He lashed at Rui, swinging his clawed hand at him wildly.
Rui somersaulted out of the attack, landed a powerful drop kick on the man's head. Vranil grimaced as he swung at Rui once more.
Rui intercepted strike at the middle of his forearm, careful to avoid his hand.
Vranil's eyes flew wide open as the world turned upside-down. Rui had cleanly flipped him using Flow Flux. Under ordinary circumstances, Rui would not have been able to but Vranil's state of mind was not conducive to stability.
Rui's toe flew, whistling as it cut through the air and buried itself in his throat.
"ARGH!" He choked as he landed on his head.
Rui soccer-kicked him to the head, sending his body flying across the forest, breaking past some trees. Even if the man was strong, Rui's raw power was immense.
Having mastered two highly-powerful high-grade techniques; Outer Convergence and Flame Breathing, as well as Adamant Reforging which also significantly increased the impact his fists were able to deliver had reached a whole different level. With four techniques in total amplifying his power, every strike of his was remarkably heavy. As far as he knew, only Fae, Ian and Fiona surpassed him in raw power.
Well, Vranil did as well. But his defense wasn't nearly as good. Even he couldn't shrug off such a powerful impact to the head.
Rui used Blink to pierce him yet again. Vranil stumbled unsteadily as he breathed heavily as he closed the new wound Rui had just inflicted on him.
He tried to gather his bearings, but Rui was just overwhelming. Had he been in peak physical and mental condition, he would have performed much better. But he was psychologically and physically far away from his peak. Rui's schemes and plans had affected him negatively in many ways, physically and psychologically.
Furthermore, he noticed Rui had changed. The pressure he exerted on Vranil had been rising, bit-by-bit. His fighting style slowly and gradually morphed as it flowed, changing forms.
And Vranil felt weaker and weaker.
Rui's timing and placement grew sharper and sharper. He had begun shutting down everything Vranil did, bit-by-bit.
All of it crumbled. Rui mercilessly crushed all of it.
Vranil didn't understand. It was as though every movement Rui made was made to defeat him. Every step, ever shift, every swing and thrust, even the tiniest of twitches. Each movement Rui made was as though it was made to defeat him.
Vranil's eyes widened as he met the boy's sharp gaze.
He felt as though Rui saw through him.
Saw through his Martial Art.
Saw through the depths of his Martial Path.
Saw through, and denied.
Denied his accomplishments.
Denied his pride as a Martial Artist.
Denied his Martial Art, and even his very Martial Path.
In his eyes, Rui had become the Antithesis; He who Denied.
Rui's fighting style took on a new light in Vranil's eyes. It was as though his Martial Art had been created to destroy his.
With every movement Rui made, countering every move his foe made, Vranil felt like his Martial Art itself was breaking.
He felt as though his very Martial Path was crumbling.
A Martial Art that countered his own Martial Art to the very depths of his core, of who he was.
He felt as though Rui was denying his very being!
Every flaw. Every Imperfection. Every trace of weakness. Every trace of inadequacy.
It was as though Rui had given them life. They came to life and began eating away at his Martial Art. They ate away at his Martial Art as Rui's adaptive evolution exploited the void where Vranil's Martial Art was.
Vranil felt his power leaving him. He hadn't felt this weak since he was a human, before he discovered his Martial Path.
A Martial Path he could no longer see.
All that was left was a void.
All he could see was the Antithesis that had destroyed it.
His eyes lost their vitality as he went limp.
A powerful Flowing Canon crashed into his gut, sending him flying away at tremendous speeds, breaking past a few trees until one finally stopped him.
He felt to the ground, coughing blood.
He didn't care anymore.
He had lost more than just the fight and his operation.
He had lost his Martial Path.
Every time he thought about his Martial Art, he could only see the antithesis that had destroyed it. Every ounce of power in his body dissipated at the sight. He didn't want to be a Martial Artist in a world where that Martial Art existed.
"Kill me." He said the object of his despair as walked towards him.
He simply stared at him with his dark eyes.
"Kill me!" The man snarled in anger. "I said kill m-"
An incredibly heavy drop-kick landed on his head. The sheer power it contained shook the very land.
A pool of blood and cerebral fluid emerged on the ground from his head.
Rui simply watched, waiting.
He only left after he sensed that Vranil's heart stopped beating completely. No healing potion of any kind would save him.
"I wonder why he gave up at the end there." He murmured. "He should have felt he still could have won or definitely escaped alive if he had continued fighting. It's annoying to chase people after all."
Rui took one last look at the corpse in front of him, before sighing and shaking his head.
What shook him more than killing was how little he was shook by killing. He had been prepared to feel traumatized, prepared to feel horrible.
He didn't feel all too much.
Part of it was because these men had enslaved the innocent villagers of the Hefermaine village no doubt. He still felt angry when he thought about how much they must have suffered. But another part of it was, without a doubt, himself.
He had changed. Nearly sixteen years in a world where death was far more frequent and normal had altered his mentality, sixteen years of aiming for a profession that involved killing and risking being killed had changed him. It had changed him more than he had realized.
"I guess I'm truly no longer of Earth." He sighed.