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.

energy his mind had

He focused.

every ounce of physical energy

in amazement despite

grew by the second,

strong

Nel wanted to know.

Path is stronger void boy!" He grinned as the savage weight of an

mental pressure the two boys generated burdened every

no one

a single person could

the supervisor commenced

RUMBLE

with which Nel had launched himself sent

he launched a

WHOOSH

into a feint, hitting empty

BAM!

powerful kick at his ribs from the side, but Nel

POW POW POW

back, having calmly mitigated the

even he couldn't overcome the combination of two mid-grade defensive techniques as

He grinned.

what if ordinary

was capable of

WHOOSH

shocking explosive speed, launching

BAM

grimaced as he bruised his

that he could not take too many of Nel's more charged

another loaded

wasn't going to try and

WHOOSH

feint. He used

BAM BAM BAM

a flurry

was powered with Outer

it was not

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

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

attacks aren't doing

WHOOSH

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

Or so everyone thought.

with a

BOOM!!

shook

gaped at the sheer

with Balanced Direction and Parallel Walk, and

Nel's fist

matched the power of five Apprentice-level techniques with his

The boys furiously fought.

Fists were exchanged.

Kicks were dodged.

Attacks were endured.

And defenses were sieged!

lower than Nel's. A symmetric battle was not

up with Phantom Step

his speed did, and allowed