The Martial Unity

"Take your stances." The supervisor instructed.

Hever shifted as he took his modest stance. He distributed his weight equally between both feet, putting his left foot forward and his right foot back as a support. His hands were open, placed at a height precisely in between his chest and waist. They were in interception position, ready to intercept all attacks that Rui threw at him.

"I'm looking forward to fighting you." Rui said as he hopped lightly between his feet, with both hands in front of him perfectly positioned for speedy jabs.

This stance sacrificed power for speed and mobility. Rui had seen that Hever was comfortably able to handle even the power of Nel without any problems for an extended period of time. There was no point in trying to overpower Hever. The only person who had chance of accomplishing that in the entire Academy was Fae, everybody else could only lower their head to his obtuse counter-offensive mastery.

"As am I." Hever calmly replied. Rui was not the only one paying attention to his rivals and contenders. Hever had long since identified Rui as one of the biggest obstacles in the entire Academy for the preliminary contest.

Especially since Rui was also ranked higher than he was at the moment.

"Begin!" The supervisor commenced the match.

Rui shuffled as he drew closer to Hever.

Hever simply waited.

Rui threw a jab only for Hever calmly intercept it.

WHOOSH

A feint. The Phantom Step technique.

Rui exploited the opening to throw the quickest jab he could!

Yet, the very next moment;

BAM!

Rui grimaced in pain as he skidded away. Even with the application of Inner Divergence and Elastic Shift. The throw hurt like hell. Even with Primordial Instinct, his reactions were inferior to Hever's!

He quickly got up, launching himself at Hever throwing a jab.

WHOOSH

BAM!

Rui skidded away groaning in pain.

('As expected. I cannot beat him with such an easy tactic.') Rui mused as he got up. If Hever was not aware of the Phantom Step technique, then Rui was certain he would be able to use it at the right moment and at the right place to create an opening he could successfully exploit.

However, Rui had used the Phantom Step technique many times in this preliminary contest, and Hever was clearly prepared for it, anticipating that Rui would use this technique in this manner.

Not that this surprised Rui. If he were in Hever's place, he would have made this realization the second he saw himself using the Phantom Step technique. He had anticipated that this would not work against the careful Hever.

However, just being careful was not enough to foil a high-grade technique like Phantom Step. The biggest reason had to do with the Hever's muscle memory quickness, it was so quick, that even after falling for a feint, he was still quick enough to respond to Rui's real attack in time!

Rui couldn't help but admire his sheer mastery of a single technique, that allowed him to crush so many powerful techniques and attacks.

He stopped attacking. Having already cleanly failed twice, he did not expect anything to change even if he continued, it was a fool's errand. He was not going to fight foolhardily like Nel and continue attacking over and over.

He dropped his guard, circling around Hever at a distance. The best part about fighting Hever was that Rui did not have to worry about being voluntarily attacked. Hever had mastered only one technique, and it purely counter-offensive, he had no pure offensive potential. This meant that Rui had fully grasped the initiative in this fight. He could leisurely do whatever he wanted and Hever would not press him.

Thus, he took his time, thinking and analyzing.

Hever continuously shifted; rotating to ensure Rui was always directly in front of him at all times.

('So the technique works best when he's facing his opponent.') Rui conjectured. ('Or perhaps it works worst or not at all when his back is facing his opponent.')

Rui thought of ways he could exploit this, but eventually shook his head, it was too difficult.

"Do I really have to use that?" Rui murmured.

He had inputted Dalen's capabilities as well as his own into the VOID algorithm, and had long begun analyzing their fight with algorithmic procedures of the VOID algorithm. It wasn't that he hadn't obtained any solutions, it's just that Rui was rather reluctant of using the solutions he had deduced through the algorithm.

('Sigh, no choice.') He shook his head. At the very least, Dalen was easily in the top five, if not top three in the entire Academy.

He took solace that he wouldn't be wasting his final trump card against someone who was unworthy or could be defeated through other ways.

"Fuuu..." Rui focused.

He suspected he had one chance. If this failed, the odds of it succeeding again were lower than the first time. Such was the nature of all trump cards.

Especially for this one.

He could not afford to fail.

But what was new?

Hever narrowed his eyes as the burden on his mind escalated. His muscles grew tauter and his alertness heightened. His instinctual sense of danger heightened with the sheer amount of physical and mental energy Rui was gathering. He knew Rui was an intelligent fighter, he would not simply try to replicate completely failed attempts with more effort and hope they would magically succeed, whatever he was trying was certainly going to be new.

Rui shuffled closer and closer, controlling every single movement carefully. He paused at a distance of one meter away.

The pressure was immense. The air was taut.

Hever could vaguely sense Rui was waiting for something.

But for what?

He didn't know.

Whatever was coming was big.

Yet, what he didn't expect was...

He would never see it coming in the first place.

BLINK

Suddenly, Rui was right in front of his face!

It was a takedown charge!