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.

energy his mind had

He focused.

physical energy his

amazement

It grew by the second, pouring onto

strong

Nel wanted to know.

whose Martial Path is stronger void boy!" He grinned as the savage

maelstrom of mental pressure the two boys generated burdened every

one

person could draw

the supervisor commenced the

RUMBLE

Nel had launched himself sent

he launched a

WHOOSH

into a

BAM!

at his ribs from the side, but Nel

POW POW POW

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

even he couldn't overcome the combination of two mid-grade defensive techniques as well as one high-grade defensive technique

He grinned.

what if ordinary jabs

capable

WHOOSH

shocking explosive

BAM

bruised his arm visibly despite his

that he could not take too many of Nel's

launched another

wasn't going to try and tank

WHOOSH

used

BAM BAM BAM

a flurry

powered with Outer Convergence

it was

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

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

attacks aren't

WHOOSH

kick cleanly with the help of Primordial Instinct, stepping back

Or so everyone thought.

at him with a punch, Rui charged right

BOOM!!

shook the

sheer display of

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

fist hadn't backed

the power of five

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

with Phantom Step and Primordial

avoid more strikes than his speed did, and allowed