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

He focused.

every ounce of physical energy his

amazement despite the

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

strong was

Nel wanted to know.

grinned as the savage weight of an apex predator oozed

the

one

person could draw

supervisor

RUMBLE

sheer force with which Nel had launched himself

snarled as he

WHOOSH

swing crashed into a feint, hitting empty

BAM!

ribs from the

POW POW POW

Rui leapt back, having calmly mitigated the strikes

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

He grinned.

if ordinary jabs

capable

WHOOSH

forth with shocking explosive speed, launching a flying

BAM

grimaced as he bruised his arm visibly

confirmed that

launched another

Rui wasn't going to try and

WHOOSH

He used Balanced

BAM BAM BAM

a flurry

was powered with Outer Convergence

it was

Rui to land a clean strike on a vital,

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

ordinary attacks aren't doing the

WHOOSH

help of Primordial Instinct, stepping

Or so everyone thought.

with a punch, Rui charged right back with an

BOOM!!

clash shook

gaped at the sheer display of

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

fist hadn't backed

of five Apprentice-level techniques

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

up with Phantom Step and Primordial

speed did, and allowed