In a region of the Great Forest of Hypnonarak, silence reigned as two Martial Seniors stared at each other. Their eyes were fixed on their opponents, such that they could not even see anything else.
There was silence, and then there was not.
"HRYAH!" Senior Zenshin burst into motion as his body uncoiled, springing him into a spiral.
Rui's eyes narrowed as he launched off into a sprint, his fist surging forward as he prepared a Flowing Canon. Yet when it was merely a meter away, Zenshin abandoned his technique, redirecting his revolving claws towards Rui.
Unfortunately for him, Rui's predictive model foresaw the attempt.
WHOOSH!
Zenshin's eyes widened with shock as the attack crashed into an empty image.
A feint.
BAM!!
A powerful hook empowered with Outer Convergence and Reverberating Lance crashed into the man's liver, as Rui pushed himself away from Senior Zenshin with the recoil from the attack. "Tsk!" Senior Zenshin tutted, hiding his pain. He was far from ready to give up.
"HYAH!" The man launched himself into a spin almost immediately, hoping to catch Rui off-guard. Yet Rui had foreseen that as well.
BAM!! owns this.
A powerful Flowing Canon crashed into Zenshin's guard as the man did his best to claw at Rui.
WHOOSH!
He failed yet again as Rui cleanly evaded him returning to his previous stance.
"HYARGH!" Senior Zenshin tried once more, this time discontinuing the technique the moment Rui arrived within the range of his claws, ready to tear him apart.
And yet…
WHOOSH
Rui stepped away even before his claws could had begun moving towards him, cleanly avoiding the attack. Senior Zenshin narrowed his eyes with rage as he refused to give up, repeating the aggressive technique over and over again.
One of two things tended to happen. He would either continue with the execution of his technique, hoping to pull it off in time, or he would discontinue the technique, hoping to catch Rui off-guard with a surprise attack.
In the former case, Rui simply surged forward with the Flowing Canon. In the latter, Rui simply turned away, evading the attack cleanly.
However, Senior Zenshin grew increasingly frustrated as much time passed while the two of them played this game.
This was supposed to be a gamble Rui. Senior Zneshin merely needed to succeed twice in succession in order to damage him enough to gain an advantage. No matter how he looked at it, this should have been advantageous for him.
Yet, for some reason, he was unable to tag Rui even a single time. Not even once had Rui made the wrong choice, or even the right choice at the wrong time. Whenever Senior Zenshin chose to genuinely try to execute the Hurricane of One Thousand Claws, Rui unhesitatingly surged forward with his Flowing Canon, disrupting it in time.
Whenever Senior Zenshin pretended to execute the attack, Rui somehow always knew and would always avoid the trap.
Seconds, minutes, and even hours passed. Their Martial Hearts had already flickered out as they went off. These reservoirs of potent power were not endless, and their regular stamina was far greater than their normal stamina.
Yet despite all the time that had passed, not once had he managed to touch Rui despite the advantage.
"HRYAH!" He desperately spun once more, pretending to activate the Hurricane of One Thousand Claws once more. He made sure that his farce was immaculate, he genuinely executed the breathing techniques and other maneuvers as flawlessly as possible right down to the minor twitch. Rui surged forward at top speed, as always. Suddenly, Senior Zenshin halted his technique, throwing a furiously swift claw swipe at Rui.
And despite that…
WHOOSH!
Rui had long stepped away, cleanly evading the attack with ease.
'DAMMIT,' Senion Zenshin's expression crumpled with rage and frustration. 'How is this even possible? He began dodging just the briefest moment before I began attacking him.'
Every time. This had happened every time. It was as though there was no lag. It was as though his reaction time was less than zero. It was as though he knew the future itself. Despite that, Zenshin did not give up. "HRYAH!" He began executing the Hurricane of One Thousand Claws once more, going all out with the speed of the execution.
And yet, Rui had already arrived.
BOOM!!
A powerful Flowing Canon crashed into the man's back, leaving behind an ugly bruise as it threw him off-balance.
BAM BAM BAM!!
Rui blasted him with blow after blow, exploiting the opportunity to pile on immense attacks. The flow of the battle had changed now that Rui had finally managed to turn an opening into a proper opportunity.
"HRYAH!" Senior Zenshin turned out swinging his claws at Rui. Yet this time, Rui had no intention of letting the opportunity go and returning to the existing deadlock.
TAP TAP TAP!
"Hng!" The man froze, choking as he felt jolts of electric current passing through his solar plexus and diaphragm. His eyes widened as he made a shocking discovery.
He couldn't breathe.
At all!
Before, his breathing was greatly labored, significantly hampering his raw power. However, this time, he was unable to breathe whatsoever. The combination of Lightning Tap and Breathing Crucifix had a synergetic collusion. Rui had greatly hampered his breathing mentally through hypnosis, while Lightning Tap had temporarily hampered his breathing physically.
For a few moments, Senior Zenshin suffocated, the shock and the inability to supply needed oxygen to sustain his expensive energy expenditure together completely halted his movements.
This was perhaps Rui's one and only opportunity to end the fight with a decisive victory.
"Rgh!" Rui strained himself to the absolute limit as he unloaded the mother of all beatdowns on the suffocated Zenshin. Eyes, throat, liver, testicles, and even his diaphragm. With Outer Convergence supplying the raw power, Adamant Reforging increasing the quality of the collision, and Reverberating Lance permeating the impact deeper into the vulnerable depths of the vital regions, he managed to inflict immense damage on Senior Zenshin over these areas.