The Martial Unity

The two of them had already gained a lot of insight into their opponent based on the first exchange. 

She's fast. Prince Reese narrowed his eyes. It didn't feel like plain speed.

His defense is as high as his offense. Squire Frinjschia stared at him with an impassive expression. Hurting him is going to be difficult.

It hadn't taken more than a single exchange for the both of them to not only get a foundational grasp on their opponent but also a good grasp on the dynamics of the battle.

Unless she has some absurdly powerful grade-ten defensive techniques, she cannot withstand more than one attack from me.  Prince Reese realized. My win condition is getting a single hit on her.

His circumstances were a lot more straightforward and simpler than hers. Specialized Martial Artists were usually less flexible than all-rounders, but it meant that they did not have the predicament of choice. There was a much lesser probability of making the wrong choice because they had very few choices in the first place.

It was different for all-rounders. By definition, they had all the choice in the world. It gave them more flexibility than any other class of Martial Artists. But it also meant that the difficulty of choosing the right choice was greater.

This was something that every all-rounder had to tangle with.

Rui regarded her empathetically. Of course, he had an entire system of thought that he had personally researched and developed that dealt with this dilemma, in addition to his extreme strategic intelligence, so he didn't suffer due to that problem all that much.

He glanced back between them. He had an inkling of what her Martial Path was, but he would need to see a little more for confirmation.

At the moment, she had two choices on how to proceed strategically. She could either choose to aim to take him down by accumulating damage with countless strikes over a longer period of time, or she could hope to rely on particular circumstances with her most powerful technique and knock him out in one go when she got the opportunity.

Both options had their merits and demerits. The former offered stability and lowered the risk of loss while executing it, but it also had a lower probability of victory.

Unfortunately, weight classes mattered, it dictated raw power barring truly exceptional circumstances. She would need to accumulate minute damage bit by bit over an absurd amount of time and effort. It was a herculean task, but as long as she relied on the maneuvering capabilities that she had demonstrated, it was not impossible. It also made it more difficult for him to take her down.

Knocking him out in one go required a lot less effort. This was because the mechanics of being knocked out were fundamentally different from damage to tissue. It caused blunt force brain trauma, causing a forced shutdown of the conscious brain.

It didn't require as much damage as hurting his absurdly tough body enough to take him down with actual injured. But this approach required her to be a lot less passive, she would need to fight more aggressively and take more risks in order to exploit more openings and create a circumstance where she could launch her most powerful attack at the right place and time.

That moment would not arrive if she went with the conservative strategy of statically trying to accumulate damage.

The two strategies were largely mutually exclusive with each other, making it mostly impossible for her to try a combination of both. She would merely tire herself out while not executing either strategy properly.

The air grew taut as a pivotal point of the fight had already arrived.

The decisions they made here would likely decide the outcome of the fight. They were too close in overall prowess, a wrong choice would give their opponent an unshakable advantage.

Rui watched in rapt attention. He too did not know what was the right choice, the issue was that he didn't have a good grasp of what either side was capable of. It all depended on how confident she was on her strongest attack, and whether she was evaluating his defense accurately.

Soon enough, the moment arrived.

Interesting... Rui realized her decision before everyone else.

WHOOSH!

She flashed forward with incredible speed, racing straight at him fearlessly!

He smiled enthusiastically.

She had chosen the high-risk, high-reward strategy!

This was an unexpected choice to Rui, given her age, he had expected her to be a lot more conservative and composed in her approach. Yet she didn't seem to care about such considerations. 

She wanted to win!

Even at her age, she was not resigned to losing to her juniors who were in the prime of their lives. 

Instantly, he had gained a lot more respect for her. It took a truly unshakable conviction and drive to push through for decades without losing her fire. She was cut from a different cloth from the Squire instructors back in the Martial Academy. While he respected Squire Kyrie and was quite grateful for her training and tutelage, she did not have what it took as a warrior to even be worthy of the Senior Realm.

Squire Frinjscia, on the other hand, was perhaps the most worthy candidate for the Senior Realm. He had initially speculated that it was her lack of drive that prevented her from entering the Senior Realm.

But now he knew that was nonsense. That meant that there was another reason, perhaps her body was too weak?

He shook his head. No.

Then it could just be horrible luck that she didn't run into the right challenging circumstances that pushed her enough?

Perhaps.

Or it could be an issue with the individuality of her Martial Art. The stronger he got, the more he realized that individuality was important. Techniques needed to be individualistic because the Martial Path and the Martial Body were individualistic, the same source of individuality was needed to be compatible, synergetic, and attuned. if there was an element of incompatibility, then it could not draw out the true power of the body; the Martial Heart.

He had a feeling he knew what it was.