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 had bloomed across

He focused.

every ounce of physical

amazement despite the

sheer focus. It grew by the second,

how strong

Nel wanted to know.

as the savage weight

maelstrom of mental pressure the two boys

no one could look

a single person could

supervisor commenced the

RUMBLE

sheer force with which Nel had launched himself sent tremors

he launched a

WHOOSH

into a feint,

BAM!

a powerful kick at his ribs from the side, but Nel

POW POW POW

Rui leapt back, having calmly mitigated the strikes with

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

He grinned.

ordinary jabs didn't

capable of

WHOOSH

forth with shocking explosive speed, launching a flying

BAM

his arm visibly despite

now had he confirmed that he could not take

another

Rui wasn't going to try

WHOOSH

He used Balanced

BAM BAM BAM

a

with Outer Convergence

was not

Rui to land a clean

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

attacks aren't doing the trick.')

WHOOSH

Primordial

Or so everyone thought.

at him with a

BOOM!!

clash shook

the sheer display

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

Nel's fist hadn't

of five Apprentice-level

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. A symmetric battle was not in his

with Phantom

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