The Martial Unity

Alas, he too underestimated Rui.

WHOOSH!

Where Rui was a moment ago, was nothing besides an empty image. His eyes widened in shock as he realized that Rui had side-stepped him with ease.

('He dodged me despite attacking them?') He gritted his teeth. "Damn you!"

He launched a barrage of powerful and swift blows, breathing deeply as he manipulated the entirety of the air behind to push his body forward, increasing his speed and power tremendously.

Yet all of them failed to reach Rui. He evaded them with a degree of proficiency that only Kane could surpass.

Yet it wasn't the failure of the attacks that hurt Squire Varay the most.

It was the fact that Rui wasn't even looking at him.

Everyone could see that he had firmly turned his attention back to the two Martial Squires that he had been targeting.

That was a statement.

A statement that Squire Varay wasn't even worth acknowledging.

Hardly anyone could believe what they were seeing. Two grade-ten Martial Squires were being surgically bullied by powerful attacks from a ridiculous distance away, while the third couldn't even touch him despite being right in front of his face.

He couldn't even get Rui to acknowledge his existence.

His eyes grew bloodshot as an expression of pure rage covered his face. He prided himself as someone who stood at the very epitome of the Squire Realm. While there were Martial Squires stronger than him, he was not weak by any means.

Yet standing before Rui's gargantuan figure that refused to even meet his eyes, he felt as though he had gone back twenty years ago when he fought a Martial Squire for the first time after breaking through to the Squire Realm.

"YOU WILL NOT DISRESPECT ME!" He bellowed as he went all-out.

He used every limb to launch attacks at Rui, hoping to simply overcome him with effort, making it untenable for the young man to ignore him or continue dodging him with ease.

It was then that something changed.

Rui's movements began growing slower and lesser.

Yet his dodges became cleaner and smoother.

His movement speed began reducing as his muscles began growing even bigger and denser compared to before.

Squire Varay's eyes widened. He didn't fully understand what was happening, but he managed to grasp the gist.

('He's sacrificing speed for power…!')

For a moment, he was just speechless.

Here he was doing everything in his power to actually land a hit on Rui, yet the man had the audacity to not only ignore him but also lower his speed as though evading him wasn't challenging at all.

The fact of the matter was that Rui didn't need the speed of Void Forestep anymore. His predictive model on Squire Varay had already reached a point where he could avoid the man without enhanced speed. Instead, he turned on Hypertrophic Surge to the maximum, doubling his offensive power, and causing even more damage as he accurately struck both Squire Isin and Draxel with even more powerful attacks.

Squire Varay on the other hand, felt and looked like a fool as Rui effortlessly dodged attacks that he predicted via the many passive and active patterns that he had spotted in Squire Varay's movements.

At that moment, Squire Varay snapped.

"RARGH!" He abandoned all wariness and defense as he simply rushed forward, determined to strike Rui no matter what. His fist moved so abysmally fast, that the friction with the atmosphere caused the air around it to ignite!

Yet not even that reached Rui.

WHOOSH!

Rui evaded a hook with a step forward, closing the distance with a charge.

He was looking straight at the shocked man with a smirk, meeting his gaze for the first time.

He had been waiting for that moment.

It was then that Squire Varay realized that the entire time, he had been the real target, not the other two Martial Squires.

Unfortunately, it was the last thought that flashed through his mind before the world went dark.

BOOM!!!

A powerful Flowing Canon amplified with the full power of the Hypertrophic Surge technique, as well as Outer Convergence and Reverberating Lance, crashed into the man's ribcage.

CRACK CRACK CRACK!

The attack left a deep dent in the man's chest even as it launched him across the entire colosseum.

BOOM!!!

A giant crater was formed at the end with Squire Varay's mangled body at its epicenter.

For a moment, everything was silent.

Nobody moved.

Nobody could move.

It took a moment for them to understand what had happened. But once that moment passed, all hell broke loose amongst the spectators. The gravity of what happened fully dawned on all those who bore witness

Not only was Rui fighting three grade-ten Martial Squires simultaneously, each of whom formed a temporary coalition against him, but he pushed back, resisted, and was decisively winning, going so far as to take down one of them despite fighting all three at the same time!

Squire Isin and Squire Draxel gritted their teeth with grim expressions on their wounded faces. Their entire body was slowly healing, but it wasn't fast enough.

Rui's mouth had already pursed, ready to continue bombarding them with even more powerful attacks.

Just the sight of him sent shivers crawling up their skin.

"I FORFEIT!" Squire Isin screeched just before Rui launched his attacks.

Rui's eyes flashed towards Squire Draxel, his final remaining opponent before launching his attack.

THWOOM!

('You bitch!') Squire Draxel cursed with venomous hatred. "Wait! I forfe-!"

Unfortunately, it was too late.

BOOM!!!

The very land hoisting the entire colosseum shook as Rui's tier five Transverse Resonance crashed into Squire Draxel.

The man gritted his teeth, activating his most powerful Hurricane Jab to minimize the damage as much as possible.

Yet he was swept away by the attack nonetheless.

The Squire-level barriers beneath the spectator stands broke as the attack blasted through them, leaving the colosseum entirely along with Squire Draxel's corpse.

The attack generated tremors that reverberated across the entire town.

Just enough to be noticed, not enough to do any harm.

The battle ended as everybody witnessed what was nothing less than a shadow of the power of the Senior Realm within the Seonmun Champion.