Where others saw invincibility, Rui saw shortcomings.
First, while it was true that Fernan was able to output a huge amount of power from a huge distance away, the way he applied that power was highly inflexible.
The trajectory of the attack was linear. Linear attacks were easier to predict than attacks with a curving trajectory, this was a universal fact. The fact that Rui could effortlessly predict the trajectory of the attack well ahead of time mean that as long as he tweaked his predictive model just a little bit to Fernan’s unique situation, it was almost comically easy to predict Fernan to the T
Specifically, Rui looked at his altitude rather than the wings itself. Whenever Fernan prepared an attack, he would stop the rapid flapping of his wings to maintain altitude and stretch them back to launch a powerful wind attack. This caused his altitude to drop just a bit since he wasn’t flapping them to maintain his altitude. That was what Rui paid attention to.
The mistake his previous opponents made were trying to keep with his speedy flapping in order to react to his attacks. However, Rui merely kept an eye on his altitude and timed his movements with respect to fluctuations in that.
Because his predictions were pristine, he was able to spend a very little amount of energy for evasion. The guests were mesmerized as Rui danced away from Fernan’s attacks with ease.
This was another flaw in Fernan’s long-range strategy. Generating wind blasts cost a lot of energy, Rui knew this for a fact with his own Tempestuous Ripple technique. Neither side was hurting the other side, yet Fernan was expending far more energy than Rui was. Astronomically more.
Rui merely needed to exert himself mildly while Fernan need to execute one of those mighty swings each time he wanted to launch his attack.
This was the elementary adapted fighting style that Rui had created to counter Fernan’s long-range style.
Not every adapted style was flashy. Not every adapted style needed to be flashy. Sometimes the most effective path to victory was the quietest and the most passive.
Besides, Rui didn’t think he was quite on the path to victory yet. He absolutely confident that Fernan was capable of much more than just being a static flying air canon.
(‘Those arms aren’t just for decoration, are they?’) Rui mused.
“Tsk.” Fernan tutted. He had given up on trying to harm Rui from a distance.
Still, he wasn’t particularly pessimistic.
What nobody asides from his clientele knew was that Fernan was actually strongest at mid-to-close range quarters.
WHOOSH
Rui widened as Fernan dashed towards him with blinding speed.
BAM BAM!!
Rui guarded as two powerful impacts landed on him. Fernan hit him with two straight right attacks at the same time!
WHOOSH!
Rui avoided the next duo of strikes carefully as he got accustomed to the abrupt change.
WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH
He evaded Fernan’s strikes pristinely as the speed and maneuvering techniques as well as Primordial Instinct and Phantom Step had made him an absolute menace to even try and touch.
Yet, Fernan had a gigantic mobility advantage as he rapidly shifted around with unbelievable speed and agility. Furthermore, he could freely maneuver across all three dimensions while Rui was constricted to two.
Rui had great combat speed, but Fernan’s travelling and maneuvering speed were something else entirely, only Kane could match it, and even Kane couldn’t move in three dimensions.
Even if Rui’s arms moved faster because he was more nimble and agile, Fernan had four of them, this more than made up for the gap in speed.
And yet.
WHOOSH
Fernan frowned.
Rui evaded him yet again.
A barrage of swift blows landed on Rui as Fernan used all four of his arms to hurt Rui.
Yet to his greatest amazement, not a single one of the landed cleanly!
Rui grinned like a madman under his mask.
(‘Having extra limbs may allow you to launch more attacks, but they also reduce the freedom of each limb!’)
There was a limited amount of space around a person. Twice the number of arms drastically reduced the area of mobility that each arm had access to. If their mobility was constrained due to the presence of arms, then Rui could use that to predict which way the arms wouldn’t move because they couldn’t!
This stacked on top of the predictive model that Rui had begun developing for Fernan compensated for the increased number of attacks he had.
Everybody watched on, absolutely enamored as Rui cleanly dealt with every single attack Fernan threw at him. It didn’t seem to matter which way and where Fernan twisted and turned, Rui mitigated the entirety of his offense immediately.
Rui, however, wasn’t entirely pleased with the outcome. The adaptive evolution model was only forty percent effective against Fernan. Fernan fundamentally differed from a human too much. Currently Rui was merely relying on it in conjugation with the Primordial Instinct to try and mitigate its shortcomings, but there was a limit to what it could do.
“RAH!” Fernan snarled as he swung both his left arms at Rui, frustrated at his inability to cleanly hurt Rui despite his advantages. It was as though Rui was somehow moved in exactly the right way at the right time to mitigate all of his advantages.
His feet hit the ground, a sight at which Rui’s eyes widened. (‘Wind blast incoming!’)
Rui dove to the side desperately he narrowly managed to dodged Fernan’s attack despite being at point-blank range.
Fernan felt more frustration against Rui than he had felt in his entire career. Dodging a point-blank wind blast from his wings should have been absolutely impossible, yet this annoying weasel of a Martial Artist kept managing to avoid his clutches by jus the slightest margin. Watching him get away every single time was starting to piss Fernan off.
He dashed through the air, lashing out towards Rui, when suddenly.
BLINK
Rui appeared in front of his face.