The Martial Unity

"Challenger; Squire Falken. Defender: Guardian Saiwal."

The two of them stepped forward, bowing to each other. Rui locked eyes with her, and he could feel cold bloodlust in her eyes. He didn't expect anything less, of course. By challenging her, Rui was basically saying that he wanted to kill her and was confident that he could do it.

He couldn't even deny it, since that was indeed the case.

Kane had already joined the Floating Sect, and it was time for Rui to follow suit.

"Take your stances,"

She took a wide stance, crouching with spread arms and legs.

Rui stood nearly fifty meters away from her, having chosen a long-range distance while she chose a short-range, with a completely neutral stance.

He stared at her with a calm expression. Yet he exerted a faint pressure on her without making any threatening stances or glares.

"Begin!"

She immediately lashed out toward Rui, hoping to reach him in her initial charge. After all, her most effective range was when she was up close with her opponent, tearing off their flesh while she roasted them in her flames.

Yet, she wasn't surprised when Rui took to the air as he leaped back. He launched a barrage of Mighty Roaring Flash Blasts.

THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM!

Unfortunately, he wasn't nearly at the distance where the creation of the technique could not be sensed. That only worked when he was hundreds of meters away. She was able to notice that he was manipulating the atmosphere somehow when he created the sonic bullets, even if she couldn't sense the sonic bullets themselves.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

She somersaulted away as her sharp instincts told her to disrupt her travel path.

Yet, it wasn't enough.

BAM!

She grimaced as one of the sound projectiles struck her even after she moved away. Rui had aimed for her maneuver from the very start.

He launched a hail of projectiles at her, restricting her path forward.

('I knew it,') Rui's eyes narrowed. ('Durability isn't your forte.')

Most of her techniques and training, as well as the spec configuration of her Martial body, it was largely devoted to maximizing her friction, and the utility of her friction. It meant that she wasn't as strong at other aspects of combat.

Of course, her friction made up for it, but it didn't help her get past Rui's attacks. She wasn't swift and nimble enough to evade all the attacks that he threw at her, nor was she durable enough to withstand all the attacks and just bulldoze through.

However, it was his predictive accuracy that was helping him out. With each passing second that went by, he grew better and better as he memorized her active and passive patterns that existed in her motion, growing more familiar with her evasion patterns especially.

However, at the same time, Rui wasn't going to be able to win this way. She wasn't able to reach him, but that didn't mean she was helpless when it came to dealing with his onslaught. His long-range offense wasn't high-grade in power, thus he wasn't able to inflict too much damage with each strike.

Furthermore, long-range attacks were more power-consuming than close-range attacks, thus she would certainly last longer at this rate.

She had already fallen into a comfortable place where she only spent enough energy avoiding his attacks while she waited for the right opportunity.

He could try hitting her with a Transverse Resonance, but unfortunately, that was much more difficult to land because he needed to spend mental effort into ensuring that the four sound waves overlapped with each other. It made aim much harder.

The battle fell into a brief stretch of monotony. She did her best to avoid his attacks while still trying to close in where and when she could. He, on the other hand, kept bombarding her with attacks.

Until he decided to stop.

He heaved a sigh as he seemingly took a moment of respite.

Squire Saiwal had been waiting for this opening. She did not believe that he would be able to outlast her with his attacks despite her much lower effort evasion. She lashed out, itching to shred him to pieces and then roast him to ashes with her flames.

Rui stepped backward as she reached him, yet that only fueled her aggression.

BAM!!!

Her eyes widened as her pupils dilated in agony.

CRACK CRACK CRACK!

She felt several ribs cracking.

"Cough!" She spat blood as her vision finally came into focus.

Rui stood right before her, with his fist buried into her gut.

Before she could even process what had happened.

POW!

A swift high kick crashed into her chin.

THUD

She collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

('You tunnel vision every time you launch an attack,')

Rui had noticed her lack of environmental awareness in her previous fight during particular moments of the fight. Thus he had exploited that by using Phantom Step to play into that shortcoming, misdirecting her awareness momentarily, before using that blindspot to land an incredibly clean body blow.

His fist had slammed into her rough body with one of the most powerful attacks that Rui could launch at that range. Furthermore, he had managed to catch her completely off-guard, thus she hadn't even protected herself with a single defensive technique. That single blow had caused devastating damage.

After that, it was just a matter of finishing the job.

CRACK!

His leg cracked into her head, leaving open a sickly wound.

After that, it was just a matter of time.

"Winner; Squire Falken! You are now officially the guardian of the nine hundred and first chamber."

There was a sharp silence in the colosseum.

Of course, there always was since none of the initiates made any kind of noise either way, but this one felt strange.

He could feel the nagging attention of all of the initiates. Many stared at him with bewildered expressions, as though they didn't quite comprehend what happened there. Most battles against guardians were extremely difficult for the challenger, yet in this case, the opposite seemed to happen!