Rui raised an eyebrow as an amused smile sprouted on his face. He felt bad, but his first reaction was one where he had a hard time taking Kane seriously. He was so far ahead of him on a general level that the two were no longer operating on the same scale.
Furthermore, Rui grew stronger against opponents the more he knew about them, and he knew Kane really well. The predictive model he had on the guy was incredibly robust and sophisticated. It was better than any predictive model he had ever created in his life.
What that meant was that Kane did not stand a chance against him ordinarily. Rui was confident that he would be able to fight three, or even five Kanes under normal circumstances.
However, he quickly realized that his confidence wasn't entirely unwarranted. The new technique that Kane had developed allowed him to develop multiple techniques that allowed him to fight people much stronger than himself.
('No, it made him much stronger, period,') Rui corrected himself.
Kane had achieved what Rui couldn't, and had truly attained another level of speed. Even Rui could not blatantly dismiss his confidence against him.
When Rui considered some of the best feats that he was proud of recently, he found that Kane wouldn't necessarily lag too behind in regards to some of them.
In fact, he would surpass Rui in some of them. For example, he would probably do a far better job avoiding the roots that Rui faced when he fought against the Root.
That realization jolted Rui, but it made perfect logical sense. Kane was an evasive maneuverer, Rui could not surpass his pound-for-pound proficiency at evading attacks. Kane's movement speed was considerably higher than Rui considering he now had the reflexes to freely apply Godspeed the way Rui applied it. Except he had mastered it to a much higher degree.
On top of that, Kane didn't need to burn the Godspeed technique into muscle memory since, unlike Rui, his reflexes could now keep up with the Godspeed technique thanks to this strange new lightning technique.
When all these factors were combined, even with the prediction model, Rui wasn't sure if he would be able to dominate Kane like he once would be able to do so.
It was hard for Rui to get used to this shift, but he was reminded of a certain fact.
('This is why he is touted as a prodigious genius,') Rui mused.
Rui was not talented in the same way. His 'talent' was inheriting his previous life's memories from Earth, and being blessed with the opportunity to allow his mind to undergo a second round of growth in his new brain, improving all his mental parameters to significantly greater than they were in his previous life.
Kane, however, was a true genius. His talent and affinity for Martial Art allowed him to discover his Martial Path at the tender age of eleven, about six-to-seven years earlier than the average.
That was no different from a first-grade student being promoted to seventh or eighth grade due to their genius-level intellect!
Rui became even more convinced that the reason Kane seemed to have stalled for a while was not being subject to the right circumstances. A theory that he had come up with many months ago. Martial Artists had the greatest opportunities for growth when they were confronted with hurdles and problems that challenged them in their Martial Path.
This was sorely not the case on Vilun Island, where he didn't have much of a role to play, or in the Shionel Confederation where he did have an important role to play with the Void Step technique, but was never really challenged on impeded in that regard. The only time he had been challenged in that regard was on the sixteenth floor when they were confronted with the tree that was unaffected by Void Step, but that was not something he had trained to overcome.
However, the same was not true for the Thundering Valley. It seemed like it was just the perfect place to truly bring out the untapped potential within Kane, and based on the results, it had done just that!
Rui silently resolved to make sure to take them to places and subject them to challenges that would stimulate not only himself but also Kane. So that they could both grow side-by-side. It would make his job more complicated as the process of choosing places would become increasingly complicated, but he was willing to suffer this minor detriment to the benefit of his friend.
"What do you think?" Kane smirked mischievously. "Scared you'll lose?"
"I'll take you on," Rui laughed humorously. "But a duel, and not a spar. That's interesting."
"Spars are just light-hearted and restricted combat training," He shrugged. "But a duel has an outcome, a winner and a loser."
Kane sighed as he turned towards the Thundering Valley with a wistful expression. "It's a shame, but I need lightning for this technique, so I don't think I will be able to use this technique away from here ever again. So before we leave, I do want to see how strong I am compared to you."
It seemed that Kane was under the impression that he could never use the technique again, which surprised Rui, since he was able to think of multiple ways in which Kane could use the technique even away from the Thundering Valley. However, they all involved esoteric material science, which Kane basically knew nothing about as a Martial Artist, thus it made sense when he thought he wouldn't be able to use it without lightning.
However, Rui was willing to bet that there were esoteric substances that could help Kane get what he wanted!
Although he hadn't researched into this particular matter, he was more than willing to dive into the books if it meant allowing Kane to retain this wonderful technique.
In fact, he already knew of one such esoteric substance!
"Don't worry Kane," Rui turned as he stared at the land of the Thundering Valley, and the esoteric that drew lightning from the clouds. "I have a feeling that this won't be the last time you use this technique."
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