The Martial Games soon proceeded as Fernan was carried away. Rui was the new defending champion of the Martial Games and he sent challenger after challenger.
Yet, none of them prevailed.
One after the other, Rui overwhelmingly crushed them all with adapted styles that wrecked them in combat. The rest of the participating representative fighters weren't quite as deviant as Fernan was. The adaptive-evolution model was far more effective against them than it was against Fernan. His victories against them were smooth, clean and elegant unlike his messy battle against Fernan.
However, Rui had begun to notice something strange.
Every once in a while, some of his opponents would simply give up even when the fight wasn't quite over. Their bodies went limp as their eyes lost life as if someone had drained them of it. And he would win easily once they stopped resisting. They would collapse as if they no longer cared for anything.
