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 mind had bloomed

He focused.

physical energy his body

in amazement despite

by the

how strong was

Nel wanted to know.

savage weight of an apex predator oozed

mental pressure the two boys

no one could look

person could draw

supervisor

RUMBLE

Nel had

as he launched a wild

WHOOSH

crashed into a feint, hitting empty

BAM!

ribs from the side, but

POW POW POW

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

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

He grinned.

if ordinary jabs

was capable

WHOOSH

burst forth with shocking explosive

BAM

his arm visibly despite his

it, but only now had he confirmed that he could not take too

another

to try

WHOOSH

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

BAM BAM BAM

launched a

powered with Outer Convergence and Vital

it was not

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

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

ordinary attacks aren't doing the

WHOOSH

with the help of Primordial Instinct, stepping

Or so everyone thought.

him with a punch, Rui charged right back with an

BOOM!!

shook the

gaped at the sheer

the max with Balanced Direction and Parallel Walk, and launched a Flowing Canon attack amplified with

fist

matched the power of five

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

things up with Phantom Step and Primordial

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