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 bloomed across

He focused.

physical energy his body

in amazement despite the

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

strong was

Nel wanted to know.

savage weight of an apex

maelstrom of mental pressure the two boys generated burdened

one could look

person could draw their

supervisor commenced

RUMBLE

which Nel had launched himself

He snarled as he launched a

WHOOSH

powerful swing crashed into

BAM!

at his ribs from the side, but

POW POW POW

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

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

He grinned.

ordinary

was capable of

WHOOSH

forth with shocking explosive speed, launching

BAM

as he bruised his arm

but only now had he confirmed that he could not take too many of Nel's

another

try and tank it

WHOOSH

feint. He used Balanced Direction and Parallel

BAM BAM BAM

a

was powered with

was

against Nel's guard. His reflexes were too quick to allow Rui to land a clean strike on a vital,

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

attacks aren't

WHOOSH

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

Or so everyone thought.

a punch, Rui charged right back with an

BOOM!!

shook

at the sheer display

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

Nel's fist

five Apprentice-level techniques with his sheer

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

things up with Phantom Step and Primordial

allowed him to avoid more strikes than his speed did,