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

He focused.

physical energy

in amazement despite

focus. It grew by the second, pouring

how strong was

Nel wanted to know.

savage weight of an apex predator oozed out

maelstrom of mental pressure the two boys

no one could

could draw

the supervisor commenced

RUMBLE

sheer force with which Nel had launched himself

snarled as he

WHOOSH

powerful swing crashed into a feint, hitting

BAM!

at his ribs from the side, but Nel simply blocked it, pushing the strike

POW POW POW

leapt back, having calmly mitigated the strikes

overcome the combination of two mid-grade defensive techniques as well as one high-grade defensive technique with

He grinned.

ordinary jabs didn't

was capable

WHOOSH

burst forth with shocking explosive

BAM

grimaced as he bruised his arm

had long suspected it, but only now had he confirmed that

launched another

to try

WHOOSH

used

BAM BAM BAM

launched a flurry

powered with Outer Convergence and

it was not

quick to allow Rui to land a clean

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

aren't

WHOOSH

kick cleanly with the help of Primordial Instinct, stepping back to open

Or so everyone thought.

charged at him with a punch, Rui

BOOM!!

shook the

the sheer display of raw

max with Balanced Direction and Parallel Walk, and

fist

power of five

The boys furiously fought.

Fists were exchanged.

Kicks were dodged.

Attacks were endured.

And defenses were sieged!

lower than Nel's. A symmetric battle

switched things up with Phantom

did, and allowed him to