The Martial Unity

Her expression intensified as she abandoned her reluctance.

She abandoned her misgivings.

She abandoned her qualms and compunctions.

She unshackled herself as she ceased treating this as a tournament match. She treated this like a life-and-death scenario.

Yet little did she realize that it was worse than that.

'His long-range offense is absurd. I need to close the distance.' Her eyes narrowed as she employed several techniques.

"Oh...?" Rui's eyes glinted with interest as several clones of Squire Frinjschia appeared. 'Interesting... A muscle memory version of Phantom Step eh?'

He had to admit that her Martial Path was potent. Potency as measured by how strong a Martial Artist comparatively was when one pitted them against another Martial Artist with the same quantity and quality of techniques.

Rui had to admit that her Martial Path was certainly potent. Their ability to enhance the technique's efficiency and effectiveness was super impressive. While the impact of her Martial Path on her strength was not as exaggerated as his own, it was not a reasonable standard to hold her to in the first place.

Rui tried his best to snipe the real one down with his Mighty Roar Flash Blasts, but even with his predictive model, the technique was too honed.

She ultimately managed to close the distance between them, even if barely.

"HYAH!" She threw her most powerful combos, hoping to overwhelm him for just a brief moment.

And yet...

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

Rui effortlessly weaved through her attacks like they didn't even exist.

BOOM!

She failed to dodge a powerful Flowing Canon as Rui corrected the attack trajectory to account for her predicted evasion trajectory.

"Rgh!" She grimaced, coughing blood as Reverberating Lance permeated the attack deeper into her body.

Yet, she had accomplished what she intended to.

CLASP!

Her arms and legs were firmly coiled around his arm.

'She knew that I would tag her despite her evasion.' Rui immediately engaged his whole body in the fight, lest she break his arm with the full power of her body. Grappling was a bit too different from striking, thus Rui made sure to verify his predictive model to make sure that there were no instances of failure due to that.

The two of them wrangled on the ground trying to get a more dominant position on the other.

He understood her intentions.

and speed. All it took was one well-timed strike to the temple or the jaw, and

for grappling in general. Grappling was much more a contest of effort and perseverance much more than

did not mean

the spectacular all-around timing and placement that Rui had demonstrated by turning the battle into

are also diminishing the weight of muscle memory... but if you can get rid of my predictive model by sacrificing your muscle memory, then it is

eyes narrowed.

shifted her weight

had predicted

the right moment, destabilizing her as he gained

BAM BAM BAM!

mercilessly with Outer Convergence and Reverberating Lance. Squire Frinjschia grimaced as she barely managed to defend against Rui's

this the hard

used Thundercoil to momentarily gain a clear opportunity to get a rear chokehold on her. She would be unable to break out from his grip

But he didn't.

her will not awaken her Martial Heart.' Rui's eyes narrowed her as he continued pressuring her to her

it didn't

'I'm sorry.'

BAM!

broke a tooth with

ferocity in her eyes. It appeared that she was done being

clasped into a

eyes widened as he leapt

BOOM!

It appeared that she was willing

she wasn't

at least, that was what her sharp eyes

jabs shot towards Rui, each faster than the last one. He narrowed his eyes as he exerted himself to the limit to cleanly evade all of them. Yet it appeared that she was far from done. Her movements grew sharper and sharper by the second, she flowed smoother and smoother as she pushed her body and mind to the very

Her muscles burned.

Her bones strained.

Her joints creaked.

in order to elevate herself to a level where she could defeat Rui. The sheer

to give her life if that was

that fell

WHOOSH! BAM BAM BAM!

as she launched herself forward with the ferocity of a tiger, throwing a flying

WHOOSH!

palm jab into her

attack she

she

manoeuvre she

of her life's accomplishments fell, one