BADUMP!
Rui's arm flew across the colosseum arena.
The air plummeted.
A vague impending sense of despair and doom radiated across the battle arena.
None of the contestants had failed to notice despite their own losing battles. Many of the contestants had been disqualified, having been saved from absolute death. Those who still held on were severely wounded, even more so than Rui.
Yet, it appeared that Rui followed suit.
The colosseum was silent. Even the noise from the other battles seemed to melt away into the background as an overwhelming sense of defeat seemed to fill up the spectator stands.
That was when it happened.
THUD!
The abyssfeeder that took Rui's arm plummeted to the ground, forming a heavy crater when it landed.
BADUMP!
Everybody watched, shocked.
And confused.
The creature took off Rui's arm in the clash, why had it suddenly collapsed?
No one knew.
It began shifting in its crater, quivering as its body began shifting.
It was healing.
Or it would have, had it been allowed to.
BOOM!
Rui broke the silence as he blasted it with a tier-five Transverse Resonance.
A solemn expression emerged on his face.
He faced the abyssfeeder head-on.
Two words escaped his mouth.
"Mind wins."
They cut through the fog of defeat as he made his declaration to the world.
His expression intensified as he called upon every ounce of power within his body.
His eyes sharpened.
His bleeding body mourned as it pulled itself together.
Yet it bled.
He didn't seem to care. A glint of madness flashed across his eyes as his offense grew even more aggressive.
The spectators watched, frozen, as Rui went into a frenzy as he unleashed every ounce of power onto a crippled creature.
They watched his figure, his movements, his attacks.
A single emotion radiated from him.
Frustration.
It was incomprehensible.
They didn't understand.
What happened?
How could such a clear defeat morph into such a clear victory?
What was even more incomprehensible was the frustration that was visible on his face.
What kind of Martial Artist grew frustrated after they started winning a losing battle?
Only the Martial Masters understood the true depths of that emotion.
He was close. Master Deivon sighed.
Even now… He's pushing himself to cross the precipice to a higher Realm. Master Gremingar shook his head.
But… It's too late… Master Carian closed his eyes. The Martial Heart only heeds the call of need, not the call of frustration.
Master Uma stared at him impassively, before closing her eyes.
They had all seen what had happened. Unlike the spectators, the truth of circumstances had not escaped them.
Just before his arm was taken off, he struck the abyssfeeder with an uppercut. Master Gremingar narrowed his eyes. That single attack did more damage to the abyssfeeder than all of his previous attacks. It did more damage than even the loss of an arm.
He used vibrations to permeate the impact all the way to the core of the creature. Master Carian mused. Ordinarily, that is nothing special but…
But the difference was that the abyssfeeder had been adapting to Rui's long-range attack by protecting all of the vital tissue of its body by shoving it deep inside the core of the body.
The Martial Masters were not the only ones who knew this. Rui was the only other one who had also recognized the truth.
And he had capitalized on it.
He had continued launching more attacks from a distance. He had continued making it harder and harder for the abyssfeeder to absorb the attacks.
In response, the abyssfeeder continued shifting more of its vital tissues to the core of the body while the exteriors became freer to absorb the sound through acoustic air absorption.
It was the perfect counter to Rui's long-range.
He had known that.
He had forced it to continue using that adaptation with even more powerful attacks.
He had been waiting for the moment the abyssfeeder would inevitably cross the distance between them, reaching him.
Everything had been for that moment.
In the moment they clashed, he had launched his most powerful Flowing Canon throwing as much raw power in a single strike as he could.
Yet it wasn't the power that he was focused on.
It was where that power went.
He activated Reverberating Lance to a degree that he seldom did, pushing the technique to its absolute limit.
All so that he could permeate the impact past the exterior and to the core of the creature.
Protecting vital tissue in a core from external attacks was the perfect counter to distant attacks.
Yet what was the perfect counter against one, was the perfect weakness to another.
Against the Reverberating Lance technique, it was no different from baring one's vulnerability openly.
The impact permeated through the creature, striking the vital weak tissue within its core. It was no different from Rui striking the neck of a Martial Artist without any defensive techniques protecting it.
It was overwhelming.
The abyssfeeder had managed to take his arm off before that happened. But once the impact struck the core and did its damage, it couldn't even maintain its body shape anymore.
It had turned into a black puddle within a crater, one that was now continuously being assaulted by Rui.
It tried to heal the damaged tissue, but Rui refused to allow it to.
It tried to adapt, but the damage was too great.
Its movements became slower and weaker with each attack.
It kept struggling… until it stopped.
It stopped moving.
Every sign of life faded away.
Yet Rui didn't stop.
He gritted his teeth as an expression of frustration occupied his face.
Get up.
His other hand subconsciously reached his chest as he felt his heart rate slowing down.
Get up!
The trigger condition for the breakthrough to the Senior Realm was a battle that pushed one to the limit challenging the driving force behind one's Martial Path.
He had instinctively sensed that this battle may very well have been the key.
Yet it was insufficient.
He was too strong.
