The Martial Unity

As far as Rui could tell, his opponent was the most powerful Martial Squire on the battlefield. At least, that was what his Primordial Instinct told him. The more time he spent in the Squire Realm, and the stronger he got, the better he became at gauging the power levels of Martial Squire with just a glance.

His opponent had already demonstrated some powerful redirection techniques and a remarkable mastery over manipulating the momentum and torque of his opponent.

('A close-range counter-offensive Martial Artist,') Rui immediately deduced. ('He manipulates his opponent's flow of power to cause them to completely destabilize their balance and defenses. He exploits the openings he causes to land clean attacks.')

Rui was not unfamiliar with redirection, he had even mastered a redirection technique in the Apprentice Realm.

Rui stepped away as he launched multiple Mighty Roar Flash Blasts at his opponent. Much to his surprise, the man did not attempt to dodge the attacks, instead, he raised his palms, breathing in a strange manner, before spinning extremely fast!

The spinning instantly caused a powerful spiraling pillar of wind, Rui's sound projectiles were seamlessly dragged into the tornado that he had caused, failing to hit him.

Rui's eyes widened in amazement. ('He redirected sound by manipulating the air, the medium that sound travels through.')

Rui had simply lightly attacked him with a few long-range techniques to see how he would react, and whether he was able to effectively combat long-range attacks. Much to his surprise, the man was fully prepared to redirect long-range techniques that relied on the atmosphere.

Rui rushed forward as he launched a heavy Flowing Canon at the tornado, fully expecting to be able to break past it.

The reason that his sound projectiles had been ineffective was that the man had entirely bypassed it altogether. It was similar to trying to move away waves on the surface of the water in a bucket, you could try to combat the waves of water themselves, or you could move the entire bucket itself, the waves of water would not be able to do anything about that.

That was effectively what the man had done with Rui's sound projectiles, a rather clever counter to such forms of attacks.

That was why Rui immediately abandoned the technique as he adapted and returned to close-range combat, throwing in a powerful Flowing Canon aimed at the spinning man. Much to Rui's surprise, he immediately ceased the tornado technique before gently intercepting Rui's punch, applying just enough force in the right direction causing Rui to fall off balance.

STEP

Rui ceased his attack as he regained his balance, yet the man had no intentions of just watching.

BAM!

A powerful weighted blow struck Rui, yet it was his opponent's turn to feel surprised. The man visibly reacted as he felt the power of his strike seemingly disappearing into thin air as he impacted Rui's body!

Rui grinned as he seamlessly dispersed the man's attack into the ground, before launching a flurry of short and swift blows.

He had already begun adapting to his opponent. Attacks that took longer to land were easier to redirect, thus Rui had changed his approach entirely. He adopted a boxing stance as he threw short and swift jabs. By sacrificing power, he could make it much harder for the man to redirect them.

He held off on kicking against such an opponent. Kicks were more powerful than punches, but in this case, they were not suited against such an opponent. Kicks took longer to land, furthermore, they compromised balance more than blows did, in exchange for a much more powerful impact and greater range.

Rui knew that carelessly throwing kicks against such an opponent would only allow his opponent to completely toy with Rui effortlessly.

Rui wasn't even surprised when the man managed to deal with his strikes quite well. Yet, Rui's eyes were starting to 'see'.

Everything had patterns, and this man was no exception.

('You need to intercept attacks at a ninety-degree angle for your technique to work,') Rui noticed. ('Furthermore, the redirection process must begin before the attack reaches you, you cannot redirect attacks point-blank.')

He quickly adapted further altering his attacks even more. For one, he employed blows with a curving trajectory, which made it difficult for his opponent to redirect them, it also made it more difficult for him to be able to intercept them as cleanly as before.

POW!

Rui smirked as he landed the first clean attack on the man. Unfortunately, the blow wasn't all that heavy. Everything came at a price, and curving his strikes in such a fashion sacrificed a bit of power to achieve.

Still, it was a good start.

BAM!

Rui surprised him as he switched it up with a well-timed low kick to the shin, while simultaneously winding up a punch, allowing him to seamlessly follow through.

POW POW POW!

The man leaped back as he tried to put some distance between him and Rui, but Rui was not having any of it. He leaped forward with Outer Convergence and Gale Force Breathing, refusing to allow him any respite, all while spotting even more patterns in the man's movements now that Rui had pushed him out of his comfort zone.

BAM!!

Rui managed to land an incredibly heavy Flowing Canon lower right hook.

('You leave a blind spot at the other end of your field of vision every time you redirect attacks.') Rui mused as his attacks became more seamless and precise.

The more he fought, the more patterns he caught, and the more he was able to predict. His reaction speed effectively went down to zero as he began making incredibly well-timed movements and counters, completely devastating the man's defense and offense.

BAM!!!

A powerful flying knee kick struck his solar plexus, leaving him entirely incapacitated for a few moments.

POW!

A swift straight kick to the jaw was enough. He had accumulated enough blunt-force trauma that his consciousness shut down.

SPLAT!

A simple stab to the brain through the eye socket, and he was dead.