Hever collapsed to a knee near the corner of the court. To everyone but Rui, Hever's defeat was certain.
"Well, he put a good fight."
"Nel's gonna knock him out."
Nel didn't even hesitate, he blasted forward faster than he ever had. But Rui didn't pay attention to him. He was staring at Hever intensely, wondering if he was right.
Just the smallest of smiles crept onto Hever's expression.
He intercepted Nel's attack, and fell back as he got up to his feet, using that momentum to throw Nel flying behind him. This was a launching maneuver that could only be performed starting from one knee.
This was his goal. He wanted to get onto to his single knee stance near the corner of the ring. However, he could not simply walk to the edge, and get down on knee. Even the most simple-minded fool would realize that this was a trap.
Therefore, he had begun working ahead of time. Feigning fatigue. Ceding ground as if he was starting to weaken. He redirected and threw Nel exactly where he wanted him. And at the end, he collapsed to his knee like he was at his very limit.
All so that he could executed a maneuver that would launch Nel outside the ring.
('I fucking KNEW it.') Rui mused excitedly when he saw Hever successfully intercept Nel's haymaker. He fell back as he got up, using the upward motion to lift Nel and the backward motion to launch Nel flying behind him outside the ring. This was why he had let himself get pushed to the edge.
It was smooth. Nel was airborne!
The plan had succeeded!
In the final hour. No, the final moment.
Nel found a way to salvage his fight.
Nel's reflexes were superhuman. This, in addition to the enhancement given by the breakthrough to the Martial Apprentice Realm, was truly immense. In this one particular area, his reflexes were on par with Kane despite not being a speed-oriented Martial Artist.
Despite being launched at incredible speeds, he still managed to catch a hold of Hever's arm before it was too late!
He threw Hever a shit-eating grin.
Hever's eyes flew wide open as Nel dragged him along with him!
He had no holding leverage, furthermore, he was truly caught off. He was simply unable to resist the incredible momentum that he himself had generated!
Both Martial Artists took to the air as Nel guffawed out loud midair with mischievous ecstasy while Hever was simply shocked into an incredulous silence.
They both landed outside the ring as the same time.
No, for several seconds even;
Everybody was shocked. The only noise that broke what would have been absolute silence was Nel uncontrollably laughing.
"Maaaan, that was awesome!" Nel grinned, turning to Hever. "Hey, let's do that again some time."
Hever sighed resigned. "Sure."
A commotion broke amongst the Martial Apprentices and onlookers.
The outcome was truly shocking. Never had they ever expected that the fight would end in this manner. Rui was speechless beyond words. He was extremely impressed with both of them. Nel's physical prowess had yet again shown why he was truly one of the top rankers of the Academy.
Hever, on the other hand, had a level of mastery that made Rui envious, this sheer mastery had allowed him to compete with Nel. He had crushed all of Nel's offense and initiative and landed every single attack smoothly. Nel was truly blessed he had a strong constitution and sharp reflexes, otherwise Hever would have defeated him without a doubt.
His tactical capabilities impressed Rui as well, that tactic was resourceful and well-planned. Rui was relatively certain that he was the only one who had figured it out ahead of time given how everyone had written the match off.
Hever Mendelieve was a powerful Martial Artist with a sharp tactical and resourceful fighting style.
"On account of simultaneous ringout, this match is a tie!" The supervisor declared.
This meant that both Hever and Nel's win-streak had been stopped, by none other than each other.
This also meant they were now below rank one, since they no longer had all wins like Rui and Kane did.
Rui should have been elated about the fact that he was one of the two only top rankers, but frankly, he wasn't. Hever Mendelieve was much stronger than Rui had hoped. He was now another addition to the top three threats Rui had to defeat.
In fact, he might even be more dangerous than Kane or Nel!
Rui grinned. He was excited to take on all of them.
But he was clear about its difficulty. Defeating all of them would be a herculean task. He had already come up with countermeasures against Nel and Kane to a partial extent. It seems he would need to do the same for Hever.
Thankfully, as strong as he was Hever was not as much of a deviant as Nel and Kane were. Although he was certainly quite unique, his strength was less anomalous to Rui than Kane or Nel.
The biggest problem with him was dealing with his immense muscle memory, and Rui also had to be careful of Hever's tactical capabilities. He was the only fighter in entire Martial Academy whose tactical capacity Rui was a little wary of.
As for techniques... There was only one. But the problem was that it was grade nine and was highly efficient as well as versatile and flexible. It gave Rui perspective on the benefits of mastering techniques beyond just general mastery. Of course, the technique itself mattered a lot too. Rui did not think it was worth mastering techniques like Mind Palace technique that would allow him to remember information better.
But perhaps in the future he might find a technique worth dedicating himself to a higher degree.
Rui shook his head. This was a matter for the future. Right now, he should be focusing his all on the preliminary contest. There were only a few days until the preliminary contest was over.
He was determined to win.