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.

mental energy his mind had bloomed across

He focused.

every ounce of physical energy his body could

in amazement despite the

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

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

of mental pressure the

no one could look

could draw their

the supervisor

RUMBLE

Nel had launched himself

snarled as he launched a wild

WHOOSH

powerful swing crashed into a feint,

BAM!

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

POW POW POW

threw a series of swift jabs. Rui leapt back, having calmly mitigated the strikes with Inner Divergence, Elastic Shift

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

He grinned.

ordinary

capable of

WHOOSH

shocking explosive speed,

BAM

grimaced as he bruised his arm visibly despite his defensive

long suspected it, but only now had he confirmed that he could not take too many of Nel's more

launched another loaded

going to try and

WHOOSH

a feint. He used Balanced

BAM BAM BAM

launched a flurry

powered with Outer Convergence

it was not

to allow Rui to land a clean strike on a vital, and when defended, his defense was too

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

expected, ordinary attacks aren't doing

WHOOSH

with the help of Primordial Instinct, stepping

Or so everyone thought.

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

BOOM!!

shook

at the sheer display

up his momentum to the max with Balanced Direction and Parallel Walk, and

Nel's fist

the power of five Apprentice-level techniques with his

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

more strikes than his speed did, and allowed