The Martial Unity

The highly realistic excruciating pain had crippled Ieyasu's defense since his subconscious mind refused to allow him to defend properly, insisting that he avoid confronting it.

Thus, Ieyasu simply obeyed. He switched gears, using a maneuvering Martial Art that he had copied in the past year to confront Rui with evasion as a solution to his offense instead of defense.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH

Ieyasu effortlessly weaved away from Rui's strikes with ease. Rui narrowed his eyes, pain could only be generated if his strikes landed on Ieyasu, which was a requirement for the pain to be realistic and believable.

He had gone on to add illusionary elements that mimicked impact that made his body feel rocked by force the same way it would if it had been struck by an actually powerful force of the same caliber as the one he was pretending he could launch.

Yet if Ieyasu simply evaded the blows, then the technique was useless.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!!

Ieyasu wormed his way past Rui's offense, rushing in to land his piercing technique.

Yet Rui had no intention of letting him.

BAM!

A short and swift blow landed on Ieyasu as he lost control of his body, crashing a long way across the cloud arena. He quickly got up in confusion, surprised at what had just happened.

Before he had known it, his body had gone out of control and Rui had somehow managed to cleanly land a strike on him. Yet he got only a moment to consider it before Rui had arrived with a speeding charge.

BAM!

Ieyasu grimaced as Rui somehow managed to land a blindingly fast attack on him, yet when he charged forward to maneuver around and land a blow, the most inexplicable outcome happened.

BOOM....BAM...POW!

His body launched itself flying before he could even react, crashing across the cloud arena before he could even control his trajectory.

'I...can't control my speed. It's too fast.' Ieyasu's eyes widened as realization dawned on him, glancing at Rui. 'You bastard.'

Rui surged forth with rapid speed with a demonic grin as he blasted Ieyasu with a flurry of blows that were nothing short of blinding to Ieyasu. The latter grimaced as he balled up, enduring Rui's blows to the best of his ability.

if not for the fact that Rui had not mastered any offensive Martial Art techniques in the past year, Ieyasu would have been overwhelmed by now. Yet the fact that Ieyasu could actually use physical Martial Art techniques while Rui couldn't was a huge advantage that not even the Hypnomatrix could overwhelm quickly.

Nonetheless, Rui was extremely pleased with the results that the Hypnomatrix had displayed. The third hypnotic technique that he had created, Temporal Disharmony, was a perfect counter to speed and maneuvering.

Ieyasu had displayed some powerful speed and maneuvering techniques that he must have copied in the past four years, yet this one technique had completely sealed all of them, making them obsolete.

Breathing Crucifix

Phantom Pain

Temporal Disharmony

The three techniques of the initial iteration of the Hypnomatrix were a spectacular success, Ieyasu had failed to overcome a single one of them while using the Martial Art that they were expressly used to counter.

It meant that they had achieved their purpose.

His victory was close to secured.

Or so he thought.

SPLAT!

Rui's eyes widened Ieyasu's right hand which had buried itself in Rui's abdomen.

"Did you think I could be defeated so easily?" Ieyasu's eyes burned with determination.

BOOM!!

Rui defended himself from the powerful blow, grimacing deeply as he was flung away. He had barely managed to suppress Ieyasu's power with Breathing Crucifix, reducing the speed and power of the blow. It was the only reason he was not knocked out.

However, his mind lingered on something more important.

A shocking discovery.

Yet Ieyasu did not give him any time to ponder it. He flashed forward towards Rui with the speed of the copied maneuvering Martial Art, before landing an attack from the offensive Martial Art onto Rui's guard.

Rui grimaced with shock as did his best to resist the power of two Martial Art. He activated Breathing Crucifix and Temporal Disharmony simultaneously at fifty-percent intensity each, before throwing a powerful blow at Ieyasu's jaw, looking to knock him out.

CRACK!

Rui's eyes widened as his fist crashed into the man's rock-solid elbows, causing a fracture across his knuckle.

This was the copied defensive Martial Art from before.

That confirmed Rui's suspicion.

"You..." He murmured, leaping away. "You're merging all three copied Martial Art into a single Martial Art!"

Ieyasu smiled, much to the shock of Rui and Master Zeamer. Neither of them had seen him do that even once in the past two years. Yet it appeared that not even he could resist the ecstatic satisfaction of progress.

"You are the first to face the first elementary prototype of my Martial Mind," Ieyasu informed him as he walked over. "My Martial Path is no longer imitative evolution... It has evolved."

He stared into Rui's eyes. "It has evolved to a higher state thanks to the power of Mind. My Martial Path... is assimilative evolution."

Rui's eyes widened with shock. "What?!"

Yet, Ieyasu had no interest in elaborating. He simply rushed forward with the incredible speed of the copied maneuvering Martial Art, while preparing attacks of the offensive Martial Art, while simultaneously maintaining the active defenses of the defensive Martial Art.

Rui's expression grew more grave as his eyes narrowed. He had countless questions, but he put them aside for now. If he did not do something about the extreme threat that Ieyasu in his current state represented, then he was bound to lose.

He had already used all three hypnotic techniques simultaneously to counter the offense, defense, and maneuvering Martial Art that Ieyasu was simultaneously using. Yet that meant that the potency of each technique was reduced to one-third its original potency.

The techniques were meant to be low-effort in the first place, being further reduced by two-thirds meant that their impact on Ieyasu was a lot more limited individually.

His breathing was hampered.

His cognition was hampered.

His body burned with pain.

Yet each of them was more manageable even if their net product was the same as before. Ieyasu, on the other hand, seemed to have grown thrice as strong!

BAM BAM BAM!