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!!

was so underwhelming in comparison that he could barely shift inches in the time that Kane moved entire feet, yet his movements were extraordinarily well-timed and placed, allowing him to perform his

could

CRACK CRACK CRACK!!

as his arm broke in several places, growing visibly

BAM BAM BAM!!!

a flurry of recurring blows, battering Rui's guard over

BOOM!!!

moment, he had already

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

now, it was

the same could not be said for

"GG."

Rui, a powerful blow surging forward

WHOOSH

blow crashed into an empty

widened

It was a feint.

BOOM!

impact permeated through his entire body from his blind spot, pushing him

stared at Rui

profound flush of peril radiated from deep

of Prisms, drawing out raw, primal fear from

made Kane's skin

was difficult

Heart. However, despite not possessing it, asuffocating aura

glanced at his hand,

single remark escaped

I can see

Kane's face. "That's the

smirked. "I

"Oh yeah? Resist this."

forward, appearing before him at blinding speeds as a flurry

Rui's movements were slow.

They were relaxed.

moved like he was sauntering in

he had no care in this

not a single attack touched

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

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