The Martial Unity

Eventually, Rui found himself training in the Great Jrava Mountain Range once more.

He recalled the fight against the Stringing Executioner; she had managed to temporarily negate the effects of his Sonic Singularity domain by not allowing the sonic singularity to actually form.

By dispelling the technique when it had yet to take effect, she managed to deal with it much easier than if it had hit her.

This was a bit of an unexpected weakness but one that he should have expected in hindsight. Unfortunately, it was a fundamental flaw of the technique; he could not get rid of it, but he could mitigate it with other factors.

One of them was the solution that he had come up with in the fight itself, which was relying on the principles of Death's Sympathy. He could use that to bypass any barrier that tried to obstruct the sound coming from his domain.

'Regardless, her Martial Art was definitely potent,' Rui gave her the credit that she was due.

While there were many drawbacks, shortcomings, and constraints to her Martial Art, they all occurred prior to the battle.

In the battle itself, she could functionally operate with a stamina many times greater than what her Martial Body and Heart would have. She could also operate with potency and power many times greater than what her Martial Heart would warrant.

Twenty strings released at once would have twenty times the power of a single string, even if her true attack power is on par with a single string's power. Unlike the stamina of the body, the net potential energy in all of the strings could be set up however she wanted. In fact, if she was willing to sacrifice all string stamina, she might even be able to launch a single quasi-Master-level attack.

However, she would need to plan ahead of time.

He shook his head, putting the matter aside.

She was dead.

The same could be said for the other assassins that had given him some trouble. The Suffocator displayed domain mastery that exceeded even Rui's. Passive domain mastery was truly impressive now that he had actually fought against it. The man was able to fight normally while still moving in a manner that bent his breath to, in turn, bend heaven.

One of the constant problems that he experienced throughout the battle was the fact that it was difficult to use domains while fighting in any other manner. At the very least, if he had to use a domain while fighting in hand-to-hand, his hand-to-hand combat would be quite limited.

Thus, he had to effectively choose between domains and hand-to-hand combat.

There were some circumstances where hand-to-hand was more desirable. Such circumstances were when his opponent was had a non-specialized Martial Art that had more balance across the field.

In such a circumstance, there would not be especially one domain that perfectly countered his opponent.

He did not have the ability to launch two domains partially and simultaneously. The Yggdrasil System was less flexible than the Hypnomatrix.

'If I want to adaptively evolve smoothly in the future, then I'm going to have to gain both passive mastery and domain flexibility,' Rui realized.

Ideally, he would want to reach a stage where he could use multiple domains simultaneously and partially to correct the right configuration to counter his opponent while also being able to engage in hand-to-hand.

This way, he would have reached a state where he could adaptively evolve his body to match his opponent, as well as hypnotic offense and his domains. And of course, his combat style.

The day he reached that pinnacle of mastery was the day that he would be deploying multiple dimensions of combat to perfectly adaptively evolve to his opponent.

His fist quivered with excitement as he thought about just how much adaptive evolution he would have cultivated.

Body, mind, Art, and domain.

These were the four dimensions of his adaptive evolution.

When he first became an Apprentice, he only had one, Art, through the VOID algorithm. He actually had less than one since he hadn't mastered the pattern recognition system back then.

'I've come a long way,' Rui's determination grew. 'And I'll go even further. No matter what hurdle I have to overcome.'

"Speaking of things I have to overcome…" Rui's mind delved into the only domain technique he hadn't used during the assassinations.

"The Angel of Laplace."

The technique had a lot of potential.

If there was one weakness that the pattern recognition system of the VOID algorithm had, it was the fact that it needed time to be activated.

This was not a small weakness.

What if he faced a Martial Art with an extraordinarily lethal and quick attack from the very start of the battle?

In that case, the pattern recognition system would be unable to help him. In the worst case scenario, he would die.

He knew that the solution to this weakness could not come from the pattern recognition system.

In order to predict the future, the past needed to be known.

As sharp as his mind was, Rui did not think that he would be able to break this principle. It was fundamental.

It was a result of the law of causality.

Back on Earth, this was not a problem. While Rui had created the VOID algorithm for all combat, it was mainly used in the context of the UFC rather than street fights.

He didn't need to worry about this flaw because the past data of all fighters were available. All fights were recorded and broadcasted. Thus, all the past data needed was available.

This was not the case in Gaia. If he was ambushed by an assassin, or assaulted by a Martial Artist, he didn't have access UFC fight footage of these Martial Artists.

That was why he had created the Angel of Laplace.

If the past was needed to see the future, then the past he would grasp.

However, the Angel of Laplace had proven to be…difficult.