Impaled by spears.

Buried deep within the land.

A mountain crushing down on him.

Immersed in magma.

And yet, in that moment, a single emotion consumed Rui Quarrier.

Boundless admiration for his enemy.

At that moment, he could feel nothing else.

Nothing.

The pain of his injuries.

The despair and misery that came with the sanity of a normal being.

They did not exist. Not within Rui Quarrier. This belongs to : ©.

His eyes opened.

Endless will surged from deep within them. The fight was far from over.

'It's just beginning.'

Rui reduced Nemean Blossom to fifty percent, before activating Weaving Blood. He closed his eyes, shifting his muscles to dislodge the spears impaling his body as Weaving Blood closed his wounds at a remarkable pace.

In just fifteen seconds, he was fully healed. He instantly deactivated Weaving Blood, activating Hypertrophic Surge in its place.

RUMBLE

Senior Marna froze, widening her eyes as she turned back to the battlefield where she had buried Rui. "Impossible."

Cracks emerged across the forest.

RUMBLE!

The land shook violently. She gritted her teeth before activating her Dominion Art, trying to suppress him.

Yet, it was too late.

BOOM!!!

A titanic eruption emerged, reaching the skies as Rui broke through his prison with a tier six Transverse Resonance attack. An expression of pure relief emerged on his face as he breathed in fresh air.

"You…" Her eyes narrowed as she gritted her teeth. "I'll-"

She froze, widening her eyes. 'I can't breathe?'

Rui stared at her with calm eyes before lashing out at her at top speed, deactivating Hypertrophic Surge and activating his Neo Godspeed technique. Time slowed down to a crawl as he moved through a world that moved in slow motion. However, he knew that that alone wasn't enough to grant him the win.

She clapped her hands while leaping away from him at top speed. 'Dominion Art: Flowing Earthen Hymn Step.'

This was a technique that accelerated her maneuvering by having the land propel her away. With how superior her Martial Heart was, she was able to easily maintain the distance between them despite Rui's Metabody technique.

'I'm still struggling to breathe!' She gasped for breath. Her power was significantly hampered as a result. Not only did she rely on it to generate half the power she relied on, she wasn't able to use the breathing techniques that she had created to suppress sky-walking.

Yet Rui never once took one step into the air.

No.

He chased after her on land.

A calm look of confidence flashed across his face.

'He could avoid my Martial Art by sky-walking but he doesn't…' Pure unbridled rage erupted from within her heart. 'How dare you underestimate me.'

She clapped her hands furiously. The air boiled under the weight of her pressure.

Pure peril radiated from her.

She took two steps in rapid succession as she continued evading Rui, he narrowed his eyes as he felt the ground stirring.

Then four.

Then eight.

Then sixteen.

Then thirty-two.

Then sixty-four.

And then…

'Dominion Art: 108 Steps of Gaia.' An enormous erupt of soil swallowed Rui whole, killing him on the spot.

Or so it should have.

And yet, nothing happened.

Her eyes widened with surprise as the ground never surged up.

It never swallowed him.

And it certainly never killed him on the spot.

A single remark escaped Rui's mouth. "I've already adapted to your Martial Art."

His tone was calm. His expression was composed. His words evoked a single emotion from deep within her.

Fear.

His eyes were silver, yet an unfathomable void emerged from deep within them. They seemed to consume everything they touched. They pierced through her, making her feel transparent.

Naked.

Invisible.

'Damn it.' She clapped her hands as her Martial Heart strained, pushing itself to the limit. 'Damn it all!'

She activated more techniques, seeking to shift the earth to fight for her. Yet it never did.

Nothing happened.

"BUT WHY?!" She bellowed with frustration as Rui chased after her at top speed. He didn't make any unusual movements, so why was he able to suppress her Martial Art? The entirety of his focus was reaching her as he raced towards her, one step at a time.

'Wait…' Realization dawned on her. 'Step?'

Rui furiously blazed across the forest chasing after her.

Step by step.

STEP

VMMM!

STEP

VMMM!

STEP

VMMM!

Her eyes widened as she extended her senses underground. With every step he took, Rui applied Reverberating Lance to direct force underground using sympathetic resonance. Reverberating Lance was a technique that used vibrations, throughout the fight, the moment Rui understood her Martial Art, he had fought passively.

He fought passively as he made the preparations needed to suppress her Martial Art. In order to suppress her Martial Art, he merely needed to sabotage the convergence of seismic radiation. In order to do that, he needed to locate the point of convergence of seismic radiation. Unfortunately. He could not rely on Seismic Mapping. Just like with sound in the air, seismic radiation could be used to locate other things, but seismic radiation in and of itself could not be located.

Then the question was how was he supposed to know the location of the convergence of seismic radiation that gave rise to seismic displacement? He had found the arrived at the answer quickly. 'Unique convergences of seismic radiation give rise to unique seismic displacement attacks. I can estimate the location of the convergence by looking at the attacks.'

The only issue was that the attacks came after the convergence, he needed to know ahead of time.

'Then, I just have to predict them,' He had realized early on in the fight. He needed to create a predictive model that predicted her attacks based on her preparatory movements, and then he could use that to find the convergence ahead of time.

He also needed to find the average resonance frequency of the land of the forest. This also required quite some time.

There was only question that had emerged in his mind when he began this process at the start of the fight. 'Can I make it in time?'

He hadn't known. The uncertainty of the outcome, the thrill of the fear of death, the ecstasy of unfolding his full power. These emotions reigned through Rui even as he had been buried deep in the crust of the land.

And even after he emerged from within.