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.

but..." Ieyasu turned to face him. "...Your suggestion

just training too," Rui smirked. "No

Ieyasu's eyes as

soon became a

BADUMP!

forward at top speed as their

incinerated with the sheer friction from the speed

POW POW POW!!!

exchanged as

skies shook in the

Ieyasu and Rui immediately activated their most powerful Martial Art techniques. The VOID algorithm blazed into

was determined to

heavily benefitted from the damage he had inflicted on Rui early on

give

as 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

a Flowing Canon. It appeared that Ieyasu had

eyes. "You

Ieyasu snorted. "The true power of my

see about that." Rui

a symmetric battle, the stronger one won. Last time, he had needed to use Weaving Blood at full power just to undo all the

less well because he didn't have the VOID algorithm, he had previously balanced that out with a stronger Martial Heart, making

Rui could finally gain an edge on Ieyasu even in

to the left as his right arm twitched ever

Ninety-nine-point-eight percent certainty and accuracy.' Rui ducked, launching an uppercut, looking to knock him

And yet;