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.

his mind had bloomed

He focused.

every ounce of physical energy his body could

in amazement

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

how strong

Nel wanted to know.

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

maelstrom of mental pressure the two boys generated

no one

a single person could

the supervisor commenced the

RUMBLE

had launched

snarled as he

WHOOSH

crashed into a feint, hitting empty

BAM!

at his ribs from the side, but Nel

POW POW POW

having calmly mitigated the strikes with Inner Divergence, Elastic Shift and Acute

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

He grinned.

if ordinary jabs

capable of

WHOOSH

explosive

BAM

grimaced as he bruised his arm visibly

had he confirmed that he could not take too many of Nel's more charged

another loaded

try and tank it this

WHOOSH

He used Balanced Direction

BAM BAM BAM

a flurry of

with Outer Convergence and

it was not

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

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

ordinary attacks aren't doing the trick.')

WHOOSH

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

Or so everyone thought.

Nel charged at him with a punch, Rui charged right back

BOOM!!

clash shook

the sheer

max with Balanced Direction and Parallel Walk, and launched a Flowing

fist hadn't

five Apprentice-level techniques with his sheer

The boys furiously fought.

Fists were exchanged.

Kicks were dodged.

Attacks were endured.

And defenses were sieged!

average offense, defense and speed were lower than Nel's. A symmetric

up with Phantom Step and Primordial

avoid more strikes than his speed did, and allowed him