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 across

He focused.

ounce of physical energy

amazement despite

It grew by the second, pouring onto him

how strong

Nel wanted to know.

boy!" He grinned as the savage weight of an

pressure the

no one

single person could draw their eyes

the supervisor

RUMBLE

with which Nel had launched himself sent

He snarled as he

WHOOSH

into a feint,

BAM!

from the side, but Nel simply blocked it,

POW POW POW

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 as one high-grade defensive technique with

He grinned.

what if ordinary jabs didn't

was capable of

WHOOSH

with shocking explosive speed, launching a

BAM

bruised his arm visibly despite his

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

launched another

to try and tank

WHOOSH

used Balanced Direction and Parallel Walk, to circle

BAM BAM BAM

a

with Outer Convergence and Vital

it was

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

"Tsk." Rui retreated.

ordinary attacks aren't

WHOOSH

Primordial Instinct, stepping

Or so everyone thought.

charged at him with a punch, Rui charged

BOOM!!

shook

at the sheer display of

with Balanced Direction and Parallel Walk,

Nel's fist

the power of five Apprentice-level techniques

The boys furiously fought.

Fists were exchanged.

Kicks were dodged.

Attacks were endured.

And defenses were sieged!

were lower than Nel's. A

things up with Phantom Step and Primordial

than his speed did, and allowed him to