The Martial Unity

Her expression intensified as she abandoned her reluctance.

She abandoned her misgivings.

She abandoned her qualms and compunctions.

She unshackled herself as she ceased treating this as a tournament match. She treated this like a life-and-death scenario.

Yet little did she realize that it was worse than that.

'His long-range offense is absurd. I need to close the distance.' Her eyes narrowed as she employed several techniques.

"Oh...?" Rui's eyes glinted with interest as several clones of Squire Frinjschia appeared. 'Interesting... A muscle memory version of Phantom Step eh?'

He had to admit that her Martial Path was potent. Potency as measured by how strong a Martial Artist comparatively was when one pitted them against another Martial Artist with the same quantity and quality of techniques.

Rui had to admit that her Martial Path was certainly potent. Their ability to enhance the technique's efficiency and effectiveness was super impressive. While the impact of her Martial Path on her strength was not as exaggerated as his own, it was not a reasonable standard to hold her to in the first place.

Rui tried his best to snipe the real one down with his Mighty Roar Flash Blasts, but even with his predictive model, the technique was too honed.

She ultimately managed to close the distance between them, even if barely.

"HYAH!" She threw her most powerful combos, hoping to overwhelm him for just a brief moment.

And yet...

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

Rui effortlessly weaved through her attacks like they didn't even exist.

BOOM!

She failed to dodge a powerful Flowing Canon as Rui corrected the attack trajectory to account for her predicted evasion trajectory.

"Rgh!" She grimaced, coughing blood as Reverberating Lance permeated the attack deeper into her body.

Yet, she had accomplished what she intended to.

CLASP!

Her arms and legs were firmly coiled around his arm.

'She knew that I would tag her despite her evasion.' Rui immediately engaged his whole body in the fight, lest she break his arm with the full power of her body. Grappling was a bit too different from striking, thus Rui made sure to verify his predictive model to make sure that there were no instances of failure due to that.

The two of them wrangled on the ground trying to get a more dominant position on the other.

He understood her intentions.

Timing was everything in striking. Timing could bridge differences in strength and speed. All it took was one well-timed strike to the temple or the jaw, and a smaller striker could feasibly knock out a larger striker.

The same was much less true for grappling in general. Grappling was much more a contest of effort and perseverance much more than it was a contest of timing.

Obviously, that did not mean timing didn't matter.

However, Squire Frinjschia was hoping she could diminish the spectacular all-around timing and placement that Rui had demonstrated by turning the battle into a grappling contest.

'You are also diminishing the weight of muscle memory... but if you can get rid of my predictive model by sacrificing your muscle memory, then it is worth it I suppose. Still...'

Rui's eyes narrowed. "You underestimate me."

Her eyes widened at those words. She shifted her weight momentarily, trying to get a better position.

But Rui had predicted that.

Instantly he rolled with that motion at the right moment, destabilizing her as he gained a dominant mounted position.

BAM BAM BAM!

He raised fists before raining down on her mercilessly with Outer Convergence and Reverberating Lance. Squire Frinjschia grimaced as she barely managed to defend against Rui's barrage.

Rui was doing this the hard way.

He could have used Thundercoil to momentarily gain a clear opportunity to get a rear chokehold on her. She would be unable to break out from his grip and would lose consciousness quickly.

But he didn't.

'Knocking her out or killing her will not awaken her Martial Heart.' Rui's eyes narrowed her as he continued pressuring her to her limit.

He had to admit, it didn't feel nice. He didn't enjoy torment.

'I'm sorry.'

BAM!

He broke a tooth with that strike.

She grimaced with a flash of ferocity in her eyes. It appeared that she was done being used as a punching bag.

Her hands clasped into a clap.

Rui's eyes widened as he leapt away.

BOOM!

An explosion of wind blasted from her. It appeared that she was willing to harm herself if it meant getting Rui off of her.

Yet it appeared that she wasn't willing to give up.

Or at least, that was what her sharp eyes conveyed.

Blinding fast jabs shot towards Rui, each faster than the last one. He narrowed his eyes as he exerted himself to the limit to cleanly evade all of them. Yet it appeared that she was far from done. Her movements grew sharper and sharper by the second, she flowed smoother and smoother as she pushed her body and mind to the very limit of what she could bring out from within her.

Her muscles burned.

Her bones strained.

Her joints creaked.

Yet she resolutely suffered. All in order to elevate herself to a level where she could defeat Rui. The sheer amount of damage she was inflicting upon herself by disregarding her own wellbeing was inconsequential to her.

She was willing to give her life if that was what it took to overcome Rui.

Yet even that fell short.

WHOOSH! BAM BAM BAM!

Rui cleanly evaded a powerful blow as he simultaneously landed three swift jabs from her blindspot. She grimaced as she launched herself forward with the ferocity of a tiger, throwing a flying knee kick to his face.

WHOOSH!

Rui side-stepped it with ease, launching a powerful palm jab into her ribs inflicting a deep bruise.

Every attack she launched failed.

Every defence she mounted crumbled.

Every manoeuvre she made was outpaced.

The sum of her life's accomplishments fell, one by one.

His merciless eyes pierced through everything she offered. She may as well have been transparent. He killed every hope of victory she had.

Yet the one thing he refused to kill was her.

She hadn't failed to notice his aversion to killing her. With the power that he had demonstrated, he could have done so had he wished to. He could have also knocked her out.

Yet he chose to destroy her Martial Art.

She felt a deep pain within her heart.

Something important was about to break.

When she closed her eyes, a familiar sight entered her mind.

A path.

One that she had treaded her entire life.

Yet horror and despair dawned upon her as she saw what was to become of it.

A dark formless void had descended on the path she treaded.

When she gazed into the abyss, the abyss gazed back into her. Its depths were deeper than anything she had ever seen in this world.

It loomed over her Martial Path.

Scratches had already appeared.

Soon they would turn into cracks, and eventually fragments.

A Martial Path that she had tread her entire life.

Gone. Erased. Nonexistent.

A life as a cripple would await her. A life without Martial Art. A life without pursuit of her Martial Path.

Something stirred deep within her. Deeper than she had ever reached.

Was she willing to live such a life?

Was she willing to become cripple?

Was she willing to lose pursuit of her Martial Path?

A single word escaped her mouth.

"No."

BADUMP!