The Martial Unity

WHOOSH!

Rui evaded yet another attack from the dragon. 'Think.'

WHOOSH!

He somersaulted away, narrowly avoiding a swift claw swipe.

'I'll need to prioritize acute problems that threaten defeat before tackling chronic hurdles towards victory.' Rui thought as he compiled a list of all problems before sorting them in a priority list based on this criteria.

WHOOSH!

He evaded yet another lateral swipe, crouching with a split.

'First priority, minimize the probability of environmental disruption.' He thought. 'The greater the area I cover with my evasive maneuvering, the greater the probability I run into a sturdy tree or another beast, or a mountain that hampers my path. Therefore, I need to minimize the area I cover.'

WHOOOSH!

"RROOOOAAR!" The dragon raced after him in frustration.

'Do not cover new ground. Stick within a certain amount of area that I have already maneuvered through before and know that I can. This reduces the probability of environmental disruption by an order of magnitude.' Rui concluded as he immediately computed a solution for the environmental problem.

By sticking to known and vetted areas, free of environmental hurdles, he could reduce the probability of a clash with his surroundings. It also helped that the dragon leveled the area.

'I could also launch more omnidirectional attacks to level things myself, but that's far too energy-consuming. Let the dragon do all the work for you. That is optimal efficiency.' Rui's mind swiftly processed through as it mitigated the highest priority issue.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH

Rui evaded a barrage of wide claw swipes, because of the size of the dragon, he needed to maneuver more, yet he made sure not to delve into uncharted area as much as possible. He would rather face a dragon than an unsensable unknown environment because Primordial Instinct could only help against the former.

WHOOSH

He pirouetted away from a direct charge, cleanly avoiding it.

'Next, stamina constraints. Minimize movements, make sure that the dragon expends more energy than I do.' Rui noted. 'Use the stamina metabody to a partial degree.'

Rui partially activated the Reaper's Dew poison before activating Final Breathing, this was enough to alleviate his energy concerns for now.

He heaved a sigh, before his eyes narrowed. "Now then, time to work towards victory rather than just avoiding defeat."

He needed to kill the dragon. That much was clear. The dragon's pursuit of him was obsessive, which matched the personality profile of the creature that the Beggar's Sect's intelligence contained. It was not going to let him go. The only way this battle would end was if one of them died.

'Assassination is... not viable.' Rui tutted as he avoided yet another blow. 'Phantomind Void is not advisable without a good grasp of environmental and opponent location.'

Sympathetic Death Lance and Death's Sympathy would be extremely difficult to use in combat even without the sensory hamper. In these circumstances, it was absolutely impossible.

'That means I'll need to rely on normal attacks to pepper it. Or get in a good hit on an extremely vital spot with Flowing Canon or Transverse Resonance.'

WHOOSH!

He evaded yet another attack, swerving to the side rather than retreating away, making sure that he didn't leave known territory.

'Which means I need to know its exact position and orientation.' Rui tutted. 'Since I can't sense it, I'll either need to work on dispelling this illusion, or...'

His eyes narrowed. '...Or I'll need to create a predictive model.'

Had anybody, from Earth or from Gaia, heard that thought, they would have laughed at him. Even his research team would have burst out laughing at the idea of applying the VOID algorithm to an opponent that could not even be perceived. Not even the cutting-edge AI software that they employed in their labs running on all the processors and servers in the facility would be able to accomplish such an absurd feat.

It was categorically impossible.

And yet...

'I can do it.' Rui grinned. 'I will do it!'

The air grew taut as a wave of determination wrung the very atmosphere.

An enormous amount of pressure erupted from Rui's sheer drive.

His mind spurred on with powerful drive as he began analyzing and computing his circumstances. 'In order to create a predictive model, one needs a lot of empirical combat data on the opponent. However, I do not have that empirical data since I cannot observe my opponent. I can only sense the vague direction of incoming danger. Thus, it is logical to conclude that a predictive model cannot be concluded due to a lack of empirical data.'

Yet a glint of excitement flashed in his mind. 'But... what if I predict the empirical data that is needed for a predictive model?'

If he could not observe his opponent collect the empirical data like he normally did, then he could predict the empirical data that he could not observe.

'It's not so much as predict as much as eliminate all possibilities except for the truth.' Rui mused. 'Every time I sense danger, I know it's an attack. However, there are limited possibilities as to what the attack could be since my opponent is a dragon.'

Dragons had claw attacks of all kinds, wing attacks, tail attacks, jaw attacks, and bullrushes.

Those were a lot of possibilities every time he sensed danger, but it was not too much to keep track of. As long as he kept track of all of them, he would be able to develop many possible predictive models based on the many possible permutations of possible empirical data.

Yet out of all the possible predictive models born out of all the permutations and combinations of possible empirical data, only one predictive model was correct. Every individual had only one truly accurate predictive model, be they Martial Artist or beast. That meant that Rui could begin eliminating incorrect predictive models by comparing the predicted outcomes of the possible predictive models with the actual outcomes.

If a prediction didn't match with reality, then the predictive model was wrong.

if it matched with reality, it was possibly correct.

Only after he eliminated every single possible predictive model except one, could he be sure that the final predictive model was correct.

WHOOSH

Rui avoided another powerful attack, rolling to the side.

'It's going to be enormously tiring, but it is possible, especially as long as I reduce the precision requirements of the predictive models, making them easier to develop compared to my normal predictive models. I can refine the correct one after I've found it by eliminating all other possible predictive models.' He narrowed his eyes, as he retreated. 'However...'

It was going to be extremely taxing.

A race against time. He knew that the dragon would kill him if it got even a single strike in. Although he was slightly faster than it, its power was far greater than his own.

Combined with his highly compromised state, it would be game over.

And yet, he had no intention of giving up.

On the contrary, he couldn't even hide his mirth.

It was as though the intensity manifested in the air, washing over everything around them.

"Come," Rui challenged. "Let's see who reaches victory first, dragon!"

"ROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAR!!"