The Martial Unity

The two dashed towards each other.

('I'm faster.') Rui realized.

Yet despite this, Gale's strike reached first.

WHOOSH

Rui dodged the strike.

Gale continued dishing an onslaught of strikes and Rui avoided all of them cleanly. Ever since he mastered Primordial Instinct, his timing had grown much sharper and more accurate. Its synergy with the VOID algorithm was truly impressive.

Gale didn't stop, his strikes were straight forward and had a huge range. He launched all of them from outside Rui's striking range, so Rui wasn't able to do much.

('He's a long-range striking specialist.') Rui realized. Each strike had a huge reach, and he launched them in a way that deliberately prevented Rui from reaching close enough to launch his own attacks.

Rui keenly observed this before making a decision, he stopped avoiding Gale and instead dashed against him once more.

A flash of surprise morphed into Gale's expression as he quickly launched a straight jab at Rui, growing even more surprised when he saw Rui didn't avoid them, and instead ran into it even faster. Just as the strike was about to hit Rui

WHOOSH

Rui disappeared.

('A feint!') Gale realized.

BAM

A meteoric impact struck him!

Rui had feinted with Phantom Step to draw his strike away while simultaneously using Flowing Canon once he reached striking range.

The combined power of Flowing Canon, Outer Convergence, Parallel Walk and Balanced Direction had crashed into Gale, leaving him reeling. He just barely managed to throw up a guard as Rui pummeled him with short range blows boosted with the power of Outer Convergence and Vital Pressure.

Gale leaped back, grimacing.

Yet Rui wasn't kind enough to let him recuperate and regain his bearings, he rushed in. Gale panicked when he saw Rui dashing in, feeling an immense amount of mental pressure from Rui's Martial Path.

He threw a cautious strike at Rui, expecting another feint. This time he was a bit more prepared, he didn't want to be caught off-guard yet again.

Yet Rui didn't dodge or feint.

CLASP

He let the strike hit him, moving with it to reduce the impact while simultaneously grasping Gale's arm with all four limbs.

The Binding Lash technique.

In this situation, the VOID algorithm outputted a grapple counter as the most apt way of defeating Gale, dragging outside the realm of striking which is where his specialty lied. In the domain of grappling, Rui had a clear undeniable advantage.

CRACK

"ARGH!" Gale grimaced in pain as Rui managed to cleanly dislocate his arm. The Binding Lash technique allowed the user to dislocate and break arms as long as the timing was perfect and the physicality gap wasn't too much.

Both of these conditions were satisfied.

The Primordial Instinct technique had improved not just his defense but counter-offense as well, allowing him to increase the accuracy of his timing immensely. The VOID algorithm allowed him to consciously and actively analyze, evaluate and make a decision, while the Primordial Instinct technique allowed him to execute the decision with great accuracy.

Gale was physically stronger by virtue of being much older, but Rui had nailed the timing too well, that shoulder's fate was already sealed.

Despite the excruciating pain he felt, Gale did give up, struggling with everything he had. Despite the advantageous position Rui had, he didn't give up and ruthless pressed and twisted the already dislocated joint, causing unimaginable agony to Gale.

He had no qualms about inflicting pain and damage to Gale, had this been on Earth, this might have been a career ending injury, but in the world of Gaea, within the Martial Art, this wasn't much of a big deal. Healing potions ensured that Gale would make a fully recovery.

Gale tapped Rui's arm three times, indicating his resignation. The pain was far too excruciating and even if Gale somehow broke through, he had no chance of winning with a mangled shoulder joint.

​ Rui immediately loosened his grip with a sigh of relief. He did not enjoy the act of inflicting pain on others. He carefully let go of Gale's arm, not wanting hurt him any further.

"Fuuu..." Gale exhaled deeply, getting up slowly, before throwing a bitter smile at Rui. "You're truly strong."

He meant it.

Between the shackling pressure that Rui was putting on him mentally the entire fight along with the perfect fight that he'd displayed from start to finish. Rui had shown him just how big the gap between them was. Gale had spent a long time in the Academy, and even with his mediocre growth, he had come to accumulate more power than most Apprentices in the Academy currently. But Rui still beat him cleanly, while holding back too, Gale was sure.

"Good fight man." Rui offered a hand to Gale's good hand. "You're strong too."

"Good luck." Gale said, now that he had lost to Rui this cleanly, even if he won every other fight, he almost would not be chosen as the representative of the Academy. "I haven't given up yet though. On becoming the representative, or becoming stronger."

Rui smiled. "That makes two of us."

Rui bade him good luck and farewell as he left him to get medical treatment for his injury.

"Good fight." Kane said to him. "Pretty clean sweep."

"Thanks." Rui replied. "How did your first fight go?"

"Easy win." Kane replied simply. Rui wasn't surprised, at this point there were two or three people at the very most who could possibly pull off a win against Kane in his current state.

BOOM

A minor tremor reverberated across the entirety of the facility

Rui and Kane immediately glanced over at the source of the impact.

Fae.

She was standing at the center of the ring with an outstretched arm with an open palm.

A dozen meters away in the direction her palm was facing was her opponent, knocked unconscious with a palm shaped crater in his chest.

A single attack with untold power.

"He's not dead, is he?" Rui asked as he looked at her poor opponent in worry, before glancing back at Fae with a wry smile. "Seems like everybody is getting less and less weak than they used to be."

He couldn't wait to fight everyone!

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