Rui hadn't co across too many, but most balance-oriented Martial Artists were supplentary in nature. They simply focused all their efforts on strengthening their balance to the absolute maximum to gain as much of a boost from it in combat as possible.
It allowed them to stabilize their combat to the absolute maximum, increasing their offensive prowess by allowing them to maximize the rate at which they attacked without any need to worry about balance all that much. It increased their maneuvering considerably, allowing them to attack and evade in ways that other Martial Artists were unable to.
It also improved their aerial maneuvering where balance beca considerably more important. Martial Artists did not float in the air by leveraging so special energy to keep them stationary in midair. They pushed down against the air by stepping on it, thus balance was always and especially important when sky-walking.
It was in these ways that balance-oriented Martial Artists generally leveraged their strength.
However, it appeared that Squire Ran was not quite satisfied with passive supplentation. This was the first ti that Rui had seen soone leverage balance in such a manner.
He could instantly gain insights into her character and personality for developing such a Martial Art and having such a Martial Path.
An aggressive desire to dominate her opponents with her greatest strength. Rui mused even as she began launching an aggressive offensive against him.
The nature of balance was not intrinsically offensive. Yet she was determined to leverage it offensively and leverage it to dominate her opponents.
It appeared that she had settled on a bizarre solution.
She decided to forcefully turn the battle into a battle of balance!
And she did that by poisoning both her opponent and herself. It was an absurd notion, but it did succeed. At the mont, Rui was struggling to retain his sense of balance even while she did her best to puml him to the ground.
Had she been a poison-oriented Martial Artist, perhaps she would have found a way to sabotage only her opponent's sense of balance, but she wasn't a poison-oriented Martial Artist, and thus the potency of the poisons she could integrate into her body was limited.
Thus, she settled on a guaranteed mutual sabotage by employing a poison that targeted the brain and changed the settings of the fight, such that balance beca the most important parater by far.
Such was the nature of balance. It was incredibly important to not just Martial Art, but all coherent physical movent. It was absolutely foundational. However, its significance decreased the more proficient it beca over ti. It offered diminishing returns the greater balance one possessed. Thus it was rarely trained above a certain level.
However, by guaranteeing a successful sabotage of his sense of balance at the cost of her own, both of them had lost that high-level sense of balance, reducing them to a fraction of their original balancing capabilities. It beca less important the more proficient at it one was, but conversely, it beca more important the less proficient at it one was.
And they were most certainly not proficient at it any more thanks to the poison, aning it beca the most important parater in the battle.
One in which she still held an overwhelming advantage against him.
And it reflected.
BOOM!
She launched him flying across the colosseum even while he guarded his head. He could not afford to let her get a clean attack on his head at this juncture, it would simply an a clean KO.
Never before had he gained such an appreciation for balance. It was only in situations like these that one rembered how important sothing that they took for granted was.
Everybody knew the importance of breathing. Yet only an asthmatic patient felt the value of breathing every second.
He knew that from experience.
BAM!
The crowd cheered as she gained a decisive advantage against him. Rui stood up uncertainly, relying on muscle mory for the ti being. She swiftly lashed forward without any inhibitions, he cautiously tried to throw an attack, only to sorely regret it.
WHOOSH!
His attack missed her wildly but she ignored it, stepping forward to blast him with so more powerful kicks.
BAM BAM BAM!
Tsk, this isn't going to work. Rui grimaced as he brought up his guard, sloppily dispersing them due to his ssed-up balance. He felt like he was stuck in a quagmire, every movent he made, let alone techniques he executed, was severely hampered.
It beca clear that if he let this go on, it would be ga over. He needed a practical solution.
Nean Blossom and Weaving Blood ca to mind.
Too costly, too ineffective.
They did not solve the root of the problem, they simply put a bandaid on the symptoms. A bandaid that had a ti and energy limit.
He needed to find a solution that targeted the problem head-on.I think you should take a look at
I need to regain my balance.
Could he sohow get rid of the poison?
No. I don't have any ans to do that at the mont.
His eyes narrowed.
There was only one answer.
His Martial Path was adaptive evolution. Thus, he needed to adapt to it.
This isn't sothing that the VOID algorithm can help with.
The VOID algorithm could not allow him to overco an inhibited sense of balance, it only allowed him to predict and ti extrely well-adapted movents against his opponent.
For this... I need sothing new. His eyes narrowed. A ground-up, systematic approach to adapt to the inhibitions she had inflicted upon .
It was a tall task. In the middle of combat, he would need to co up with a new system of thought to be able to adapt to his new inhibition.
Right here.
Right now.
In the middle of combat. In the middle of being attacked by his powerful opponent, in the middle of the disorientation and the ntal torture of a shaking and rumbling dystopic world.
All while simultaneously developing the predictive model for when he did return to normal.
It was an absurd notion.
If he did succeed, then the odds would be even, and he would also be adapted to her.
If he failed, then it would be ga over.
Had it been anybody else, failure was a guarantee.
Yet, before Rui, even the most insurmountable of barriers was reduced to a fun challenge.
"Heh... Haha..."
A chuckle escaped his mouth.
Squire Ran felt a shiver crawl up her skin.
She didn't understand.
Wasn't she winning?
Hadn't she been pumling him around for the last minute?
Anybody with a brain and eyes could tell that she was winning.
Yet her stomach churned when she stared into his eyes. A dark void seed to erge from behind his silver iris.
Three words escaped his mouth.
"You are strong."
Yet, those words only made her feel weaker.
In that mont, a single instinct reverberated across her mind.
I need to finish this... before it's too late. Her eyes flashed with determination.
The battle escalated as Squire Ran pushed herself to the absolute limit.
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