The Martial Unity

The two of them quickly scuttled over to the dueling colosseum. Rui had to admit that it was definitely bigger than he had expected it to be. It took up a portion of the entire floating island, and was much more than even a kilometer in diameter!

('This is the kind of arena that is fit to host Squire-level battles,') Rui noted.

Martial Squires, particularly higher-grade Martial Squires were capable of unleashing immense force. An ordinary colosseum would simply be destroyed and ravaged by a single Squire-level battle, let alone a whole series of them.

Furthermore, a smaller colosseum would be a disservice to long-range Martial Squires who required range. Thus, this sort of colosseum was necessary to do justice to Martial Squires of all ranges. Given that these challenges decided which one of the combatants survived, they could not unfairly benefit one kind of Martial Squire more than the other.

Soon enough, they entered the colosseum, passing through a section that isolated the inside from the outside.

"Woah."

The two of them flew up into the air involuntarily once they returned back to normal gravity. The abrupt shift caused the to use too much force, launching a dozen meters into the air. Breathing also became significantly easier, but each breath was light and shallow, momentarily giving Rui the illusion of suffocation before he returned to normal.

The colosseum was a gigantic dome isolated from the outside, and the number of people watching was not few.

Rui could see many Martial Squires seated across the entire structure. Many of them wore different Martial attires of different kinds.

('They are initiates that are scouting the competition,') Rui mused.

That was obvious enough, but he was surprised that there weren't just a few Martial Squires that wore Martial attires with the emblem of the Floating Sect on it.

It appeared that guardians too were weary of each other's progress.

"Oh, looks like we just made it in time for a match," Kane remarked.

Rui turned his attention to the battle arena, paying attention to the individuals that stood before each other.

The guardian that wore the Martial attire of the Floating Sect was a mid-weight woman, while the initiate challenging her was a burly heavyweight man.

"Take your stances," A Martial Squire serving as the arbiter of the match instructed.

The woman balled her fists, pointing both of them toward her opponent. Her right arm was coiled to her side, with her fist tucked at her waist ready to lash out to launch a weighted blow.

Her other fist was before, also pointed toward her opponent.

('Sort of like a classical boxing stance,') Rui mused as he glanced at her Martial body with interest.

The obvious conclusion was that she was an offensive striker, yet when Rui observed her Martial body, he couldn't help but feel that this was the wrong conclusion. She didn't have a Martial body that looked like it was tailored for boxing-style combat.

Rui frowned as he noticed an oddity. ('Her joints… is that conditioning?')

Simultaneously, her opponent had taken his stance too. Guessing his Martial Path was much simpler. He was a power-oriented Martial Artist with a strong lean towards striking.

('Probably a Martial Art that is centered on drawing power from that ridiculously big gut of his.

His abs were so big, they were popping out of his belly like biceps. Rui couldn't even guess the sheer amount of power and torque he could generate, most likely he would be able to match Rui's strikes without even using any Martial Art techniques.

('They're both high-grade Martial Squires without a doubt.

"Begin!"

The battle had begun.

"RAAAAARGH!" The man roared in stereotypical caveman fashion as he raged forward toward her, swinging his barreling arms toward her with tremendous force.

Yet it was the woman who surprised him.

His eyes widened as she launched a strike to clash with that of her opponent, much to his shock. ('What?')

BOOM!!

The woman went flying backward skidding while the man was unmatched. He grinned as he rushed forward ready to pummel her with another strike.

Much to everyone's surprise, she rushed forward as well, balling her fist to clash with her one more time.

"Stupid," Kane murmured. "She's clearly losing the striking game, she should fight more intelligently than just try to match him where she's at her strongest."

Kane expected Rui to agree, but the latter narrowed his eyes as he wordlessly stared at her.

BAM!!!

She once more got overwhelmed as she got pushed back.

This continued without stopping. Each time the man swing, she chose to attack him head-on, and each time she got pushed back. The battle almost became monotonous as many of the initiates laughed at the woman.

Yet Rui simply stared at her with hawk eyes as realization dawned on him.

The man, on the other hand, stopped grinning as his mouth curled as though he was in pain.

He balled and joined his hands as he swung them down on her. Yet again, she refused to dodge, instead balling up in a shield.

BOOM!!!

The entire colosseum shook as even the powerful esoteric substances that formed the ground of the arena broke!

"Hah, is this a guardian? What a disgrace!"

"Idiot, I thought she would definitely fight smarter than that caveman oaf."

"She's definitely done after that one."

"Remarkable," Rui murmured with a knowing smile.

The dust cleared, revealing a very much intact woman beneath the gigantic fists of the man.

What shocked everyone was the pained expression on his face.

As well as the swelling on the man's wrists.

"Rgh!" The man stumbled backward in pain as he glanced at his wrists which were red and purple.

"What?!" Everybody was surprised at why the man seemed to have taken damage despite being the one to pummel down on her.

"Hahaha," Rui couldn't help but laugh. "He played himself. She's going to win this fight, he underestimated the power of a guardian."

"Wait, what the heck just happened?" Kane demanded an explanation.