The Martial Unity

"What is the point of this training, Master Zeamer?" Ieyasu asked his Master many years ago.

The two sat opposite each other, meditating.

"To help you defend your mind from external hypnotic influences," Master Zeamer replied simply. "This training will help you break out hypnotic techniques to a certain limit.

"Certain limit?"

"Mmm. Some hypnotic techniques are too powerful," Master Zeamer had remarked.

"What can I do to break out of such powerful techniques if this training fails?"

Master Zeamer considered his question for a moment before laughing heartily.

"Nothing."

BOOM!

Ieyasu blocked a powerful blow from Rui with a severe expression as he recalled what Master Zeamer had told him many years ago. His breathing was labored, preventing him from drawing out his full power. It certainly prevented him from activating even a single breathing technique.

It made him weaker.

Slower.

Tired.

His lungs felt like they were bound by powerful adhesives, restricting all movement. His body felt like a hill weighed it down. His entire body gasped for oxygen alongside his strained lungs.

Yet had he been one to let such a hurdle impede him, he would have never made it this far.

BOOM!

CRACK

Rui's eyes widened as he felt a sharp pain on his hand as it crashed into Ieyasu's elbow. He had thrown a powerful chop aimed at his neck, yet Ieyasu merely shifted.

He shifted ever so slightly across his entire body, and before Rui knew it, his palm found itself crashing into the man's elbow.

Yet that wasn't enough to stop Rui.

BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM!!

His eyes narrowed as he surged forward with extreme speed. A tsunami of attacks crashed into Ieyasu.

Yet Ieyasu parried every single one of them away. Rui was unable to use Outer Convergence, Reverberating Lance, or even a breathing technique to aid his power. On the other hand, while Ieyasu couldn't even breathe properly, let alone use breathing techniques, he still had other supplementary techniques that he could use to amplify power, ones that he had copied in the past four years.

Rui narrowed his eyes as he pushed himself to the very limit.

His bones creaked.

His muscles burned.

His flesh stung.

His body shook with sheer effort.

And yet...

STEP

His eyes widened as Ieyasu began stepping closer to him. Despite the barrage of attacks that Rui inflicted on him, he was unshaken. Not only was he unshaken, he even began walking towards Rui.

STEP

STEP

STEP

BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM!!

Rui gritted his teeth as he blasted Ieyasu with even more attacks, yet man's defensive prowess could not be underestimated. His body had been forged with countless conditioning principles and training methodologies in an effort to be able to copy any and all conditioning-based techniques, far more than Rui had ever been subjected to.

His defense was impregnable.

At least, against Rui's hampered physical power, it was not going to break any time soon.

Or so he thought.

BOOM!!!

"Rgh!" Ieyasu grimaced in excruciating pain as what felt like a titanic blow crashed into his guard. His body reeled in shock as a tremendous impact reverberated across his entire body.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!!

He gritted his teeth as he used a copied defensive Martial Art to hold off Rui's titanic blows. Yet despite the best defenses he could muster, each and every attack that struck him, burned him with pain.

It was as though Rui suddenly became exponentially more powerful!

BOOOM!!

He grimaced in excruciating pain, yet his mind retained enough clarity to derive insights into his current circumstances.

'This isn't real... There is no way this is real.' He gritted his teeth. 'This is such an absurdly powerful supplementary technique that would make even grade-ten techniques look incompetent. This must also be...'

He had already realized the truth. However, he also realized that knowing the truth didn't matter. The subconscious mind did not care whether the pain was real or fake, it commanded Ieyasu to avoid it, forcing him to act sub-optimally.

A command he was unable to refuse!

BAM BAM BAM!

Rui grinned like a shark at the sight as he bombarded Ieyasu with Phantom Pain, the pain-inducing hypnotic technique that would generate the illusion that Rui was striking his victim a hundred times harder than he actually was.

The nervous system and the phenomenon known as pain were governed by rules that had been put in place after billions of years of evolution. It was precisely because these rules had been put in place and reinforced by eons of natural selection that they were almost impossible for the conscious mind to break.

It did not matter if Ieyasu knew that it was an illusion, as long as his subconscious mind was convinced that it was real by the hypnosis, he would be forced to cower as though he was taking real damage.

His subconscious mind forced his body to retreat and cower, despite his hatred of such conduct.

BOOM!

Rui blasted him with another blow grinning even wider than before. His fist surged forward, crashing into Ieyasu's guard.

BOOM!!

Rui's leg had already spurred into action before Ieyasu could even recover from the previous blow, crashing into his knee.

BOOM!!!

"Rgh!" Ieyasu grimaced as he subconsciously shirked underneath the strike. He felt as though Rui had forcefully wrenched and torn his knee joint apart grinding the flesh together, causing twisted agony the likes of which he hadn't experienced since the Squire evolution breakthrough.

He fell down to a knee when Rui saw a chance to end the match. A powerful weighted kick surged forward, lashing out to crash at his head.

It was a game-ender.

Or at least, it would have been, had it landed.

WHOOSH!

Rui's eyes widened as his attack crashed into nothing.

Ieyasu had disappeared.

SPLAT!

Rui turned around as he grimaced, leaping away as he felt a flesh wound emerging on his back.

"If I cannot defend, then I will simply evade," Ieyasu declared as he rushed after Rui at a blinding speed!