Everyone was confused.
Why was Rui launching Stingers so unreservedly?
Furthermore, why was he launching them when they all failed to land time and time again?
Nel was incredibly focused on avoiding each of them too.
He stared at Rui's toe every time there was even the slightest hint of the attack. Every ounce of his focus was dedicated to avoiding the Stinger, this was Rui's most lethal attack. As long as this could be avoided, Nel was quite confident he would in the long run.
WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH
Nel easily avoided the swift attacks.
POW POW
He even managed to land in some attacks as he dodged them.
Yet Rui didn't cease.
Every single person could sense he was extremely difficult to land the Stinger.
"He sure is betting everything on that technique." Fae mused.
Kane frowned.
He vaguely sensed something was off. Rui should have known that landing a lethal Stinger when Nel was paying full attention to it was impossible.
Nel was much faster and had incredibly sharp reflexes, senses and instincts. Furthermore, the Stinger was not a particular quick attack like speed jabs were.
As an evasive maneuverer, Kane could sense that the odds of the technique successfully landing were low. Even when Rui caught him very off-guard by exposing his Blink technique to him for the first time, he had only managed to get a surface wound, since then the effectivity of Blink had reduced as a trump card once Nel was aware of it.
Kane didn't understand what Rui was trying to do here.
WHOOSH
BAM
Nel avoided the Stinger while landing his own strike, still mindful of Rui's toe.
WHOOSH
POW
….
WHOOSH
POW POW POW
Everyone frowned as Rui ceded more and more space, reeling from Nel's impacts. He was previously using Phantom Step and Blink to avoid attacks, but for some reason he was simply tanking Nel's attacks, getting pushed back a result.
"HAHAHA." Nel guffawed as he eyed Rui's Stinger sharply, avoiding it. "I'MMA SEND YOU FLYING OUT."
BAM!
He managed to send Rui skidding away.
One meter away from the edge of the ring.
A hint of desperation flashed across Rui's face.
But Nel had arrived, Rui charged at him furiously.
The atmosphere contracted.
The sheer pressure from the concentration of the two boys wrung the very air!
This was the climax!
Rui launched the Stinger with Blink and Phantom Step one last time!
He drew every ounce of speed and power.
Every muscle.
Every cell.
They roared!
They roared, pushing forward.
Pushing forward towards victory.
And yet.
WHOOSH
…
Nel grinned.
He grinned like a madman.
He grinned, his body tilted as he watched the Stinger just fly past him.
Close.
Close!
Yet, far.
Too far.
It was in vain.
The attack had missed.
Nel narrowly dodged it, having focused all his attention into avoiding it.
Not even the mighty prowess of the Blink and Phantom Step could reach Nel
It was over.
Rui was at the edge, standing on one leg as Nel charged at him with immense momentum.
A ring-out was almost inevitable.
Despair, was inevitable.
BAM!
!!!
A powerful Flowing Canon impact landed cleanly on Nel's jaw from the far left, rocking his head wildly.
He staggered back, shocked!
Where had it come from?
Everybody was shocked.
Where did the attack come from?
The answer was simple.
It came from Rui. It was a simple Flowing Canon attack.
Nel simply failed to see it.
The attack soared past his awareness, striking his jaw from the left.
But why?
Why did Nel fail to perceive such a clear attack?
No one knew.
No one moved.
They simple bore witness.
The attack shook his brain. Nel was durable, but not even he could completely withstand the power of five Apprentice-level techniques crashing into his jaw unguarded and unprepared.
And yet.
He stood.
His brain shook.
Yet, he stood.
His vision blurred.
And yet. He. Stood.
He would not go down so easily!
He would win!
And yet...
Just as he charged forward.
PEW!
…
DRIP DRIP
"Huh...?" Nel murmured.
A sharp pain shot up from his neck as blood spurged out.
The Stinger had soared through the air once more, landing into his neck!
In his disarrayed state, the bridge had finally been gapped.
The Stinger reached Nel.
Rui... reached Nel.
"It's over..." Rui whispered.
BANG
The third unguarded strike to the jaw.
Brains weren't meant to be tanks.
Turned out, this applied to Nel as well.
THUD
He collapsed to the ground as his brain shut down due to blunt force trauma.
He was down.
Unmoving.
And he stayed that way.
"W-Winner; Apprentice Rui Quarrier!" The supervisor declared.
Rui fell to his knees, exhausted.
He glanced at Nel.
His plan had paid out.
But just barely.
('That was close...') He smiled bitterly as he thought back to his plan.
Inattentive Blindness Syndrome and psychological inertia.
The former was a psychological syndrome that was well-documented in field of psychological cognitive studies on Earth. It was the tendency of the brain's attention to be focused on one phenomenon causing the mind to be significantly less attentive of surrounding phenomenon.
The latter was a psychological phenomenon of the mind to continue with already established psychological patterns.
Rui had drawn Nel's attention to his toe because of the Stinger time and time again. Nel's attention had gradually grown more and more fixated on his toe as the Stinger was spammed increasingly. Furthermore, when Rui got pushed to the edge of the ring, his attention was further consumed by his own ring-out attack.
The Inattentive Blindness Syndrome had caused Nel to be much less aware of his surroundings, far more than was normal.
This tendency continued thanks to psychological inertia.
When Rui launched the Flowing Canon immediately after the Stinger, he launched it from the far right.
Nel barely dodged.
At that very moment, almost the entirety of his awareness and focus was on the Stinger.
It was then.
It was then that Rui launched a modest Flowing Canon from the far left, the exact opposite direction.
A simple follow-up attack.
Yet, the deadliest of them all.
It soared unhindered as the Inattentive Blindness Syndrome opened up a clean path forward.
It crashed into Nel's jaw, rocking his brain, stunning him for a few precious moments.
But this was enough.
It was now or never.
Rui had chosen now.
He had generated so much power he could feel his blood vessels almost bursting. Launching the attack least likely to be detected according to the VOID algorithm.
If this had failed, it would have been over.
But it hadn't.
"To think that research paper I published so long ago would end up saving the day." He laughed weakly.
The very first research paper he published in the field of combat sports was a modest amateurish research paper that aimed to demonstrate the positive correlation between higher knock-out success rates and the presence of the Inattentive Blindness Syndrome.
Almost fifty years later, this modest research paper had gone on to become the foundation of victory in his fight against Nel.
Who else could ever have the privilege to make such a statement?
"What a world..."
What a world indeed.
