"..."
"..."
Rui stared at him.
Nel stared back at him.
"You... what?"
"Broke through without em."
"No, surely..."
"Nope."
Rui tilted his head with incredulous confusion.
Broke through to Martial Apprentice without learning a single technique? What sort of nonsense was that?
Rui wasn't even sure what to say to that.
He wasn't even sure he believed him.
Was he lying to get Rui to lower his guard so he could later unveil them?
Looking at his sincere clueless expression, Rui shook his head, this guy was serious.
But wasn't that even more absurd?
"You... What is your Martial Path?"
"Take your stances." The supervisor had arrived, and quickly told them to be ready.
"Heh." Nel chuckled as he crouched, letting his arms dangle freely.
"My Martial Path is to beat everyone up using my body alone." He declared, his aura growing more feral by the second.
"..."
Rui's eyes flew wide open at those words.
For the very first time, he had run into someone with a Martial Path even more obtuse than his own!
"Take your stance." The supervisor insisted to Rui.
"I see..." Rui ignored him, staring straight at Nel with a boundless fascination and excitement.
He just couldn't wait!
"...My Martial Path is to beat everyone up with my VOID alone."
Rui adopted a neutral all-rounder stance, dividing his weight perfectly, positioning his arms and legs to be equally conducive to offense, defense and maneuvering.
"Fuuu..." He exhaled.
His mind went blank.
There was nothing.
And slowly...
He focused.
Gathering the vast mental energy his mind had bloomed across two lives.
He focused.
Gathering every ounce of physical energy his body could muster.
Nel grinned in amazement despite the weight.
He felt immense amounts of pressure from Rui's sheer focus. It grew by the second, pouring onto him from a boundless abyss. It was almost suffocating.
Just how strong was he?
Nel wanted to know.
"Let's see whose Martial Path is stronger void boy!" He grinned as the savage weight of an apex predator oozed out of every cell in his body.
The maelstrom of mental pressure the two boys generated burdened every onlooker.
Yet, no one could look away.
Not a single person could draw their eyes away.
"B-Begin!" the supervisor commenced the match.
RUMBLE
The sheer force with which Nel had launched himself sent tremors across the ring!
"RYAH!" He snarled as he launched a wild haymaker.
WHOOSH
The powerful swing crashed into a feint, hitting empty air.
BAM!
Rui threw a powerful kick at his ribs from the side, but Nel simply blocked it, pushing the strike away.
POW POW POW
He threw a series of swift jabs. Rui leapt back, having calmly mitigated the strikes with Inner Divergence, Elastic Shift and Acute Edge.
As strong as Nel was, even he couldn't overcome the combination of two mid-grade defensive techniques as well as one high-grade defensive technique with ordinary jabs alone.
He grinned.
So what if ordinary jabs didn't work?
Nel was capable of much more!
WHOOSH
He burst forth with shocking explosive speed, launching a flying kick.
BAM
Rui grimaced as he bruised his arm visibly despite his defensive techniques.
He had long suspected it, but only now had he confirmed that he could not take too many of Nel's more charged attacks.
He launched another loaded strike.
But Rui wasn't going to try and tank it this time.
WHOOSH
Rui cleanly avoided it with a feint. He used Balanced Direction and Parallel Walk, to circle around him.
BAM BAM BAM
He launched a flurry of attacks!
Each strike was powered with Outer Convergence and Vital Pressure.
Yet, it was not enough.
It collided against Nel's guard. His reflexes were too quick to allow Rui to land a clean strike on a vital, and when defended, his defense was too solid.
"Tsk." Rui retreated.
('As expected, ordinary attacks aren't doing the trick.') He verified.
WHOOSH
He avoided a kick cleanly with the help of Primordial Instinct, stepping back to open up some distance between them
Or so everyone thought.
Yet, when Nel charged at him with a punch, Rui charged right back with an attack.
BOOM!!
Their clash shook the earth!
Everyone gaped at the sheer display of raw power.
Nel had launched his most weighted strike, while Rui had charged up his momentum to the max with Balanced Direction and Parallel Walk, and launched a Flowing Canon attack amplified with Outer Convergence and Vital Pressure.
Yet Nel's fist hadn't backed down!
He matched the power of five Apprentice-level techniques with his sheer physique!
The boys furiously fought.
Fists were exchanged.
Kicks were dodged.
Attacks were endured.
And defenses were sieged!
Rui knew his average offense, defense and speed were lower than Nel's. A symmetric battle was not in his favour.
He switched things up with Phantom Step and Primordial Instinct
These allowed him to avoid more strikes than his speed did, and allowed him to land more attacks than his speed did.
But, even then.
It wasn't enough.
Slowly.
Step-by-step.
Nay, perhaps inch-by-inch.
Nel gained the advantage.
"HAHAHA!" He guffawed with ecstasy. "IS THIS THE BEST YOUR 'VOID' CAN DO?!"
BAM!
Nel gasped, choking as a powerful impact landed on his throat.
He couldn't even breathe for a moment.
BAM!
He barely managed to guard as a sharp sense of danger caused him to leap a great distance away.
But it was too late.
FLICK
The Stinger found its mark.
However, Rui had still underestimated Nel's instincts, he managed to avoid it at the right moment, preventing the Stinger from turning lethal, reducing it to a superficial flesh wound.
"Oh..." Rui sighed disappointedly. "So close."
He quickly took his stance once more.
"No matter..." His unyielding concentration fixated on Nel.
His dark eyes widened.
They were pitch black.
As if they sucked the very light out of this world.
All anyone could see in them was eternal darkness.
They saw the void...
And the VOID
And they trembled.
"...I'll get you this time." Rui whispered.
WHOOSH
He sped away to finish the job.
BAM
A powerful impact landed on him!
Rui grimaced as he leapt back.
"What was that you said?" Nel tilted his head with wide feral eyes. "'Get me next time?'"
A surge of ferocity blasted out from his body. "I'm right here."
For a moment, their eyes collided.
And the very next?
All hell broke loose.
