The Martial Unity

The feeling of the prototypical preliminary application of the Forestep project was quite strange, to say the least.

Rui did not expect it to feel in any particular way, but it was jarring when he did use it. It was as though he was manipulating his own body like it was a puppet.

When he used Godspeed with ordinary combat movements, he couldn’t react to his own movements. It was extremely difficult to control his speed and stop his movements in time. He basically needed to plan every movement out ahead of time carefully, and then start and stop it at the right time relying purely on highly prepared reflexes.

“WOAH!”

BANG!

He had crashed into a boulder when he had mastered the forty percent of the Godspeed technique.

“I told you, you can’t react to it if you wait for the right moment, it happens too quickly. You don’t know what the right moment is, either,” Kane had told him months ago when he had tried applying the Godspeed boost to his combat movements.

It wasn’t until the present day when Rui challenged him to a spar did he realize how wrong he was.

“Come, I have more tests to run,” Rui smiled.

Kane got up with a bewildered expression. “You said… you were using only one technique?”

“That’s right,” Rui nodded. “Preliminary applications of Project Forestep are highly optimistic. It seems that the substitution of reaction speed with predictions of my Flowing Void Style is feasible, upon initial observations.”

Kane’s eyes widened at those words. “You’re managing timings that you cannot react to by predicting them ahead of time!”

“Yep,” Rui nodded. “I wasn’t sure if it would work as well as I intended but…”

Kane stared at him with a shocked expression. “You can keep up with me, no, overwhelm me, all with the help of one technique?!”

“Well, we’ll have to see to what extent,” Rui took a stance this time, hopping lightly on his feet. “Here I come,”

Kane’s hair stood on end.

His nerves tingled as Rui tuned into a blurry flash even his evolved hyperkinetic vision.

WHOOSH

He ducked backward evolving sweeping kick to the waste.

“Your reflexes truly are something else,” Rui murmured.

Had Kane had the time to complain that he was struggling, he would have, but alas, he didn’t.

Even if the maelstrom of pressure that Rui began exerting on him didn’t push him back, his attacks sure did.

Every active movement was empowered with his incomplete Godspeed technique, much to Kane’s fascination.

Rui’s movements began growing increasingly fluid compared to prior. His movements had been discrete and choppy, as though they had been put together by a robot, but they were starting to become increasingly human and natural as time passed.

POW POW POW!

Rui launched his first successful combo with Godspeed, something he had failed miserably to do prior. A look of joy could be seen on his face aftermath as if he himself realized it late that it had succeeded.

Which, he did.

A confident smile bloomed on his face as he ticked one of the many boxes that he needed ticking in order for the technique to be considered a complete success.

Rui rushed forward as Kane reeled from the attacks. Rui had not even used any offensive or power supplementary techniques. His raw physical power without any Martial Art techniques was enough to hurt Kane because the nature of the Martial body, which placed the least amount of weight on its constitution, was not strong enough to resist even such limited power.

ƥαṇdαs ηθνε| This was one of the reasons that Kane was evaluated to be a grade four or five Martial Squire despite possessing two grade-ten techniques.

His durability was simply far too lacking. Even an accidental hit from a competent Martial Squire could leave him battered and bruised, taking too much damage.

Right now, Kane was more concerned with his inability to land a single attack on Rui.

(‘This is ridiculous,’) He went absolutely all out against Rui. (‘Why can’t I land a single attack on him?’)

Despite the fact that Kane’s Martial body was far faster and more agile than Rui’s. Despite the fact that Kane had more speed supplementary and maneuvering techniques, he was unable to land a single clean attack on Rui!

THWACK THWACK THWACK

Rui cleanly redirected every single attack that Kane made despite the fact that the latter’s Martial body was superior as far as general motion went. Kane cursed because one of his biggest trump cards in this situation was the Void Step technique, yet it was completely ineffective against Rui.

When Kane looked at Rui’s expression, it became clear that Rui was unable to keep track of his own movements. His movements were extremely swift, yet they did not make Rui faster than Kane’s fastest motions. They were quite similar in speed, with Rui having a slight edge in raw speed with Kane having the edge in agility and fluidity.

Yet there was a huge gap in their clashes!

It wasn’t until he paid closer attention to Rui’s movements that he noticed something.

(‘This isn’t because of speed,’) He noted with incredulity as Rui effortlessly dodged all of his attacks. (‘He’s… moving before I move.’)

Kane was seeing it more often the more he paid attention. Just moments before Kane’s attack began, Rui had already begun to defend against it. The strange part was that it was always somehow too late for Kane to change his attack!

(‘This is absurd!’) Kane felt everything he knew about the Godspeed technique crumbling apart. Just a single technique allowed Rui to compensate for a far slower body and far fewer techniques. Kane was employing two speed-supplementing techniques and three maneuvering techniques!

Yet he couldn’t harm a hair on Rui’s body.

Whatever technique Rui was using could singlehandedly overwhelm physical superiority and all of his techniques.

(‘Almost all…’)

His eyes narrowed as he sharpened his resolve, leaping back, before crouching in a sprinting stance.

“Oh…?” Rui raised an eyebrow as his smile widened. “Let’s see if I can match the real deal.”