The Martial Unity

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WHOOSH

Rui's image faded as his opponent was flummoxed at her attack hitting what seemed like an illusion.

POW POW POW!

Rui assaulted her with a violent flurry of jabs to her rib. Yet even before she jerked down due to the impact of the attacks, his right foot lashed out toward her shoulder

PEW!

"Argh!" She grimaced as the Stinger cleaved through the air, whistling as it made its way to its target and burying itself in the flesh of her shoulder.

THWACK!

Rui immediately retracted his leg as he seamlessly transitioned into a low sweeping kick that struck her ankles with remarkable force, knocking her over.

BAM!

A soccer kick to the head ravaged her as it mangled her, knocking her out. Just as he was about to kill her, Primordial Instinct warned him of an impending attack on his back.

WHOOSH

CLASP

He ducked as he evaded the jab, clasping his opponent's hand as he activated Flow Flux, using his own momentum as Rui threw him over his shoulder onto his previous enemy with the power of Outer Convergence and Flame Breathing.

BAM!

The man landed flat on the ground atop his comrade.

BAM!

Yet another soccer kick knocked his opponent out.

Yet just as Rui launched yet another killing blow, Primordial Instinct detected yet another attack incoming.

WHOOSH

"Tsk." Rui tutted, irritated as he cleanly evaded a wind attack from behind him. This particular battle was far more chaotic than any of the previous ones. He was unable to even spend time on a single enemy, every time he defeated one, he would be confronted.

He glanced at his attacker with a raised eyebrow.

('Strong.') Rui's eyes twinkled with interest.

The man had a heavy weight to his presence that matched his giant size. He was one who would truly be classified as grade-ten even by the updated grading standards of the Kandrian Empire.

He immediately forgot about his unconscious targets as he dashed toward the Martial Apprentice. Yet despite all of the fierce pressure that Rui exerted on him, he was unperturbed.

He raised his open palm as he pushed it forward straight in Rui's direction.

BOOM!

A huge and wide wind blast attack crashed into Rui remarkably swiftly and impactfully. Rui guarded as he was pushed back by the sheer force of the wind blast despite his resistance. Rui was surprised by the sheer net power that the man had outputted with a single attack.

('The attack is incredibly wide and large, making it really hard to sidestep it. Yet despite its size, it was still ridiculously fast and strong.') Rui swiftly analyzed he managed to stop his motion.

This was the most powerful wind manipulation user that Rui had come across. He put the likes of Ana Mariane, one of the sixteen representatives of the Martial Contest, and even Fernan, who was a defending champion in the Martial Games. None of them could compete with the powerful Martial Apprentice before him.

Rui grinned behind his mask.

This was why he had joined the Serevian Dungeon mission. Precisely so that he could fight strong Martial Artists such as the man in front of him with his Flowing Void Style.

He dashed once more at the man with extreme speed, yet the distance between them was too great for Rui to reach him in time.

The man's arms swayed as he breathed powerfully, using a breathing technique to gather a vast amount of air as he used his arms and body to channel the powerful air currents being generated by the breathing technique into a pocket of extraordinarily dense air. Even the optical density of the air pocket had changed as light passing through it had begun being diffracted like it would in a drop of water.

BOOM!

The man palmed the sphere forward as an enormous power as the attack propelled forward with an incredible amount of momentum as it expanded in size.

BAM!

Rui had launched a Tempestuous Ripple as the attack feebly collided with the wind attack that his opponent had launched, being snuffed by an attack much more powerful than it.

Yet it had served its purpose. Rui hadn't used the Tempestuous Ripple as an attack that was supposed to pierce through the gale that his opponent unleashed. Instead, it was a shield that lessened the power of the portion of the wind blast that had hit him.

And it worked.

Rui merely skidded back instead of literally being launched airborne.

He dashed forward again and yet, as expected, the wind blast came as Rui himself launched a Tempestuous Ripple to reduce the impact of the attack on himself. Yet he wasn't able to nearly nullify the main problem of range restriction when he was being pushed back despite all his strength resisting it.

His master was a master at the long-range onslaught. Unfortunately, Rui's means to deal with long-range Martial Arts weren't nearly as developed as his solutions against close-range Martial Apprentices.

Ideally, he would cross the distance between his opponent and himself and engage them in close-range combat where he certainly was at an advantage. But he couldn't do that this time as easily. The wide and large attack made dodging and sneaking past it extremely difficult, even if he somehow moved several steps to the side before the swift attack reached him, it would still not be enough to dodge the attack, that was how wide it was.

Furthermore, this largely negated one of the most impactful advantages of having the Mindmirror brain. The processing advantages he had gained from the brain were largely useless in trying to cross the distance between them. It did not matter if he could react extremely fast if there was no way he could outspeed a wide attack that was that fast with his own feet.

Rui grinned in eagerness and elation as he processed his current circumstances. It had been a long time since he fought against a Martial Apprentice that was strong enough to force him to strategize. The last two Martial Artists that had forced him to strategize were both Martial Squires, after all.