The Martial Unity

He had chosen that locations because the two of them could go all out and not worry about causing destruction to people and infrastructure. There wasn't any of either within a decently large radius.

"Let's begin then." kyrie adopted a simple balanced stance. "I have a training session to head, soon after this."

Her stance placed an equal weight on power, mobility, and defense. A neutral, all-rounder stance.

Rui simply adopted a similar stance.

The two of them simply maintained a deadlock, staring at each other. The sheer weight of their focus and concentration yielded a pressure that exerted itself on the scant sentient life that was anywhere even remotely close to them in any capacity.

Birds took flight, and pests and other small critters evacuated as they scurried for their lives. Their battlefield grew truly barren of any sentient lifeform.

And then, Rui made the first move. He cautiously stepped forward shifting his weight back and forth, making his movements less apparent through their center of gravity. Kyrie simply waited, unfazed, as Rui approached her step by step.

They were only a few steps away from each other.

And the first move came soon enough.

The atmosphere shook as a sonic boom emerged from Rui's flying hook. He launched a simple attack, testing her.

WHOOSH

Kyrie smoothly evaded the strike, ducking while launching one of her own with the opposite arm.

POW!

He defended her attack by stepping forward and intercepting the blow at the forearm and the wrist. This was a common tactic that was used even on Earth to deal with strikes like the hook. Punches dealt damage via the fist, generally, this could be circumvented by intercepting and blocking strikes at parts of their body asides from the fist but was just as vital to the generation of power.

He threw a flurry of swift jabs at her, having blocked her attack.

WHOOSH

His attacks were quick but she demonstrated remarkable agility and nimbleness as she swiftly evaded all of them.

He launched a powerful frontal kick, yet she merely somersaulted away backward in time, avoiding the attack entirely.

The sheer speed of Martial Squires was such that, in real-time, the amount of time commenced since the start of the battle was no more than a single moment or two. Yet the Martial Artists had already launched and dealt with several attacks. Their metabolism and cognition were so far beyond human limits and even the Apprentice Realm, it was as though they existed in a different level of time and speed.

Yet, the battle continued. Neither side was nearly going all out. Rui simply observed her Martial Art and combat style as he inputted its properties. He had come to notice details about her Martial Art and combat style that he hadn't noticed before.

Back when he fought her in the Apprentice Realm, she hadn't used her true prowess, not even close. However, how she had begun using her Squire-level prowess, it had become quite clear that she was not a perfect all-rounder.

('She places a greater weightage on speed and maneuvering compared to offense and defense.') He realized.

Her Martial body leaned more towards speed than power, and this reflected in her techniques as well. However, it wasn't significant enough to make her a maneuvering-oriented Martial Artist.

POW POW POW!

Kyrie managed to cleanly bypass his guard as she landed a flurry of jabs on Rui's abdomen, much to his surprise. With the Mindmirror Symbiote and Primordial Instinct, bypassing his active defense was extremely difficult. Yet, she managed to do so with ease.

Her power and strike began escalating as he did his best to cope. He could sense that she wasn't anywhere near going all out, yet her combat parameters had already reached a stage where he was struggling to hold on.

WHOOSH

Kyrie cleanly evaded a blow from Rui as she moved in, launching a blow with tremendous power and speed toward him. Yet, to her surprise, the blow crashed into an empty image.

BAM!

A strong kick landed on the back of her head, causing her to stagger forward. She immediately turned back, a flash of surprise rippling across her face.

She immediately leaped forward, attempting to land another blow on him. Yet, Rui shifted his head ever so slightly, and the attack completely missed him.

She launched a flurry of strikes with great speed, yet none of them landed. Rui's evasive capabilities had suddenly spiked.

('I see. This is the same as last time.') She noted. She recalled that in their previous fight, Rui's fighting style had changed drastically as the accuracy of his movements in their capacity to counter her own had risen astronomically. It was clear that the same thing was occurring at the moment.

"I suppose I should stop holding back." She murmured.

It was a murmur, yet it hadn't escaped Rui's enhanced senses. Primordial Instinct felt a tremendous amount of danger as Kyrie's aura spiked.

WHOOSH

Suddenly, she disappeared in his field of vision.

BAM!

An attack of hers crashed into Rui's gut with tremendous speed and momentum. He grimaced in pain as he did his best to mitigate the damage with Inner Divergence. Yet Kyrie didn't stop. With newfound speed and power, she launched an avalanche of Squire-level attacks against him. Had Rui not had the VOID algorithm, he would have been mangled from head to toe even before he lost consciousness. However, the predictive and adaptive-evolutionary models saved his life. He managed to move at exactly the right time and in the right manner to avoid the brunt of her power. What he hadn't expected was the fact that the gap between them was still so large. However, in hindsight, it wasn't particularly unusual. She was a veteran with many years of training and battle experience in the Squire Realm.

Even with the VOID algorithm, he couldn't overcome such a huge gap in techniques and experience. The best he could do was mitigate it to the best of his abilities.