The Martial Unity

The Martial Games soon proceeded as Fernan was carried away. Rui was the new defending champion of the Martial Games and he sent challenger after challenger.

Yet, none of them prevailed.

One after the other, Rui overwhelmingly crushed them all with adapted styles that wrecked them in combat. The rest of the participating representative fighters weren't quite as deviant as Fernan was. The adaptive-evolution model was far more effective against them than it was against Fernan. His victories against them were smooth, clean and elegant unlike his messy battle against Fernan.

However, Rui had begun to notice something strange.

Every once in a while, some of his opponents would simply give up even when the fight wasn't quite over. Their bodies went limp as their eyes lost life as if someone had drained them of it. And he would win easily once they stopped resisting. They would collapse as if they no longer cared for anything.

Rui didn't understand what was happening. He only a found it a little strange because he experienced something similar with Vranil. But he simply shrugged, maybe they just knew went to stop?

There were Martial Artists that fought bitterly to the very end and gave Rui one hell of a run till the very end. Their eyes burned with determination and perseverance even as Rui knocked them out.

At the end of the day. He was still the defending champion and had defeated every single fighter who had participated.

All of the guests were shocked as they witnessed Rui upending the Martial Games!

"Winner; Apprentice Falken. He is the current undefeated reigning champion!" The butler announced. "There are no more challengers!"

The guests applauded loudly at Rui's performance. Suddenly, a voice boomed from the crowd.

"No, not quite."

Charles DiVilier smiled as he drew everybody's attention to him. "Normally, I don't participate as one of major hosts of the Martial Games. But today is a special day, an old champion has come back to reclaim his rightful title and has done so undefeated. It would be interesting is he was met with a challenger qualified to fight him."

Rui's eyebrow rose at those words.

"My representative fight will be participating today." He said.

the guests, before they erupted in enthusiasm. They seemed

heavy

his body was chiseled like he had been sculpted by

from Rui, at the starting

your stances." The

man took a neutral stance, and Rui followed

an air of anticipation unlike any of his previous

The arbiter commenced

as the man appeared in front

BOOM!

crashed into Rui as he hastily threw together a guard in time. The sheer impact of the blow sent him skidding away. He was shocked.

Rui as the

WHOOSH

his strike narrowly as he furiously started building the predictive

teeth. ('Is

required data, unlike the other systems in the VOID algorithm. Which meant it required time, which meant that he could not use it right off the bat. Which meant he was not at

POW POW POW!

strikes, but the masked man

BAM!

Rui skidded away.

was a dominant display of power. Just when the crowd thought Rui was a

WHOOSH

BAM!

cleanly evaded a strike, while he landed a powerful Flowing Canon on the man's gut, pushing

He lashed after Rui once more, yet to his surprise, Rui calmly dealt

blow furiously as Rui began gaining perfect parity with the masked man. The crowd's eyes lit up

cell in his body as went all-out trying to defeat his

and tactical fighter that impressed Rui. He didn't fight head-on like a brute but instead