WHOOSH
Kane avoided a palm attack, back-flipping out of the way cleanly. He quickly opened the distance before studying Fae immediately.
“Huff… Huff…” She panted, her sparring attire drenched in sweat.
(‘Heh, this is actually working. Spending time with that Martial nerd has done me good, I don’t know if I would’ve thought of this had I not met him.’) Kane mirthfully mused.
Sparring and spending time with Rui had taught Kane the importance of tactics and strategy. His personal tutors had always hammered the importance of tactics and strategy, but he had always thought no tactic could overcome a skill or power gap. He had always beaten those weaker than him, and had always lost to those stronger than him. He wasn’t averse to tactics, but he believed techniques and physical prowess mattered far, far more.
It was only after he had met Rui had he learn how wrong he was. Rui’s mind was beyond unfathomable to him. Every time he sparred with Rui, it became more and more difficult to beat him. Even though Rui’s techniques or body hadn’t grown stronger, every time they sparred, Kane realized he needed to spend more and more effort to beat Rui, every single time.
This was part of that ‘adaptive evolution’ thing Rui told him about; his Martial Path. Rui said it was essentially ‘choosing the right move at the right time’. To choose the correct specific course of actions and tactics that best dealt with his opponent.
Mastering powerful techniques was not nearly enough, tactically using these techniques correctly across the entire battle was just as important!
DASH
Kane closed the distance instantly, forcing Fae to launch a palm strike, which he cleanly swerved out of the way of simultaneously launching a spinning kick, Fae was forced yet again to launch a palm attack which Kane quickly dodged cleanly yet again.
She was almost gasping for air at this point, her stance was slack with fatigue.
(‘Close.’) Kane huffed. This strategy was not easy for him. Although this strategy exhausted Fae, it also exhausted him, just to a lesser degree. Even he could not keep up such a power-consuming tactical approach for too long.
(‘It’s time.’)
Kane exhaled, before taking a new stance. He put both hands on the ground in front of him and stretched out his right leg back, firmly planting it on the ground. He bent his left leg, tucking it under his chest.
It was an odd stance that resembled the starting crouched position of hundred-meters sprinters back on Earth.
(‘This is the final clash.’) Rui quickly realized. (‘This will decide the outcome of the fight.’)
Fae’s defense had grown progressively sloppier and sloppier, her fatigue had accumulated too much. Not only had Kane drained her stamina almost entirely. She had already spent a decent portion of her stamina even before Kane challenged her.
(‘These two are basically at the same level, even a small gap in stamina will be decisive.’) Rui noted.
Suddenly, the weight of the atmosphere escalated.
“Fuuuu…” Kane exhaled deeply. Ridding every single superfluous thought from his mind. He sharpened his focus.
Fae realized what was happening, she mustered as much energy as she could, preparing herself for one final clash.
Kane’s body grew taught with power, vibrating with sheer amount of potential energy he had gathered.
For a moment the entire facility was dead silent.
Every Apprentice, Squire and staff member were frozen silence. Enraptured. Spellbound.
Suddenly.
“Now.” Rui whispered.
BOOM
Kane disappeared.
One moment, there he was.
The next moment, gone.
What was once left in his place was a sonic boom!
Kane had moved so abysmally fast that he had surpassed the speed of sound!
What happened next surpassed Rui’s cognition.
His mind was simply not fast enough to keep up.
Kane had simple disappeared from Rui’s eyes, and reappeared behind Fae!
“Argh!” Kane fell to down to one knee, clutching his right shoulder in pain.
(‘She landed a palm strike on him?! In the middle of that blitz?’)
“You’re a monster alright.” Kane laughed, eying Fae behind him.
(‘Damn! Is Fae gonna win?’) Rui cursed.
THUD
Rui looked up in shock.
One moment Fae was standing tall and strong, yet, the very next moment…
“She collapsed…” Rui murmured, shocked.
Fae had fallen unconscious! Her figure had crumpled to the ground like a puppet whose strings were cut.
The entire facility froze at that sight. Rui sharpened his eyes, taking a closer look at her.
(‘He landed a knockout blow to her chin!’) He quickly realized, looking at the deep bruise below her mouth.
“You’re a monster alright…” Kane stood up, smirking. “…But I won.”
“W-Winner; Kane Arrancar.” The supervisor declared, after breaking out of his enraptured stupor.
A paramedic team came along and placed Fae onto a stretcher, carting her away.
Rui was still stunned. He glanced at Kane who smirked at him with a thumbs-up. Rui had to admit, he was truly impressed by Kane’s fight. He didn’t just blindly jump in and rely purely on speed, agility and maneuvering to attack dodge and attack her. He pulled off a clever strategy that allowed him to win in those circumstances. In the past few months, Kane had grown more and more flexible, with his fighting style, fighting smarter and cleverer rather than just banking heavily on his raw speed. Rui approved, of course, he also couldn’t help but feel he was responsible for this change.
Still, what truly shocked him was the final clash. Kane displayed a level of speed Rui had never seen before. The sheer speed at which moved was incredible! Rui hadn’t known it was physically possible for a human to move that fast. He was also quite impressed that Fae had managed to throw in a palm attack in such a brief period. Although she moving slower than Kane, who moved his entire body across the distance between then in the time she launched a palm strike, it was still impressive given her condition as well as the fact that speed wasn’t forte.
Both of them performed incredibly, as far as Rui was concerned.