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

He focused.

ounce of physical energy his

amazement despite the

focus. It grew by the second, pouring onto him from

how strong was

Nel wanted to know.

the savage weight

of mental pressure the

no one could

single person could draw their eyes

supervisor commenced

RUMBLE

which Nel had launched himself sent tremors across

he launched

WHOOSH

swing crashed into

BAM!

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

POW POW POW

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

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

He grinned.

what if ordinary

was capable of

WHOOSH

explosive speed,

BAM

grimaced as he bruised his arm visibly despite his defensive

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

another loaded

Rui wasn't going to try and tank it

WHOOSH

He used Balanced Direction and Parallel

BAM BAM BAM

a flurry

with Outer Convergence and

it was not

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

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

aren't

WHOOSH

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

Or so everyone thought.

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

BOOM!!

shook the

sheer display

his momentum to the max with Balanced

Nel's fist hadn't

matched the power of five Apprentice-level

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

things up with Phantom Step

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