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.

ounce of physical energy his

in amazement despite

felt immense amounts of pressure from Rui's sheer focus. It grew by the

strong

Nel wanted to know.

whose Martial Path is stronger void boy!" He grinned as the savage weight of an apex predator oozed out of every cell in his

of mental pressure the two boys

no one could

could

the supervisor

RUMBLE

force with which Nel had launched

he

WHOOSH

powerful swing crashed into a feint,

BAM!

from the side, but

POW POW POW

calmly mitigated the strikes with Inner

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

He grinned.

what if ordinary jabs didn't

was capable of

WHOOSH

shocking explosive speed, launching a flying

BAM

as he bruised his

only now had he confirmed that he could not take too

launched another

going to try and tank

WHOOSH

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

BAM BAM BAM

a flurry

was powered with Outer Convergence and

it was

His reflexes were too quick to allow Rui to land a clean strike on a vital, and when defended, his defense

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

expected, ordinary attacks aren't

WHOOSH

of Primordial

Or so everyone thought.

him with a punch,

BOOM!!

clash shook

sheer

most weighted strike, while Rui had charged up his momentum to the max with Balanced Direction

fist

power of five Apprentice-level

The boys furiously fought.

Fists were exchanged.

Kicks were dodged.

Attacks were endured.

And defenses were sieged!

knew his average offense, defense and speed were lower than Nel's. A symmetric battle was

up with Phantom Step and Primordial

than his speed did, and allowed