The Martial Unity

"Good luck," Kane wished him as they split ways.

"Challenger; Guardian Falken," The arbiter announced once Rui entered the arena.

"Defender; Guardian Seronin."

The two of them approached each other as they stopped two meters away from each other. Rui had declined to go for any particular range and offered his opponent to choose the range of the battle, who promptly chose a short-range battle.

"Hehehe…" The man grinned. "Hope you're ready to go down because that's the only place you're going in this fight."

"I've been wanting to ask…" Rui remarked, ignoring his little taunt. "Why?"

The man snorted. "Naive little brat. This is the way of the world. I'm going to crush you because you don't know that."

"Take your stances." The arbiter instructed.

Rui took a simple neutral stance that didn't particularly place much weight on any field of combat.

The man, instead, grinned as he put forth one arm forward defensively while the other was tucked by his side, coiled and ready to strike. He spread his legs partially, enough to have a good and strong foundation, but little enough to ensure that he could still maneuver comfortably.

It was a rather basic all-rounder stance, so Rui didn't really look much into it.

"Begin!" The arbiter commenced the duel.

Both men rushed in toward each other, and immediately unfolded a flurry of blows!

POW POW POW!

A barrage of blows was launched from both sides!

The battle accelerated to top gear the very second the battle broke out, and yet it was only a minute into the battle that the clashes began achieving a stable equilibrium despite the high intensity.

Rui was pushed back on the defensive. He began throwing fewer and fewer strikes from the initial clash the moment the battle had commenced, being forced to defend more.

('I see…') His eyes narrowed. ('So this is his Martial Art, not bad.')

Rui immediately understood what was happening in just a moment. While he disapproved of Guardian Seronin and his tactics, he had to admit, they had merit as distasteful as they were.

('He's understood the optimal balance between offense and defense to apply when fighting in hand-to-hand combat.') Rui mused.

Rui was stronger defensive in hand-to-hand combat than he was offensive. The reason for this was simple, it wasn't that he put more weight on defense than offense in his Martial Art, not at all. The reason for this was that his offensive capital was spread across multiple ranges, while his defensive techniques were applicable at all ranges barring a few circumstances.

That meant that in close-quarters combat, he was easier to defend against than hurt. His defense had powerful techniques such as Flux Earther, Adamant Reforging, Inner Divergence, and Acute Edge. His offense in hand-to-hand combat was not nearly as rigorous with Outer Convergence and Reverberating Lance.

That was why Squire Seronin maximized effectivity by putting a greater weight on his offense while putting less weight on his defense.

('A good allocation of physical capital,') This was part of what he did, analyzing combat distributions and choosing a distribution of resources that was most apt to combat it was one of the more fundamental steps when it came to adapting to one's opponent.

('Still, it isn't going to be enough for me,') Rui's eyes narrowed.

A surge of pressure mounted on Squire Seronin as Rui focused, glaring at him.

WHOOSH!

Rui disappeared in the face of an attack.

A well-timed feint. He had used the fact that the battle, while intense, had reached monotony to catch him off-guard.

TAP TAP TAP!

Three swift pokes to his abdomen, striking the intercostal nerves on his abdomen caused momentary paralysis to several muscle groups.

WHOOSH!

Narrowly avoided a haymaker as he crouched, simultaneously launching a sweeping kick, knocking him slightly unbalanced.

He rushed in, charging in for a wrestling shoot maneuver. Yet Squire Seronin leaped back swiftly, determined to avoid Rui's charge.

('So he isn't confident of beating me in grappling,') Rui swiftly noted. ('Most likely due to the recount of Thundercoil that he got from Drevolus.')

Grappling was a field with very little room for mistakes, it was a field of inevitability. If he was weaker, then he would certainly lose without many avenues to cope.

('Yet opening up the distance is not a good idea against me,')

THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM!

Rui blasted a barrage of long-range attacks, employing the ODA System to tag him even after he was some distance away.

BAM!

"Urgh!" He grimaced as one of them struck, surprised. He had been continuously moving so he hadn't put much thought into deliberately avoiding since the accuracy of such a great distance was hard, yet Rui managed to perfectly nail him on the head!

Rui rushed forward as he continued his onslaught of sound attacks. Squire Seronin, however, did not just fool around. He unleashed a powerful wind blast as a way to counter Rui's attack.

It was enough to somewhat stop his attacks, but not Rui's approach himself. He rushed forward like a demon as he applied Gale Force Breathing and Parallel Walk to swiftly approach Squire Seronin from behind his attacks.

('And this is why simple adjustments of combat approach are insufficient…')

BAM!!!

Squire Seronin gritted his teeth as he blocked Rui's Flowing Canon amplified with Outer Convergence, Adamant Reforging, and the momentum generated by Gale Force Breathing. The sheer impact was so high that it sent him skidding back several meters.

('…Dynamic fighters require dynamic solutions, you are far too simplistic.')

Squire Seronin returned to his aggressive offensive striking when Rui returned, yet Rui had no intentions of going back to the game.

BAM!

"Ack!" The man gasped as Rui cleanly avoided his swift leaning back as a swift kick landed on the man's solar plexus. He gritted his teeth as he lashed back with barrages of swift yet solid blows, hoping to force Rui into the defensive position that he was in prior.

Yet Rui dodged every single attack with contemptuous ease, as though they weren't even there!

"What?!"