The Martial Unity

Rui felt nostalgic about his current circumstances, it had been a long time since he had faced a Martial Artists genuinely capable of forcing him to pause and think. Before he mastered the pattern recognition system of the VOID algorithm, he had always been forced to fight with creativity and tactics in order to win.

However, the previous two training sessions had simply made him too strong. It took literal Martial Squires to force him to strategize and rely on tactics. Against other Martial Apprentices, he was usually too strong. He didn't need to strategize to win against them.

He was glad that there were still Martial Apprentices out there strong enough to force him out of his comfort zone.

('Alright, think, how do I get past this wall of wind?') He pondered as he blocked yet another wind blast from his opponent.

He couldn't outmaneuver it because it was simply too large and swift. He couldn't force his way past the wind attack with brute force alone. The wind that his opponent generated was incredibly powerful, overwhelming the friction between Rui and the ground. It wasn't a matter of strength, Rui simply lacked the leverage needed to apply his strength against the wind attacks.

WHOOSH

Rui dashed towards him with remarkable swiftness.

BAM!

He put together a guard as he skidded away some distance away from the wind attack. He glanced up at his opponent, after finally having paused.

He stopped attacking, as he took a moment to process his circumstances. The predictive model had been completed, but unfortunately, it wasn't nearly of much use. Sometimes, even predicting your opponent wasn't enough to counter them.

Even if Rui predicted his opponent accurately, he wouldn't gain some massive advantage. He still had no way to close the distance.

('My feet aren't fast enough.') Rui mused. ('It's hard to picture me outpacing the attack with my speed alone.')

Suddenly his eyes lit up with interest as a crazy yet plausible solution hit him. He took a few moments as he fleshed out a plan.

('If my feet aren't fast enough, then I ought to use more than just my feet.') Rui realized.

seemed like an extremely silly thing to think, but Rui saw potential

need to ensure that my accuracy and precision are high

fact that even though he was having difficulty getting to his opponent, his opponent was also having difficulty hurting Rui. Although the size of the attack made it very difficult to evade, it also reduced the potency of the attack because the power was diluted over a

in no danger of going down to the

to change and Rui intended

goes nothing.') Rui crouched as he prepared himself

attack once more, prepared

WHOOSH

at a tremendous speed. The Martial Apprentice immediately launched the wind

Yet;

WHOOSH

disappeared, evoking shock

It was a feint.

feinted using Phantom Step while misdirecting his opponent's attention toward the feint, causing it to be even more effective. He ran in the opposite direction with more than just his feet. He propelled

opponent's eyes widened in shock as he hastily tried to launch a second wind blast in time, yet Rui had no intention

BAM!!

guard, slamming him backward as he

chased after him, ensuring that he simply lacked the space or the

POW POW POW!

struck his opponent's guard. Rui discovered that despite being a long-range specialist, his opponent was quite tough even in close-range

expected of a genuine grade-ten Martial Apprentice.') Rui

WHOOSH

to that of Fae's, from what

despite his surprising competence in close-quarters combat, he was still a far cry from being able

WHOOSH