The Martial Unity

Amare’s eyes widened as she watched the monster blast Rui over and over with a devastating flurry of attacks, one after another.

“You have done well to last this long.” The Monster’s tone was kind. “However…”

His smile grew chilling.

“I believe you do indeed need my help.”

BOOOM!!! A thunderingly swift roundhouse kick blasted into Rui faster than he could react, flinging him away as he mercilessly blasted Rui with an endless onslaught of attacks.

BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM!!!

“Allow me to help you be unshackled by your weakness,” the monster smiled with a friendly tone. “I hope you understand I’m doing this to help you.”

BOOOOOM!!!

A charged blow flung Rui away before he could even react, barely managing to shift his vitals out of the way.

Amare watched with a stunned expression as his body seemed to skip ahead of time.

One moment, his fists were still.

The very next?

They had already reached.

BOOOM!!!

It was as if they teleported past her awareness.

“I’m impressed that you have managed to last this long,” the man noted. “I’m surprised you haven’t activated your Realms of power yet.”

Rui’s eyes narrowed.

“You first.”

The man’s eyes lit up. “You certainly have the pride of the strong. But…”

BOOOM!!!

Another fierce hook ravaged Rui’s guard before he could even react.

“Pride without power is arrogance.”

He surged towards Rui with ferocious momentum as his arms appeared to phase through the very fabric of space and time.

BOOOM!!!

They seemed to phase past one’s very mind. BOOOM!!!

His knuckles churned against Rui’s guard as attack after attack practically teleported on Rui’s guard.

BAM!!!

A thundering lower kick to the side of the knee cracked away at Rui’s balance, exposing a weakness.

A weakness that he didn’t forgive.

The monster’s upper body spun as a tremendous amount of torque propelled his attack forward toward the gaping hole in Rui’s defense he had.

It was a trap.

The monster froze as he found Rui’s arms already around him, threatening to trap him in an unrelenting embrace.

It had been perfectly timed.

And yet—

WHOOSH

Rui’s eyes widened with shock as he disappeared point blank.

Almost like he simply teleported.

“Impressive.” The monster’s voice appeared behind him.

“But not good enough.”

A devastatingly powerful blow surged towards the back of Rui’s head, threatening to knock him then and there.

And yet—

WHOOSH

The monster’s eyes widened as his attack struck an empty image.

A feint.

BOOOM!!!

The first attack of the battle crashed into the Monster before he could even react. For the first time since the inception of the battle, his composed expression shattered with shock as Rui blasted him away.

And yet, Rui was just getting started.

He rushed forward toward the monster with a flurry of blows, one after another, aimed at battering the man where he stood. He adaptively evolved his fighting style, relying on short, crisp blows with less momentum in exchange for quicker attacks.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

The monster effortlessly evaded each blow like he was a ghost, almost phasing past them as he launched his own ferociously swift blows that almost spawned out of thin air, surging toward Rui with blinding speed.

And yet, Rui had already adaptively evolved.

A culmination of simultaneous tiny shifts was all it took.

A centimeter at his ankles, a centimeter at his knees, a centimeter at his waist, and several more across his neck. No one part of his body was fast enough to deal with his opponent, but together—

WHOOSH

The monster’s eyes widened as his attack missed, and yet Rui’s flurry of swift and racing jabs surged about as he threatened to crush the man where he stood.

And yet— WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH

He disappeared about them in a hazy set of flashes, a tremendous attack appeared from above, threatening to crack Rui’s head with a tremendous dropkick.

BOOOM

The monster’s eyes lit up with a stunned light as Rui’s hand had already arrived ahead of time, catching the attack effortlessly.

RUMBLE

The world shook as Rui dispersed his immense power with Flux Earther.

He grabbed the man’s foot, activating Hypertrophic Surge in place of Nemean Blossom before pulling him down and blasting him on the ground with extraordinary force while using the Scriptures of Terra to cause an eruption of bedrock to fly up at the monster.

BOOOOM!!!

A collision that nobody could have possibly survived with just their Martial Body alone.

And yet

STEP

He gracefully emerged from the dust and rubble.

He didn’t have even the slightest scratch or bruise on his body.

Not even his clothes were disheveled.

Even his hair refused to allow itself to become unkempt.

And yet, Rui didn’t have even the slightest moment to consider this absurdity as the Martial Master surged forth with a blindingly swift velocity. “I will be stepping this up a notch.”

Rui’s widened as his raw speed spiked tremendously.

BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM!!!

He banked back on Nemean Blossom as he blocked each one of the man’s attacks, falling back on the defensive as the monster’s thundering attacks ravaged his guard tremendously. Rui’s expression grew grim even as his eyes intensified with ferocity.

He didn’t understand.

The pattern recognition model and the SOUL model were functioning just well. And yet… he still somehow struggled to deal with this level of speed. He could predict what was going to happen, but it happened earlier than he expected.

Normally, Rui forseaw attacks before they occured with the VOID algorithm and the SOUL System, and would move in the short window of time before an attack began but after the decision was made.

Defending before the decision was made would allow them to change the decision, but reacting after the attack began was no different from normal reaction.

In order to ‘preact’ instead of react, he aimed for this short window of time that existed for every single person he had met.

And yet, for the monster—

BOOOM!!!

A thundering blow crashed into Rui’s guard before he could even react.

For the monster, it was as though there was no gap between decision and action.

As though his decisions were able to cause the attacks to begin instantaneously.