The Martial Unity

POW POW POW

WHOOSH

Kane peppered Rui with many strikes, evading a wild haymaker smoothly. On the outside, it seemed as though Kane was furiously punishing Rui, determined to win.

Yet unbeknownst to anybody, perhaps even Rui himself, Kane was rather melancholic. He truly hoped Rui had a way to defeat him, but it seemed this wasn’t the case. It had been quite some time since the match had begun, yet as time passed by, the odds of victory of Rui seemed to grow dimmer and dimmer.

Rui soon abandoned offense and focused purely on defense, being pushed to the edge bit by bit. Although his defense was solid, not being able to engage in any proactive defense because he couldn’t see Kane’s attacks meant that even Kane’s meagre offense was able to push him back and secure more and more space over time.

BAM!

Kane hit Rui with a powerful pushing kick, shoving him to the edge of the ring.

Kane sighed to himself.

It was time.

He rushed towards Rui from an unconventional angle with a charged attack and a heavy attack.

Every detail of this fight would reach the ears of his family, one way or another, they had too much influence.

How could he possibly justify not taking this juicy opportunity?

He couldn’t, especially when he exploited such opportunities in all his previous matches, and the fact that it was, frankly, common sense.

He sighed inwardly. It was a shame. But he didn’t intend to blame Rui. He had done his best and it was unfair to expect more than that.

Suddenly, a chill went up his spine as he reached Rui. Kane’s eyes widened as he saw the briefest of grins crack from Rui’s mouth.

Suddenly Rui crouched launching an incredibly swift sweeping kick towards Kane, aiming to trip Kane.

Kane immediately understood. He was moving so fast that losing his balance while moving towards at the edge of the ring would instantly mean he would fly out of the ring. Rui’s crouching sweeping kick seemed to be aimed at ringing out Kane or at least a simultaneous ring-out with both of them for a draw.

But how did Rui know when and where to land this attack?

He didn’t know.

But it didn’t matter.

Kane leapt high into the air, dodging the attack cleanly. The easiest way to avoid a committed sweeping kick.

Yet what happened next shocked him.

WHOOSH

The attack disappeared.

It was a feint!

Rui hadn’t moved much, just enough for a feint.

Kane’s eyes flew wide open as his he stared at Rui, who stared right back at him with an ecstatic grin.

PEW!

Rui’s right toe soared, cutting through the air as Rui propelled forward as fast as he could.

This was his goal!

Even if Rui was vaguely aware of Kane’s position at all times, it wasn’t enough. Kane’s evasive skill and capability was so high he could easily avoid Rui’s attacks even if Rui knew where he vaguely was at. This was obviously true, Kane was capable of avoiding Rui quite well even when Rui could see him, there was no contest when Rui couldn’t see him.

So, what could Rui do?

The answer was simple, either outmaneuver Kane’s evasiveness with brute speed or restrict Kane’s evasiveness.

The former was frankly impossible. Perhaps if Rui could see Kane he might have managed with a well-timed combination of Blink and Phantom Step, but if he could not see Kane, then Blink was completely useless.

One of the few solutions he had managed to think about via the VOID algorithm was the very solution he had employed.

If Kane was mid-air, then his evasiveness was almost entirely useless. He had feinted a committed sweeping kick, where he threw everything into it, meaning it would be hard to do anything else. This gave Kane the confidence to leap to avoid it, especially when he was under the impression that Rui couldn’t locate him.

This was his blunder.

He was mid-air. He couldn’t really avoid attacks.

The Stinger was normally not a threat to Kane. Even Nel had avoided them, Kane could avoid them comfortably.

But, that was when his feet where on the ground.

His eyes widened as he realized that this must have been part of Rui’s plan from the very start. Everything that had happened so far had happened because Rui was waiting for this very moment!

Kane threw up his guard

POW!

The Stinger plunged into his bicep, digging deep. Rui, of course, had no idea where the Stinger had landed on Kane’s body. He simply struck in a way that would cause as much damage as possible.

Unfortunately, the bicep was not a vital.

Kane immediately retreated, but the damage was already done. Even if the bicep wasn’t a vital, the damage done was quite significant.

The pain and shock the Kane experienced broke his Void Step technique, which required delicate execution. Rui refused to let go of the opportunity.

BAM!

He managed to get in at the very least one more jab, before regaining his bearings and reusing the Void Step technique.

But the damage was done.

His movements weren’t as easy as before. His right arm was largely incapacitated, making it harder to use it help with balancing his weight which was very necessary in maneuvering. Furthermore, there was the blood loss. Perhaps if he had time to minimize the blood loss and tie up the wound with a piece of his uniform, he might have been able to minimize the loss to his combat prowess.

However, Rui did not let up.

He threw the charade up in the air, and hounded after Kane. Now that he had already revealed that he could sense Kane, there was no point in playing dumb, furthermore, now was not the time to be passive, he needed to exploit the opportunity he had finally generated. Constantly chasing after him prevented Kane from having time to gather his bearings and consolidate what could still consolidated.

Only if he fully exploited the potential he had created, could he possible win!