The Martial Unity

Rui was ready to give his technique a new name.

('Though is it really a new technique if it's just a result of using three techniques simultaneously?') Rui wondered.

That was an interesting question. Rui did not think that it mattered in the grand scheme. Regardless of whether he considered it to be a separate technique or not, it was something that expanded his Martial Art that also individuality.

There was no point in speculating too much.

('Still, it feels nice commemorating it as a technique,') Rui shrugged. ('Even if it can barely be considered one.')

Rui knew that he wasn't missing much either way. Instead, he shifted his attention back to the Thundering Valley.

It was time for a test. He wanted to see how much more knowing the destination of the lightning would help him avoid them.

('There's a good chance I can use Forestep to a much higher degree, if not the entire way,') He grew enthusiastic at the thought.

He quickly got up, stretching as he warmed his body up. All that time spent meditating made him feel as though his body had gotten a little stiff. Not even Martial bodies were exempt from the requirement of activity to maintain their peak form.

He stretched every muscle in his body to the limit, groaning in comfort as he felt the blood flow to the various muscle groups increasing.

"Alright," He hopped lightly on his feet as he activated the Forestep breathing technique.

"FUUU!" He exhaled deeply, immediately feeling his body grow lighter as a surge of power began flowing into his muscles.

It was time, he activated his new technique, focusing on specific parts of the three constituting the new sensory technique. Immediately as he walked in, he could identify the patterns that corresponded with the presence of streaks of charged particles reaching up from the ground.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

He spun through the air as he gracefully avoided them. He didn't even feel the need to stress his mind by forcing his reflexes to keep up with his movements. The current system that he was working with, to a certain extent, mimicked what he had done against the Root. The difference was that he had straightforwardly used the VOID algorithm against the Root and built a thorough predictive model for it over the span of half a year.

BOOM!

('Actually, there isn't too much of a difference, now that I think about it in hindsight,') Rui thought to himself as he casually dodged a lightning bolt.

In the end, he was still predicting the lightning by analyzing patterns of preceding events. That was essentially how the predictive model of the VOID algorithm worked. He gathered data, noticed patterns, used those patterns to predict his opponent's moves, and then used the best move to counter them.

('The difference is that this is a natural phenomenon as opposed to a person,') Rui mused. ('The biases and patterns that normal people have are part of their individuality. However, the patterns in natural phenomena in nature are… nothing short of the laws of physics.')

This realization put Rui in a strange mood, even as he dodged lightning bolts with greater ease than ever before.

"Does that mean my mind… My Flowing Void Style… My VOID algorithm can help me understand the nature of not just my opponent's fighting styles, or strengths and weaknesses, but also the nature of reality itself?"

STEP

His eyes widened as he paused in his path. Just the fact that that possibility seemed like it might be real was absolutely insane!

After all, the VOID algorithm was originally something that he had created for hand-to-hand combat. That was all. Nothing more.

('But… that doesn't mean the same is true in Gaia, right?') Rui wondered to himself before his eyes widened with an idea. ('Maybe it's the case tha-!')

Just as he felt he had come on the cusp of something important, a deep and sharp sense of pain overtook his entire body.

BOOM!

"Rgh!!" He gritted his teeth, grimacing as he handled the mind-numbing pain coursing through his nerves. A big lightning bolt struck his entire body, he had failed to notice this one creeping up on him. "Damn it!"

He immediately retreated back outside the valley, groaning in pain. "Note to self, store all epiphanies in the Mind Palace when in urgent situations before getting lost in a stupor."

He had even forgotten the train of thought that he was on prior. It was as though the coursing lightning had burned the very thought from his brain when it flowed through his body.

"Ah well, I got a general idea. If it's important, it'll come again," He shrugged in resignation.

He wasn't content with the results of the test, so he immediately jumped back in, this time more focused on his gains than anything else. Rui knew that his previous failure was not an accurate representation of his capabilities, he had just gotten a bit too distracted.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

His sharp and well-timed Forestep movements allowed him to evade lightning bolt after bolt. Because he knew the destination of lightning bolts momentarily ahead of time, he need only pay attention to the ground, which was the opposite of what he was doing before where he directed his senses upwards since that was where the lightning bolt was coming from.

There were times when he stopped at a standstill because he was surrounded by lightning, which was quite unnerving but something he managed to do because he had faith in his judgment.

He spent his time running a lap around the exterior of the Thundering Valley. Compared to before when he was stressing Primordial Instinct to the limit, he was moving smoothly and with ease.

His thoughts were interrupted as he spotted a figure in the distance.

"Look who finally decided to come out of his cave," Kane laughed.

"My training was just about done, so it was time to put it to the test," Rui shrugged.

"What a coincidence, so is mine," Kane grinned excitedly.