It wasn't often that Rui's plans went wrong. But not even he was omniscient, anything could happen. His plan had been straightforward. He had feinted a swivel to the side using Phantom Step, but that wasn't what he had limited himself to. He had also used Shadow Step in conjugation with the Mind Mask technique to misdirect Squire Dylon's attention to the feint while his own presence was heavily reduced thanks to the Mind Mask technique. Furthermore, he had used the VOID algorithm to predict the moment when he would be in Dylon's far-end peripheral vision where the Shadow Step technique was at its most effective.

Neither technique would have been effective against Squire Dylon individually. But together when used at the perfect moment with the help of the VOID algorithm, he was able to successfully elude Squire Dylon's attention.

He had circled back behind and aimed a Stinger for when Squire Dylon exposed his eye. Normally, this alone wouldn't be enough to successfully land the Stinger on his eye when Dylon turned to prevent his back from being exposed.

That was where the Mind Mask technique had come in. It was a technique that generally allowed a Martial Apprentice to be perceived and sensed as much more or less dangerous and attention-drawing than they really were using self-hypnosis. In this case, Rui had used it to startle Squire Dylon and impede his reactions with shock, which would decrease the probability that Squire Dylon would defend accurately against the Stinger.

Rui's mastery of the Mind Mask technique had been extraordinary. This was especially true even after he had embedded it into the secondary brain. He had been able to project an image of danger and presence far above that of reality even before the mental embed had finished.

It had been a good plan, quite effective.

There was only one problem with it.Belonging to .

He had underestimated how much stronger he had gotten thanks to the Mental Embed and the activation of the secondary brain. Of course, part of the point of the fight was to discover exactly how strong he was. But he hadn't expected he would have grossly underestimated the boost the Mind Mask technique would get thanks to the secondary brain.

He had simply tried to create the strongest Mind Mask he could.

How could have known it would end up becoming a Squire-level mask that made him indistinguishable from a Martial Squire?

He couldn't!

What was worse was that he had completely failed to predict the effect it would have on Squire Dylon. When Squire Dylon had felt the sudden Squire-level mental pressure flare from behind him, it had completely bypassed his conscious mind and triggered his survival instincts, he simply reflexively lashed out backward with a Squire-level attack.

It was only after the attack had landed had he realized what he had done.

Rui's enhanced Primordial Instinct had felt a terrifying amount of danger from Squire-Dylon, informing him that Dylon had become serious and a Squire-level was incoming. The Stinger was already too far gone and couldn't be stopped. Instead, an instant before Squire Dylon's attack had begun, he had brought his guard up and dipped backward swiftly, hoping that the backward and downward motion would reduce the damage inflicted.

The VOID algorithm went into overwork as Rui predicted the exact trajectory of the attack, doing everything he could to minimize the damage.

BOOM!!!

Rui had thought he knew what it was like to be hit hard, but he had realized how naïve he had been. A Squire-level haymaker had landed on his guard.

CRACK CRACK CRACK

The sheer initial impact had mangled his arms as Squire Dylon launched him flying. Rui blasted past the walls of the facility violently as he flew past it, crashing and breaking multiple trees until his momentum had finally been bled out.

The last thing he felt before he lost consciousness was excruciating pain.

And somewhere within all that pain was immense awe. He was in awe of the power of a higher Realm. ('Damn... I'll obtain that power someday...')

His eyes closed as he lost consciousness due to the blunt force trauma, still managing to use Final Breathing.

Squire Dylon flew out of the facility as he Sky Walked in the air, looking for Rui with one eye. His other one had been bleeding due to the attack, but he didn't seem to care in even the slightest. He spotted Rui in an instant as he instantly reached him.

"What have I done?!" He gritted his teeth as he immediately pulled out a healing potion, allowing Rui to consume it.

This was against medical protocols for serious injuries since there could be complications at times, but Dylon didn't care. Everything could be fixed as long as Rui was alive, but everything was lost if he died from profuse blood loss or some internal organ rupture. The potion healed the wounds, but the bones in his arm were still bent unnaturally. The sheer force of the blow had completely broken them immediately. In fact, Dylon was surprised it didn't do more damage. Rui wasn't even a defensive Martial Apprentice, he wondered if he really had grown weaker over the years.

Once he had stabilized Rui's condition, he finally exhaled in relief as he studied Rui in confusion and surprise.

('What the fuck was that thing he did?') He wondered. ('It's as if he became a Martial Squire magically.')

He shook his head after thinking about it for a while, sighing. "I'm probably going to get fired."

Not that he was particularly resentful of it, he knew the gravity of what he had done. If he had done it against almost any other Martial Apprentice student in the Academy, they would have died on the spot and that would have been absolutely catastrophic for the Martial Academy.

He glanced back at Rui with a look of admiration and pride.

"Hehehe, the world isn't ready for when this kid climbs up the Realms." He chuckled.