The Martial Unity



A long and stressful game began for both Rui and Kane as they participated in the battle but with only a fraction of their full exertion. They fought just enough to not be noticed for not participating, but they made sure to retain their energy reserves.

Kane didn't even bother using Void Step to try and get her with stealth. He already knew that there was no way his misdirection was working on a Martial Senior, Martial Heart or not.

Instead, he mostly stuck to occasionally trying to get her in her blind spot whenever she was pressed heavily by many of the offensive heavy hitters.

The battle slogged on and on for quite some time, however, Rui did not simply wait around conserving energy and getting in an occasional strike. He also made his sound-canceling defenses against her attacks more subtle than before, he timed it later and later, and even launched himself backward grimacing as though he had been struck or hadn't been able to cancel everything out.

To a certain extent, he could allow himself to get struck in order to make it seem more convincing too. His healing factor would mitigate lighter wounds by the end of the battle, so he carefully calculated how much he could let himself get hit in order to fake getting hurt.

Of course, this wouldn't entirely fool a Martial Senior with senses as powerful as hers were on Ajanta Island, but that was fine, as long as he did not stand out like a sore thumb for clearly holding back, he was content.

On top of that, he also spent more time refining his predictive model with the influx of data that he gained from this fight. Much to his delight he even ended up finding new patterns that he hadn't come across before.

('She disengages with the opposite foot of the direction that she pirouettes in,')

('Her primary response to be attacked with a grappling maneuver is opening up distance before launching a sound attack,')

('Her evasion is static as opposed to dynamic an overwhelming majority of the time against powerful singular attacks,')

It improved his ability to predict and adapt to her, making him more confident of taking her on when the time was right.

The battle slogged on, but the outcome was clear, the guardians were unable to take her down or even land major damage on her.

The sparring session went on for hours many of the Martial Squires who were partaking had already been mopped clean.

Yet just as it seemed as though the battle was over.

WHOOSH

Senior Xanarn spun away, twirling through the air as she evaded two attacks simultaneously.

"I knew you were stalling," She murmured without turning towards Rui. "Was it worth waiting? How are you going to fight me without the help of your peers?"

Rui didn't respond. "Fuuu….."

He exhaled deeply, sending a deep ripple through the dense atmosphere. She raised her eyebrow as she watched Rui employ a technique she hadn't seen before.

CRACKLE!

He heard a sound of electricity chirping beside him.

Rui and Kane exchanged glances.

The next second, they almost disappeared. Their speed skyrocketed so high that the other Martial Squires raised their eyes in shock as they witnessed the two of them exhibiting speed that they had never seen before!

Kane especially was truly bewildering, his Godspeed technique was perfect, and with Fulminata, he didn't need to prepare reflexive pre-moves ahead of time as Rui did.

In less than a millisecond, they had crossed the distance between them and her.

WHOOSH!

She barely evaded a flying knee kick from Kane with a shocked expression, yet what followed next was even more surprising to her.

Rui's foot was suddenly near her face.

He had prepared the attack even before she dodged.

BAM!!

A powerful Flowing Canon kick armed with the might of Outer Convergence, Godspeed, Reverberating Lance, and Adamant Reforging crashed into her chin!

Every guardian widened their eyes in shock!

This was the first time anybody had cleanly landed such a powerful strike on her!

A clear bruise appeared on her chin as she frowned in surprise.

Yet, they refused to give her any breathing room at all. The two of them flashed forward turning into hardly any more than blurs in the eyes of other Martial Artists.

In just the briefest of moments, Kane launched another strike, yet this time, she resolutely defended as she unleashed a powerful wave of pure sound!

Kane immediately recoiled back, putting as much distance between him and the attack before it connected, yet Rui pushed past the attack like it was a splash of water, canceling her sound with destructive resonance.

He threw a full-powered strike at her, one that she evaded easily.

Yet suddenly, his elbow was near her throat!

POW!

She barely managed to block the attack with a shocked expression on her face!

It was as though Rui was attacking from the future!

She realized that the previous attack had been a sneaky preparation for the next move from the very beginning.

('But that mea-!')

She couldn't even finish a thought before an abysmally swift Kane lashed out at her once more, drawing her attention momentarily off Rui,

That was a mistake.

BOOM!!!

She fended off a tier-five Transverse Resonance attack!

Such an attack had already far surpassed his regular power, it was a whopping five times more powerful than his normal Mighty Roar Flash Blast attack.

Yet even before that attack ended Kane had already prepared another attack, while Rui immediately scurried over, preparing to counter her response!

She wasn't stupid.

She had already realized what was going on.

('They're using one another to catch me off-guard… But it's only possible because of him!')

BAM!!

She glanced at Rui, barely blocking an attack that seemingly reached her spot even before she reached it herself!

('He knows… His insight into my movements is absurdly high for some reason. He doesn't react, he preacts. There is not only no lag, but there is negative lag!')