The Martial Unity

"Challenger; Squire Falken. Defender: Guardian Saiwal."

The two of them stepped forward, bowing to each other. Rui locked eyes with her, and he could feel cold bloodlust in her eyes. He didn't expect anything less, of course. By challenging her, Rui was basically saying that he wanted to kill her and was confident that he could do it.

He couldn't even deny it, since that was indeed the case.

Kane had already joined the Floating Sect, and it was time for Rui to follow suit.

"Take your stances,"

She took a wide stance, crouching with spread arms and legs.

Rui stood nearly fifty meters away from her, having chosen a long-range distance while she chose a short-range, with a completely neutral stance.

He stared at her with a calm expression. Yet he exerted a faint pressure on her without making any threatening stances or glares.

"Begin!"

She immediately lashed out toward Rui, hoping to reach him in her initial charge. After all, her most effective range was when she was up close with her opponent, tearing off their flesh while she roasted them in her flames.

Yet, she wasn't surprised when Rui took to the air as he leaped back. He launched a barrage of Mighty Roaring Flash Blasts.

THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM!

Unfortunately, he wasn't nearly at the distance where the creation of the technique could not be sensed. That only worked when he was hundreds of meters away. She was able to notice that he was manipulating the atmosphere somehow when he created the sonic bullets, even if she couldn't sense the sonic bullets themselves.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

instincts told her

Yet, it wasn't enough.

BAM!

she moved away. Rui had aimed for

a hail of projectiles at her, restricting her path

eyes narrowed.

Martial body, it was largely devoted to maximizing her friction, and the utility of her friction. It meant that she wasn't as

for it, but it didn't help her get past Rui's attacks. She wasn't swift and nimble enough to evade all the attacks that he threw at her, nor was she durable enough to withstand all the attacks and

predictive accuracy that was helping him out. With each passing second that went by, he grew better and better as he memorized her active and passive patterns that

wasn't able to reach him, but that didn't mean she was helpless when it came to dealing with his onslaught. His long-range offense wasn't high-grade in power, thus he wasn't able to inflict too

than close-range attacks, thus

had already fallen into a comfortable place where she only spent enough energy avoiding his attacks while she waited for

her with a Transverse Resonance, but unfortunately, that was much more difficult to land because he needed to spend mental effort into ensuring that

avoid his attacks while still

he decided to

sigh as he seemingly took a moment

opening. She did not believe that he would be able to outlast her with his attacks despite

as she reached him, yet that

BAM!!!

as her pupils dilated in

CRACK CRACK CRACK!

several ribs

She spat blood as her vision finally came

right before her, with

even process what had