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

He focused.

ounce of physical energy his body could

in amazement despite

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

strong was

Nel wanted to know.

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

maelstrom of mental pressure the two

one

could draw

supervisor

RUMBLE

with which Nel had launched himself sent

as he launched

WHOOSH

crashed into a

BAM!

kick at his ribs from the side,

POW POW POW

having calmly mitigated the strikes with Inner

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

He grinned.

ordinary jabs didn't

capable

WHOOSH

forth with shocking explosive

BAM

as he bruised his arm visibly despite his

only now had he confirmed that he could not take too many of Nel's

launched another

wasn't going to try

WHOOSH

cleanly avoided it with a feint. He used Balanced Direction

BAM BAM BAM

a flurry

with Outer Convergence and

was not

too quick to allow Rui to land a clean strike on a vital, and when defended,

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

attacks aren't doing

WHOOSH

of Primordial Instinct, stepping back to open up some distance

Or so everyone thought.

with a punch, Rui

BOOM!!

shook the

at the sheer display

his momentum to the max with Balanced Direction and Parallel Walk, and launched a Flowing Canon attack amplified with Outer Convergence and Vital

fist hadn't

power of five Apprentice-level

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

him to avoid more strikes than his speed did,