The Martial Unity

Rui’s eyes widened with shock as he felt a sharp flash of pain in his fingers. They were crumpled in a gruesome manner.

Completely dislocated.

He didn’t realize what had happened until after. A violent finger lock that crushed his fingers before he could even react.

STEP

He leaped away from Ieyasu, cradling his fingers with a grim expression.

“You were right…” Ieyasu’s tone was chilling. His eyes grew fierce.

“I shouldn’t have tried to rely on strengths that I didn’t have. Instead…”

WHOOSH!

He appeared before Rui in the blink of an eye.

“…I’ll rely on my own strengths.”

A whopping ten assimilated techniques went into the strikes that flew towards Rui.

WHOOSH

Rui calmly evaded them.

Except, he didn’t. BOOM!!!

He grimaced with shock as the attack drastically shifted direction mid-trajectory, courtesy of an assimilated Martial Art. Yet, Ieyasu was not done. He unleashed yet another myriad of blows.

Rui intercepted each blow with Flux Earther.

SPLAT!

His eyes widened as he felt a spout of blood emerge from the palm of his intercepting hand that had made contact with the attack.

“Vacuum palms to adaptively evolve to your Flux Earther.” Ieyasu’s voice was ominous.

His blood-red eyes peered deep into Rui’s. “I may not have your intuition or instinct, but I have copied and assimilated more than ten thousand Martial Art.”

SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT!!!

Rui’s expression grew grave as he suffered more wounds and understood what Ieyasu’s plan was.

He was planning to leverage the entirety of his arsenal and versatility to ensure that his techniques were more suited for a particular situation. Oftentimes, Rui didn’t have the particular kind of technique needed to perfectly counter his opponent. Thus, he would make do with another technique in its place.

Naturally, this was a sub-optimal outcome.

However, Ieyasu didn’t have to do this. 16:57

With the sheer number of Martial Art that he had copied, he had a technique for every circumstance.

However, Ieyasu didn’t have to do this. With the sheer number of Martial Art that he had copied, he had a technique for every circumstance.

He had a technique for every situation.

He had the perfect technique for each need.

And even if he didn’t, he could merge different assimilated techniques into each other and create the perfect technique that he needed. That was the power of Assimilative Evolution.

Rui’s expression grew darker by the second as he understood the full potential that this strategy had.

It assimilated assimilative evolution on a foundational level and used it to evolve adaptive evolution.

Chills crawled across his skin as he struggled to fathom the endless potential that such a horrifyingly powerful combination had.

The atmosphere boiled with peril as Ieyasu surged forth with renewed vigor.

He knew he didn’t have much time left.

The Megamind technique was a truly draining technique.

They had both reached the final few precious bursts of stamina that they could muster.

This was the endgame.

Whoever emerged victorious would emerge as the ultimate victor of the battle.

They sensed that.

And it reflected in the fierce ferocity in their eyes.

BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM!!!

Rui gritted his teeth as he barely managed to block techniques that hard-countered his usual defensive tactics on a mechanical level. Yet, Ieyasu was just getting started.

SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT!!!

Small puncture wounds appeared across the entirety of Rui’s guard as Ieyasu employed the vacuum palm techniques of a Martial Art that he had assimilated. The damage was inflicted by creating extreme pockets of vacuum between the surface of the target’s skin and the palm of the attacker within a microsecond.

The sheer amount of momentary pressure imbalance caused would make the internal pressure reach just high enough to burst past the flesh and skin, causing a puncture wound to form from the inside.

That was bad enough, but Ieyasu assimilated an electrostatic Martial Art that generated powerful enough electrostatic attraction to contribute to the ripping force, increasing the sheer speed at which the wound was created.

There was no way that Flux Earther could disperse such an exotic mechanism from inflicting damage. There was simply no collision to redirect. Ieyasu surged forward towards Rui standing before him, yet instead of attacking what he saw before him, he instead threw a powerful blow to his immediate right.

Where the real Rui was and not the feint that he had left behind with Phantom Step. Union of Heaven and Earth was a grade-ten sensory domain technique that connected heaven and earth to one’s nervous system through truly powerful high principles, allowing one to be connected to the very world itself.

Mere feints would not be able to overcome this level of worldly awareness.

BAM BAM BAM…!!!

Ieyasu ground him with a multitude of Gyroblast Fist techniques, yet another niche striking technique centered around the principle of relying on rotation and twisting upon contact to inflict damage rather than a direct collision.

Again, another technique that allowed him to bypass Rui’s Martial Art techniques.

Technique after technique, Ieyasu demolished Rui’s offenses and defenses one after another. All of Rui’s most trusted techniques failed him in rapid succession as Ieyasu found some technique or another to perfectly counter them.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!

Rui grimaced as his Body grew battered with more wounds than ever before, yet he was so exhausted that even his passive recovery had entirely worn off, unable to maintain his rapidly plummeting condition.

If not for his powerful systems of thought, if not for the two years he had spent in the manifold grinding for experience, he would have been long defeated. Yet, as he discovered, even they had limits.

BOOOM!!!

CRACK!

A thundering blow ravaged Rui’s guard.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM…!!!

A maelstrom of blows blasted Rui down as Ieyasu outputted the very best outcome that he was able to manifest. Vacuum Palms, Gyroblast Fists, and other niche modes of offense blasted Rui with devastating impacts, inflicting grave damage on his Body.

RUMBLE…

It was as though the very world could sense the impending smell of defeat in the air.

It was as though Gaia mourned what was to come. A wave of finality swept over the spectating Martial Artists as they geared up to complete their missions.

There wasn’t even the faintest hint of uncertainty in the air.

“It’s over.” A faint whisper escaped Ieyasu as he unleashed a devastating attack to end the battle.

To end the war.

RUMBLE!!!

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