Rui and Kane had already arrived at the sparring facility at the reporting time and had signed the attendance register. Now they simply waited for their friends and scheduled matches to arrive.
Rui glanced at the scoreboard.
There were twelve people tied for rank one. These Martial Apprentices were consisted of the eleven that Rui was scheduled to fight across the span of eleven days as well as himself counting for the twelfth contestants.
Rui glanced around the facility, he could feel attention on Kane and himself. And it wasn't just because of his black features or Kane's status. The two of them both had sixty-seven wins and no losses. Everyone paid extra attention to all those who tied for rank one.
Rui's eyes skimmed through the rankings, taking note of how everyone else performed.
"Oh...?" He murmured.
"Hm?" Kane glanced at him.
"Gale's at rank number nine." Rui said. "Impressive."
"Well, he's strong." Kane said. "Even if we did beat him up easily."
He had had fifty-three wins and fourteen losses, meaning he only lost to two people outside of the top eleven tied for rank one. Outside of the top eleven, it could be said that he was very close to the next best.
"Dalen's at rank fifteen." Kane noted. "That's not bad at all either."
"As far as pure defensive prowess goes, he should be in the top three." Rui agreed.
The two of them sparked up a discussion about the rankings, eventually talking about the top eleven, the most interesting and also the most relevant of them all.
"Who are you most worried about in the top eleven?" Rui asked, out of curiosity.
"Hmph, I'm not worried about losing to anybody. I'm actually worried about not losing." Kane snorted.
Rui chuckled at that response. "Alright, who are you least worried about then?"
"Hmmm..." Kane scratched his chin. "Fae, as much as I hate to admit it, is one of the few who I'm least worried about. Her offensive power is absurd. I might actually die if she manages to get a clean hit on me."
His body frame was built for speed, agility and mobility. It was not trained for defense in mind. If she struck him with a full-powered blow...
Kane gulped at the very thought of such a thing happening.
Fae's power was so high that she shook the very air and ground with nearly every movement. Even Nel, who was blessed with superhuman power, was not nearly as strong as Fae. She was almost in a league of her own.
He turned to Rui with a sharp gaze. "Don't tell her I said that though."
Rui burst out into laughter, his relationship with Fae was truly entertaining and amusing.
"So, who else?" He asked. "You said one of the few."
"There's that Martial Psycho guy Nel." Kane said. "I dunno how he's that strong two months after becoming a Martial Apprentice, but he's really tough."
"And yeah that's about it." Kane shrugged.
"Yep. I can't think of any other Martial Apprentice who is strong enough to beat me asides from Nel and Fae." He shrugged exaggeratedly, before turning to Rui. "Why, you have someone else in mind?"
"Ha. Ha. Very funny." Rui grumbled, earning mischievous laughter from Kane.
The two of them bantered back and forth until Fae, Milliana and Dalen arrived, immediately grouping with them.
"The three of you prepared?" Fae asked. "It's the final run and it's going to be the toughest for the three of us."
Kane shrugged. "It is what it is. No big deal."
"As prepared as can be." Rui replied.
Today Rui was scheduled to fight Feela Garron. A powerful ranged fighter, and a senior Apprentice at the Martial Academy. She was the strongest ranged fighter in the entire Academy, because she had pursued range to an absurd degree. It was truly mind-boggling to see the sheer amount of range this woman had come to possess.
She could strike people ten meters away!
She did this by devoting herself to an extremely high-grade technique that allowed for the clean dislocation of limbs, via conditioning of the ligament as well as well-timed simultaneous expansion of the biceps and the triceps and other skeletal muscle groups.
This not only gave her extra range, but also greater power and speed.
This was because the strike accelerated over a greater amount of distance. Her impacts were extremely quick and devastating. Although they weren't at Fae levels of power, she wasn't too much less threatening than Fae. Especially considering Fae had a range weakness while range was Feela's greatest strength.
After Fae, Nel and Kane, she was one of the people Rui was wariest about. In certain scenarios, she was likely even more dangerous than them.
He would be fighting her today. And if he lost, he would certainly be thrown out of any realistic chance of winning the preliminary contest.
Fae was to fight Avi Seth, a poison-oriented Martial Artist. Rui had seen him fight before, and he was curious about poison-oriented Martial Artist would handle a conventional Martial Artist of Fae's calibre. It was quite intriguing because this fighting style was one of those fighting styles that his previous life's knowledge as least useful against.
Kane was scheduled to fight Sahar Kal, a strong all-rounder. Now this match Rui was interested in, he wanted to see how a strong all-rounder dealt with Kane. This would give him a lot of useful data on what worked and what didn't against Kane and help him make the final set of preparations before their fight.
Nel on the other hand was bound to face Hever Mendelieve. A rare balance centric specialist. He fought in an incredibly novel way that relied on an extraordinary sense of balance combined with supreme flexibility. Rui was curious about how the two would fight each other.
Thankfully none of the fights of the rank one Martial Artists were simultaneous, so Rui could take his time observing all of them.