The Martial Unity

Rui and Ieyasu didn't need any encouragement. The two of them had already had a plan. They lashed out at Master Zeamer with their full power, hoping to be able to pressure him so that he couldn't avoid them nearly as easily.

WHOOSH

Master Zeamer cleanly shifted away from both their attacks. The first attempt failed, yet neither of them was discouraged. They immediately followed suit, refusing to give him even a moment to breathe. Their raw speed actually exceeded his, catching up in just a brief moment.

'Oho...' Master Zeamer watched with interest as their steps synced, their attacks converged on with blazing speed, filling in the gaps of each other's attacks.

WHOOSH!

Master Zeamer avoided a diagonal kick from Ieyasu and a double strike from Rui.

Or so he thought,

FLICK

Rui's knuckle trimmed a bit of his long flowing beard with sheer friction, narrowly missing his head. They failed in actually landing a strike on the Martial Master, yet both of them only grew more driven as they pushed forward with greater vigor.

They watched each other more carefully, Ieyasu kept track of Rui's movement decisions from his mind while Rui predicted every movement that Ieyasu made. With this insight, they began adjusting better and better each time.

With each attack, their transitions and follow-ups grew smoother. The gap between each combo grew shorter and shorter.

Their steps, the moments of the inception of their attacks and maneuvers all grew increasingly aligned as they grew more and more accustomed to working with each other against a common opponent.

'Oho...' Master Zeamer's eyes widened as their timing and placement grew to reach a critical threshold.

BAM BAM!

Master Zeamer blocked their attacks for the first time, unable to casually evade them as he did before.

And yet, that did not mean that they were close to victory.

POW POW POW!

Rui grimaced in shock as extraordinarily fast blows crashed into his gut, finding him away. The pain hypnotic technique had not been dispelled, thus each technique felt excruciating.

Yet, he knew that was an illusion. Not just the pain, but the sheer speed of the man's attacks as well.

'His raw speed and power are well below both Ieyasu and myself. His Martial Body is vastly more powerful than ours, but with a Martial Heart, we significantly exceed it.' Rui narrowed his eyes. 'So why the hell couldn't I react to any of his blow?'

It appeared that he was not the only one.

BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM!

The Hypnomaster launched five consecutive blows across Ieyasu's body before the man could defend even a single time. Yet Rui's eyes widened with shock.

'His attacks were so slow. Why didn't Ieyasu react in time?'

From Rui's perspective, those blows were incredibly slow, yet Ieyasu's reactions seemed extremely dull and dragged. Ieyasu's expression grew grave with pain as he leaped back, grouping with Rui.

Rui's eyes widened as a realization struck him. 'Could it be...?'

"He's slowing down our perception of time," Ieyasu calmly clarified. "I peeked into your mind when he struck you with those blows, your thoughts became slow and dragged out."

'I figured as much.' Rui tutted.

He recalled what the Master had told him yesterday.

Not unless I wiped out its memories of the past day while I froze time.

'If he can freeze time with his Martial Heart and Mind, then it stands to reason he can speed up our perception of time, making his attacks seem much faster than they actually are.'

'Can you copy his techniques?' Rui glanced at Ieyasu.

The man simply shook his head.

"What's the matter?" Master Zeamer suddenly accelerated before them. "We're just getting started."

BAM BAM BAM!

He began pummeling them with incredibly swift and excruciating blows. Each blow was almost invisibly fast while their impacts seemed to strike like meteorites. Rui felt as though his flesh was burning while his muscles tore and his bones broke.

He almost activated Weaving Blood out of sheer instinct.

'Stop. This is just phantom pain. He's getting us to subconscious recoil due to our mind's subconscious tendency to avoid pain.'

It was a more sophisticated application of the Illusionary Dragon's abilities. It blindly applied pain across the entire body without associating it with a perceived cause, making it easier for Rui to ignore it.

In this case, although the pain was lesser, it was harder to ignore, requiring a much stronger will.

Yet they were the youngest Martial Seniors in history for a reason.

"Hyah!" Rui surged forward with a solid blow as Ieyasu launched a maneuver that covered all the holes in his attack in the opposite direction.

THWACK!

Master Zeamer's eyes widened with surprise as he blocked their heavy attacks, incurring a lot of damage to his arms. "Hoho...Admirable drive."

He warped their perception of time, swiftly scurrying around them in a blurring flash. Rui and Ieyasu stood back-to-back, waiting for him to arrive.

And he did.

STEP

The two of them immediately turned to the right, facing the Master.

Ieyau's eyes sharpened as he launched a flurry of blows at the Martial Master. Much to his surprise, the Martial Master chose to block all the attacks head-on as Rui and himself pummeled him with blows.

He didn't try any tricks like his perception of time or space manipulation, or anything else. He simply gritted his teeth as the two Martial Seniors blasted the elderly Martial Master with countless blows from the opposite direction.

Ieyasu's shock only grew when the elder Martial Master fell to the ground on one knee, before the other knee also followed suit.

It was almost too easy. The two Martial Seniors pummeled down the Martial Master with ease until he was flat on the ground, completely bruised and cut. He glanced up towards Rui with a puzzled expression.

And yet, he was unable to read his mind, much to his shock. Furthermore, Rui's expression was quite strange, an obnoxiously wide crude grin very much unlike him.

He glanced back down at the Martial Master, only to be greeted with an even greater shock.

The one on the ground was not Master Zeamer, it was actually Rui Quarrier!

Rui groaned in pain, bruised and cut, flat on the ground as he glared at Ieyasu.

Ieyasu glanced back up at the person standing opposite to him in confusion, only to find Master Zeamer standing where Rui had been standing a moment ago.

The two had magically switched places!

"Should we continue beating him up or should we give him a break?" Master Zeamer asked with an innocent expression.