The Martial Unity

Rui had never encountered a battle where nearly the entirety of the VOID algorithm was countered by something so antithetical to it.

The pattern recognition system was countered by a lack of patterns.

The Metabody system was kept at bay for fear of being copied and improved.

The two most powerful elements were simultaneously sealed.

Not even Meera or the abyssfeeder had invalidated the core of his Martial Art so well.

Rui gained a brief respite by increasing the complexity of thought through the Mind Palace, confounding Ieyasu.

And yet...

SPLAT!

A single attack killed his momentum.

The atmosphere plummeted.

The jubilation.

The energy.

The high.

Ieyasu cut through all of it in a single strike.

Rui grimaced as he fell back, feeling a gash on his chest created by the sheer friction of an elbow swipe.

He glanced back at Ieyasu, narrowing his eyes.

The guardians watched with abysmal shock as Ieyasu instantly crushed a reversing trend.

They shivered as an enormous amount of peril and bloodlust radiated from the core of his being.

He stared at Rui with dark abysses for eyes.

"I'm you."

His eyes intensified.

"I'm a you that you will never become."

His body shook with power, adopting a stance.

"A you that you will be too dead to become."

WHOOSH!

Rui's eyes widened, barely managing to throw together a guard.

BOOM!!!

A powerful blow crashed into him at a speed that Rui could barely perceive. He grimaced as it launched him to the other side of the colosseum.

'He's absurdly faster and stronger than before!'

At the start, their performance parameters were equal. Yet no one had missed Ieyasu's continuous escalation in output.

No one had been able to gauge the reason for it.

No except Rui.

BAM BAM BAM!

Rui grimaced as he defended himself from an incredibly swift and heavy barrage of blows, leaping backward. 'Patterns increase your predictability but...they also increase your output.'

Choosing the best course of action out of the many possible options generally led to patterns, yet it was still stronger than if sub-optimal choices were made. Ieyasu was currently replicating the patterns that Rui had cultivated and refined through combat and his mind his entire life. The more he did that, the more he was able to bring out of himself.

Ieyasu rushed forward with a blistering speed, reduced to nothing but the haziest of blurs even in the eyes of the most powerful guardians.

WHOOSH!

He crossed the distance between them in an instant, throwing a blindingly fast blow aimed at Rui's head.

A blow meant to end a fight.

WHOOSH!

Rui barely avoided the strike as he leaped backward. Yet Ieyasu had long read his mind, refusing to let the distance open up by even the slightest bit of an inch.

WHOOSH!

Avoided by the sharpest of edges. Yet avoided nonetheless as Rui crouched in evasion before rushing backward. He avoided having too many dominant conscious thoughts. Which was difficult for him, since his mind normally furiously raced with thought.

Yet old habits died hard. Especially when they carried over to another life after having already died once.

'How do I adapt and evolve a man that copies everything he sees?'

Until he answered that question, he would not be able to win this fight.

After all, in this fight, Ieyasu was Rui. A statement that not even Rui could deny after seeing how identically the man copied him.

He was Rui.

'He is...me?'

His eyes widened.

The simplest of thoughts entered his mind.

'Then I just have to crush myself.'

Nobody missed the switch.

Not the Martial Seniors.

Not the guardians.

Not Kane.

Certainly not Ieyasu.

'You...' His eyes narrowed.

"Hehe. Hahaha."

Chills crawled up the skin as innocent euphoric laughter contrasted with the intensity of the battle that unfolded before them.

A disturbing sight.

'If killing myself is the price of victory. Then so be it.'

If one looked into his eyes, one would see a glint of madness.

Yet if one looked deeper, something much darker could be seen.

An endless void.

Those eyes fixed on Ieyasu as he ruthlessly began picking apart his own Martial Art.

Every flaw.

Every inadequacy.

Every imperfection.

These patterns represented who he was. The culmination of the essence of his being manifested in war.

Yet he didn't care.

He tore them apart with cruelty.

The very act of doing so hurt him deeply.

Deeper than he ever imagined.

The void inside him threatened to consume his own Martial Path like it had done many others.

Yet he pushed forward.

He rushed forward.

For the first time in his life, he would be forming a predictive model of himself in real time.

It was something that could only work if Ieyasu fully copied Rui.

And now that he had, this course of action now became a real possibility.

'I can do it. I will do it. I will crush you and myself if that is the price to be paid!'

This was the realization that Rui had made a while ago. He couldn't use the pattern recognition system against someone who had no patterns. Yet the moment he copied Rui's movement decision-making, he was no longer an empty abyss. He was a reflection.

A reflection of Rui himself.

Then it was himself that he needed to become the counter to.

He had already confirmed that Ieyasu couldn't copy the core of his Martial Art. The VOID algorithm, among other things, was contained in the massive information database and processor that was the Mind Palace.

An abysmal amount of information flashed through the Mind Palace in ways that Ieyasu was unable to comprehend. Yet it did not strictly matter as long as he could continue copying Rui's movements.

His ability to read his mind allowed him to foresee his attacks in addition to borrowing his strength.

A Martial Art that not only replicated power but elevated it with his own innate physicality, while giving him the ability to read their minds.

A Martial Art that many would easily regard as the pinnacle.

BAM BAM BAM!

Ieyasu's expression sharpened as he exerted himself to blast Rui with powerful blows. Rui leaped away, looking to gain a moment of respite.

Yet it was not to be.

BOOM!

He blasted Rui with a powerful tier-five Transverse Resonance, inflicting massive wounds on Rui's body.

"I won't allow you to kill yourself."

One could feel the cruelty in his words.

"Your death... is reserved for my Martial Heart."

The battle soared in intensity as both Martial Artists fought for more than just the outcome of the battle.