Had a human been there to witness the battle, they would have seen absolutely nothing. The human eye was incapable of perceiving phenomena that happened in milliseconds. Had a Martial Apprentice witnessed the battle, they would have seen disconnected images flashing all about in an incoherent manner. Still, this was nothing unusual for Martial Apprentices, but they would have very little idea of what was going on.
However, a Martial Squire was different.
Only a Martial Squire would be able to fathom the sheer absurdity of the feat that Rui was accomplishing!
Despite the avalanche of roots. Despite the sheer power and speed of each individual root. Despite the sensory suppression of Shionel Dungeon.
Despite everything that aimed to end his life, he did not fall!
Each root was powerful enough to engage even grade-ten Martial Squires. Fighting even a single one of them was something that required power amassed across one's entire life, it required power close to the limit of what Martial Squires could achieve!
Yet here was a twenty-year-old young man, one who hadn't even spent more than half a decade in the Squire Realm, taking on countless roots simultaneously!
Rui closed his eyes as his mind instinctive honed sharper than it ever had in the entirety of his life!
In the span of a single millisecond, he spun through the air, somersaulting over overhead crashes, sidestepping root jabs, and bouncing off of powerful root swings. The roots moved at speeds that beggared the mind, shredding the atmosphere with each movement. Every motion left behind numerous shockwaves that made even breathing impossible! Every attack ignited the very air!
If not for the fact that Rui had already conditioned his lungs to be able to withstand extreme temperatures, he might very well have died after the very first attack!
WHOOSH
Rui gently shifted his head by ten centimeters, evading a titanic root aiming to crush his head. He swiftly bounced off the root's momentum with his quasi-Flux Earther technique as he barely evaded a dozen roots, smothering the airspace that he was occupying just a millisecond prior!
Rui launched himself forward, shortening the distance between him and the Root by about three hundred meters in a single go!
Yet he didn't have even a moment to acknowledge his progress, the very next second, a new wave of roots, the range of which he just entered, attacked him in addition to the existing roots that were already attacking.
Before him was a hellish view of almost one thousand roots attacking him. simultaneously. Surely, any other Martial Squire would have fallen to despair under the nauseating quasi-Senior level. How many Martial Squires would be able to retain their confidence despite having a full understanding of the sheer magnitude of the monstrosity that the Root was?
Rui on the other hand was not only not affected, but he had the audacity to grin.
"Hah… Haha… Hahahahaha!" Rui couldn't help but indulge his jubilation as he moved in ways that were almost entirely impossible almost any Martial Squire across the entirety of human civilization!
In what felt like a long time, he was truly pushed to his absolute limits despite also fighting with his true potential unlocked with nearly half a year of preparation! This fight was like a confession, he bared his heart out, expressing deep gratitude to the grotesque root.
"Thank you…" He whispered. ('Thank you for bringing out the VOID from deep within me.')
The power he possessed at the moment was the true power of the Flowing Void Style. Yet it was difficult to realize, difficult to obtain, difficult to manifest. It took more than half a year's preparation. Unfortunately, there were very few circumstances worth obtaining this power. Either his opponents and enemies didn't require this level of preparation, and thus weren't worth it because they were too weak. That, or they did require this level of preparation, and weren't worth fighting because they were too strong.
Circumstances where they were worth fighting and worth engaging in extensive preparations, without which he would die instantly, were exceedingly rare. Among Martial Artists, no Martial Squire was that strong, and Martial Seniors, who were even stronger, were not people he would even consider fighting unless in the most dire of situations.
This battle with the Root, a mindless and highly-flawed quasi-Senior level creature that Rui had resolved to fight as a part of his ambitious objective, was one of the few rare rare circumstances where Rui could bring out his potential against a truly powerful being that he had resolved to fight nonetheless!
Despite approaching death more than a thousand times every second as he narrowly avoided being crushed by the devastating attacks of the Root, Rui felt at home. He felt even more at home at this very moment than he did when he was in the Quarrier Orphanage!
His eyes widened at the profound realization.
('I see, the VOID is my true home,')
He instinctively felt that this realization would have deeper ramifications on the choices he would regarding extremely important and significant matters that he had recently been forced to confront in recent times.
In the middle of the heat of the battle, he came to understand who he was a little better. He felt as though a deep fog had cleared in his mind.
He gained more clarity.
He gained more peace.
At that moment, a profound sense of serenity encompassed his entire mind. He felt as though he had taken a step deeper into his Martial Path. Although it felt as though he had suddenly deflated, his engagement in combat suggested the opposite.
He had grown stronger!
His movements grew sharper by the second as the predictive model in his mind kept improving with each exchange!
Although he certainly did get an immense amount of data from observing the Root for all those months and the previous two battles, nothing compared to actually gaining data from fighting against the Root himself. However, it wasn't just a matter of the quantity of data. With how close the roots were to him, he could also perceive the attacks of the roots with all his senses!
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om