Rui did find it weird that the man's hair was black. That was a strange coincidence, but one that surely did not hold much significance. It was just hair and eye color, after all.

Regardless, Rui took his time sizing him up.

He could see why he was the number one guardian of the Floating Sect.

('Honestly, forget the Floating Sect, he might be the strongest Martial Squire… period,') Rui's eyes lit up in interest and admiration.

There were no Martial Squires that he had ever met that he would consider worthy of being considered the strongest. Until he met Ieyasu.

('I'm glad I get to see him fight,') Rui smirked just a little. ('I wonder what his Martial Path is.')

Rui immediately recalled Kane's account of the man's Martial Art, he wielded sound just like Senior Xanarn did, or even better apparently.

Yet he wasn't foolish enough to believe that this was a mere coincidence.

Either the man was a long-time apprentice of Senior Xanarn, or…

Rui's eyes narrowed. The alternative was so bizarre that he found it embarrassing to even parse the thought.

('We'll just have to see,')

The crowd did not stall for more than several seconds in real-time. After all, an army was approaching Ajanta Island, even if they couldn't cross the distance in an instant when sky-walking, they were still coming soon.

The Martial Squires soon enough aligned themselves at the edge of the island before receiving instructions to be dispatched.

More than a hundred Martial Squires plummeted into the air, diving down headfirst, as they accelerated downwards sky-walking to gather as much momentum as possible.

THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM!

Both sides began volleying Martial Squire attacks at the other side, hoping to take as many down. Rui focused, narrowing his eyes as he put his ODA System to use, he began striking Martial Squires down far earlier than anyone else did!

POW!

He even managed to nail one Martial Squire in the head!, sending him tumbling back down towards the Kaddar Region.

His heartbeat grew heavier as both sides drew closer to each other.

The atmosphere grew taut with the maelstrom of pressure that wrung the air between them!

Rui shifted as he avoided attack after attack, launching his own as both sides reached within the range of long-range attacks.

Waves of attack fell on either side as the long-range Marital Squires began throwing everything that they had.

Both sides began spreading out and taking space as the two sides got closer, something that both sides had planned ahead of time.

No Martial Artist wanted to be caught by strays all because they were too cramped. That was the reason that all of them universally were more than willing and their opponents to gain enough space before they engaged in close-quarter combat.

The defensive Martial Artists of both sides were placed closer to the front lines, as opposed to the rear.

This was effectively a Martial Artist version of charging in with shields up in order to withstand the ensuing collision.

And collide they did.

The sheer power generated by all the various ensuing clashes was so great that it changed the weather of the particular portion of the Kaddar Region that they were fighting over!

The very skies shook as many powerful high-grade Martial Squires clashed against each other, Countless fists and strikes were exchanged one after the other, as they fought with everything they had.

BOOM!!!

Rui evaded a strike from his opponent as he rushed forward with a Flowing Canon with all of the power that he had gathered from all of his descent!

CRACK!

The sheer power of the strike was so great that it broke the man's cleanly, causing significant damage. The Martial Squire plummeted back to the land as he lost consciousness.

Just one strike was all it took. The man lost consciousness as he began plummeting back to the land.

Martial Artists had already begun to fall like flies.

That was the intensity with which the war was being waged.

He tutted as he dialed his Primordial Instinct to the very maximum. It was the best sensory technique in combat circumstances. The chaos around him was staggering, it wasn't easy processing everything perfectly.

He heaved a sigh of relief as he verified that Kane was okay. Yet, he didn't have any more than a moment before he was bombarded with more attacks from an enemy Martial Squire.

SPLAT!

Rui evaded a serious strike from a piercing Martial Artist, glancing at her with a way expression.

She had a bit of her blood on her fingers.

('She's conditioned the fingers of her body to be especially sharp.') Rui realized as he got a good look at them.

Yet she didn't give him too much time to gain his bearings. She lashed forward, hoping to take Rui out.

She formed her hand into a sharp palm, before rushing at him and swinging at him in incredible fashion. Her attacks were unquestionably difficult to avoid, and making even a single mistake would lead to Rui getting hurt a lot.

Yet, that did not happen, much to her surprise. She frowned as he dodged all of her techniques with remarkable ease.

Rui wasn't even using a predictive model, he was merely dodging her with the merit of his own judgments bit by bit.Content is property © .

Yet he swiftly began analyzing her Martial Art bit by bit. He had no mercy going into this, he was always of the opinion that Martial Artists ought to be able to bear the consequences of consenting to participate in a raging war.

As the minutes flew by, Rui began changing bit by bit. His motions became smoother, his reactions also flew smoother, and his timing became increasingly perfect as he began adapting to her swiftly just like he had done so many times in the past to many of his opponents. It was almost a thoughtless process at this point, he could do it without the VOID algorithm. In fact, his mind was almost more preoccupied by his own shortcomings than that of his opponent.