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.

vast mental energy his mind

He focused.

every ounce of physical energy his body

amazement

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

strong was

Nel wanted to know.

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

of mental pressure the two boys

no one

could draw their eyes

supervisor commenced

RUMBLE

had launched

as he launched

WHOOSH

crashed into a feint,

BAM!

from the side, but Nel simply

POW POW POW

series of swift jabs. Rui leapt back, having calmly mitigated the strikes with Inner Divergence, Elastic Shift and Acute

combination of two mid-grade defensive techniques as well as

He grinned.

what if ordinary jabs didn't

capable of much

WHOOSH

burst forth with shocking explosive speed, launching

BAM

bruised his arm visibly despite his

he confirmed that he could not take

launched another loaded

wasn't going to try

WHOOSH

cleanly avoided it with a feint. He used

BAM BAM BAM

launched a

strike was powered with Outer Convergence and

was

guard. His reflexes were too quick to allow Rui to land a clean strike on

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

expected, ordinary attacks aren't

WHOOSH

the help of Primordial Instinct, stepping back to open up some distance

Or so everyone thought.

charged at him with a punch, Rui charged right

BOOM!!

shook the

gaped at the sheer

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

Nel's fist

power of five Apprentice-level techniques with his

The boys furiously fought.

Fists were exchanged.

Kicks were dodged.

Attacks were endured.

And defenses were sieged!

average offense, defense and speed were lower

switched things up with Phantom Step and Primordial

than his speed did, and allowed