The Martial Unity

It was incredible that even his most powerful strikes were almost entirely ineffective against the Martial Squire's defensive prowess. Rui put all the effort and power into trying to damage his opponent, yet they all were almost entirely in vain as the man before him was entirely unharmed.

('This is the power of compatibility.') Rui sighed with a hint of envy, even as the two Martial Squires shuffled around each other.

Frankly, the Martial Squire before him did not strike Rui as a particularly powerful Martial Squire in the grand scheme of things. Rui broke through at an age that was uncharacteristically young, far below average. The Squire before him was just a few years older at most, thus it was unlikely that he had much experience in the Squire Realm, the fact that he was assigned to defending a very secure fort that did not have any Squire-level threats against it prior also likely meant that this Martial Squire was quite low on the totem pole.

The fact that he was still able to make a fool out of Rui's striking prowess showed that the power of compatibility was not something that could be underestimated. A Martial Artist with grade five techniques that they were extremely compatible with was probably much stronger than a Martial Artist with grade seven techniques that they were not much compatible with.

This added a whole new variable that was not prominent when he was a Martial Apprentice. Rui had received his first reality check upon discovering just how much compatibility mattered in the higher Realms.

('I'll have to ponder the matter deeply later on.') Rui sighed. ('For now, let's win.')

Despite the vain attempts at trying to pummel his way to victory, Rui was not intimidated. He had steadily been gathering as much data on the man as he could from the moment he laid eyes on him. That data was deposited into his Mind Palace, as he swiftly processed them through the systems of the VOID algorithm.

He had already come up with a partial prediction model based on many subconscious patterns in the movements of his opponent.

Less than a single second had passed since their last exchange, however, in the perception of time of the Martial Squires, it had been several minutes since their last exchange.

as he charged forward aggressively despite clearly being

threw a powerful left hook at

WHOOSH

it as he launched a swift

"ARGH!"

of overcommitting every time you land a

he had identified with the predictive model and had correctly chosen

was evident that the man's testicles were not nearly as invincible as the rest o the

POW POW POW!

as he collected more data on the man, trying to compute a way to take him down. His foremost means of offense had already been shown

WHOOSH

effectively damage the other for different reasons. Rui because he couldn't damage him meaningfully with his strikes, and his opponent because Rui's evasive maneuvering was too effective thanks to a combination of the VOID algorithm and Primordial Instinct. The accelerated autophagy also boosted his speed and agility

him and minimized the probability of his own defeat. It was exciting to finally exercise all of his capabilities against a

when the Martial Squire snorted, before suddenly plummeting down back to the fort where the fierce battle between the two armies