Prediction

*Bang*

Every punch, or kick, was way faster than Ryu could perceive. Not only that, but they were incredibly precise. No matter how much Ryu tried to predict Tokugawa or dodge his attacks, Tokugawa would've already seen through them all, as if he could see the future.

*Bang!*

With a flawless kick, Ryu was sent a few feet back from the impact, his eyes turning blank for a split second. His arms ached, his head ached, his chest ached, every inch of his body ached.

It was painful, really painful. When he first started the match, Tokugawa's attacks weren't that strong. However, after he managed to grave Tokugawa's nose, the latter's speed skyrocketed even further. Now, coupled with its increased speed, the kinetic energy of Tokugawa's attacks now posed an actual threat to Ryu.

Yet, despite all of that, he couldn't do anything. He gritted his teeth, and tried his best to defend himself with his shield, but-

*Bang!*

Tokugawa manages to easily find gaps within Ryu, and the shield wasn't hit once, but his body was hit multiple times. Whenever Ryu threw a punch, Tokugawa would throw 10 more in that same exchange. No matter how he looked at it, Ryu felt like he was outclassed heavily. His martial arts were useless against Tokugawa due to his abnormal prediction abilities, and his swordsmanship was equally as useless. Now, coupled with the immense speed advantage, Ryu felt it hard to hold on for much longer.

"Hah!" Ryu suddenly shouted as he swung his sword, sweat drenching his entire body. Tokugawa effortlessly dodged by ducking, and in just a split second, he threw eight punches all over Ryu's body.

'Damn it!' Ryu thought as he tried to block, but even then, his shield was proven useless once more. Tokugawa's punches all evaded the shield and managed to hit Ryu's body perfectly.

"To think," Tokugawa muttered, his tone filled with disgust. "That I,"

*Bang!*

Tokugawa threw another kick at Ryu's abdomen, causing him to inhale sharply.

"Tokugawa, the All-Hearing, The soon-to-be Asura, would get grazed by a mere child." With every syllable, Tokugawa's kept getting more furious, every word filled with venom.

When he had become the All-Hearing, he had gone to many fights and many wars. And, In all of the fights, no one had posed a threat to him. Even when he fought hundreds upon hundreds of martial artists at once, Tokugawa managed to brutally kill them all, making them simply a stepping stone on his path to becoming an Asura. All he had killed were experienced martial artists, and yet, none of them managed to graze him as this boy did.

The thought that his first-ever injury was by a simple boy had caused him to be incomparably angry. Although Tokugawa thought Ryu was a genius, that was only relative to martial artists of his age. For sure, Ryu was stronger and had significantly more combat skills than normal martial artists, but that was it. Tokugawa fought experienced martial artists, geniuses among geniuses, and all of them became corpses for him to step on.

Tokugawa did not believe that Ryu had the qualification to even touch him, let alone injure him. The fact that Ryu managed to injure him made him feel a deep, vicious hatred, one that cannot be quenched unless Ryu died in front of him.

*Bang!*

Punch after a punch, kick after a kick, Tokugawa never stopped his onslaught. Every attack he made was filled with the intent to kill.

'Hah... He's strong...' Ryu thought, as another punch came in, causing him to spit a bit of blood. 'Really... strong...'

No matter how he looked at it, Tokugawa was a stronger opponent than Comby. Although its punches were slightly weaker, it still made him feel quite a lot of pain.

However, despite all of that, Ryu wasn't afraid. Although he was panicked at first, that slowly changed as Tokugawa kept on attacking him. Slowly, his anxiety disappeared, and although his entire body was covered in bruises and injuries, Ryu managed to endure all of them. His endurance, after all, was freakishly high.

"A dog like you," Tokugawa muttered, as he threw another punch, "Should learn to grovel beneath my feet. You dare to think you have the qualification to even pose a threat to me? You sure are arrogant!"

Anything Tokugawa said, Ryu simply ignored. Ryu long since stopped caring for what this demon said, because his mind was focused on something else entirely.

From the start of the fight till now, Ryu had only managed to slightly graze Tokugawa. After that, Tokugawa's speed soared through the roof. But even then...

*Bang!*

Ryu did not find it impossible. Rather, he felt a bit grateful to this demon.

*Bang!*

Ryu thought that the experience one gains in combat is far superior to him learning alone, especially when against someone far superior to him.

*Bang!*

As the number of punches grew, and the number of bruises rose, Ryu's heart began to quicken more and more.

'...?' Tokugawa immediately noticed this change and felt a small foreboding sense of crisis. He kept his vigilance to the max and continued his onslaught. He thought that, no matter what Ryu tried to do, he wouldn't be able to catch him, nor would he be able to evade his predictions.

However, Tokugawa's mind still felt a bit uneasy. Something was wrong, but he couldn't pinpoint what it was.

'Is he planning on using that trick again?' Tokugawa thought Ryu would make his weapons disappear again in order to take Tokugawa off-guard, but he already did that twice. That trick has already been seen through by Tokugawa.

As Tokugawa kept on attacking him, he felt something odd about this boy.

'Just how high is his endurance?! I've already attacked him hundreds of times!' Despite attacking him many times, and despite the amount of blood Ryu spat, or the number of injuries he received, Ryu's strength, speed, or resilience did not waver one bit. Tokugawa cursed in his heart.

'If only I had my sword, this boy would've been chopped into pieces by now.' Tokugawa has tried multiple times to take Ryu's sword, but every time he did, the sword would disappear from his hand and reappear in Ryu's hand. He had no idea what kind of martial technique that was, but he still didn't feel too bothered by it.

*Bang!*

While Tokugawa was astonished by Ryu's endurance, he did not notice Ryu's talent for fighting was finally showing. As Tokugawa kept on attacking, Ryu kept on defending. But, deep inside Ryu's heart, there was a small flame that was flickering. Tokugawa did not notice it, but the entire time, Ryu was analyzing him, seeing every single move Tokugawa had made. Every punch, every kick. Even when he couldn't see it, he was able to deduct where the attack came from, its angle, and with how much speed Tokugawa had attacked.

*Bang!*

*Swish!*

Slowly...

*Bang!*

And gradually...

*Bang!*

The flame inside him became bigger, and fiercer. This flame was his excitement, his talent, and his fighting spirit.

*Bang!*

Just like Tokugawa, Ryu began visualizing the image of Tokugawa's body, his stance, his position, and the angles of the attacks. Since he couldn't fully see Tokugawa due to his speed, Ryu had opted on visualizing him, and all of that was achieved through the pain he felt.

*Bang!*

Until...

*Bang!*

Tokugawa threw a powerful jab at Ryu, its speed far beyond what the eye could see.

'Hmph, your endurance is formidable, but there has to be a limit to it. Sooner or later, you're going to get exhausted.'

As the punch approached Ryu, Tokugawa's eyes suddenly widened. With his enhanced hearing, he heard the blood flow suddenly change in Ryu's face, and there...

A crazy, maniacal grin was formed. Ryu's eyes widened to the extreme, and there was a ferocious, insane look to them.

'What the-' Tokugawa's mind suddenly raced at that expression, worry suddenly filling his mind. However, he didn't withdraw his punch, as despite the worry he had, he didn't think Ryu could dodge it due to its speed, and due to the fact that Tokugawa had already predicted his actions.

And yet...

*Swish*

Ryu was able to effortlessly dodge Tokugawa's jab for the first time. He very subtly leaned his head to the side as the punch came, and despite the fact that his face was still in the trajectory of Tokugawa's fist, Tokugawa's punch suddenly changed its trajectory, managing to completely miss Ryu's head.

'He predicted my prediction?!' Tokugawa's thoughts were in disarray. That punch should've definitely hit had its trajectory not been changed, but Tokugawa's attack from the start had predicted Ryu's actions.

With his exceptional hearing, Tokugawa was able to visualize almost everything in Ryu's body. In his visualization, everything in Ryu's body pointed at his head dodging straight into the punch, and yet, that didn't happen.

Tokugawa immediately retreated over 10 meters away from Ryu in a blink of an eye, beads of sweat appearing on his forehead.

'What the hell was that?!' Tokugawa thought, distressed. In that last second, Ryu's entire body has gone into sudden change, and his muscles suddenly moved in a different way than Tokugawa had expected.

Tokugawa's predictions were unparalleled. By reading the heartbeat of his opponents, their blood flow, the muscles, and their tendons, and the rhythms and attack patterns of his opponents, Tokugawa has always been able to accurately predict where his opponents would move. And yet, Ryu's original move of shifting to Tokugawa's punch has been completely neglected, as if his body had a sudden, last split-second decision to completely change its original move.

While Tokugawa was mentally panicking, Ryu's grin kept on getting wider and wider. His eyes were no longer distressed, instead, they were filled with an extremely strong fighting spirit.

Indeed, at that last moment, Ryu had finally seen through Tokugawa's attacks.

"Hah..." Ryu heavily panted, then slowly pointed his sword at Tokugawa. Despite the injuries he had, Ryu had a clear smile on his face, and his eyes showed a slight glimpse of insanity. His shield has suddenly disappeared, returning to his inventory. He thought there was no use for it here, and decided to take advantage of this fight to hone his combat experience.

"This is fun!" Ryu said loudly, his tone filled with happiness. Had Ryu's first match been with Tokugawa and not Comby, then Ryu would've been groveling on the floor, pitifully trying to defend against Tokugawa. That Ryu would've been scared shitless, not daring to do anything against Tokugawa.

But now, ever since his fight with Comby, and his training with the sword, Ryu felt like a changed man. Even though he knew that a person couldn't just change in a single day, Ryu truly felt that way. He thought that even if he only had a single try against Tokugawa, he won't be afraid.

After that brutal pain from Comby, Ryu grew as a person, and he didn't fear pain as much as he did like before. He didn't know why exactly, but when his consciousness was slipping in his fight against Comby, Ryu's fear of pain had suddenly lowered by a massive amount.

"Come on," Ryu spat out, his smile not wavering one bit. "What are you waiting for?"

Tokugawa gritted his teeth in anger, and slowly returned to his original stance. He never thought that this boy would be able to dodge his attack.

'I underestimated him,' Tokugawa thought, his attention focused entirely on Ryu, 'To think he was able to predict my prediction, this clearly shows his talent is far higher than I initially thought!'

Although Tokugawa was mad, his anger wasn't as much as before. His initial outburst was because he believed Ryu didn't have the qualifications to injure him, and when he did, he felt immense fury. But now, he realized that he was mistaken.

This boy was dangerous, incredibly so.

The muscles on Tokugawa suddenly exploded with strength, and with a single step, he managed to instantly appear in front of Ryu, his fist closing in on Ryu's chest.

Tokugawa hearing rose to the max, and he managed to capture everything about Ryu's body. Based on his prediction, and the way that Ryu's insides were, Ryu should not be able to dodge this attack. Based on Ryu's heartbeat, muscle tendons, and blood flow, he was attempting to dodge to the side.

*Bang!*

Just like Tokugawa had expected, his punch had made contact, causing Ryu to let out a mouthful of saliva.

'Hmph, perhaps he managed to dodge the previous attack with sheer luck?' Tokugawa thought, and immediately tried to throw another attack, but soon realized he couldn't retreat his fist.

'Hmm?!' Tokugawa visualization suddenly changed. And there, he saw that his arm was actually held by Ryu! Tokugawa panicked, and various emotions suddenly filled his mind.

'How?! That boy shouldn't have been able to hold my arm, everything in his body was pointing at dodging!'

"Hah..." Ryu inhaled deeply, before showing his face to Tokugawa, a disgusting grin painted on his face.

"Heh," Ryu lightly chuckled, "I finally managed to catch you."

*Swish!*

With one beautiful slash, Ryu swung his sword at Tokugawa's arm-

-Easily severing it.