The Martial Unity

Rui had already created an anti-Fae style in all the time he had known her. This was one of the best parts of the VOID algorithm, the growths he made against a particular fighter would accumulate. He would come closer and closer to victory the more he fought against one particular fighter as the adaptive evolution of the VOID algorithm grew more and more refined and accurate.

But he yet never beaten her. This wasn't because he was too weak, they simply hadn't had a chance to fight seriously in recent times, The last time they had a serious spar was nearly a year ago, more than two of his training phases ago, a little before the winter holidays.

Although they had sparred when Rui was training the Outer Convergence technique, that was far from a real fight with many restrictions, furthermore Rui hadn't mastered Outer Convergence back then. Thus, the results of those training spars were entirely irrelevant.

After that Rui had been on a non-stop back-and-forth between training and mission phases, and he simply never fought her seriously. The two hadn't tested their recent capabilities against each other.

('Today, that changes.')

He adopted a kick-boxing stance with an emphasis on leg room and kicking mobility. The first trait his adapted style needed to have against Fae was greater range. Fae's Martial Art was centered around open palm attacks. Palm attacks had shorter range than fists and much shorter range than legs. By adopting a stance that catered to launching long-range attacks quickly and swiftly, he would be able to hurt Fae while she would be unable to land strikes on him as easily.

However, by the estimation of the VOID algorithm, she would be able to launch a greater number of attacks, meaning he wouldn't be able to prevent her from penetrating past his range-restrictive defense.

Thus, Rui estimated, via the VOID algorithm, that his Martial Art would also need a focus on evasive maneuvering.

The end-result outcome as a ranged-striking evasive Martial Art that would pepper Fae with strikes from outside her Martial Art while also evading any advances on her part to get into palm-striking range.

All of this was done in the span of a few seconds.

When Rui focused, time almost slowed down to him. Catering to him.

He could feel every cell in his body cooperating as they gathered energy at the core of his body.

He could feel his concentration accumulating.

He could feel his focus honing.

When he opened his eyes, he saw but one thing.

His opponent. His target. His objective.

Fae narrowed her eyes as she felt a faint pressure from Rui's stance.

The two of them grew increasingly engrossed, the sheer pressure they emanated could be felt even by distant onlookers.

"Begin!" The supervisor commenced the match!

BAM!

Fae pushed down on the ground with her feet with such force that it shook!

She blasted forward towards Rui, launching a tremendous palm attack at him. The sheer momentum she had generated caused the generation of air cones around her attack.

WHOOSH

Rui was no fool. He avoided her attack with his maneuvering techniques, ceding ground. But she had no intention of letting him run away.

DASH

She charged at him, launching yet another fearsome blow!

WHOOSH

The palm crashed into a feint; missing Rui cleanly as he launched a speed high kick.

POW

She cleanly deflected Rui's attack out of her way with a smooth palm attack. Yet just as she tried to close the gap.

POW

The kick she deflected pulled back and struck her in the back of her head, curbing her progress.

The first clean hit of the battle had finally been landed.

DASH

She charged again, launching a flurry of palm strikes!

This was where the wisdom of the VOID algorithm had begun to show its true formidability. Rui avoided almost every single palm strike with a combination of evasive retreatment with his maneuvering techniques as well as counter-evasion with feints from the Phantom Step technique, throwing her attacks off.

Fae was slower than he was, and had a hard time staying on him, and even harder time punishing him with palm attacks because of the constant gap between them.

Furthermore, she had to deal with longer-ranged jabs and kicks that came from outside her striking range.

It was frustrating. She had known about Rui's adaptive evolution for quite some time and had seen it in action as well. But Rui's ability to adapt to his opponent and fight in precisely the manner that would make it most difficult for them to win was truly annoying!

She didn't truly understand just by spectating. It was impossible to.

The sheer prowess of the VOID algorithm in the field of combat optimization.

Only when one experienced the suppression firsthand, did one comprehend.

At this rate, she would lose, she could feel it. Something needed to change. His style hard-countered hers. And she had to exert much more effort than he did in order to inflict much less damage. She barely landed a few strikes on him, the few that he was unable to avoid despite inhumanly perfect timing of the VOID algorithm supported by the Primordial Instinct technique.

He avoided ninety-percent of his blows, while she could deflect only fifty-percent of his blows. Even if her offense was much stronger, she could not compensate for the gap in their striking rate. The odds were stacked against her.

But she was far from resigned!

The air and the earth shook as she generated more power than she had up until now. She abandoned defense and launched waves and waves of attacks.

"Guh!" Rui grimaced as the onslaught increased. It became twice as hard to avoid her ferocious blows. With such a high number of attacks, the effectivity of Phantom Step reduced tremendously. He couldn't mislead such a large number of blows with Phantom Step.

The decrease in the effectivity of Phantom Step meant that an even greater number of blows landed on him.

The battle had devolved into a slugfest as both of them volleyed weach other countless attacks!