The atmosphere was perilous. Before such oppressive pressure, even Martial Apprentices were scared stiff.
A second Squire-level aura bathed the battlefield as Rui stripped away his mind mask. The two Martial Squires made their presence known. The fate of the battle rested upon the conclusion of the battle between them. Even if the human and the Martial Apprentice forces of one side won, if the Martial Squire of the opposing side lost, then they would still lose. They could not defeat a Martial Squire who had mastered his power.
The dust cleared as the two Martial Squires got a close look at each other.
The man who stood at a distance from Rui was a surprisingly young man, perhaps several years older than Rui. Rui could sense that he was similar to himself, someone who had somewhat recently begun his journey in the Squire Realm. At the very least he wasn't as strong as someone like Squire Kyrie who had mopped the floor with Rui even after he became a Martial Squire.
It was not going to be an easy battle if Rui chose to fight it in the first place.
"Heh..." Rui grinned at the sight of the man.
Rui had already suspected this scenario was a possibility. He didn't how it was possible. How did the Martial Union not know this ahead of time? This was almost certainly something that the old general knew, clearly. This was what he was hiding, there was no doubt about that in Rui's mind.
He didn't know how or why this happened, but frankly, he cared even less. This was one of the possibilities he had suspected, but it was also one he wished occurred rather than hoping against. Why had he been yearning to undertake higher-grade missions? It was all so that he could fight full-fledged Squire-level threats!
Now that he had been prematurely blessed with the opportunity to fulfill his wish, he was not going to let it go. This was very evident in the frightening bloodlust in his aura that drove chills down the spines of all those who experienced it.
Rui had no intention of running away. He was going to fight and defeat that Martial Squire, no matter what!
The two Martial Squires didn't even bother exchanging words with each other. They had already communicated everything worth communicating.
All that was left was the battle.
For a brief moment, nothing happened.
Every soul was still.
Something had to give.
And something did.
BOOM!!!
The very ground beneath them crumbled as the two Martial Squires pushed at it, propelling forward. The very atmosphere recoiled in terror as their every movement generated enormous wind currents that blew everybody away.
BAM!
The two collided fists, causing a devastating shockwave to emerge from their clash. It expanded outwards, launching humans into the air. Only the Martial Apprentices were unperturbed by the force.
"RARGH!" The Martial Squire threw a heavy attack toward Rui, aiming for his face.
WHOOSH
Rui ducked as he launched a swift and sharp straight kick with his right leg, aiming straight for the jaw of his Martial Squire.
POW!
The attack connected, much to Rui's surprise. Yet what surprised him, even more, is that he shook it off relatively easily despite flying high into the air. He didn't seem particularly shaken or damaged at all. There wasn't the slightest bruise on his jaw despite eating a kick to it head-on.
WHOOSH
Rui took to the air and launched himself after the man.
POW POW POW
The man didn't even bother defending himself as he simply took Rui's strikes head-on. Rui frowned, confused, it was a bizarre sensation. Rui was going his best to inflict as much damage on his opponent as possible, it felt distinctly ineffective. As though the impact of his strike were being muffled in some strange way.
This was especially hard to comprehend when he was constantly using Reverberating Lance to permeate the damage as deep as possible. It was a powerful technique that increased the lethality of his strikes significantly, yet for some reason, even this technique didn't do too much to him.
POW!
Rui drove his fist into his opponent's abdomen, trying to burrow it as deep as he could.
BOING
('Hm.') Rui knitted his eyebrows as he stepped away from his opponent, momentarily leaving them at an impasse. ('What was that?')
He felt as though he had hit a bouncy beach ball, it was a bizarre sensation.
('His skin and flesh...') Rui realized with wide eyes. ('They're like extremely elastic rubber!')
He clearly recognized that there was something off about the man's body based on the sensation that the man's skin and flesh gave him. He was cognizant enough to realize that while he was indeed using a Squire-level technique that contributed to his defense, it was not the cause for the strangeness of his skin and flesh.
('It must be a feature of his Martial body.') Rui realized.
The Martial Union had developed many evolution procedures that gave the body many different and strange features. The only reason Rui didn't experience any of them in the discovery of his Martial Body was that he was an all-rounder and thus had undergone an evolution process that gave his body general features.
However, it was clear that this was not the case for the young man. Not only had he gained highly elastic flesh, but he also had a technique that allowed him to maximize that feature of his Martial body. This likely meant that there was enormous compatibility between his defensive technique and his physique. This was something Rui still lacked at this point, and the difference showed. Even when he combined Outer Convergence and Reverberating Lance, he was unable to inflict almost any damage whatsoever on his opponent!
('This is going to be a really rough battle.') Rui sighed inwardly as the two Martial Squires circled each other.
Yet, despite that, he grinned. Despite the difficulty of the challenge before him, he could only feel excitement and enthusiasm.
