't going to try and tank

WHOOSH

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

BAM BAM BAM

launched a

powered with Outer Convergence

it was not

to land a clean strike on a

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

expected, ordinary attacks aren't doing

WHOOSH

cleanly with the help of Primordial Instinct, stepping back to open up some distance between

Or so everyone thought.

at him with a punch, Rui charged right back with an

BOOM!!

shook

gaped at the sheer display

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

fist hadn't

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!

lower than Nel's.

up with Phantom Step and

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