The Martial Unity

He was physically tired.

He was wounded. Bruised. Cut.

He was mentally exhausted.

Yet he pulled himself together when he felt yet another surge of peril with Primordial Instinct.

WHOOSH

The assassin was stealthy.

Rui could feel the misdirection even as he approached.

Unfortunately for the assassin, Rui's mind was extremely difficult to misdirect. On top of that, his senses were extremely powerful. On top of that, Riemannian Echo was indirect sensing.

He was so resistant to being misdirected that Kane had stopped bothering to use Void Step when sparring against Rui. It was simply useless. At this point, he doubted whether any misdirection in the Senior Realm could even affect him.

Unfortunately for the assassin, the reports that the M had given them did not entirely capture how resistant to misdirection Rui was.

That was why he was waiting.

Waiting for one of the assassins to finally use it against him.

All so that he could pretend to fall for it and launch a trap at the opportune moment.

WHOOSH!

Rui evaded an assassination technique at the last moment, meeting eyes with him.

'Phantom Pain!'

BAM BAM BAM!!!

Caught off-guard, Rui managed to pound him with several blows.

"Rrrgrhh!!!" The man grimaced under the sheer pain from the technique.

Ordinarily, he would have retreated and immediately opted for guerilla warfare tactics. Yet the sheer pain from Rui's blow almost caused him to vomit what he had eaten for breakfast!

He shivered, trying to break out of a pseudo-paralysis caused by the ungodly hellish pain.

Yet he was a beat too late.

BAM BAM BAM!!!

Rui pinned him to the ground with a mounted position.

Murderous rage radiated from him, sending chills down the assassin's spine.

He didn't even bother going for a chokehold to finish it off as cleanly as possible.

BAM!!!

fist crashed into

CRACK!

assassin howled with excruciating agony as his nose

eyes flashed around,

"I'm not a sadist."

The air grew perilous.

deep, dark wave of

It was suffocating.

"I'm not a sadist…"

Rui's expression was murderous.

suffering does bring me

single hammer fist,

Fear entered the assassin's

BAM!!! BAM!!! BAM!!!

SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT!

Breathing. Hypertrophic Surge. Outer Convergence. Reverberating Lance. Adamant

five techniques drove his fist down

BOOM!!!

BOOM!!!

BOOM!!!

Perhaps it was because the man's vocal cords

it was because the man couldn't breathe, drowning in

BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!!

a visible

each impact, they

BOOM!!!

The man's fingers twitched.

face…he no longer

was was now a

he was done. His expression grew ugly as he beheld his

frustrations at recent happenings on

It also brought him back to

was exhausted from the bottom of his

BADUMP…

fighting. He had less than ten percent of his reserves

without using everything that he had to

Suddenly, something changed.

The air changed.

felt a deep

the others he

strange scent

profound odor tickled his

It was not ordinary.

as

His body grew excited.

urge flushed through his

of the Martial Heart was redirected to his groin as

gentle feminine whisper

"You've fought well."

STEP