The Martial Unity

It would be disgraceful for him to deny the convenience of his breakthrough. Things could have unfolded much worse if Ieyasu did not exist. Considering that his family very well may have been saved by Ieyasu helping Rui breakthrough so early, Rui decided not to pursue that line of argument.

He was being weirdly childish, in hindsight.

They both were. A debate about who was superior where they tried flexing on the other was uncharacteristic of both.

Rui did not enjoy bragging about his superiority to other Martial Artists. He couldn't but feel like a jerk picking on the weak when he did that. In general, he disliked demeaning others due to their lack of talent compared to his spectacular growth.

But with Ieyasu, something was just a little different. He was on par with Rui, so a competitive spirit that Rui had almost never experienced before welled up.

'...When was the last time I felt that competitive?' Rui couldn't help but wonder.

Not even Meera had made him feel that competitive, he mostly felt pity for her in the latter half of the fight.

The abyssfeeder came close, but it was too non-sentient.

Before that...

'It was when I fought Kane in the Martial Contest preliminaries.' Rui mused, as his mind flashed back to an ancient memory.

Now he found an equal who he did not need to worry about falling behind or hurting his feelings due to clear superiority. They were basically of the same generation and they had many things in common.

"If you have nothing else to say then leave me alone while I train," Ieyasu remarked.

"Now now, don't be so quick to dismiss me," Rui smirked. "You're going to be training to test your limits in the Senior Realm, aren't you? I have yet to do the same thing and what better way is there to go about it than against an equal?"

Rui took a simple stance mid-air, facing Ieyasu.

annoying but..." Ieyasu turned to face him. "...Your suggestion does have

smirked.

A competitive glint flashed in Ieyasu's eyes as he took his eyes. "No need to

soon became a

BADUMP!

lashed forward at top speed as

incinerated with the sheer friction from the

POW POW POW!!!

exchanged as

shook in

Art techniques. The VOID algorithm blazed into action

was determined to win

damage he had inflicted on Rui early on in the fight before Rui adapted to his own

would give him the edge

he observed Ieyasu closely. He didn't know which Martial Art he was going to go with, however, he had developed predictive models for all of his copies, including the one of

coupled with a Flowing Canon. It appeared that Ieyasu had chosen to fight Rui with his own Martial Art

eyes. "You cannot copy the true power of my

Ieyasu snorted. "The true power of my Martial Art is

about that." Rui activated Hypertrophic

battle, the stronger one won. Last time, he had needed to use Weaving Blood at full power just to undo all the damage he had initially suffered, this time he could channel those

his patterns served him less well because he didn't have the VOID algorithm,

Rui could finally gain an edge on Ieyasu even in

as his right arm twitched

certainty and accuracy.' Rui ducked, launching

And yet;