The Martial Unity

Yet, timing Kane's strikes was not what Rui's mind was consumed with. Deep within his mind, the brand-new SOUL System had already begun kicking into action, with Kane in a semi-consciousness trance.

He could not contain the excitement from springing up on his face.

At that moment, he was no different from a child unwrapping a long-awaited Christmas present and playing with it for the first time.

Kane's subconscious non-verbal communication had grown deeper and more personalized than ever before. It conveyed a story, but Rui was unable to read it, for he didn't know the language.

For now.

The SOUL System raced into action as Rui began memorizing every detail of Kane's non-verbal communication, swiftly categorizing and tagging each data point.

BOOM!

CRACK!

Even as Rui's bone cracked, he never once let Kane out of his focus. Missing even a single dataset of subconscious non-verbal communication could be a blunder. All he needed to do was weather out Kane's onslaught with Flux Earther, Adamant Reforging, Inner Divergence, and Acute Edge, along with extraordinary timing thanks to the predictive model giving him a major heads-up about precisely when and where an attack was going to land.

In addition, the Metabody System was working at full power, with Weaving Blood and Nemean Blossom at fifty percent power each.

Meanwhile, Temporal Disharmony shackled the worst of Kane's greatest strength.

All these powerful systems and techniques worked hand-in-hand to help Rui against the power of the Martial Heart.

And against all odds, they succeeded.

BOOM!!!

A colossal blow crashed into Rui's guard.

CRACK!

Only a single bone cracked this time, healing quickly while Rui dispersed the rest of the power to the worlds beneath his feet.

"Tsk." Kane grew frustrated at how absurdly difficult it was to put Rui down!

He had mostly suggested this battle as a joke. He hadn't expected that Rui would take the suggestion seriously.

Even before the battle began, he had expected that it would end with a single strike from him. He had known that Rui's Martial Body would crumble like a sand rock if subjected to the power of the Martial Heart.

Or so he had thought.

POW POW POW!!

barely shift inches in the time that Kane moved entire feet, yet his movements were

nothing could last

CRACK CRACK CRACK!!

as his arm broke in several places, growing visibly deformed. Kane rushed in,

BAM BAM BAM!!!

battering Rui's guard over and over

BOOM!!!

launched Rui far into the distance. In just a moment, he had

finally died, shutting off. The Metabody System had reached its limit, having valiantly served

it

same could not be

"GG."

blow surging forward to end the

WHOOSH

crashed into

widened

It was a feint.

BOOM!

his entire body from his blind

at Rui in

flush of peril radiated from deep within

raw, primal fear

Kane's

difficult

he was, armed with the full power of the Martial Heart. However, despite not possessing it, asuffocating aura of power radiated from Rui as if he

Rui glanced at his hand, turning

remark

think I can

appeared on Kane's face. "That's the corniest thing I've

"I

"Oh yeah? Resist this."

forward, appearing before him at blinding speeds as a flurry of

Rui's movements were slow.

They were relaxed.

moved like he was sauntering in

he had no care

not a single attack touched

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

as each attack crashed into a whole slew of empty images. Rui executed the Phantom Step technique with accuracy within a microsecond and