The Martial Unity

"Hey!" Kane jerked him out of his stupor. "Are you listening?"

"Ah, sorry," Rui sighed. "I got distracted by something. Go on."

"Pay attention," Kane huffed. "Anyways, like I was saying. It was only after that I regained full control of my body and my reactions that I actually began testing it out against lightning. It was amazing! It was as though my body couldn't keep up with my nerves! It was after that that I got the brilliant idea of mixing it with the Godspeed technique! I just had a feeling that it would work, you see."

Rui listened carefully as he went on to describe his application of fusing the Godspeed technique with his new lightning technique. He realized that there was actually quite a bit of difference between what they were doing.

Rui utilized the predictions of the VOID algorithm to prepare movements ahead of time. He also moved within the time period that existed after his opponent had already decided to move before his movements began. In other words, he began his counter-movements at the earliest moment that it was too late for his opponent to move.

Objectively speaking, the top movement speed of the Root was higher than his fastest Forestep, but because of this mechanism, he was able to greatly overcompensate for that speed gap.

He used Forestep on pure reflex and muscle memory. This was similar to what Hever did with his Meteoric Throw technique. He had burned all those movements into his very blood, practicing to do them without any insight from his consciousness and thought whatsoever. He had reached an incredible point doing just that. His sheer mastery of what was a straightforward simple grade-six technique turned into a grade-nine technique.

Rui had not reached that level. But, in six months, he had put him through excruciatingly tiring training as he dedicated his instinct to the technique. He refused to have any conscious thoughts, only focusing on his movements and breathing during that time. He was attuning his subconscious mind to the technique, ensuring that they would be able to reach the way he wanted them to.

Kane did not do that. What Kane did was essentially reach a higher level of combat speed by using two different paths. The first was through Godspeed, which solely amplified movement speed. The second was through this strange new lightning technique that amplified his reflexes.

Together, he had essentially reached a different league of combat speed.

The former did not interest Rui that much, he was essentially doing something very similar, and Kane had gotten the idea from him. It was the latter that was truly incredible. Kane's body had managed to retain a portion of the lightning that he had been struck with. Rui was starting to get an inkling of how that worked.

As a combat sports researcher, he was intimately familiar with available and legal treatments and therapies that fighters were allowed to go through. He dug through his enhanced memory as he recalled a physical therapy that was centered around lightning, known as electromuscular stimulation. The therapy showed that the reaction speed of humans could be heightened in humans when they were subjected to mild electrical currents through their muscles and serves.

It appeared that Kane's technique was centered around a similar principle, however far superior in magnitude. However, even then, this technique would not be all that effective had Kane not been this suited to being able to handle electrical currents through his body.

"How did you know you would be able to handle the lightning again?" Rui asked, curious.

"Well, like I said," Kane shrugged. "It was instinct. Also, I am part of the Lightning Sect, so, you know, I felt that had to count for something."

Rui stared at him with a frozen expression.

An awkward silence ensued for a few seconds.

"…What?" Kane shrunk under his glare.

"You thought you could handle lightning because you were part of the Lightning Sect?!" Rui rested his head in his hands as he groaned in disbelief.

"Well, I just had a good feeling about it!" Kane grew embarrassed.

Despite how silly his reasoning was, Rui couldn't help but consider an idea that popped into his head.

('What if the evolution processes that he went through involved an electrical current flowing through his body?') Rui wondered.

In that case, only the cells of his body that were prone to being able to conduct electricity would survive, and only those cells would reproduce. If only Kane went through this more than Rui did, if Rui did at all, then it would explain why he could harness the power of lightning in this manner.

That was just an unsubstantiated hypothesis, however, he had no proof that it was true. A piece of evidence against the hypothesis was the fact that he had literally never seen a Martial Squire with a Martial body similar to Kane exhibit a lightning technique similar to that. He had been exposed to countless Martial Squires in his time in the Shionel Confederation, and he had never seen anything quite like that.

Then again, Kane only came up with this technique because of this environment. And unlike the Umiana Trench, this place was not as infested with Martial Artists training. There were few that had heard of the Thundering Valley and had chosen to come to train.

The odds that he would run into someone with the right Martial body who ran into the right circumstances and got the right inspiration to create a comparable technique were quite low.

"Incredible technique," Rui earnestly praised Kane. "Seriously, I never knew such a thing was possible. I am actually very much impressed with this technique and with you for having come up with it."

"Heh, it wasn't much, really," He tried playing it off cool, but Rui could see that he was exerting control over his crooked smile. He turned to Rui with confident eyes. "We both know you're stronger than me. But here… with this technique, I think I might be able to beat you for the first time in a long time. So I challenge you to a duel."