The Martial Unity

"Mmm…" Rui dusted himself off with a wry smile. "Well, you've earned the opportunity."

He took a neutral stance. "But I have no intention of accepting payback that easily."

"Oh, come on, you don't think you can actually win under these circumstances, can you?"

"Who knows." Rui shrugged calmly. "Finding out is the reason I accepted the challenge at all."

"Well, let's find out then!" Kane's legs furled, garnering potential energy. In just a moment, he shot off at Rui at blindingly fast speeds.

It was well within Rui's prediction.

'Temporal Disharmony.'

"Tsk!" Kane tutted with annoyance as his perception of time sped up, forcing him to slow down. Thankfully, the Martial Heart increased his cognition while it was active, making it harder to hypnotize him. The fact that Rui had succeeded without a Martial Heart at all was quite surprising.

BAM BAM BAM!!!

Kane pummeled Rui while the latter balled up, covering all his vitals. Unfortunately, Kane was too fast with his Martial Heart for Rui to match the man's speed with a moving guard and a moving defense.

However, it wasn't speed alone that was overwhelming.

CRACK CRACK CRACK!

Rui narrowed his eyes as he felt his bone crack under the weight of Kane's heavy blows. It was remarkable how simply turning off his Martial Heart changed the way that he perceived Kane. With his Martial Heart active, Kane's blows were so weak that they didn't even register at times.

Yet without the Martial Heart, Rui felt like he was fighting someone stronger than the Gatekeeper.

However, attacks that each should have thoroughly killed him were being withstood.

This was because his predictive model of Kane's movements was extremely refined. He could see where each strike was going to be well before it arrived. With such foreknowledge, attacks that would have shattered past his ribcage and crushed his heart were resisted with minimal damage.

The answer was simple.

VMMM!

as he redirected all the damage to the earth beneath him with Flux

when timed correctly. With the current degree to which he was able to anticipate Kane with the predictive model

was enough to endure the sheer onslaught of Kane's

BAM BAM BAM!!!

CRACK!

struggling to disperse the impact. Yet, by then, another

BOOM!

CRACK!

as the attack launched him away. He actually preferred it. The greater the distance between

the technique to the cusp of

POW POW POW!!

bombarded Rui from all over as he barely managed to time Flux Earther with each of Kane's

it still

CRACK!

bone cracking despite Nemean Blossom, even if it was quickly healed by Weaving Blood. He wasn't fast enough to avoid

both know that's not going to last forever," Kane remarked amidst his strikes. "Your Metabody System running at full power

rushed in for another

right, so I guess

BOOM!!

abandoned his guard,

CRACK CRACK CRACK!!

broke past his bones with ease, crushing into his lungs. If not for Weaving Blood working overtime to heal the damage, Rui would have

that wasn't what caught Kane's attention. What caught Kane's attention was the blanket of nigh-complete

"Sleep."

deeper part of his mind. Before he could register it, the

just happened?"

all." Rui

had added a memory-wiping

altogether. This was to reduce the probability that they would take some active