The Martial Unity

Regardless, he wasn’t too sure about it. It could be one of the two, and it was unlikely that he would find out just by watching her fight. At the very least, he would need to fight her himself in order to figure out whether it was just a matter of bad luck of not being forced to overcome the right kind of challenge, or whether it was an issue in her Martial Art.

Regardless, Rui put the matter aside as it was not particularly relevant. His attention was already fixed on the fight ensuing in the colosseum.

“RRGH!” The Kandrian prince swung at Squire Frinjschia as she approached.

WHOOSH!

She narrowly avoided a blow to the head, using her momentum to land a powerful blow into his gut in a fashion similar to Flowing Canon. 

POW POW POW!

She followed through with a series of swift blows to the rib, before throwing a powerful doubles-fist strike at his jaw.

She didn’t hide her desire to knock him out.

BAM!

“Tsk.” She tutted, leaping away to avoid an attack after hers failed. 

Yet she wasn’t done. The very next moment, she raced forward yet again, fearlessly entering his striking range.

Yet the Kandrian prince could only grit his teeth in frustration when every attack he struck her with cleanly missed!

He found it unnerving that she could avoid him so well, despite her raw speed not being too impressive. How was she able to avoid him so well and move so sharply?

Not many people were able to comprehend the underlying mechanics behind her movements.

‘It’s her Martial Art.’ Rui realized. ‘It’s not that she’s fast… It’s that she’s managed to eliminate thought as a time-consuming variable in her movements by relying on muscle memory alone.’

Rui recognized this because he had seen a similar case before. ‘Hever.’

Hever too had mastered his technique to such a point, that he could perform them using muscle memory alone. Of course, this was not a feature of his Martial Art, it was something that he inadvertently accomplished with incredible single-minded dedication and focus.

Thought was something that accompanied all movements before, during, and after they occurred. It was needed to time the movement, coordinate, and pace it appropriately.

However, it could be replaced with muscle memory, when the movements were completely and totally baked into the blood of the body, such that it could be accomplished with little to no effort, and no lag from thought.

It was the difference between someone typing on a keyboard for the first time, and a proficient typer with many years of dedicated practice and hard work.

The latter was always far superior. But was it because the anatomical speed of their fingers was superior to that of the former?

No.

The only difference was that the latter could type without needing to perceive, process, and decide when it came to typing, getting rid of an important element that hampered the former.

That was why while Squire Frinjschia’s movements were not the fastest, she could effectively move as fast as a speed and maneuvering-oriented Martial Art.

‘Furthermore, she could go much more extreme with it than Hever ever did, because her Martial Body is obviously attuned to her Martial Art.’ Rui narrowed his eyes.

That meant that she definitely had fewer constraints and restrictions. At the very least she could achieve greater results for the same amount of effort that Hever did.

However, unlike him, she applied to a much broader combat style, while Hever had hyper-specialized in counter-offensive grappling, making his task easier and more pliable.

As far as Rui could see, her entire combat style made use of muscle memory replacing thought. Every single movement, every single set of movements, completely eliminated thought as a shackle.

‘Impressive.’ Rui regarded her with respect. She moved so fast that even Rui had to exert his attention to keep up with all of her movements. ‘She can pressure even the likes of Kane when it comes to maneuvering.’

That was especially impressive because she was not a maneuvering-oriented Martial Artist. She was an all-rounder, and her offense, while much weaker than the Kandrian Prince’s titanic offense, was consistently solid. 

He hadn’t gotten a chance to see her defense since the Kandrian Prince had yet to put even a scratch on her, but he was quite confident that it too would not fall behind. He could already tell that she relied more on passive defense with extensive signs of conditioning across her aged flesh.

It made sense, since active defenses often required thought, or at least were heavily reliant on it. It was a lot more difficult and risky to eliminate thought in techniques that required thought. Thus it was entirely logical to rely on conditioning.

Regardless, it appeared that she wouldn’t particularly be relying on it this fight.

BAM BAM BAM! WHOOSH!

She struck his liver with a swift combo of knuckle strikes, striking him with the second knuckle on the index finger, before just barely evading a swift sweeping haymaker from him.

POW POW! WHOOSH!

She barely managed to squeeze in two strikes to the vital points of the floating ribs before sharply ducking to avoid a powerful swift blow from the Kandrian prince. She somersaulted away cleanly, and yet…

FLICK

It was just the tiniest of nicks with the knuckles on his fist, and yet, a wound was a wound. A small cut appeared on her cheek.

It was nothing worth mentioning, yet it spoke for itself.

She was cutting it close, extremely close. This was the downside of her approach, it certainly allowed her to be more aggressive in pursuing opportunities to land that finishing blow that she was looking for, but it also came with risks.

Had she chosen a more conservative approach, this most like would never have happened.

STEP

He crouched once more into a sprinter’s position, before launching himself at her.

BOOM!

He propelled himself forward with tremendous momentum only to be effortlessly evaded by his opponent.

Yet it appeared that he wasn’t interested in repeating the same song and dance in vain.