Still, Rui wasn't afraid. He had grown tremendously stronger in the nearly two years he had joined that Academy as well. It was a universal fact that Rui had gained the most amount of power since in the nearly two years since they joined. Not a single student of the Martial Academy could match his growth rate! Especially not Nel, who had taken a whole two years to accomplish what Rui had accomplished in two months.
Did this necessarily mean that Nel was weaker?
No, it did not.
Nel had started out far stronger than anybody else, even if Rui grew stronger much, much faster, he had started out from a much, much weaker place. It would depend on whether or not Rui's astronomical growth was enough to close the astronomical gap.
Rui shook his head.
Speculation didn't matter. Neither did theorizing and conjecture.
Reality would soon demonstrate the truth, and Rui would be able to find out for himself whether he was stronger than Nel, or weaker.
Currently, his three biggest threats were Nel, Kane and Fae. Although there were other strong Martial Artists, like the seniors from the batch before them. Rui had sparred against them, and did not think they were in the top three threats, still he did not dismiss them either.
Soon the matchups were announced. Since there were seventy-nine, one student would be left out every time. But this didn't matter, because every student will have faced every other student by the time the month ended.
Rui skimmed through the matchups, barely able to contain his excitement, looking for his matchup.
He looked.
Looked some more.
And a little more.
But he couldn't find it.
('Wait, don't tell me...') Rui's eyes flew wide open. Could it be that his luck was so horrible, that he would be the seventy-ninth person who didn't have an opponent in the first person.
"Oh for fuck's sake!" He cursed, drawing attention.
Now he would have to contain his energy and sit watching while the others fought!
"Wait." He paused. "Maybe that's not such a bad thing."
He got to observe the strongest Martial Artists, especially the top three that he was wary of. Giving him a chance to grasp their prowess, and understand how strong they had grown, maybe even gain data for the VOID algorithm.
He wasn't sure that it would make a meaningful difference, but it was better than nothing. The others had already dispersed as their matchups and assigned sparring rings had already been decided. He walked over taking a seat at a place where he could observe Kane, Fae and Nel with equal amount of ease.
('Maybe I should sit closer to Nel.') Rui though, reconsidering his decision. He knew a lot about Fae and Kane, he even knew most of their techniques, having spent two years with them. He also knew which technique Kane had mastered in recent times. As for Fae, her mastery speed wasn't as high as his own, in the span of four months she at most could have mastered one powerful technique or maybe two low-grade techniques.
Regardless of which of the two it was, it was unlikely to make too much of a difference.
In comparison to those two, he basically knew nothing about Nel. He had seen Nel fight only once since he joined the Academy. That fight was so long ago, any specific piece of information from back then was utterly irrelevant to his current self.
He walked over to Nel's fight, keeping a close eye on their fight.
Nel had a savage aggressive aura. Ever since Rui had mastered Primordial Instinct, he had been able to do more than just subconsciously evaluate danger. Before, strong creatures and Martial Artists left an invisible pressure on him. But now that he had mastered this technique, it was no longer invisible.
He was able to see it, read it, interpret it. Nel very much gave him the impression of a savage wild animal. He didn't know how a normal human could possibly come to develop to have such a temperament, but it was truly unlike anything else he had ever seen.
"Take your stance!" the supervisor of their match announced, drawing Rui's attention.
Nel simply crouched, letting his arms dangle down, swaying loosely, an expression of lazy arrogance covering his face. Rui frowned; this was the same stance he had taken in his fight against Felix nearly two years ago, how was it possible for his stance to remain unchanged?
Rui glanced at his opponent, the girl kept both of her hands low, as they curved to the other side, all of her weight was on her left leg, which was in front of her right leg.
('Kicking specialist.') Rui immediately concluded. Her positioning of the arms were for generating as much torque for kicks. She'd placed all her weight on one leg so that her other leg would always be free to launch kicks immediately.
Rui also immediately concluded she was going to loose. Primordial Instinct combined with a lifetime of experience and research into combat psychology allowed him to evaluate his opponents far more accurately and precisely than anybody else in his generation. Perhaps even in his Realm.
She was too weak to pose a threat to either Rui or Nel.
('Alright, let's see how overwhelmingly he beats her.') Rui narrowed his eyes as he concentrated on their fight, he didn't want to miss anything.
"BEGIN." The supervisor commenced the fight.
The girl dashed towards Nel with a fierce expression. He body contorted as she tried her best to put as much weight on the very first kick of the fight.
BAM
...
('Interesting...')
Nel had caught the attack with his bare hand. Such a feat required incredible toughness and muscular strength, especially when done without an Apprentice-level technique.
He grinned, lifting her by her leg over his head.
BOOM
He slammed her down into the ground from above with incredible force!
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
...
DROP
She had already fallen unconscious, and was bleeding profusely. Nel's grinned had already faded, as bored lethargy overtook his demeanor. He sighed, leaving the ring. His performance had left most onlookers stunned; he had crushed a Martial Apprentice!
Even if his opponent was mediocre, it was still an incredible feat!
Rui couldn't help but a feel a grin cracking on his excited face at that sight.
