The Martial Unity

When Rui woke up, he found himself staring at an unfamiliar ceiling.

For a moment, he didn't know what he was doing here.

Then he remembered.

"Ah…" he murmured. "…I won."

A sigh of relief escaped him.

The door to his room opened as two Martial Masters emerged.

"Rui…" Master Ceeran smiled. "How do you feel?"

Rui glanced at his hands, closing his eyes.

"…Quite good."

The wound he suffered hadn't been too bad by Martial Artist standards.

He smiled. "You

remarked.

if he didn't feel that way. Aside from the third match, victory was never out of his hands. "Perhaps you did," Master Ceeran admitted. "But I believe that it's justified,

wordlessly. "I'm just glad it's

times that his pattern recognition system had failed during his time as Martial Artist. Of the few times that it did, it had been

happen against a truly exceptional Martial Artist. No, it happened against a powerful but hardly

Martial Master who wasn't even high grade could partially negate the pattern recognition system, then he shouldn't

remarked aloud absentmindedly. "Truly fascinating how other Martial Artists

"I recall feeling the same way. They were very different from my own, and learning to fight against them was something that required practice. While Martial Seniors did use their developing systems of thought, it was never the center of their battle. Only someone with as much affinity for the mind could make the system

Rui stirred at his words. "He had three systems of thought. They weren't

of both complexity and power, Master Grais' Martial Mind was perhaps a tenth of that of Rui, but it was still impressive

Minds," Rui mused to himself. "Greater average efficiency and far greater decision-making. But the issue is that his

inexperienced. I didn't even consider the fact that my saturation limit is far higher than it was when I was a

used a whopping two dozen Martial Art techniques

not low-hanging fruit, however," Master Ceeran pointed out insightfully. "Creating all those techniques takes time. Lots of time. Master Grais created those techniques and then refined them with experience in real combat over centuries. Of course, you will take less time because

I can mark it as a long-term growth

synergized well with his Martial Mind like Flux Earther and Phantom Step was a great way to make progress while accumulating

to greatly increase his strength in the long run. "I especially need to bolster my offense as soon as possible," Rui narrowed his eyes with dissatisfaction. "I would have won my

he didn't know for a fact that