The Martial Unity

The two of them quickly left the valley, heading toward a safer space, before quickly consuming potions. Rui found it hard to talk with a hole in his throat, after all.

"Damn," Kane sat back down. "That's a shame."

"It could have gone either way Kane," Rui shook his head. "This is different from when I win because I am simply stronger. In this case, I was using my Flowing Void Style to the absolute maximum, and I still was unable to even gain an advantage. Furthermore, there were times when you were the one with the upper hand. That was what surprised me."

"Yeah, but I still lost," Kane murmured, dissatisfied. "You just feel invincible."

"I'm far from it," Rui chuckled. "The only reason I won this time was because of a clever trick. I simply applied my power a little better than you, at the end of the day. I suspect had you fought with a more open and flexible mind, you might have won."

"Flexible?"

Rui nodded. "Tell me, what was your plan to win after you saw that I was able to handle your swift jabs to my vital spots?"

"…" Kane considered the question as he understood what Rui was trying to convey. "I just kept swiftly moving around hoping to catch an opening."

"I could see that," Rui noted. "In other words, you seemed to hope for victory, rather than doing everything you could to get it."

"Hey, I wasn't holding back!" Kane protested.

going physically all out isn't enough. In this instance, you continued going down the same old set of movements

"…"

hit my vitals and tried getting rid of or bypassing one of those reasons," Rui pointed out. "For example, you know that my reaction speed is very slow compared to yours, especially when compared to you in your Fulminata state. You know that I compensate for those

having known that for

Rui pointed out. "What would happen if you get my predictions to fail? After all, predictions are just that; predictions. They're not absolute. They're not a superpower

fell deep in thought. "The more I think about it though, the more stupid I feel for not considering

far from easy to disrupt my predictions, it is still an avenue of exploration that you

a simplistic way to disrupt his predictions, it would almost certainly be useless against Rui's predictive model. His model was based on most subconscious active and passive

Rui off failed

This was essentially impossible.

instill in Kane was strategic considerations. Had Kane possessed a strategic mindset, which was different from strategic intelligence,

to rely on the power of his two grade-ten techniques side-by-side in order to overwhelm

was, in Rui's

to fight in a manner that deviates from my Martial Path?" Kane asked with furrowed brows. "Like, my Martial Path is evasive maneuvering, right? But if it's ineffective in a particular fight, and offensive maneuvering happens to be preferable to evasive maneuvering in that, should I abandon my Martial Path entirely in pursuit of

what Kane was asking was something every Martial Artist asked themselves. And it was

sub-optimal in a given situation, should one abandon it and go for

How could one reach the higher Realms if one did

dilemma that plagued the Martial