The Martial Unity

The battle momentarily paused.

For a moment, nobody moved.

The two assassins got a good look at the Voidreaper for the first time. It was actually quite bizarre, for he was not as they envisioned him.

They envisioned a grizzled veteran assassin, someone who had been around for many decades or so.

And yet, the man before them was definitely on the younger side. All this time, they had been fearing a man who was most certainly not a veteran assassin. That just made them feel worse. To think that they had been bullied so hard by someone who was clearly their junior based on his body and Martial Heart.

And yet, they didn't dare underestimate him because of that. Had he not killed their peer right in front of them? 

Furthermore...

'He's strong.' Senior Mayneth narrowed his eyes as took a stance with his twin sabers. 'I don't understand. But somehow he is casually outdoing us despite having a younger Martial Body and Martial Heart. It's not like we're out of our prime or anything like that either.'

'He dealt without attacks with less than a third the effort and power.' Senior Friken shaped his hands into knuckle fists.

Although they would have liked more time to take this slowly, Rui did not spare them more than a moment.

BAM BAM BAM!

He lashed out forward exchanging a flurry of blows with the striking-oriented Martial Senior, cleanly bypassing the man's defenses while evading the saber wielder.

"Rgh!" Senior Friken grimaced as Rui's attacks curved past the chinks in his defense, landing on his vital spots. His own attacks cleanly missed Rui even as he simultaneously evaded the saber wielder.

WHOOSH!

Senior Friken avoided a blow from Rui, swerving to the right.

And yet...

BAM!

A kick had already arrived at his new location, flinging him away. 

WHOOSH!

Rui leaped back as he evaded a series of swings from the saber wielder. Although weapons were not as deadly in Martial Artist battles as they were in human battles, he still did not want the blade to pierce his skin given that it could very well be poisoned.

The best way to handle weapons was to bypass their optimal range. Weapons usually offered a lot of lethality, but they generally made the wielder more inflexible in combat. 

Blades generally had only a meter or two of optimal combat range. Furthermore, they had more openings than unarmed humans did.

WHOOSH!

Rui narrowly evaded a double swing, spinning to the side as he managed to bypass the sword.

BOOM!

He launched a powerful blow onto the man's ribs, launching him away as the very ground around them shook from the impact.

Senior Friken appeared behind Rui simultaneously, looking to catch him off-guard as he launched his most powerful attack.

"DIE!" An immensely powerful double-fist thrust shot forward, aiming for a vital pressure point on Rui's back. Each step he took shook the ground around them violently as his attack brimmed with power.

And yet...

WHOOSH!

The man's eyes widened as his attack crashed into an empty image. 

A feint.

BOOM!

Rui's fist crashed into his unguarded solar plexus, landing a crippling blow that left him reeling.

Yet he wasn't done.

BAM BAM BAM!!

Rui continued to pummel with blow after blow as they unerringly ignored his guard crashing into his vitals one after the other. Attacks that should have been weaker than they were felt heavy and powerful as Rui managed to make the most out of them, producing impacts that felt heavy because of the accurate timing and placement.

BOOM!

A powerful kick crashed into the man's skull cleanly. A wave of dizziness flooded his consciousness as he staggered. Yet just before Rui could even land a finishing blow;

WHOOSH! 

He somersaulted backward, evading incredibly swift swings from the saber wielder, landing behind him.

CLASP!

His body coiled around the man's as he cleanly got into a chokehold that crushed against the man's carotid arteries. Senior Mayneth immediately tried cutting Rui with his sabers, and yet...

BZZZT!

A small current ran through his body, inducing a paralytic effect that hampered his output. Rui's legs pulled against the man's arms, refusing to allow him to complete a swing, He sent a shock into his own body in a particular manner, activating Hypertrophic Surge. 

"...!" Senior Mayneth's eyes started bleeding based on the sheer pressure that Rui was exerting on his neck. He could not breathe, nor was his head receiving any blood. He struggled with all his might, yet Rui had had him completely immobilized.

In circumstances where the arm couldn't swing, sabers were entirely useless. That was why Rui had waited until he could create circumstances where the weapon was ineffective. They had gone from assets to liabilities.

Rui didn't let go, not even when he saw Senior Friken coming in for an attack. 

"LET GO!" The man bellowed as he launched a flurry of attacks on Rui's immobile figure.

Yet Rui simply tolerated them, incurring damage. He wanted to finish the job with Senior Mayneth, coiling even harder than before, so much so that the man couldn't even let out even the slightest sound.

It was only after Rui felt his heart stopping that he let the man go, tossing his corpse aside.

"Ouch..." Rui murmured as his body was covered all over with ugly bruises and deep cuts that had begun healing. "You sure did a number on me. But..."

His eyes glinted with amusement as he glanced at Senior Friken. "You couldn't take me out."

He activated Weaving Blood, instantly healing all of his wounds.

Senior Friken gritted his teeth. He had bombarded Rui with his attacks one after the other, inflicting a lot of damage, but it had instantly been undone. Furthermore, he didn't even have any support from his teammate this time.

There was only one option left.

He turned around and began sprinting away at top speed. Rui inhaled deeply as he activated the Void Pathfinder technique, taking aim before releasing three sound waves back to back with Transverse Resonance.

Death's Sympathy unfolded, flying straight towards its target.

THUD

The man collapsed to the ground, dead.