The Martial Unity

Chapter 2356  Unfazed

The Convergence leaped towards Rui at extraordinary speeds. Speeds that far exceeded Ruiʼs movements. Far exceeding his raw ability to evade.

And yet—

WHOOSH

He had dodged the attack before it even began. The Convergenceʼs attack crashed into empty air as Rui gently tilted his head at precisely the right angle, at precisely the right moment.

The faintest of whispers escaped him. ”I can see your SOUL.”

Rui hadnʼt cared all too much about why the man hated him. He had just wanted to stall the man long enough so that he could create a SOUL model before the battle began. He had no true interest in the manʼs pathetic sob story about being outshined.

Equipped with the SOUL model as well as the predictive model, courtesy of the Angel of Laplace, he was ready to deal with the powerful peak Master at his absolute strongest.

”Your evasion is impressive, but it cannot protect you forever,” Master Stephen growled.

One moment, he was merely stationary a few meters away.

Then he disappeared from Ruiʼs gaze, appearing before him less than a microsecond later.  A tremendous blow with astronomical momentum surged forward at blinding speeds, threatening to blast Ruiʼs head into smithereens.

Ruiʼs reactions had been rendered useless, completely surpassed by his opponentʼs shocking speed.

WHOOSH

Yet, he evaded it once more.

In his weakened physical condition, he might as well have been moving in slow motion compared to the devastating speeds of the Convergence. Yet, he could foresee each attack from miles away. All it took was one moment, a single moment that existed before the inception of the attack and the decision of the attack. He needed to evade each attack before they began, yet after it was too late to change it.

A feat that required extraordinary precision and even greater foresight.

Yet—

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

Attack after attack, he evaded the Convergenceʼs extraordinary blows one after another. The Convergence snarled with a hint of frustration as his enormous leg rose straight up before plummeting down at extraordinary speeds in a devastating drop kick that threatened to crush anything that it touched.

Rui barely managed to evade it with a hairʼs length.

Yet, he wasnʼt able to evade what followed.

BOOOOOOOOM!!!

”Rgh!” Rui grimaced as a devastating shockwave struck him, expanding omnidirectionally.

The titanic attack broke heaven and earth itself asunder as a crater spanning nearly a hundred kilometers in diameter emerged from under his foot. In an instant, the topography around them had changed forever, altering in the blink of an eye.

Rui gazed at him with shock as he struggled to comprehend the sheer amount of destruction the man could produce with a single attack.

He didnʼt understand.

He didnʼt understand how the man was able to produce such catastrophic output.

That wasnʼt to say that he was weak.

Certainly not.

His Martial Heart shined far and bright, illuminating everything around them. His Martial Mind was very powerful, undoubtedly refined, and had been expanding over the years. Yet, the sheer output this man seemed able to effortlessly produce was greater than almost anything Rui had ever seen in the Master Realm. WHOOSH

The man emerged from the dust cloud, surging at Rui with blinding speeds as a multitude of blows flew towards him with extraordinary vigor. WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

Ruiʼs eyes sharpened as he evaded every single one of them long before the dawn of each attack. He grew more comfortable dodging each attack one after another in rapid succession.

His movements grew smoother.

They began flowing.

Like water.

Maneuvers lost their distinction.

One could no longer tell where one maneuver ended and where the next began. A singular graceful dance that wove together in a flowing tapestry.

One that painted a picture of an ephemeral star.

An ephemeral star that one could almost grasp, yet remained forever beyond reach.

It was a sight that infuriated the Convergence, who tossed aside his reservations and exerted himself to the fullest with the sole goal of landing a single blow on Rui to take him out.

All he needed was a single attack.

He could feel it.

A single attack was enough to cripple or even kill his opponent.

For whatever reason, Ruiʼs body seemed to be especially weak. Most likely, it was the drawback of the extraordinary technique that seemed to inflate his mind to the proportions that it was at now. Given that Rui  was dedicating everything to evasion, Master Stephen could surmise that his goal was to stall his inevitable loss and wait for reinforcements.

”I wonʼt let you evade the outcome of this match.”

RUMBLE

An even greater surge of power erupted from deep within the manʼs body. Not even Rui was able to fully understand where it came from, yet Master Stephen lunged forward with an extraordinarily aggressive offensive initiative.

He diverted all his power and focus towards maximal power and speed, dedicating everything to the sole purpose of attacking Rui and nothing else. There was no point in being defensive against a man who was dedicating all his power to evasive stalling.

And that was a mistake.

One that Rui had been waiting for. In the blink of an eye, the light of ferocity entered Ruiʼs eyes as Master Stephenʼs extraordinary attack surged toward his head at astronomical speeds.

Only for it to crash into an empty image.

A feint.

WHOOSH

By the time Master Stephen realized his mistakes, it was too late to avoid the swift finger jab that shot forward at his eyes, propelled by Outer Convergence, Wind Breathing, and a potent Yin-Yang Spear.

This was what Rui had been waiting for from the very start of the fight.

He knew that in his Megamind state, his power was greatly diminished. There was no point in bombarding his opponentʼs powerful body with weakened attacks. What he needed was one decisive opening with one decisive attack that would land a decisive wound.

Rui had lulled his opponent into dropping his guard by manipulating him into believing that he had no intention of landing an attack and was merely stalling for reinforcements from the Kandrian Empire.

He had executed the little strategy perfectly as the entire battle culminated into a powerful finger jab crashing into the manʼs eyes.

SPLAT!

It was game over.

Or at least, it should have been.

What followed happened so fast that Rui would have died on the spot had he not had both his predictive and SOUL models. He leaped away as fast as he could as he detected an incoming blow more powerful and faster than any other before.

Unfortunately, he wasnʼt fast enough.

CRACK CRACK CRACK!

The attack merely grazed his arm as he leaped away.

Yet, that was enough to shatter his bones into pieces, mangling his arm into a misshapen mound of flesh.

”…I underestimated you.”

The Convergence opened his eyes.

They were intact, much to Ruiʼs greatest shock.

There wasnʼt a single scratch or drop of blood despite the fact that he had struck them with a Yin-Yang Spear.

Pure power and peril radiated from the depths of the Convergenceʼs body.

”Come,” his voice shook with force. ”Let us continue, Dawnbringer. Let me show you why you are no match for me.”

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