The Martial Unity

"But." He said. "Not now. As you can see, I got Martial Apprentices to instruct over there."

He gestured over to some Martial Apprentices who were listening.

"No no sir, no need to bother with us."

"That's right, we can practice on our own for a while."

"You should also help other students out, not only us."

They quickly chimed in, insisting Squire Dylon spar with Rui then and there. Dylon sighed as Rui smirked. In the three years that he had been in the Martial Academy, he had earned a large fanbase among the newer batches of Martial Apprentices that had come along.

Furthermore, everyone could see that he had gotten much stronger than he was before. They were all curious to see how much stronger, and how far he could push Squire Dylon. It was a very rare event that they probably wouldn't get to see again. And they got to take a break.

"Hmph." He snorted as Rui smirked. "Popular, aren't you? Been here for only three years and you're more popular than I am."

Rui shrugged. He didn't give a damn about such things, never had and never would. "So, can we spar now?"

"Sure." He shrugged. With the other Martial Apprentices agreeing to put off their training to witness the spar, he had no reason not to agree.

Suddenly, a heavy pressure mounted onto Rui.

"Be warned though. I'm not nearly as gentle as Kyrie is." A small grin cracked on his face.

Rui smiled wryly. "I couldn't ask for more."

It wasn't long before they stood facing each other.

The sparring facility slowly morphed into a spectator stand as all the Martial Apprentices mysteriously took breaks at that moment together, and mysteriously gathered around the ring that Squire Dylon and Rui were in.

"Take your stances." A referee instructed with a much softer tone, considering he was instructing the head instructor, his superior.

Squire Dylon took an aggressive offensive stance with no care for defense. "I suppose limiting myself to grade-ten Apprentice level is good enough?"

"No." Rui replied, shaking his head.

"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow. "Well, we'll see. I'll just keep hitting the pedal until you can't take it anymore."

Rui nodded. "That works for me too."

He exhaled, closing his eyes.

His concentration accumulated as his mind converged. The secondary brain revved up as a flux of information flowed between both brains. He dispelled the mask he had placed earlier, it consumed mental energy that he couldn't afford to waste.

The Martial Apprentices shivered as a horrifying avalanche of mental pressure washed over them, suffocating them.

"This..." One of them muttered. "Isn't something that belongs solely to the Apprentice Realm."

"Huh..." Squire Dylon paused, his eyebrow rose as a grin cracked onto his face. "I guess you weren't exaggerating."

He said as Rui took a defensive and evasive stance. He did not want to engage with Squire Dylon's offense head-on if he could.

"Begin!" The referee commenced the battle.

The hairs on every Martial Apprentice's body stood as Squire Dylon shot forward. The sheer force with which he pushed forward, churned the ground beneath him.

BOOM!

He zoomed forward with a single step. He launched a powerful blow at Rui's face.

WHOOSH

The blow crashed into an empty illusion.

It was a feint.

BAM!

Dylon barely blocked an attack to his vitals, skidding backward. He rushed forward instantly, unleashing a wave of attacks.

Yet he could only widen his eyes in surprise as every single attack missed.

And it wasn't even close.

Just a few centimeters.

That was it.

That was all Rui moved to avoid each blow. His graceful soft movements contrasted with Squire Dylon's aggressive and loud movements.

Yet none of them touched so much as a hair on his body.

It was effortless.

('I see...') Rui noted. ('Even peak Apprentice grade offensive specialists are obsolete against me?')

The secondary brain in combination with the Primordial Instinct technique was so potent that Dylon's movements were comfortably easy to keep track of. He had plenty of time to consciously track, process, decide and then act on that decision and still evade every strike.

He wasn't even using feints!

WHOOSH

('What about the speed of the predictive model construction?') He wondered as he smoothly evaded yet another strike.

The Mind Palace had been firing at an extremely smooth speed as both his mind and the secondary brain processed and inputted data into it at an incredible speed.

('I'm a little over twice as before!') Rui gaped. A more than one-hundred-percent increase thanks to one technique was a ridiculous improvement.

Yet before he could look deeper into the matter.

BAM!!

A tremendous blow landed on him, flinging him backward as he grimaced in pain.

The atmosphere grew taut as an oppressive aura flared across the facility.

"Focus." His voice was soft, yet it drowned out the world. Forcefully drawing Rui's attention towards him. "I'm not someone who can be defeated by a distracted boy."

Rui got up, heightening his alertness and awareness as he took a stance.

WHOOSH

Squire Dylon shot towards him in the briefest of moments, throwing a blow with untold power. His fist shredded the very atmosphere as plummeted towards Rui.

Rui swerved to avoid it, like he had been doing, yet;

WHOOSH

BAM!!

He grimaced in shock as an invisible force pulled him back toward the attack, preventing him from dodging it.

He gritted his teeth as the powerful attack crashed into a hastily construed guard, launching him backward.

('He used a wind-manipulation technique to pull me back towards his attack and prevent me from dodging. It's a more refined version of what Fae has!') He immediately realized as he scrambled, regaining his bearings

Squire Dylon had already arrived, but this time Rui was prepared.

What followed next shook the entire facility. The Martial Apprentices watched with expressions of awe as the two Martial Artists engage in a furious exchange of attacks with each other.

PUNCH

KICK

PARRY

DODGE

A wave of exchanges decorated the arena as the conflict obtained a momentary balance.