It wasn’t that Rui wasn’t aware of this shortcoming, he was shrewd enough to realize that a dynamic defense that relies on palm interception is held back by the fact that he has only two palms. Arms were part of the upper body, which meant intercepting powerful torque-empowered strikes to the body below the waist took a greater amount of time and energy, and had a larger margin for error.
Furthermore, if the one launching the attacks was someone with as much of a relentless dynamic and flexible offense as that of his opponent, there was no doubt going to be several opportunities that his opponent could probably exploit to land strikes against him.
This was one of those instances.
“Heh,” A wild grin covered his mouth as he launched himself toward Rui, oozing an aggressive savage aura. The success had given him great confidence that he could eventually completely crack Rui’s strangely effective defense. He threw a wild attack at Rui, yet to his surprise
BAM!!
“ARGH!” The man grimaced in pain as Rui’s elbow dug deep into his gut. Rui had evaded the attack cleanly before launching a powerful attack deep into his gut as he charged forward. The sheer power of the impact flung him hundreds of meters away!𝚘𝗏xt.𝚌𝞸𝔪
“Rgh!” The man stopped his momentum midair, furious.
Yet Rui didn’t intend to give him any leeway. Yet, this time, he didn’t close the distance between them to launch attacks. Instead, he opened his mouth slightly.
THWOOM!
POW!
The man grimaced as an expression of pain and fury enveloped his face. The long-range attack had caught him off-guard, he did not expect that his opponent possessed such a capability given that he fought close range from the very get-go.
What surprised him more was that the ability had struck him right in the face.
Was that a fluke?
He didn’t think so, only Martial Artists specialized in long-range combat could achieve such accuracy in the middle of combat.
He must have gotten lucky, surely.
Regardless, that didn’t change the fact that he couldn’t let his opponent turn this into a long-range battle. After all, he was a close-quarters combatant. He was utterly harmless in a long-range battle!
WHOOSH
He swiftly pedaled through the atmosphere in a zig-zaggy pattern as he closed the distance between them, while also trying to throw Rui’s aim off as much as possible!
BAM!
A large Sonic Bullet slammed into him!
“AAARGH!” The man roared in frustration, as his body emerged covered in light bruises.
How did this infuriating Martial Artist tag him this cleanly yet again?!
THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM!
Rui launched Sonic Bullets rapidly one after the other. His opponent, being a Martial Squire, had learned to recognize the atmospheric tremors that the launch of the technique created. He dashed about in the air, desperately trying to evade them.
Yet to his greatest shock, each and every single attack found its mark.
BAM BAM BAM!
“WHAT THE FUCK?!” The man screamed in frustration in his native tongue.
He had dodged after Rui launched the attacks!
Yet somehow, the attacks still landed on him after Rui had already launched the attack, despite him also dodging after the attack was launched.
For that to happen, Rui would need to have correctly launched the attacks to exactly where Squire Crillian would be when they crossed the necessary distance.
Squire Crillian was slow, but even he wasn’t stupid enough to miss the obvious implication of this.
(‘He knows!’) The man gritted his teeth as his expression morphed into one of shock and frustration. (‘He knows where I’m going!’)
The man shivered as he eyed Rui.
A maelstrom of pressure crashed against his mind as a faint sense of fear clutched at his heart, trying to crush it. He only saw darkness when he gazed into his opponent’s eyes, the kind that sucked the very light out of the world around it.
He felt naked under the piercing eyes that never lost track of him.
He felt transparent in his opponent’s vision.
He felt like air.
Like a hollow shadow that merely impeded the soul-piercing stare of his opponent, and paid the price.
His heart rate started spiking as his body began perspiring. His instincts only told him one thing.
To run.
This was the power of the ODA System combined with the VOID algorithm in combat. A mind-numbing number of calculations flashed through Rui’s Mind Palace as his mind strained under the furious processing of his mind.
With the data provided by the predictive model that he had meticulously constructed through the VOID algorithm’s data processing protocols, he could then apply that data to the ODA System. Instead of using current coordinates, he uses future coordinates!
He was not attacking the present, he was attacking the future!
He had never gotten to test the Pathfinder technique in this manner; however, he had spontaneously developed this application of the Pathfinder technique in battle!
It was a commonsense application to a certain extent, to be fair, however, Rui had underestimated how effective it actually ended up being in practice.
This combination was so special, that it deserved its own name.
(‘Void Pathfinder,’)
It was a spontaneous name that he had nearly subconsciously generated, yet it was a fitting yet simple name.
(‘Trying to run?’) Rui raised an eyebrow as he watched the man trying to escape once he realized the futility of the fight. His compatibility with Rui was bad, fighting would simply prolong the inevitable and increase his chances of dying.
Still, Rui had no intention of letting him.
THWOOM
BAM!
A single shot destabilized his sky walking, causing him to collapse into a mountainside.
Rui quickly followed through as he swiftly ran after where his opponent had crashed. He didn’t have too much time. Thus, he had to kill his opponent as fast as possible. The escapees would likely have informed the Kingdom of Violis remotely about the attack by now, which meant that Martial Squire reinforcements were most likely already deployed.