The Martial Games soon proceeded as Fernan was carried away. Rui was the new defending champion of the Martial Games and he sent challenger after challenger.

Yet, none of them prevailed.

One after the other, Rui overwhelmingly crushed them all with adapted styles that wrecked them in combat. The rest of the participating representative fighters weren't quite as deviant as Fernan was. The adaptive-evolution model was far more effective against them than it was against Fernan. His victories against them were smooth, clean and elegant unlike his messy battle against Fernan.

However, Rui had begun to notice something strange.

Every once in a while, some of his opponents would simply give up even when the fight wasn't quite over. Their bodies went limp as their eyes lost life as if someone had drained them of it. And he would win easily once they stopped resisting. They would collapse as if they no longer cared for anything.

Rui didn't understand what was happening. He only a found it a little strange because he experienced something similar with Vranil. But he simply shrugged, maybe they just knew went to stop?

There were Martial Artists that fought bitterly to the very end and gave Rui one hell of a run till the very end. Their eyes burned with determination and perseverance even as Rui knocked them out.

At the end of the day. He was still the defending champion and had defeated every single fighter who had participated.

All of the guests were shocked as they witnessed Rui upending the Martial Games!

"Winner; Apprentice Falken. He is the current undefeated reigning champion!" The butler announced. "There are no more challengers!"

The guests applauded loudly at Rui's performance. Suddenly, a voice boomed from the crowd.

"No, not quite."

Charles DiVilier smiled as he drew everybody's attention to him. "Normally, I don't participate as one of major hosts of the Martial Games. But today is a special day, an old champion has come back to reclaim his rightful title and has done so undefeated. It would be interesting is he was met with a challenger qualified to fight him."

Rui's eyebrow rose at those words.

"My representative fight will be participating today." He said.

Suddenly a wave of silence overtook the guests, before they erupted in enthusiasm. They seemed familiar with the fighter.

Soon, Rui sensed a heavy presence entering the ring.

The man was tall, his body was chiseled like he had been sculpted by hand. What surprised Rui was that the man was also masked, just like himself.

He paused at a distance from Rui, at the starting position.

"Take your stances." The arbiter said.

The masked man took a neutral stance, and Rui followed suit.

There was an air of anticipation unlike any of his previous matches.

"Begin." The arbiter commenced the match.

Rui widened his eyes as the man appeared in front of him in an instant.

BOOM!

A powerful blow crashed into Rui as he hastily threw together a guard in time. The sheer impact of the blow sent him skidding away. He was shocked. The masked man was stronger than Kyrie was when she had held back, limiting herself.

An avalanche of pressure crashed onto Rui as the man had already appeared in front of him.

WHOOSH

Rui managed to evade his strike narrowly as he furiously started building the predictive model for this man.

('Who the fuck is this guy?') Rui gritted his teeth. ('Is he a Squire pretending to be a Martial Apprentice??')

The biggest problem with the pattern recognition systems of the VOID algorithm was that it required data, unlike the other systems in the VOID algorithm. Which meant it required time, which meant that he could not use it right off the bat. Which meant he was not at as strong as his peak.

POW POW POW!

Rui through a combo of strikes, but the masked man casually blocked them as he threw another strike at Rui.

BAM!

Rui skidded away.

What ensued was a dominant display of power. Just when the crowd thought Rui was a goner.

WHOOSH

BAM!

Rui cleanly evaded a strike, while he landed a powerful Flowing Canon on the man's gut, pushing him back.

Yet he didn't relent. He lashed after Rui once more, yet to his surprise, Rui calmly dealt with his attack rather well.

The two exchanged blow furiously as Rui began gaining perfect parity with the masked man. The crowd's eyes lit up in elation as they realized that Rui's fighting style had changed once more.

Rui had managed to perfect the prediction model just in time. Confidence filled every cell in his body as went all-out trying to defeat his opponent. His opponent had superior parameters, but Rui's prediction and adaptive evolution allowed him to mitigate the advantage to a large degree.

However, his opponent was extremely efficient. He was also a tricky and tactical fighter that impressed Rui. He didn't fight head-on like a brute but instead fought cleverly, making the best of what he had.

POW!

Rui grimaced as he stepped back. ('He can extend his range!'): text © owner.

WHOOSH

Rui stepped back as he avoided another extended strike that stopped at a certain distance, failing to reach Rui. ('But there's a limit to his range extension.')

Yet when Rui stepped out of his range, trying to launcha ttacks from a distance with Tempestuous Ripple.

POW!

A powerful strike landed on him, despite the range, throwing him off-balance.

WHOOSH

The man instantly crossed the distance, launching a barrage of attacks on Rui, exploiting the opening created.

('He tricked me') Rui gritted his teeth. ('He fought with a shorter range because he knew I would make the wrong inference. He must have watched me fight all this time!')

BAM!

Rui leapt away from a strike as he opened up the distance between them, before winding up a strike. They both charged at each other, racing to land a strike first.

BAM!!!

Their attacks landed on the other's head.

THUD

They knocked each other away turning to face each other, only to realize that they had broken each other's masks.