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!

beneath his feet vibrated as he redirected all

he was able to anticipate Kane with the predictive model alone, he could accurately time the active defense

to endure the sheer onslaught of Kane's relatively

BAM BAM BAM!!!

CRACK!

attack, struggling to

BOOM!

CRACK!

He actually preferred it. The greater the distance between them, the more time

technique to the cusp of execution, Kane had

POW POW POW!!

as he barely managed to time Flux Earther with

still

CRACK!

if it was quickly healed by Weaving Blood. He wasn't fast enough to avoid Kane without his Martial Heart; thus,

System running at full

rushed in for another

I guess I'll just stop

BOOM!!

abandoned his guard, allowing the attack

CRACK CRACK CRACK!!

snapped once Kane's strikes made contact. A deep dent formed in his chest and abdomen as the strike broke past his bones with ease, crushing into his lungs. If not for Weaving Blood working overtime to

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

"Sleep."

deeper part of his mind. Before he could register it, the darkness had already faded. Rui hadn't moved from his spot; his broken

happened?" Kane glanced

nothing at all." Rui smiled.

had added a memory-wiping element

Soul Void technique altogether. This was to reduce the