The Martial Unity

BAM!

Rui's eyes flew wide open as Ian struck him with a more powerful blow than ever before. Rui skidded away as he gazed at Ian with a surprised expression. Why was he suddenly stronger than before despite the wound?

Ian had a furious expression on his face. "You bastard...!"

He coughed up a little blood.

('He's pushing himself to the absolute limit.') Rui realized. Ian was essentially pushing himself to his peak at the cost of accelerating the deterioration of his condition.

WHOOSH

Ian abused Lightning Breathing even as blood splurted out of his wound, to move faster than he ever had, reaching Rui in an instant.

BOOM!

Rui grimaced as an immensely powerful blow crashed against his guard. His body shook with the impact as he leapt back. Even the combination of his three defensive techniques weren't able to mitigate the impact.

Rui's senses heightened as he realized they had entered the final phase of the battle.

He abandoned all offense and shifted all of his focus on evasion and defense. Whatever happened, he could not afford to make a mistake! A single mistake was all Ian needed to turn the tables around for himself.

WHOOSH

Rui carefully evaded a strike with a feint as he immediately activated his maneuvering techniques to open up distance between them.

However, Ian was relentless.

"RAARGH!" he snarled as he shook the very ground with the sheer force he was accelerating towards with Rui with.

WHOOSH

he evaded yet another strike

BOOM!

of a drop kick that cracked the ground Rui was upon a

absorbed into the battle,

understood that they were witnessing the decisive part

the clinch

WHOOSH

BAM!

feint as Rui sneaked past his guard, launching a FLowing Canon on

snarled in pain as he crouched clasping

BAM!

jaw, disorienting him. He ignored his condition, lashing out a flurry of

POW!

to the jaw pushed his blunt force trauma

THUD

ground as he

Rui Quarrier!" The

a moment,

the crowd erupted

managed to overcome one of the favourites with a stunning victory! He moves onto the finals of the

being treated. He did not respect his character, but he respected

the arena immediately

boy." Squire Dylon smirked, throwing him

to reach the finals, win or lose this is an achievement you have every right to take pride in." Squire

why she was saying that. He was relatively certain she though he had a high chance of losing in the finals. She was just being more tactful about it. Squire Dylon

in such circumstances, Dylon even managed to be funny about it.

fight of the third-round folks." the commentator announced. "One on hand, we have representative Mia Marnt and her Echo Blast Style representing

cheers as the atmosphere

the arena, facing each other. Rui could merely be surprised at the contrast between the two representatives. Mia was in her early twenties while Fiona was fifteen, like himself, furthermore she