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.

mental energy his

He focused.

of physical energy his

in amazement despite

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

how strong was

Nel wanted to know.

grinned as the savage weight of an apex predator oozed out of every cell

mental pressure the two

one could look

single person could draw their

supervisor commenced

RUMBLE

which Nel had launched himself

he launched a wild

WHOOSH

crashed into a feint, hitting

BAM!

at his ribs from the side, but Nel

POW POW POW

calmly mitigated the strikes with Inner Divergence, Elastic Shift and Acute

he couldn't overcome the combination of two mid-grade

He grinned.

ordinary jabs

capable

WHOOSH

forth with shocking explosive speed, launching a flying

BAM

his arm visibly despite his defensive

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

another loaded

going to try

WHOOSH

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

BAM BAM BAM

launched a flurry of

with

it was

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

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

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

WHOOSH

Primordial Instinct, stepping back

Or so everyone thought.

with a punch, Rui charged right back with an

BOOM!!

clash shook the

sheer

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

Nel's fist hadn't

matched the power of five Apprentice-level techniques

The boys furiously fought.

Fists were exchanged.

Kicks were dodged.

Attacks were endured.

And defenses were sieged!

lower than Nel's.

up with Phantom Step and

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