The Martial Unity

The battle had entered a new phase as the two Martial Artists furiously brawled in close-quarters combat. Their visions stretched deep into the future as they predicted each other’s moves one after another.

Their battle extended across the fourth dimension as they fought in the future.

The present was the past as far as both of them were concerned.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!!!

They swung blows at each other.

Yet, they each missed one after another. It was as though they were blind men swinging at nothing. It was an unfathomable sight.

Incomprehensible.

None of the Masters watching the battle understood what was happening. They simply stared at the two Masters who appeared to be fighting ghosts.

They couldn’t even begin to fathom that they were each averting futures that they didn’t like, instead adaptively evolving it to suit their needs.

A tug of war for the future of the battle.

Yet, that didn’t mean they were equal.

“You’re sloppy.”

BAM!

Ieyasu’s blood-red eyes widened with shock as a swift jab blasted him in the face, leaving him staggering.

“The VOID algorithm does not encompass my Adaptive Evolution.”

POW POW POW!!!

Ieyasu foresaw the attacks.

Yet, they still wound up weaving through his defenses, blasting his ribs.

“The VOID algorithm was created in a world with highly limited human martial arts.” Rui sounded strangely irritated at how Ieyasu employed it. “I have discarded a crucial chunk of it that had grown obsolete over the years.”

BOOOM!!!

A thundering kick landed squarely on Ieyasu’s thigh, instantly leaving a painful bruise behind.

“In other words, the VOID algorithm is incomplete.” Rui’s eyes blazed with ferocity as he shot towards Ieyasu, unleashing a maelstrom of attacks one after another. BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM!!!

Each blow landed squarely with the very edge of his knuckles, leaving painful punctures in Ieyasu’s Body.

“I compensate for the discarded adaptive evolution model with my intuition and instinct for adaptive evolution.” Rui’s tone was fierce. “Decades of scientific experience with adaptive evolution on Earth and decades of Martial experience with adaptive evolution in this world.”

His piercing glare dug into Ieyasu’s blood-red eyes. “That is what you are lacking.”

BOOOOOM!!!

A Flowing Canon empowered with the full might of the Yin-Yang Spear and Outer Convergence flung Ieyasu past his failed attempt to adaptively evolve.

“The essence of my Adaptive Evolution is not in my mind but in my soul.”

BAM BAM BAM…!!!

Barrage after barrage, Rui blasted Ieyasu with attack after attack as he fleshed out his immediate strategy in his mind.

Ieyasu, in his current state, had two weaknesses.

The first was the shortcoming of having absolutely no intuition and instinct for adaptive evolution. This was something that not even he could copy and would prevent him from making the most optimal move to maximize the probability of victory. The second weakness was his dependence on the Megamind technique.

The Megamind technique weakened physical parameters. This closed the gap between their outputs, making them more or less equal and ridding Ieyasu of a powerful advantage.

“The fact that you even chose to copy my VOID algorithm without being able to make the best of it is proof that you don’t have any intuition or instinct for adaptive evolution.”

BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM!!!

Rui’s new strategy for adaptively evolving to Ieyasu was simple.

He simply needed to attack in a manner such that the threshold for adaptively evolving was extremely high. In other words, he needed to attack in a manner where there was only one correct answer and all other answers were wrong.

Without an intuition and instinct for adaptive evolution, Ieyasu would be unable to judge what the right answer to each attack was, causing him to choose the wrong answer in most cases.

With this, Rui could gain a slow advantage until finally—

‘Until finally I can execute my ultimate plan.’

He quickly buried the thought under a mountain of data as he swarmed Ieyasu with attacks that were highly difficult to adaptively evolve to. His stance changed like water as he adaptively evolved it to fit his circumstances.

He altered his Metabody configuration, deactivating Hypertrophic Surge and instead focusing on Neo Godspeed.

WHOOSH!!

He surged towards Ieyasu at blinding speeds, throwing an avalanche of blurring jabs at his opponent. With Ieyasu’s weakness of having no intuition for adaptive evolution, he failed in making the most optimal decision with each blow that flew towards him. POW POW POW POW POW…!!!

Rui’s attacks intensified as his anger rose. “Don’t go around telling people that that is my Martial Art. You will defame me with your incompetence.”

BOOOM!!!

Like a thread through the eye of a needle, Rui’s Yin-Yang Spear wove through the man’s guard, blasting his ribs with a devastatingly powerful blow.

BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM!!!

Jab after jab.

Blow after blow.

Rui battered his opponent faster than he could recover from it. He abused his opponent’s weaknesses with targeted and adapted attacks that were designed to inflict the most amount of punishment by exploiting his weaknesses to the maximum. Rui abused his speed because he knew that his opponent’s raw speed was weakened by the Metabody and dealt him complex and multi-layered attacks that were especially impossible to adaptively evolve to. POW POW POW POW POW…!!!

And it was then and only then that Ieyasu understood.

He understood the difference between them as his flailing active defenses failed to deal with Rui’s onslaughts.

Their foresights were similar.

They both had the VOID algorithm.

Rui had the SOUL System while Ieyasu had the Soul Eye.

This gave them roughly equal insight into the future even if Rui edged out due to a greater cognition.

And yet, the outcome was not even close.

BAM BAM BAM!!!

Rui rattled his ribcage even as Ieyasu’s attack missed him entirely.

POW POW POW!!!

A barrage of low kicks in rapid succession destabilized his balance, crumbling his guard from inside-out.

And thus, an opportunity presented itself to Rui. He flew in for the final blow to end the battle once and for all. A double-finger eye gouging attack flashed forward at blinding speeds.

A finisher.

CRACK CRACK CRACK!!!

–