The two of them quickly left the valley, heading toward a safer space, before quickly consuming potions. Rui found it hard to talk with a hole in his throat, after all.
"Damn," Kane sat back down. "That's a shame."
"It could have gone either way Kane," Rui shook his head. "This is different from when I win because I am simply stronger. In this case, I was using my Flowing Void Style to the absolute maximum, and I still was unable to even gain an advantage. Furthermore, there were times when you were the one with the upper hand. That was what surprised me."
"Yeah, but I still lost," Kane murmured, dissatisfied. "You just feel invincible."
"I'm far from it," Rui chuckled. "The only reason I won this time was because of a clever trick. I simply applied my power a little better than you, at the end of the day. I suspect had you fought with a more open and flexible mind, you might have won."
"Flexible?"
Rui nodded. "Tell me, what was your plan to win after you saw that I was able to handle your swift jabs to my vital spots?"
"…" Kane considered the question as he understood what Rui was trying to convey. "I just kept swiftly moving around hoping to catch an opening."
"I could see that," Rui noted. "In other words, you seemed to hope for victory, rather than doing everything you could to get it."
"Hey, I wasn't holding back!" Kane protested.
"I'm not insinuating that you did buddy," Rui assured him. "I'm saying that going physically all out isn't enough. In this instance, you continued going down the same old set of movements even when you knew that they weren't going to work. Do you think that was the best decision you could have made in those circumstances?"
"…"
"For instance, you could have identified why you weren't able to hit my vitals and tried getting rid of or bypassing one of those reasons," Rui pointed out. "For example, you know that my reaction speed is very slow compared to yours, especially when compared to you in your Fulminata state. You know that I compensate for those with predictions, right?"
Kane nodded, having known that for many years now.
"It means that my predictions were the only reason I didn't instantly lose the fight," Rui pointed out. "What would happen if you get my predictions to fail? After all, predictions are just that; predictions. They're not absolute. They're not a superpower where I am actually looking into the actual future."
"I hadn't even considered that," Kane's eyes widened as he fell deep in thought. "The more I think about it though, the more stupid I feel for not considering this."
"Although it certainly is far from easy to disrupt my predictions, it is still an avenue of exploration that you didn't even consider," Rui told him.
What he didn't mention was that even if Kane tried a simplistic way to disrupt his predictions, it would almost certainly be useless against Rui's predictive model. His model was based on most subconscious active and passive patterns, meaning that his targets were not even aware of these patterns.
That was why any conscious efforts to throw Rui off failed unless his opponent gained an immense amount of self-awareness abruptly.
This was essentially impossible.
However, what Rui was trying to instill in Kane was strategic considerations. Had Kane possessed a strategic mindset, which was different from strategic intelligence, Rui was sure that he would have had a far harder time winning against him had he possessed strategic considerations in mind.
However, Kane stuck to a very static approach, hoping to rely on the power of his two grade-ten techniques side-by-side in order to overwhelm Rui with sheer speed and agility.
That was, in Rui's opinion, a fatal error.
"But what if my strategic considerations lead me to fight in a manner that deviates from my Martial Path?" Kane asked with furrowed brows. "Like, my Martial Path is evasive maneuvering, right? But if it's ineffective in a particular fight, and offensive maneuvering happens to be preferable to evasive maneuvering in that, should I abandon my Martial Path entirely in pursuit of what is the best strategic onlook?"
This was not a simple question. In fact, what Kane was asking was something every Martial Artist asked themselves. And it was a question that was extremely difficult to resolve.
If one's Martial Path was sub-optimal in a given situation, should one abandon it and go for the more preferable approach?
But wasn't abandoning one's Martial Path in a fight bad? How could one reach the higher Realms if one did that?
It was quite the dilemma that plagued the Martial Art community.
Except Rui. He had long thought about it and had instantly arrived at an answer the very first time he did.
The first reason was that this problem was not a problem for him. There was absolutely no contradiction whatsoever between his Martial Path and the principle of going for the most suited strategy and approach for a battle.
In fact, the latter was part of the former!
Part of Adaptive Evolution was choosing the best strategic approach to his opponent, no matter what it was. So in a way, Rui was simply bypassing this dilemma altogether. It was a non-problem to him.
However, he also had deep insight into what the solution to the dilemma was even for others.
He didn't know if it was entirely the best decision to tell Kane about it, but ultimately, he relented. His friend was troubled, and he wanted to help him out.
"The answer to your question is not objective," Rui replied. "The answer to your question is just another question. What is more important to you? Your Martial Path, or your life?"
Kane's eyes widened as he processed Rui's words, understanding what he meant.
"You're torn about choosing between your Martial Path and the most strategically sound approach, but you have it all wrong. What you're choosing between is your Martial Path and your life."
