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.

ounce of physical

grinned in amazement despite

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

strong

Nel wanted to know.

the savage weight of an apex predator oozed out

of mental pressure the two boys generated burdened every

one

single person could draw

the supervisor

RUMBLE

force with which Nel had launched himself sent

He snarled as he launched a

WHOOSH

crashed into a feint, hitting empty

BAM!

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

POW POW POW

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

mid-grade defensive techniques as well as one high-grade defensive technique with ordinary jabs

He grinned.

what if ordinary jabs

was capable

WHOOSH

shocking explosive speed,

BAM

bruised his arm

but only now had he confirmed that he could not

launched another loaded

Rui wasn't going to try

WHOOSH

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

BAM BAM BAM

a

powered with Outer Convergence and Vital

was

quick to allow Rui to land a clean strike on a vital, and when defended, his defense was

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

expected, ordinary attacks aren't doing the trick.')

WHOOSH

avoided a kick cleanly with the help of Primordial Instinct,

Or so everyone thought.

him with a

BOOM!!

shook the

at the sheer display

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

Nel's fist

of five

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.

up with Phantom Step

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