The Martial Unity

POW!

Rui swung a hook only for his opponent to step towards the strike, blocking it with an armed guard. Rui seamlessly hurled an already-wound straight punch to the man's face.

BAM!

Once again, the man stepped forward in the direction of the attack, blocking it with a forward guard. He was incredibly swift for a defensive Martial Apprentice, being able to keep up with Rui's every attack. Rui launched a barrage of blows, yet time after time, the man somehow continued blocking all of Rui's attacks casually.

('He's ruining the timing of my attacks.') Rui quickly realized. ('He's using a technique where he steps forward in the direction of the attack and blocks it prematurely before the attack has charged enough to reach its peak.')

It was a simple yet fascinating principle. Every attack had a peak as speed and power went. Martial Artists swung their fists and legs and spaced themselves such that the attack would land on their target when the attack was at peak power in order to deliver the maximum possible impact.

Rui's opponent instead, rapidly stepped forward in the briefest of moments before the attack had reached its peak and intercepted it when it was weak. This way he could prevent his opponent from showing their best striking power in a fight. Of course, he used other techniques to mitigate the impact, including some passive defense that came from conditioning.

Yet, it was this mistiming technique that drew Rui's interest.

This technique also foiled Reverberating Lance since Rui always timed the technique for the normal collision of the attack. But that was only if Rui continued to fail.

BOOM!

The man grimaced for the first time as a powerful body blow slammed into his guards

Rui kept a careful eye on his movements with Primordial Instinct boosted by the Mindmirror secondary brain, carefully readjusting the timing of the Reverberating lance to suit the sabotages of his opponent. Rui continued whaling away at him as he began inputting data about his opponent into his mind palace.

BAM!

powerful blow crashed into the man's guard launching

predictable and easy to read. If he approached attacks o through them off-timing, then Rui knew exactly what he would do

even complete, yet

launched a powerful hook aimed at the man's jaw. The man, like clockwork, prematurely

WHOOSH

It was an illusion.

BAM!

crashed into his jaw. The sheer impact of Rui's true, unhindered power crashed into

THUD

collapsed on

Yet, Rui wasn't done.

sighed with a solemn

BAM!!

of blood began forming from the man's head. His

BAM!

immediately turned over as the deed

no mercy shown to hostile competitors' Martial Apprentices. The participating Martial Apprentices were not allowed to

Kingdom of Nochus was a small and weak country that simply was unable to compensate for the large disparity in quality and quantity

was the biggest problem, as everyone soon came

that, the VOID algorithm was particularly brutal. Yet what was even more brutal was how none of them were Martial Apprentices where Rui genuinely would be

BAM!