The Martial Unity

"Tsk." Rui frowned. ('Not incompetent, are you?')

His eyes narrowed as the three of them managed to regroup. Their eyes turned towards him, flashing with a predatory glint.

They immediately began moving in his direction with Squire Draxel and Isin in the lead and Varay trailing a little behind. This slowed them down quite a bit. Rui was fast enough to outpace them as long as they tried moving as a group, but that was a strategy that would not lead to his victory.

He was the one who was on a time limit, not them. That strategy would simply lead to him tiring out, and them taking their time to take him down.

Squire Isin and Draxel had cleverly inferred that Rui did not want to engage with them in close quarters, which is why they chose to lead the charge, hoping to try and confront him while Squire Varay trailed behind to make sure that Rui couldn't use the strategy he did before.

Rui had hoped to take them down with a divide-and-conquer strategy, but it appeared that the three of them were smart enough to not fall for that.

Unfortunately, they were underestimating him if they thought that such simple measures were enough to curb his strategy.

('If I cannot divide you by with tactics, then I will divide you with technique.') Rui inhaled deeply, pursing his lips.

When his mouth opened, two powerful sonic bullets flew out, flying straight toward Squire Isin and Squire Draxel. The two of them froze in their tracks in surprise as the two attacks forced them to use all their defensive measures to block it. Squire Draxel employed his technique to dispel as much of the power as he could, Squire Isin merely blocked, skidding back.

Yet Rui was not done, he continued firing sonic bullets at only the two of them, and not Squire Varay. Everybody watching furrowed their eyebrows as they witnessed Rui switching his target from Squire Varay to the two Martial Squires that he had been trying to avoid. The two targeted Martial Squire gritted their teeth at the onslaught.

Even if it was only to half the full potency of the technique, Rui was using Hypertrophic Surge, which meant that the sheer amount of offensive power that every individual attack contained was enormous. Squire Isin was a pure lethal offensive Martial Squire, she did not have a particularly strong defense.

Her defense was her offense. She was accustomed to killing many Martial Squires in an instant by freezing all the water in their bodies to extremely low temperatures. Yet this lethality could not be applied defensively to aid in a situation where she was being pummeled from a distance.

Both she and Squire Draxel retreated a bit. Accuracy of aim reduced exponentially over distance, this was a known principle that could be employed against mid-range Martial Squires. As long as they could make Rui waste enough energy by making him relentlessly attack and miss in an attempt to keep them away, they would win in the long run.

They were like sharks, looming in the distance, waiting for an opportunity to swoop in for the kill once Rui no longer had the energy to keep them at bay while most of his attacks would fail to reach them due to the greater distance that opened between them.

It was a fine strategy in theory, Rui even commended them for half-decent strategic considerations.

There was just one issue.

Every single attack reached them.

It didn't matter how far they went, or how much they moved around. Every single attack that Rui launched crashed into them, no matter the position, direction, and inclination they were at relative to him. They hoped that he would have to waste a lot of energy to ensure that the two of them didn't reach close quarters and kill him, either through freezing or through the torque twister.

Yet Rui did not waste any energy at all.

No.

His attacks were not desperate barrages from a man who was cornered. Instead, they were surgically precise and accurate actions performed with the bare minimum amount of energy.

The entire audience realized that they were witnessing something unprecedented.

Squire Isin and Draxel had already distanced themselves by more than a kilometer from Rui.

Yet every single attack continuously struck them!

It didn't seem to matter how and where they moved. It was as though Rui's attacks were destined to strike them!

How on Earth was Rui striking them so perfectly from such a distance without even looking at them?!

Only one man understood what was happening.

('This… This is his Pathfinder.') Master Deivon's eyes widened in amazement. He only knew because Rui had sold them the technique.

However, there was something off.

('The Pathfinder technique is meant for static and stationary targets. Yet he's sniping them perfectly despite their rapid and sharp movements to throw him off.') His eyes narrowed. ('The only way he could do that is if…')

The deep insight that came with being a Martial Master led him to the answer that befuddled all other spectators.

It was only then that he understood the profound depth of his Martial Art.

('No… I'm just barely uncovering the surface… I don't understand. Just how…?') His thoughts trailed off as he watched in rapt attention as Rui displayed astounding prowess.

Squire Draxel and Isin rapidly began suffering greater wounds as their dodging and distancing measures miserably failed against the Void Pathfinder technique. At this point, even if they wanted to step forward and close the distance, they couldn't. Rui pushed them back with stronger attacks every time they attempted to close the distance.

Yet, he only enjoyed this advantage for no more than a few seconds in real-time.

Squire Varay appeared behind him in his blind spot with a furious expression and a charged attack.

('I won't let you have things your way!')

He launched a blindingly fast attack at Rui's back, hoping to disrupt him just enough to allow the other two to close the distance and kill him in that timeframe.