Rui's perfect aim had battered Squire Crillian significantly. He had constantly aimed for Squire Crillian's vital spots with potent and powerful Sonic Bullets, causing the man to accrue too much damage to have any chance of winning, most likely.
Yet the man's expression grew grave when he saw that Rui had already caught up with him after blasting him from the sky. What had shocked him was that Rui had gotten his aim perfect despite the fact that he had moved nearly a kilometer away from Rui!
The fact that Rui still managed to launch a potent attack that knocked him out of the sky from such a great distance away was beyond shocking right now, but he had more important matters at the moment.
Surviving.
The damage disparity between them was large. Rui had negated almost every single strike that the latter had launched at him, bar one. Whereas Rui had pummeled him with a large number of potent Sonic Bullets that had hurt him. The damage wasn't too much, but it was enough that it would serve as an advantage to Rui in their fight.
Furthermore, Squire Crillian was cognizant enough to realize that Rui also probably had a stamina advantage at the moment. Sky-walking was quite energy-intensive, especially when used at maximum speed continuously for quite a while to fail to avoid powerful attacks while Rui had been stationary the entire time.
However, these two factors would be most problematic if Squire Crillian was trying to win, however, he was also cognizant enough to know that help was probably on its way. All he needed to do was last.
In fact, if he managed to hold Rui back, then he would also get to capture the annoying bastard!
Squire Crillian's eyes blazed with fury and exhilaration as he gave Rui a wide, bloody grin. He launched himself at Rui, putting his arms together before him as he charged forward.
('He wants to tank the attacks with a guard and force his way through to reach me.') Rui mused.
"RAAAA-!"
BAM!
A powerful torque-empowered kick slammed into his jaw from the side. The sheer impact, having caught him off guard, caused his body to droop as he felt immensely dizzy.
POW!
The final strike to the jaw sealed the deal as the blunt-force trauma exceeded the threshold, even by Martial Squire standards.
THUD
The man fell to the ground
Rui sighed. "Idiot. You're not the only one who can use torque, you know? I'm a big Taekwondo fan."
Rui knew that if he engaged in what the man wanted, it was unlikely that he would succeed in the mission. While the Pathfinder technique was certainly powerful, it was not a lethal technique against Martial Squires. It would hurt, bruise, cut, and perhaps even crack, but it most likely would not be able to take down a grade-four Martial Artist this quickly.
At least, not while Rui himself was a grade four Martial Artist.
Thus, Rui swiftly switched tactics as he employed his opponent's own strengths against him to launch a game-ending blow to the side of his jaw with a powerful spinning kick.
('I don't have much time.')
Rui was aware of this. He quickly knelt down next to the Martial Artist's unconscious body, turning him up as he stiffened his index finger.
SPLAT!
Blood spurted from deep within the wound in his eye as his heart stopped beating due to the irreparable brain damage caused by the deep jab. The brains of Martial Squire were evolved, however, they were still nowhere near strong enough to withstand the power of a Martial Squire directly unprotected.
As soon as Rui confirmed that he was dead, he took off. He knew that the Martial Squires of the Kingdom of Violis most likely wouldn't take long to get here given the fact that they could travel faster than the speed of sound. Especially in an emergency.
Rui immediately dashed away from the scene as he headed back to the Kandrian Empire.
He immediately sent the mission completed notification to the Martial Union that would inform the client that the mission had been completed.
Rui on the other hand, thought about his fight against Squire Crillian. While the Fluc Earther performed very well, negating almost all of the great power of his opponent, it wasn't perfect and certainly had shortcomings. Furthermore, Rui didn't think that the Flux Earther technique was nearly as groundbreaking and revolutionary as the Pathfinder technique was.
He didn't like it, but there was an objective reality to techniques. If he gave the Flux Earther technique to the Earth Sect, he highly doubted he would receive another million Martial credits. Rui suspected it probably would not earn him more than a hundred thousand Martial credits.
Unlike the Pathfinder technique, the Flux Earther technique simply wasn't grade ten. Rui suspected that it would probably be graded as a grade eight technique. After all, it could negate impacts much greater than what the Martial Artist would generally be able to defend against, and it was especially compatible with him because it worked most effectively and reliably when the user had foreknowledge of the incoming attack, which Rui did have thanks to the VOID algorithm.
Grade eight defensive techniques were techniques that generally required an affinity for defensive techniques and talent for Martial Art in general. Rui would normally not be able to master such techniques within a reasonable timeframe, and thus would usually avoid grade-eight techniques. The fact that he had mastered such a technique was thanks to his synergy with it.
Thus, while Project Bounce was not as paradigm-shattering and groundbreaking as the end results of Project Sniper, Rui could still take pride in the end result as one that allowed him to go past his conventional limit.
The Pathfinder technique, on the other hand, was the gift that kept giving. The synergy between the ODA system and the VOID algorithm was more potent in combat than he had ever given it credit.
