“I WILL AVENGE MY BROTHER!”
Was the first instance of communication between the two groups. The woman who bellowed those words from a few kilometers away was one who led the charge of the K’ulnen Martial Artists.
Rui could feel her hateful glare pinning on him even from that distance away. “He just had to have a muscle-brain high-grade Martial Squire for a sister, didn’t he?” He sighed. This was outside of his prediction, but it didn’t alter the battle too much. However, he had to be careful about how far this Martial Squire would be willing to go to take him down.
She was powerful, he could very clearly feel that she was several grades above him, which meant that she was very capable of ending his life if she wanted to.
Even though Rui was a grade-four Martial Squire, this grade was above the power that his techniques and Martial body should have yielded.
It had been less than two years since he had become a Martial Squire, the growth that his Martial body would have had thanks to the evolved muscle hypertrophy and evolved passive tissue conditioning that every Martial body had would have been minimal. He had been told that the power of his Martial body was a few grades below what one would expect from a grade-four Martial Squire. The number of techniques that he had mastered was also lesser than that of other grade-four Martial Squires.
It took many years to reach close to the halfway point in the Squire Realm power-wise, years that Rui had certainly not fulfilled
The reason that he was in grade-four despite his infancy in the Squire Realm was thanks to the VOID algorithm and also little thanks to the powerful techniques that he had created.
However, those were no longer factors in this battle due to the fact that his Martial Art was restrained. The only thing he could use was the Void Pathfinder.
This meant that the difference between some of his opponents and himself was much more exaggerated.
(‘Especially against that vengeful grizzly bear of a woman,’)
Her body was huge, packed with muscles that he didn’t even know existed. Hell, considering how strange Martial Squire could be, it may very well have been that they didn’t exist in normal human bodies. Rui wasn’t sure he could take more than even a few attacks from her.
Thankfully, she didn’t seem too agile, and most of her prowess was likely centered around muscular power and defense. As long as he avoided allowing her to enter within a certain range, he could be assured to be safe.
It would have been too dangerous for a long-range Martial Squire to fight another Squire many grades above the former, but Rui had a grade-ten technique, perhaps even above grade ten after he used it along with the VOID algorithm.
He opened his mouth.
THWOOM!
A powerful Sonic Bullet flew through the atmosphere, traveling at the spend of sound. The Martial Squires of the K’ulnen Tribe noticed that gesture, scrambling the direction furthest away from when he seemed to have launched the attack, covering their eyes.
BAM!
“Argh!” One of the Martial Squire groaned as immediately reached to caress their bruised and bleeding neck, leaving his eyes exposed for just a split second.
That was the last gesture he ever made as a second Sonic Bullet crashed into his eyeball the second he dropped his arm guard over his eyes instinctively.
…
All of the Martial Squires froze as they realized what had happened.
“I’LL KILL YOU!” The leader of the K’ulnen Squire team screeched as her expression grew even more intense and hateful. The other Martial Squires also threw hateful glares at him as they raced forward more intensely Seeing their comrade fall so easily and quickly shook all of them, angering them to their core.𝑜𝓋xt.𝒸𝒪
It instilled their hatred and fear of him, atop the grief of losing a brother.
Yet, this was no time to mourn.
Rui grinned wildly, further enraging his opponent. (‘Taste the power of a predictive model refined over many weeks!’)
The only predictive models of his that were more refined were that of his friends who he had spent many years observing.
“I’LL HANDLE HIM. THE REST OF YOU FIGHT THE REST!”
“Fire!” Rui ordered once their opponents entered the more limited firing range of his comrades.
The remaining Longranger Martial Squire immediately began raining attacks galore on their opponents. As much as Rui would have loved to fulfill his curiosity and analyze their attacks, he didn’t have much leeway. After all, this wasn’t an Apprentice-level battle that posed zero danger to him, one that he could perceive in slow motion.
This was a powerful battle that could get him killed with even the slightest bit of carelessness. Furthermore, he was facing someone very determined to kill him.
“YOU’RE DEAD!” She raged as she sprinted across the air toward him.
She was extremely careful of his one-shot attack, of course. She was infuriated, but she had not lost her mind. Rui could sense the wariness in her demeanor even as she chased after him. He could tell that she was putting a lot of attention on his mouth. Guarding her eyes every time he opened his mouth.
THWOOM!
BAM!
The attack crashed against her neck.
“IS THAT THE BEST YOU CAN DO?!” She snarled as a brief smile cracked at the edge of her mouth.
Rui tutted. He had already known that the same trick wouldn’t work twice, but what really displeased him was how little damage his attack caused.
(‘Her body is a fucking tank!’) Rui groaned.
The Sonic Bullet was not a tremendously powerful attack. He could not possibly inflict much meaningful damage on her body unless it hit a vital, like her eyes.
Honestly, it was an impossible scenario, if not for a few elements.
Firstly, Rui did not need to win. He merely needed to engage with his opponent to a respectable degree, and that was enough for the most part. The other Martial Squires were genuine experts at long-range battle and would take care of evoking the greed of the G’ak’arkan Tribe’s techniques.
Secondly, her combat style was elementary, which meant that his already extra-refined predictive model was especially effective against her.