It didn't take Rui long to regain his composure. Regardless of what the magic that Kane was performing at the moment was, Rui quickly grew sober after witnessing it a few times.
On top of that, he was following Kane. That meant he had to successfully deal with the same tribulations that Kane was dealing with, otherwise, he would get struck by the lightning himself!
Rui's eyes narrowed as he steeled his focus, honing his concentration and he gathered every bit of his awareness and brainpower to the hurdles at hand.
He dashed to the left as he avoided the eight streamers that immediately formed into a lightning bolt. The density of the lightning bolts per unit area of land had increased substantially, so much so that even Kane no longer went deeper but had long since curved his trajectory sideways.
('He wanted to go deeper so that he could travel a shorter circle and complete a lap around the valley quicker than if he stayed on the outer ring that would require traveling longer distances,') Rui mused. ('Sheesh, he sure is competitive.')
It wasn't too strange. This was his field, his Martial Path. It made sense that he would hold back no punches when competing in a manner that centered around it, so Rui wasn't worried.
In fact, Rui tried imagining how competitive he might get if he entered a competition centered around adapting and evolving.
('It wouldn't even be funny,') Rui knew himself well enough to know that he was not going to take such a competition lightly. He would push himself to the absolute limit if that was what it took to validate the competitiveness and effectiveness of his Flowing Void Style compared to the rest who walked similar Martial Paths.
Seeing Kane go all out accomplishing such dazzling results strangely motivated Rui more than he had expected. He thought he was above such juvenile games even if there was merit in friendly competitions.
('Apparently not,') He smiled as he exhaled deeply.
Instantly, his body felt lighter. He decided that if he had any chance of winning, he couldn't hold back!
Instantly, a second surge of power enveloped his body as his body became even lighter.
He felt as light as air, yet as swift as the wind!
The full power of the Forestep technique was unleashed as he decided to take a little bit of a risk. He hadn't yet tried using the full extent of Forestep with the new sensory technique that he had just created. That was why he was a little unsure, but he was willing to take a risk if that was what it took to keep up with Kane.
WHOOSH!
He shot forward at an incredible speed as his momentum tore through the atmosphere.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
He casually avoided five lightning bolts before they had even arrived!
The Thundering Valley had turned from evading lightning bolts to evading obstacles, with those obstacles being the positive streams that were destined to become lightning bolts. It made life much easier as he was able to do a great job at maintaining top speed as he zipped through the land.
"Finally going all out are you?" Kane laughed as he saw that Rui was no longer being left behind in the dust. "But that's not going to be enough to catch up with me!"
He was right, unfortunately.
Rui knew this as well, it was just a matter of common sense.
The Godspeed technique was superior to Rui's Forestep. Furthermore, Kane's Martial Body was most suited to maneuvering, speed, and agility. There was no way that Rui could match his movement speed.
Thus, if Rui was going to catch up, it would be through the reaction speed department, but unfortunately, Kane had him beat in that aspect as well.
Still, he intended to do his very best. At the very least, he could not embarrass himself by falling behind to the point that Kane's figure had entirely left his field of vision.
He persevered, pushing himself to the limit…
But not even that was enough.
"I win!"
Kane leaped into the air, pumping his fist into the air.
"Damn," Rui murmured with a resigned smile, appearing just some seconds later. "Your win. Even if you did cheat."
"Hehe," Kane grinned.
Neither of them really cared. Kane had proven himself to be so much superior that even if he gave Rui a headstart, he would have still won.
He had only been behind by a few seconds, which may not seem like much to ordinary humans, but it was the world to Martial Squires. From their perspective, Kane may as well have reached ten minutes earlier!
The two of them retreated from the Thundering Valley so they could finally speak with each other without having to dodge the lightning that was constantly pecking away at the valley.
"Explain," Rui simply uttered one word, but it conveyed everything he wanted to say to Kane.
Kane smirked mischievously. "Oh man, you look like you'd strangle the information out of me if that was what it took to understand the technique."
Rui didn't even deny the allegation.
"Well, I was always impressed with the way you applied the Godspeed technique," Kane began. "It actually suited my Martial Art just as much as it did yours, even if there were differences in the nuances of your application versus how I wanted to apply it. However, I was never able to apply the Godspeed technique as anything other than a one-time linear attack with pre-determined movements. I was quite miffed inwardly you know… That was until we got hit by the lightning bolt of that raiju. That was when things changed."
Rui recalled that incident. It had happened several months ago.
"Although it did hurt, it also felt… strangely energizing," Kane told him. "I felt as though my nerves were being turned to up to eleven. The rest of my body hurt, sure, but my nerves felt more alive than ever. So I began experimenting…"
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