The Martial Unity

More than three months had gone by. Rui's life had turned into an intense monotony of dungeon clearing, both as Rui and as the Voider, gathering information on the Root, and training with Project Forestep.

Rui had dedicated the entirety of his mind and body towards mastering as much of the Godspeed Breathing technique, hoping to gain as much of this power as he could.

Unfortunately, as good as he was with breathing techniques, he was not as good as Kane was with speed and thus was unable to reach Kane's level of mastery of the technique.

After more than three months of dedicated training, his growth had finally plateaued at about forty percent of the full level of mastery.

"That's still pretty good all things considered," Kane told him. "If not for the fact that you lack the reaction speed to keep up even with thirty percent of the full mastery of the Godspeed technique, you could use it without compunctions. I still don't know how you plan to get past that restriction though, honestly."

Kane had not attempted to pry out Rui's intentions regarding the Godspeed technique. Martial Art related matters were deeply personal to each Martial Artist, and they were not light matters that were generally discussed without care.

Rui on the other hand did not want to make claims that he could not support, and thus did not go too deeply about what he was trying to accomplish. All Kane knew was that Rui was trying extremely hard to realize his ambition of applying the Godspeed technique.

"I'm not entirely sure of much myself, Kane," Rui sighed. "I guess we'll find out. Come at me."

"What?"

"I said, come at me," Rui stood still.

"I'm confused," Kane frowned. "Have you actually completed the technique? I thought you were going to spend time trying to look for a way to compensate for your lacking reaction speed."

"I thought of a potential solution to that problem even before I decided to learn the Godspeed technique," Rui replied.

Kane tilted his head. "Huh. That's unexpected, to say the least. Is there nothing you haven't thought of a solution for? Leave some intelligence for the rest of us man."

Rui smirked. "Well, let's see if I was right. Thankfully, you're the perfect test subject. Come at me with your fastest standard attacks. Let's see how I do."

shrugged, taking his

were centered, right beneath his torso, a position that was conducive to immediately begin moving in any direction. His heels

of

wariness. The problem for Kane was that Rui knew him too well. The prediction model he had on Kane was probably the

too

the VOID algorithm could crumple Kane with well-timed movements that devastatingly countered him in the most effective way possible. The combination of all his other techniques of his Flowing Void Style when applied through the

on taking a stance?" Kane

replied calmly. "I'm going use

an eyebrow. Had anyone else said that they intended to compete with him with a single technique, he would strongly doubt them. Barring people like Hever who dedicated themselves to a single

to underestimate Rui, so he simply

His approach was swift.

eyes of Martial Apprentices and even low-grade Martial Squires, it would appear

WHOOSH

STEP

tiniest of split seconds, he was already face to face with Rui, a swift blur of a jab flying to his

THWACK

Kane's eyes widened.

been

out of

swiftly changed gears as he spun, launching the opposite leg into a

WHOOSH

he did not expect was his kick passing through Rui's head, dispelling the empty image. He quickly

you weren't going to use any other techniques,"

had struck, he was sure it was the Phantom Step technique that created illusions inside the target's

Rui smirked.