The Martial Unity

"There's no doubt about you," She sighed, before turning to Kane. "But it's your turn now."

She needed first-hand knowledge of both of them, and that meant fighting Kane as well. Kane nodded, acquiescing, and the two of them quickly stood some distance apart from each other, before taking their stances.

Kane, as always, took his light-footed stance, while Squire Ferilwal took her shoot stance.

Rui watched with interest as he analyzed the battle.

('Their win conditions is straightforward,') Rui mused. ('If Kane gets caught, he loses, if he can keep away for long enough, he'll be able to win.')

Rui suddenly recalled something as he narrowed his eyes exerting some pressure on Kane to draw his attention. Kane glanced at Rui with a raised eyebrow.

Rui simply shook his head once.

Kane stared at his him, nodding once, before turning back.

Soon enough, the battle began.

DASH!

She shot forward, as was predictable aiming for Kane with her arms. Much to Rui's relief, he casually evaded with visible ease.

Rui sighed in relief. He wasn't worried that Kane wouldn't be able to evade her initial glance, he was just happy that Kane didn't go all out.

He didn't use Void Step.

He wasn't sure how good Squire Ferilwal's senses were. He wasn't sure that she would be able to recognize the sheer potency of the grade-ten technique. Regardless, if Kane used it here, he would be expected to use it on the battlefield against the surrounding nations. It would expose his technique on a wide scale and thus, it would increase the likelihood that their identities would be discovered.

All in all, it was just not worth it even if it would grant him the victory in this case most likely.

Thankfully, Kane was smart enough to understand what Rui was referring to at that moment with that gesture, and also mature enough to agree. He wasn't driven by colossal pride or a strong battle-lust.

His thoughts were interrupted as she lashed out against Kane again, lashing out at his lower half, looking for a lower takedown.

Yet she wasn't quick enough.

WHOOSH

Kane evaded by leaping into the air.

POW!

A swift kick landed on her gut, allowing him to push himself away from her.

"Tsk," She tutted with irritation, annoyed by his speed. However, Kane could see that his attack had essentially done nothing against her.

It was to be expected, he was only just barely grade two as far as striking power went. Unlike Rui, he did not possess the ability to inflict major damage on her with every attack. The best he could do was what he always did.

Unlike Rui, he didn't need to maintain a huge amount of distance between himself and Rui in order to avoid her shoots, he could be much closer, and avoid her much more narrowly than Rui could hope to without Forestep.

However, he was still dealing with a decently powerful Martial Artist, Squire Ferilwal abandoned her aggressive shooting strategy the second she saw that it wasn't as effective as she had hoped it would be. The way forward was not through recurring aggression.

('Not bad, she's clever,') Rui nodded.

She didn't stubbornly stick to a losing strategy that would only drain her stamina faster than Kane drained his.

WHOOSH

Instead. She stood her ground this time, making slower progress as she slowly covered the gap between herself and Kane. Rather than aggressively shooting in his direction, she chose to systematically close off the space he had in all three directions to make it harder for him to escape.

('Not the best approach with her toolset, but it is an effective strategy,') Rui mused. ('Her maneuvering is greater than mine as a way to close the distance between herself and her opponent. She's not going to be as easy to avoid as I am, Kane.')

Kane's expression grew more strained as he too realized that. He was faster than her, but not to the degree where he could run circles around her. Furthermore, with her remarkably large wingspan, she was able to cover a lot of area at any given point in time.

The fight turned into what appeared to be a strange game of tag, as Kane quickly realized that he was slowly but steadily getting cornered.

Much to Rui's approval, he eventually stopped running away and faced her head-on, preparing his palm for his jabbing technique.

He rushed in, and in an instant, his jab shot forward to her solar plexus in just a moment.

('Tsk,') Rui tutted.

She bent backward just as his jab came into contact with her body, the strike landed, but it wasn't the only thing that did.

CLASP!

She managed to grab his waist with her long arms. Kane's eyes widened, but it was too late. The very world shifted as she flung him over her while she fell to the ground.

BOOM!!

A resounding impact reverberated across the entire tire facility and beyond as Kane grimaced in pain.

She immediately mounted over him, completely incapacitating him.

Thankfully, she stopped there. The fight was already over.

"You're not bad, but your offense sucks," She told him as she stood up. "That's why I was able to ignore your offense as I grabbed you for a throw."

Kane wasn't bothered by the loss at all. He knew that he was stronger than her by virtue of his Void Step technique. Although he sometimes forgot how overpowered the technique was because Rui was able to deal with ease. The way in which he would go about things was rather simple with this technique. He would be able to guarantee to land vital attacks with it.

"The two of you are definitely going to be very positive additions to Crexeet army," She replied. "Come, I'll explain how things work, and what exactly your duties entail."

She led them back out of the training facility and into a large room filled with people and documents of all kinds.