Chapter 1305 Kill MyselfRui had never encountered a battle where nearly the entirety of the VOID algorithm was countered by something so antithetical to it.
The pattern recognition system was countered by a lack of patterns.
The Metabody system was kept at bay for fear of being copied and improved.
The two most powerful elements were simultaneously sealed.
Not even Meera or the abyssfeeder had invalidated the core of his Martial Art so well.
Rui gained a brief respite by increasing the complexity of thought through the Mind Palace, confounding Ieyasu.
And yet...
SPLAT!
A single attack killed his momentum.
The atmosphere plummeted.
The jubilation.
The energy.
The high.
Ieyasu cut through all of it in a single strike.
Rui grimaced as he fell back, feeling a gash on his chest created by the sheer friction of an elbow swipe.
He glanced back at Ieyasu, narrowing his eyes.
The guardians watched with abysmal shock as Ieyasu instantly crushed a reversing trend.
They shivered as an enormous amount of peril and bloodlust radiated from the core of his being.
He stared at Rui with dark abysses for eyes.
"I'm you."
His eyes intensified.
"I'm a you that you will never become."
His body shook with power, adopting a stance.
"A you that you will be too dead to become."
WHOOSH!
Rui's eyes widened, barely managing to throw together a guard.
BOOM!!!
A powerful blow crashed into him at a speed that Rui could barely perceive. He grimaced as it launched him to the other side of the colosseum.
'He's absurdly faster and stronger than before!'
At the start, their performance parameters were equal. Yet no one had missed Ieyasu's continuous escalation in output.
No one had been able to gauge the reason for it.
No except Rui.
BAM BAM BAM!
Rui grimaced as he defended himself from an incredibly swift and heavy barrage of blows, leaping backward. 'Patterns increase your predictability but...they also increase your output.'
Choosing the best course of action out of the many possible options generally led to patterns, yet it was still stronger than if sub-optimal choices were made. Ieyasu was currently replicating the patterns that Rui had cultivated and refined through combat and his mind his entire life. The more he did that, the more he was able to bring out of himself.
Ieyasu rushed forward with a blistering speed, reduced to nothing but the haziest of blurs even in the eyes of the most powerful guardians.
WHOOSH!
He crossed the distance between them in an instant, throwing a blindingly fast blow aimed at Rui's head.
A blow meant to end a fight.
WHOOSH!
Rui barely avoided the strike as he leaped backward. Yet Ieyasu had long read his mind, refusing to let the distance open up by even the slightest bit of an inch.
WHOOSH!
Avoided by the sharpest of edges. Yet avoided nonetheless as Rui crouched in evasion before rushing backward. He avoided having too many dominant conscious thoughts. Which was difficult for him, since his mind normally furiously raced with thought.
Yet old habits died hard. Especially when they carried over to another life after having already died once.
'How do I adapt and evolve a man that copies everything he sees?'
Until he answered that question, he would not be able to win this fight.
After all, in this fight, Ieyasu was Rui. A statement that not even Rui could deny after seeing how identically the man copied him.
He was Rui.
'He is...me?'
His eyes widened.