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.

his mind

He focused.

ounce of physical energy

amazement despite the

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

strong

Nel wanted to know.

Martial Path is stronger void boy!" He grinned as the savage weight of an apex predator oozed out of every

the two boys

one could

could draw their

supervisor commenced

RUMBLE

Nel had launched himself sent tremors

as he launched

WHOOSH

into a

BAM!

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

POW POW POW

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

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

He grinned.

ordinary jabs

was capable

WHOOSH

with shocking explosive

BAM

grimaced as he bruised his arm

he confirmed that he could not

another

going to try and

WHOOSH

He used Balanced Direction and Parallel

BAM BAM BAM

launched a flurry of

strike was powered with

it was not

allow Rui to land a clean strike on a vital, and

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

attacks aren't doing the

WHOOSH

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

Or so everyone thought.

at him with a punch, Rui charged right

BOOM!!

clash shook

the sheer display of

Rui had charged up his momentum to the max with Balanced Direction and Parallel Walk, and launched a Flowing Canon attack amplified with Outer Convergence and

Nel's fist

five Apprentice-level techniques

The boys furiously fought.

Fists were exchanged.

Kicks were dodged.

Attacks were endured.

And defenses were sieged!

average offense, defense and speed were lower than Nel's. A symmetric battle was not in

switched things up with Phantom Step

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