The Martial Unity

It was only after he had become a Martial Squire that he understood how nerfed Squire Caella Freelia was against him in their fight. Although they hadn’t fought her the very moment after she became a Martial Squire, it was still soon enough after her breakthrough when she was still out of sync to be able to express all of the power of her new body.

Just as he tried to take another step, Squire Fernin stopped him.

“Relax, no need to move right now.” He told Rui. “It’s best that all of this be done once we’re in a controlled environment. For now, you will be taken to the Squire habilitation facility in a wheelchair.”

They gestured to one in the room, having brought it over.

Rui sighed. He was not too fond of wheelchairs; they reminded him of the worst part of his life when his health deteriorated to the point that he was unable to move around on his own. It was one of the worst parts of his life not only due to his health but also due to the continuous failures he suffered in trying to make the VOID algorithm viable.

Still, he obliged as they strolled him to the Squire habilitation facility, which was connected to the breakthrough facility, side by side for convenience.

Once they arrived at the facility, they immediately entered a particular section of the facility.

“What’s this place for?” Rui asked as he looked around. It appeared to be a storage facility for a strange kind of body suit, of sorts.

“The bodysuits you see here are the core of the habilitation training stage that you will be undergoing.” Squire Fernin told Rui. “These suits are highly resistive to all movement, and generally limit the power and speed of all movements by ninety-nine percent.”

Rui’s eyes lit up in interest as he immediately comprehended the reasoning for such a form of training. “Steady acclimatization.”

“Correct.” Squire Fernin nodded. “You will be wearing this suit for the entirety of your habilitation phase in this facility. We will progressively lessen the resistance the suit offers to your movements, roughly one-percent a day. After a hundred days, you will be discharged as long as your control, accuracy, and precision aren’t below the bare minimum standards for you to not be a threat to civilians and Martial Apprentices around you.”

This was new. Rui had never had to exhibit extreme caution to normal humans around him as a Martial Apprentice because Martial Apprentices were physically human, only their brains were superhuman.

The way Martial Apprentices generated superhuman power despite having a normal human body with normal human muscles was thanks to efficiency. It had taken Rui a while to piece this together since the science in this world had not developed why having superhuman brains enabled superhuman physical power. Of course, the principles and mechanics of each technique were well-known. But the precise neurological reason as to why exactly superhuman brains enabled Martial Apprentices to use Apprentice-level techniques was not known.

To anyone except Rui, as far as he knew, thanks to his strong scientific background.

The answer was simple; efficiency.

Research back on Earth had indicated that human beings generated several hundreds of joules of energy with every strike. Technically, this was enough energy to crack and break rocks and boulders.

Yet no human was able to crack and break rocks. Not even the mightiest of heavyweight fighters who held the world record for the most powerful punch ever thrown; Francis Zavier Ngannou, could possibly crack and break a rock.

The reason for this was simple, due to the many mechanical inefficiencies and structural inadequacies of the human body, only a small portion of that great energy were actually transferred to their striking targets.

Due to this, no human was capable of cracking and breaking rocks with a strike. Very few animals were capable of such a feat, despite generating far more than the necessary power to do so.

All of this was due to inefficiency in movements, and inadequacies in structure.

When a Martial Apprentice discovered their Martial Path, the brain evolved in battle cognition, and along with it, the potential to be superhumanly efficient with their motions in combat.

Apprentice-level techniques such as Flame Breathing, Outer Convergence, and Flowing Canon allowed Martial Apprentices to be extremely efficient with the energy that their body generated, maximizing both the energy generated and the amount of the energy generated that actually did damage to their target.

However, this was a conscious and voluntary phenomenon.

This meant that he could not hurt normal humans unless he used Apprentice-level techniques. There was never a worry of accidentally bumping into a human and killing them because he exerted too much force.

However, now that he obtained his Martial body, this was no longer the case. His natural raw power had been elevated far beyond natural human limits. He could mangle humans with just a wave of his arm if he wasn’t careful.

“You’re going to also need to develop a psychological awareness of the sheer damage you inflict upon humans.” Squire Fernin told him. “It’s not enough to just gain control, accuracy, and precision. Your psychology needs to adapt to your body as well.”

“How will we be going about that?”

“Hypnotic therapy.” Squire Gerd spoke up for the first time.

Rui turned towards her. “What exactly will that entail.”

“We will be subjecting you to a suggestion that will, over time, along with other measures such as reflexive correction will help you develop the necessary psychological habits that will ensure that you aren’t a threat to the people you know and care about.” Squire Gerd explained. “It’s not just humans you have to worry about, it’s also Martial Apprentices. They’re now to you what humans are to them. I am in charge of the psychological conditioning while Fernin will handle physical habilitation.”

Rui now understood why there were two Martial Squires instead of one.

“I look forward to your guidance.”