The Martial Unity

Fae's palm rotated ferociously as it pummeled forward, the sheer torque she generated with the Whirlpool create a mini-tornado around her attack!

The moment her attack entered Hever's interception range, his hands lashed out in muscle memory, clasping her arm.

This was the deciding moment.

CLASP

"Hrng!" Hever gritted his teeth as he felt unbelievable force, pushing against him. The attack threatened to twist him along with it if he wasn't careful. He exerted every ounce of his grip strength to maintain hold of it.

And yet;

BOOM!!

('Shit-')

The attack slammed into his gut, churning his flesh.

The rotational force increased the amount of time he needed to successfully intercept, redirect and swing her.

He wasn't able to adjust the trajectory quick enough.

Fae's power in that moment had reached close to the limit a Martial Apprentice could achieve. Not a single person could remain calm in the face of such a display.

DRIP DRIP

"Huff... huff..." Hever exhaled as he ignored the flesh wound the Whirlpool had inflicted on him.

Fae simply watched him.

The match was as good as decided.

"What are you waiting for?" Hever calmly asked as he took his stance. "The fight isn't over until the supervisor declares it over. Come, I still stand."

The solemness of his unwillingness to admit defeat, no matter, what earned the admiration of the spectators as well as his opponent.

"You're correct." Fae took her stance. "It appears I was the one lacking."

What ensued was a long series of devastating blows, until eventually Hever collapsed.

"Winner; Apprentice Fae Dullahan." The supervisor declared.

The match earned a loud round of applause as both fighters shook hands.

"What a great fight." Rui told Fae as soon as they met up. "Good job, both of you." He said, turning to Hever.

"Thank you." Hever calmly replied, having joined them.

They all conversed as they talked about the fight, the matchups, the preliminary contest. As among the best of Martial Apprentices of their generation in the Academy, they had much to talk about.

"Only one more day." Fae huffed. "Even if I win my next match, my chances are all but over unfortunately."

"The same is true for me." Hever agreed. "Furthermore, your next match is not going to be easy to win."

"Indeed." Fae said, as she glanced at Nel, who was walking towards them after having been fully healed. Blood loss was a bit more complicated to heal and not something that happened quickly, not with low-grade potions.

"Nel." Rui addressed. "How are you?"

"Good." Nel shrugged, before throwing a competitive grin at Rui. "Next time I won't lose."

Rui smiled wordlessly.

Nel turned, grinning at Hever. "Hehe, you lost to palm girl. Don't worry, I'll avenge you tomorrow."

Hever and Fae simply stared at him as he laughed to himself.

"It's been a long time." Nel said, facing Fae with a mischievous grin. "You refused to fight me back then. because I wasn't an Apprentice back then. Well... I am now."

"And we'll be fighting tomorrow." Fae smiled wryly.

"I am interested in the outcome of that fight." Hever remarked. "However, the main act of the show tomorrow is surely..."

He glanced at Rui and Kane wordlessly.

Rui was ranked number one and Kane was ranked number two. They had the two highest scores and were scheduled to fight tomorrow.

Their fight would decide the outcome of the preliminary contest.

Whoever won would go on to become the representative of the Hajin branch of the Martial Academy.

One would expect to see restrained tension between them.

Yet where it was supposed to be, there was none.

The two interacted along with each other as if there was nothing to be said regarding the matter.

Unbeknownst to him, the two had already long come to an agreement on the issue.

There was nothing more that needed to be said.

Rui shrugged at his remark. "Personally, I'm quite interested in their fight as well." He said gesturing to Nel and Fae.

This wasn't a lie.

Two years ago, they had fought each other in the Martial Entrance Exam, securing first and second in the third round of the Martial Entrance Exam. However, their battle never reached a conclusion in the end. Rui had always wondered who would have won if they got fight till the very end.

Now, he would get to witness both of them going all out. Even if their chances of becoming representative were zero, they would not hold back and go all-out nonetheless.

This was another matchup Rui wasn't entirely sure about.

There wasn't an obvious compatibility advantage either side had. Fae definitely had much more offensive power than Nel did. Than anybody else did. Her speed and defense were quite respectable too.

On the other hand, Nel was much faster, more agile and more durable than she was.

Considering their personalities, temperaments and fighting styles the fight was likely to turn into a slugfest. This was the norm for both of them, and he didn't think either one of them would deviate from this established pattern.

If so, the fight would boil down to who was able inflict more damage to the other quicker.

Nel was an absolute beast that could launch extremely powerful attacks extremely quickly. The sheer rate at which he could inflict damage was extremely. In a head-on slugfest, there were very few that were in the same league as him.

Fae was one of them.

Every time he thought about her explosive palms, he found it difficult to bet against them. Especially when he thought about her Whirlpool attack. She had elevated her pinnacle lethal power to a much higher realm than Nel did.

However, Nel's defensive and evasive measure were far greater than Fae's.

Rui shook his head. He could go round and round about the matter with endless analysis and conjecture.

In the end, he would find out. The fight would unfold and outcome would tell him what he wanted to know.