The Martial Unity

It wasn't often that Rui's plans went wrong. But not even he was omniscient, anything could happen. His plan had been straightforward. He had feinted a swivel to the side using Phantom Step, but that wasn't what he had limited himself to. He had also used Shadow Step in conjugation with the Mind Mask technique to misdirect Squire Dylon's attention to the feint while his own presence was heavily reduced thanks to the Mind Mask technique. Furthermore, he had used the VOID algorithm to predict the moment when he would be in Dylon's far-end peripheral vision where the Shadow Step technique was at its most effective.

Neither technique would have been effective against Squire Dylon individually. But together when used at the perfect moment with the help of the VOID algorithm, he was able to successfully elude Squire Dylon's attention.

He had circled back behind and aimed a Stinger for when Squire Dylon exposed his eye. Normally, this alone wouldn't be enough to successfully land the Stinger on his eye when Dylon turned to prevent his back from being exposed.

That was where the Mind Mask technique had come in. It was a technique that generally allowed a Martial Apprentice to be perceived and sensed as much more or less dangerous and attention-drawing than they really were using self-hypnosis. In this case, Rui had used it to startle Squire Dylon and impede his reactions with shock, which would decrease the probability that Squire Dylon would defend accurately against the Stinger.

Rui's mastery of the Mind Mask technique had been extraordinary. This was especially true even after he had embedded it into the secondary brain. He had been able to project an image of danger and presence far above that of reality even before the mental embed had finished.

It had been a good plan, quite effective.

There was only one problem with it.

He had underestimated how much stronger he had gotten thanks to the Mental Embed and the activation of the secondary brain. Of course, part of the point of the fight was to discover exactly how strong he was. But he hadn't expected he would have grossly underestimated the boost the Mind Mask technique would get thanks to the secondary brain.

simply tried to create the

would end up becoming a Squire-level mask

He couldn't!

that he had completely failed to predict the effect it would have on Squire Dylon. When Squire Dylon had felt the sudden Squire-level mental pressure flare from behind him, it had completely bypassed his conscious mind and triggered his survival instincts, he

only after the attack had landed

gone and couldn't be stopped. Instead, an instant

exact trajectory of the attack, doing everything he could to

BOOM!!!

be hit hard, but he had realized how naïve he had been. A Squire-level haymaker had landed on his

CRACK CRACK CRACK

impact had mangled his arms as Squire Dylon launched him flying. Rui blasted past the walls of the facility

before he lost

that pain was immense awe. He was in awe of the power of a

due to the blunt

Walked in the air, looking for Rui with one eye. His other one had been bleeding due to the