The Martial Unity

Rui was ready to give his technique a new name.

('Though is it really a new technique if it's just a result of using three techniques simultaneously?') Rui wondered.

That was an interesting question. Rui did not think that it mattered in the grand scheme. Regardless of whether he considered it to be a separate technique or not, it was something that expanded his Martial Art that also individuality.

There was no point in speculating too much.

('Still, it feels nice commemorating it as a technique,') Rui shrugged. ('Even if it can barely be considered one.')

Rui knew that he wasn't missing much either way. Instead, he shifted his attention back to the Thundering Valley.

It was time for a test. He wanted to see how much more knowing the destination of the lightning would help him avoid them.

('There's a good chance I can use Forestep to a much higher degree, if not the entire way,') He grew enthusiastic at the thought.

He quickly got up, stretching as he warmed his body up. All that time spent meditating made him feel as though his body had gotten a little stiff. Not even Martial bodies were exempt from the requirement of activity to maintain their peak form.

He stretched every muscle in his body to the limit, groaning in comfort as he felt the blood flow to the various muscle groups increasing.

on his feet as he activated the Forestep breathing

exhaled deeply, immediately feeling his body grow lighter as a

he

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

through the air as he gracefully avoided them. He didn't even feel the need to stress his mind by forcing his reflexes to keep up with his movements. The current system that he was working with, to a certain extent, mimicked what he had done against the Root. The difference was that he had straightforwardly used the VOID algorithm against the Root and built a thorough predictive model for it

BOOM!

about it in hindsight,')

model of the VOID algorithm worked. He gathered data, noticed patterns, used those patterns to

a natural phenomenon as opposed to a person,') Rui mused. ('The biases and patterns that normal people have are part of their individuality. However, the patterns in natural phenomena in nature are… nothing short of the laws of

in a strange mood, even as he dodged

mind… My Flowing Void Style… My VOID algorithm can help me understand the nature of not just my opponent's fighting styles,

STEP

widened as he paused in his path. Just the fact that that possibility seemed like it might be real was absolutely

VOID algorithm was originally something that he had created

Gaia, right?') Rui wondered to himself before his

he had come on the cusp of something important, a deep and sharp sense of pain overtook

BOOM!

his teeth, grimacing as he handled the mind-numbing pain coursing through his nerves. A big lightning bolt struck his entire body, he had failed to notice this one creeping up on

retreated back outside the valley, groaning in pain. "Note to self, store all

was as though the coursing lightning had burned the very thought from his brain when it flowed through his