Chapter 1816: Holding Back
"Speed Void."
WHOOSH!
The Gatekeeper's narrowed as Rui cleanly evaded the finishing blow, leaping away as heaven and earth itself seemed to shackle the Gatekeeper in place.
That wasn't all.
"Fuuu..."
Rui activated Neo Godspeed at twenty percent while using Final Breathing at eighty percent, surging forward with much greater speed than before!
WHOOSH!
He evaded a powerful blow from the Gatekeeper, launching a powerful kick at the man's jaw. He threw every single technique into the Flowing Canon.
BAM!
It didn't so much as budge the man's head.
WHOOSH!
He somersaulted away, evading the man's extraordinarily swift and powerful blow. Suddenly, the Gatekeeper's body shifted, as his upper body dimmed while his legs brightened.
WHOOSH!
He appeared before Rui in the tiniest fraction of a millisecond, his legs dimmed as his upper body brightened. The most powerful and fastest blow of the battle was thrown at Rui.
WHOOSH!
Rui barely evaded the blow itself, yet the sheer shockwaves that emerged from it struck him point blank.
BOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!
"Rgh!" He grimaced
The destructive shockwave that emerged from the attack was so extreme that it battered Rui, engulfing him and everything beyond.
RUMBLE!!!
The very lands beneath them shook under the devastating power of the Gatekeeper!
That day, all of North Kandria experienced a small earthquake.
STEP
Rui leaped away with a grave expression, panting heavily. The Gatekeeper, too, took a moment to catch his breath after exerting himself to the very limit.
Silence spread across the battlefield.
Both warriors considered each other for a moment.
The Gatekeeper closed his eyes. "It has been a long time since I have been forced to think."
Rui shrugged. "It has been a long time since I have been forced not to."
The two of them couldn't help but share a brief, fleeting smile.
Yet, a silent understanding had befallen both of them.
The first act of the battle had come to an end.
The Gatekeeper, with deep confidence in his physicality, had chosen a relatively mindless approach to the battle.
Chase after his opponent.
Hit his opponent.
This was the approach that had won him victory after victory for all of his life. Nothing short of the power of higher Realm has been enough to ward off this simple brute-force approach.
His physicality had trumped all.
No Martial Art, no Martial Path, no technique, no Martial Body, no Martial Heart no strategy or tactic had ever been able to withstand this mindless yet unstoppable combat approach.
Yet, for the first time since the birth of the Kandrian Empire, he had found an opponent who possessed the power to withstand his onslaught.
He still didn't quite understand how Rui did it.
It was as though he could see the future itself.
Even after the Gatekeeper unveiled his most prized trump card, his absolute mastery over the Martial Heart, he had only been able to gain a brief advantage that was quickly taken away.
Despite greatly increasing his combat power by regulating the flow of the Martial Heart and redirecting it to the most relevant muscles at any given point in time, he was unable to win.
He only managed to force his opponent to go all out, unveiling mysterious hypnotic techniques, momentary domains, and his own crude manipulations of the body.
Of course, the battle could not considered equal.
Rui had yet to put so much as a single scratch on the man's body, while the Gatekeeper was always merely inches away from crushing Rui to a pulp. He had even shattered Rui's bones multiple times, which would have ended the fight then and there if not for Weaving Blood.
In his situation, any normal, sane Martial Senior would now alter their strategy and tactics. There was no point in continuing with a mindless and brute-force approach that clearly wasn't working.
They would have switched their strategic approach to a long-
range, wide-scale attack. They would have considered disrupting his timing through sabotage. They would have considered soaking damage to get their hands on Rui and grapple him.
Something.
Anything.
Not the Gatekeeper.
There was a reason that he was still only a Martial Senior five hundred years into his Martial Path.
This was a man who had rejected the power of thought.
Physicality Evolution.
He had stayed true to his Martial Path.
Not even the seductive power of the Martial Master could shake his love and single-minded dedication to physicality, even at the cost of thought.
Especially at the cost of thought.
"You are the strongest Martial Senior I have ever fought," the Gatekeeper declared, cutting through the silence.
He closed his eyes.
"I will stop holding back now."
Horror gripped Rui's heart at those words.
Chills crawled up his spine.
Fear emerged from the depths of his very being.
"...Hold back?" Rui whispered.
BADUMP!
His heart began glowing tremendously, shining from deep within the depths of his chest.
BADUMP!
Rui shook as he felt a shockwave emerge from the man's chest from the sheer weight of his heart.
BADUMP!!
RUMBLE
The weight of the man's heartbeat shook the very lands beneath them.
BADUMP!!!
The world quivered under the roar of his heart.
Rui stared at him with terror.
He wasn't the only one.
Not a single person watching could maintain their composure.
Not a single one of them could maintain their calm.
Every single one of them stared at the Gatekeeper with unadulterated shock.
"What is this...?" Palpable fear was visible on Master Ceeran's face.
"...I don't know," Master Zentra's voice, usually calm, had grown saturated with angst.
Not a single one of them knew what they were seeing.
They could only watch with horror as the Gatekeeper's power continued rising until every cell in his body glowed with power.
Raw power that transcended anything that was supposed to be possible in the Senior Realm.
"I have you to thank for this technique," the Gatekeeper's voice had grown inhumanly deep. "Thanks to your Hungry Pain technique, my greatest masterpiece was complete."
His pupils shined like two miniature suns.
He took his stance, readying for battle.
"Forbidden technique..." He whispered.
"Ragnarok."
BOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!