Ian's defensive breathing technique was incredibly strong by itself. Rui was sure that it was stronger than all three of his defensive techniques combined.
POW!
An incredibly swift blow slammed into Rui's guard. Rui gritted his teeth as he used Inner Divergence, Elastic Shift and Acute Edge to mitigate as much of the impact as he could.
WHOOSH
Rui cleanly dodged the next attack with a well-timed feint, throwing a swift lower kick.
POW!
Ian merely threw an arrogant look at him. As if trying to say the blow didn't hurt him at all. The worst part was that it was probably true.
('Okay, let's try something else.')
Rui opened up some space between them, leaping back. Yet Ian immediately pursued, shifting to Lightning Breathing to increase his speed.
Yet rather than trying to retreat faster, Rui immediately paused and rushed back at Ian.
BAM!
A powerful impact crashed into Ian as Rui threw his most powerful blow; a Flowing Canon boosted with Outer Convergence, Vital Pressure, Parallel Walk and Balanced Direction. The sheer momentum and power of this attack was the highest of all of his attacks.
Not even Ian could shrug it off. He turtled behind his guard, even skidding back a meter from the impact.
It looked great, but Rui knew that the attack wasn't truly meaningful. Sure, it probably hurt and bruised him a bit, but in the long run that meant nothing. He needed to defeat Ian, not just hurt him.
WHOOSH
WHOOSH
WHOOSH
Rui evaded several strikes from Ian. His evasiveness was quite high, and he was confident of evading most of Ian's strikes.
Problem was that he was finding it really hard to develop a thorough adapted style. It was without a doubt the most difficult fighting style that Rui had ever had to try and adapt to. The sheer complexity of the issue at hand made it even worse than fighting all-rounders.
Rui had to cleanly navigate the issue with an incredible amount of thoroughness and care.
WHOOSH
POW POW POW!
Rui evaded a strike from him as he threw a flurry of strikes.
He made some observations about Ian based on all the data at hand. Most of it was centered on how he employed the breathing techniques.
He used the Lightning Breathing any time he wasn't defending or attacking. Every time he did attack, he coupled it with Fire Breathing when he was about to launch an attack and completely shifted to Fire Breathing when he was sure the attack would land.
BAM!
Ian managed to get him with a powerful haymaker. Rui grimaced as he retreated. Ian's offense was not not something Rui could afford to be hit with too often. His defense was good, no doubt, but Ian was at t a level where he could hit above what Rui could consistently take.
Normally Rui dealt with this issue by adapting a complete style suit to taking Ian down, but he didn't have that here.
POW POW POW!
Ian managed to land a flurry of weighted jabs yet again. He was almost adapting Rui in his own way. This was the problem with someone with such an unnatural level of flexibility.
WHOOSH
Rui feinted avoiding a strike as he tried to land a Flowing Canon, but alas.
POW!
Ian intercepted him with Lightning Breathing.
The fight prolonged for a bit, yet the scales only ever tipped in his favour.
BAM!
A powerful kick sent Rui flying away.
('Guess I have no choice.') Rui sighed. He could not really win as things continued. The need for using atleast another trump card was starting to get unbearable. He would lose at this rate, without a doubt.
But Rui had to wait, a trump card was most powerful and effective when it was unknown.
Ian chased after him launching a powerful weight straight punch.
Rui waited as much as he could, ducking only when the punch was incredibly close. The punch extended closer and closer as Ian drew in closer and close.
Yet before it could hit Rui;
PEW!
Rui's right toe went flying as it burrowed itself in Ian's gut.
Rui had waited until the moment Ian switched from Lightning Breathing to Fire Breathing to launch a more powerful attack when he saw Rui unmoving initially.
This was effectively the same way he unleashed the Stinger on Fae. The difference was that this was even more effective because Ian had already transitioned from Lightning Breathing to Fire Breathing, meaning this had occurred after his speed had dropped.
He had extended too much with trying to land that strike on Rui that Rui's toe had already long exited his perifoveal vision.
Furthermore, he had been not using any Lightning Breathing doing the end of that strike, focusing purely on Fire Breathing trying to launch a powerful attack on Rui's face, trying to knock him out.
This was exactly what Rui was aiming for.
Only when Ian was not using his Lightning Breathing could this tactic work, and so Rui waited for a moment where he had a high probability of not using Lightning Breathing. He had to time it carefully because otherwise he simply would not be able to apply the Stinger that effectively.
Ian's Lightning Breathing and Earth Breathing were both quite powerful and would have foiled this attack after all.
The wound was deep in his abdomen. Rui had aimed for the diaphragm, the muscle that was the source of his breathing techniques.
"You bastard...!" Ian cursed in pain as he retreated. The diaphragm was quite deep and thus Rui was not able to mortally wound the muscle, however just inflicting a wide enough open wound on him was probably good enough to cripple his breathing techniques partially, if not entirely.
It would all depend on how good Ian's endurance was. In the worst case scenario, the difference wouldn't be significant enough, and Rui would effectively need to beat only a slightly weaker Ian who was also now aware of the Stinger.
He would find out eventually.
