"Apprentice Rui Quarrier." A staff member called out to him, breaking him out of his reverie. "Your scheduled fight is soon to commence, please wait by the assigned ring."
"Sure." Rui nodded. "Alright, see you guys later."
Rui left after they bade him good luck. Once he reached the ring, he saw Feela Garron waiting at the ring.
She was a tall and lean woman with brown hair and eyes. She had a heavy aura, and was one of the few Martial Apprentices that could make his Primordial Sense tingle with alarm.
"Sorry for the wait." He said with a friendly smile.
"No problem." She replied calmly.
"Take your stances." The supervisor instructed.
Feela proceeded to take the most bizarre stance Rui had ever seen in his life. Her right arm went back, with her hand hanging behind her. Her left arm went to the right side under her right armpit, as though she was trying to hug herself. She shifted all her weight onto her left leg, and her right leg was behind her with heels lifted off the ground, merely touching the ground at the toes.
It was a bizarre stance, but it made sense when one knew what her Martial Art was.
The arms were positioned the way they were because her attacks were extended swings, and chops that required a large amount of swinging distance, thus she was merely coiling up her arms and giving them as much room as possible. It was like stretching rubber band as far as possible so that it would hit back as hard as possible.
She had shifted all her weight onto one leg because she was an immobile fighter. She generally planted herself at the extremes of the ring and sniped her opponents with ranged swings from the corner of the ring. It was easier to launch strikes with one leg quicker if that leg didn't have any weight it was forced to support.
"Fuuu..." Rui exhaled. He had already begun constructing an adapted Martial Art in his mind.
She was a ranged Martial Artist and Rui's range was significantly shorter. He would be unable to strike her if he fights her at range.
Thus, the first trait his adapted fighting style would need to have was being able to close the distance between them. This way, he would be at a range where he could actually do damage to her. Another reason this train was important was because ranged strikes were useless in close quarters. What was the point of striking ten meters away if your opponent was one meter away?
She would be forced to exchange normal arm-length and leg-length close quarters blows with Rui which he could certainly win.
Because assuming she spent most of her resources into becoming the best at ranged combat and beating people at range, it logically followed that she was weak at close range quarters. Rui excelled at that range.
Thus, this first condition he had set for the adapted fighting style was the most important.
Rui adopted his stance.
Feet close to each other, weight equally distributed and constantly shifting, arms close to the body propped up defensively.
It was a defensive maneuvering stance. Aimed at ease maneuvering and defending against attacks. Since Rui could not attack, he did not need to take up a stance that catered to ease of offense. His primary goal was closing in on her.
"Begin!" the supervisor commenced the match.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then, Feela's arm blurred.
And all hell broke loose.
Rui narrowly avoided an impact where he was standing a tenth of a second prior. Just as he paused, his instincts tingled as he felt danger swinging down on him.
He narrowly avoided yet another impact.
('Damn! She would have knocked me out if I hadn't mastered Primordial Instinct!') Rui cursed.
The speed of her whips was absurdly fast, far faster than Rui was. The reason he was able to dodge them despite that was because they had to travel a longer distance than Rui had to avoid them. But as far as raw speed went, they were nearly as fast as Kane was although much less fluid and flexible. Furthermore, when they stretched, they became thinner, making it harder to follow them with the naked eye.
Rui spun to the side as a gust of disheveled his hair. She'd almost got him that time.
Every time he tried closing in, she launched swift and powerful blow, cutting off his path. Her timing and placement were spectacular. Rui could tell she'd had an immense amount of experience at keeping people from entering close quarters range against her.
Rui could see how she'd managed to come this far with zero losses. Most Martial Apprentices would not be able to beat her.
He leapt away, increasing the distance between them before pausing.
She didn't attack him.
('So she has a range limit.') Rui noted. He took the opportunity to reconfigure his adapted fighting style.
Another trait his Martial Art needed to have was to be able to close the distance despite her restrictive attacks. This either meant avoiding them, or enduring them.
Both methods were feasible, the question was which was the least risky and had the highest chance of victory?
He could for evasive infiltration with Parallel Walk, Balanced Direction, Phantom Step and Primordial Instinct.
Or he could for the enduring infiltration with Parallel Walk, Balanced Direction, Inner Divergence, Elastic Shift and Acute Edge.
He inputted the variables and parameters into the VOID algorithm, before adopting his stance.
"Both it is." he murmured, before gearing himself for the infiltration.
He inhaled, and exhaled. Breathing in deeply as he calmed his body down, and focused his mind.
His concentration grew deeper and deeper.
Until everything disappeared.
The only thing he could see was his target.
Feela gritted her teeth as the pressure Rui was generating began skyrocketing. She didn't understand how someone much younger, who had only been a Martial Apprentice for less than two years could possibly generate such weight.
She mirrored Rui, taking up her stance, as the two faced off once more.
The second stage of the battle was about to begin.