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.

of physical energy

grinned in amazement despite the

by the

strong was

Nel wanted to know.

void boy!" He grinned as the savage weight of

mental pressure the two boys

one could look

a single person could draw

the supervisor commenced the

RUMBLE

force with which Nel had launched himself sent

as he launched

WHOOSH

into

BAM!

powerful kick at his ribs from the side, but

POW POW POW

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

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

He grinned.

what if ordinary jabs didn't

capable of much

WHOOSH

shocking explosive speed,

BAM

bruised his arm visibly despite

that

another

try and

WHOOSH

feint. He used Balanced Direction and Parallel Walk,

BAM BAM BAM

launched a flurry

was powered with

was

against Nel's guard. His reflexes were too quick to allow Rui to land a clean strike on a vital, and when defended, his defense was too

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

ordinary attacks aren't doing

WHOOSH

Primordial

Or so everyone thought.

Nel charged at him with a

BOOM!!

clash shook

the sheer display of

most weighted strike, while Rui had charged up his momentum to the max with Balanced Direction and Parallel Walk, and launched a Flowing Canon attack amplified with Outer Convergence and

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!

knew his average offense, defense and speed were lower than Nel's. A symmetric battle was

with Phantom Step

than his speed did, and allowed him to land