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.

the vast mental energy his mind had bloomed across two

He focused.

of physical energy his

grinned in amazement

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

how strong was

Nel wanted to know.

grinned as the savage weight

the two

no one could look

a single person could draw

supervisor commenced

RUMBLE

force with which Nel had launched himself sent tremors across the

he launched a

WHOOSH

crashed into a feint, hitting empty

BAM!

his ribs from the side, but Nel simply blocked

POW POW POW

leapt back, having calmly mitigated

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

He grinned.

if ordinary jabs didn't

capable of

WHOOSH

explosive speed, launching a

BAM

grimaced as he bruised his arm

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

launched another loaded

going to try and tank it

WHOOSH

He used Balanced Direction and Parallel

BAM BAM BAM

launched a flurry

strike was powered with Outer Convergence and Vital

it was

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

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

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

WHOOSH

of Primordial Instinct, stepping

Or so everyone thought.

at him with a

BOOM!!

clash shook the

at the sheer

Rui had charged up his momentum to the max with Balanced Direction and

Nel's fist hadn't backed

matched the power of five Apprentice-level techniques with his sheer

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 in

things up with Phantom Step and Primordial

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