The Martial Unity

The first exchange was probably enough to confirm that he had predicted her. However, he wasn't interested in just proving that he had the power of prophecy. He wanted to prove that he was the best at it.

However, not to the Silas Clan.

He wanted to prove to himself that he was the best at it.

John had worked hard on the predictive model for much of his life. It took him two lifetimes to perfect it in combat. He was not willing to cede superiority easily.

His grandmother had told him to go all out, but Rui knew that wasn't the right choice. The best way to earn the Silas Clan's respect and acknowledgment was to win the fight using the VOID algorithm, specifically the pattern recognition system.

Senior Huldah flashed forward, throwing a powerful flurry of blows at Rui.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH

Rui evaded every single one of them, throwing a powerful kick at her head.

WHOOSH

She had already evaded it. A swift drop-kick was already hurtled, plummeting at his head.

WHOOSH

Rui had long shifted out of the way, throwing a heavy blow to her head.

WHOOSH

Not a single one of them had been able to land a strike on their opponent. In fact, a scene unlike anything Rui had seen unfolded before Rui. Each of them was constantly foreseeing each other's attacks and reactively evading them ahead of time.

An illusion was born from the exchange.

It was as if they were skipping time, phasing into the future.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH

Their attacks and movements grew increasingly smoother and more refined.

They grew sharper.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH

They simultaneously threw attacks and dodged them simultaneously. They surged forward, throwing power blows at each other's heads, hoping to take each other down swiftly.

WHOOSH!

Their attack crashed into empty images.

Each of them had long evaded the attack, having foreseen its arrival. A smile emerged on Rui's face. This was the first time he had ever had a battle like this with an opponent that could foresee his attacks just as well as he did.

Senior Huldah, however, was not pleased.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

She gritted her teeth as Rui feinted away from each of her attacks, one after the other. What was a novel experience for Rui was most mundane to Rui. What she was displeased about was the fact that this outsider had predictive power that was on par with her own.

'No…' She narrowed her eyes.

The fact that they were equal in combat was proof that his predictive power likely exceeded her own!

After all, she had a stronger Martial Body, being centuries old. Not by too much; the Roaring Dragon Blood Potion had closed much of what would be a great gap. However, she was undoubtedly faster than he was by a notch or two.

Yet;

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH

He cleanly evaded all her attacks while launching a barrage of his own.

"Tsk," she tutted, gritting her teeth.

It was a painful indicator that his predictive power was truly impressive.

What she didn't realize was that she had underestimated him.

"Your evasions are preceded by weight shifts and muscle twitches."

BOOM!

A powerful blow crashed into her gut mid-evasion. The full power of Fire Breathing, Outer Convergence, Reverberating Lance, and Adamant Reforging culminated in the impact.

"Rgh!" She grimaced with shock, more than pain.

Yet, a powerful kick had already arrived, hurtling at her head. She ducked, evading the attack, only to find that a flying knee kick had been waiting for that.

BAM!!

The knee kick crashed firmly in her head, breaking her nose on the spot. Yet Rui was far from done.

POW POW POW!!!

"Rgh!" She gritted her teeth, guarding against a multitude of blows that peppered into her, accounting for her evasive maneuvers.

BOOM!!

Rui blasted her with a powerful kick, flinging her back as he rushed in, refusing to give her reprieve.

POW POW POW!!

Rui narrowed his eyes, focusing on her as he blasted her with blow after blow.

'Hm, so the Eye of Prophecy is static and constant in its predictive power; it does not grow stronger,' Rui realized. 'Well, too bad. My Martial Art has nothing to do with prophecy. It embodies adaptive evolution!"

BOOM!!!

He blasted her with a powerful Flowing Canon, crumbling her firm guard.

Unlike the Eye of Prophecy, the predictive model always continued growing stronger. After all, there was no upper limit to the amount of data that it could take. The more data it had, the greater the precision of prediction, depth, and accuracy of the predictions.

The Angel of Laplace simply skipped much of the initial process by supplying a large number of passive patterns that existed in a person. The actual fight would supply him with an immense amount of active combat patterns, further evolving the predictive model.

However, his opponent had a very fundamental misunderstanding of Rui's Martial Art.

The predictive model was secondary. It was created to mitigate the shortcoming of the adaptive evolution model, which allowed him to counter foreseen moves with the statistically most optimal counter.

That was the adaptive evolution of the pattern recognition system.

That was his true strength.

BOOM!!

His attack precisely weaved through a foreseen momentary chink in her, crashing into her solar plexus.

"…ack!" She choked, unable to breathe.

Just as Rui had foreseen.

BAM!!

The full might of Fire Breathing, Outer Convergence, and Reverberating Lance crashed into the jaw, rocking her entire skull violently. The blunt-force trauma exceeded the critical threshold, causing her to collapse on the spot.

THUD

He gazed at her unconscious body.

The Mindforgers assigned to oversee his battle descended from the air, gazing at Senior Huldah's body grimly.

"Winner…Rui." They reluctantly declared.

Yet their eyes were filled with grudging respect for Rui. He had just disemboweled their strongest Awakened Bodyforger rather decisively. Furthermore, as Mindforgers, they knew that Rui had only employed a fraction of his maximum power, which forced them to acknowledge the extraordinary Awakened Bodyforger before them.