The Martial Unity

Chapter 2058  Maximized Reaction

The battle shifted into the second phase as the cards had been laid out for both Martial Masters.

Even with the SOUL System at play, Rui found it difficult to actually land a blow on the Martial Master. He had succeeded in doing so the very first first time because he managed to cleanly catch Master Grais off guard due to over-committing.

However, the Martial Master was shockingly faster than he was.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH! Nôv(el)B\\jnn

He effortlessly avoided Rui's attack, moving so fast that he was reduced to indistinguishable blurs in Rui's eyes. His Martial Body was far faster inherently, but even more shocking was the number of techniques this man used simultaneously!

'He's using almost two dozen techniques simultaneously.' Rui narrowed his eyes. 'It makes sense because the Martial Mind has expanded the cognitive limits to active techniques.'

In the Lower Realms, one generally could not use more than several active techniques simultaneously without compromising reaction time and awareness because too much of the mind's attention went into maintaining the techniques.

Yet, things changed in the Master Realm.

There was additional cognitive capital that allowed for even more active techniques simultaneously so long as they didn't directly conflict with each other.

Unfortunately, Rui didn't have such a large number of non-conflicting techniques that could make use of his additional mental capital.

He had very recently broken through to the Master Realm.

Yet, the sheer disparity between their raw speeds and the techniques allowed him to move so incredibly fast that even the SOUL System could only mitigate the enormous speed gap. In addition, his technique and Martial Mind had been molded around each other, while Rui's simply worked side by side.

The difference was enormous.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH

The Martial Master almost ignored Rui's attempts at reaching him as he surged forward with aggressive velocities, accruing great momentum.

BAM BAM BAM!!

The blows peppered across his entire body were designed to strike the most vulnerable parts of his body and cause maximum damage. The fact that he had partially negated the predictive model prevented Rui from getting away with much preparation; he couldn't use Flux Earther instead of Nemean Blossom due to the limited timespan.

Against the chimera, he had both, in addition to delayed cognition from the chimera due to its tedious decisioning system.

Master Grais had no such flaw.

POW POW POW!

He blasted Rui's body with swift blows before leaping away at the last moment, avoiding a powerful strike from Rui.

WHOOSH

The two surged forward at each other.

BOOM! WHOOSH!

The battle churned as the two sides tried to gain an advantage over the other.

The endgames in their mind were entirely different.

Rui's win conditions were clear: He either needed to land a single attack with enough damage to cripple the fragile Martial Master or trap him in grappling where his speed was useless.

Master Grais, on the other hand, was keen to avoid this outcome. He needed to play the long game correctly and ensure that he never got hit or fell into a trap. As long as he could slowly accumulate damage over Rui, the battle would eventually turn in his favor. Unfortunately, he had underestimated Rui's Martial Mind.

"Your direction of dodging is always in alignment with torque."

SPLAT!

Master Grais's eyes widened as a cut appeared on his face from the edge of Rui's knuckle.

"Fuuu…!" Rui rushed in with a charge, shifting from the Nemean Blossom to Neo Godspeed.

Time slowed down in his senses as his body grew lighter and faster.

A battle of attrition was sub-optimal when using the Metabody System. In the long run, allowing the Martial Master to accumulate damage in the long-run was not something that he would rather take his chances with.

If he wanted to land a finishing blow on Master Grais, he would have to seize that opportunity himself within five minutes!

"Come then." Master Grais invited him fiercely.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

The two of them danced around the battlefield as Rui significantly closed the speed gap between them.

Yet, everything came with a price.

BAM BAM BAM!

The blindingly fast blows of the Martial Master hurt even if Rui mitigated them with partial evasions.

"You may be faster than before." His elderly eyes intensified. "But now you're in my territory."

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

A flurry of blows flew at each other as the two Martial Masters sped around the battlefield at incredible speeds.

Rui threw an incredibly fast kick at the Martial Master's head, trying to knock him out with a single blow.

WHOOSH

Master Grais narrowly evaded it, circling around Rui as a flurry of jabs flew at him at extraordinary speeds.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

Rui gritted his teeth with frustration.

Despite Speed Void, temporal Disharmony, and Neo Godspeed, they still weren't equal in speed!

'He's maximizing my reaction time by attacking from directions with the least amount of my concentration and awareness.' Rui's expression grew grim.

Reaction time was not a static or uniform parameter. It was dependent on how much attention and awareness the mind reserved for whatever it was reacting to. Master Grais' system of thought was a psychological evaluation system allowed him to understand how his opponent distributed their attention and focus throughout the battle, allowing him to delay their reactions by attacking in those directions.

Thus, despite reading the inception of his intent, his mind sluggishly reacted to attacks on certain vectors and directions.

"You should pay more attention." A chilling whisper escaped the elder Martial Master.

SPLAT

Rui barely managed to avoid a pronged finger poke to the eyes, millimeters away from losing his vision a second time, leaping away. He had attacked Rui in the blind spot of his vision, the spot where the eye could not see due to the lack of photoreceptor cells at the spot where the nerves connected the eyeball to the brain.

A lethal move that had an extraordinarily high success rate of blinding his victims.

"Come, Void Prince," the Master addressed Rui. "The battle is just beginning."

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