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.

physical energy his

amazement

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

how strong was

Nel wanted to know.

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

pressure the two boys generated burdened every

no one

person could

supervisor commenced the

RUMBLE

force with which Nel had

He snarled as he launched

WHOOSH

into a

BAM!

ribs from the side, but Nel simply blocked it, pushing the strike

POW POW POW

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

two mid-grade defensive

He grinned.

if ordinary jabs didn't

was capable of

WHOOSH

explosive speed,

BAM

he bruised his arm visibly despite his

long suspected it, but only now had he confirmed that he could not take

launched another

going to try and

WHOOSH

avoided it with a feint. He used Balanced Direction and Parallel

BAM BAM BAM

a flurry

with Outer Convergence and

was

Rui to land a clean strike on a vital, and

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

ordinary attacks aren't doing the

WHOOSH

cleanly with the help of Primordial Instinct,

Or so everyone thought.

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

BOOM!!

clash shook

the sheer display

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

Nel's fist

the power of five Apprentice-level techniques with

The boys furiously fought.

Fists were exchanged.

Kicks were dodged.

Attacks were endured.

And defenses were sieged!

speed were lower than Nel's. A symmetric

up with Phantom

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