The Martial Unity

It was a windy day.

Rui squinted from atop a tall hill as he stared at a distant small tree that was no more than a collection of dots in even his superhuman vision. He couldn’t make out too many details of it due to the distance between him and the tree.

He closed his eyes, relying instead on his two long-range sensory techniques, Tempestuous Feel and Seismic Mapping. He overlapped both images together, forming one image with remarkable detail and clarity despite the distance between them.

He had been training hard to gauge distance accurately through Tempestuous Feel and Seismic Mapping. This had taken him a while as he tried various methods of obtaining an objective evaluation of distance. He tried using his body in his own senses as a measuring tape, he tried comparing it to the max range of his sensory techniques, among other things. The problem was none of these were truly objective since his height certainly wasn’t constant, and the maximum range of his sensory techniques also wasn’t necessarily constant.

Instead, he carried a small rigid ruler on his person at all times. This allowed Rui to gain an objective measure of the distances of things that he senses by referring to his ruler and scaling the actual distance from that. It was not convenient, but he was willing to tolerate it. As a Martial Squire with a superhuman physique, the weight of a single ruler was beyond negligible and didn’t hamper him in any way at all.

“Five hundred and eight point two meters, forty-three point one degrees of inclination below principle axis,” Rui noted before plugging the data into the latest iteration of the first phase of the ODA System. He quickly computed the outputs, gathering the relevant launch data that told him how to launch his Sonic Bullets for a perfectly accurate aim.

However, this didn’t take into account atmospheric conditions. That was what the second phase was for. He closed his eyes once more, diving deep into the Tempestuous Feel technique. He felt the air currents, the pressure shifts, the temperature, and other environmental parameters. He inhaled and exhaled deeply, sharpening his focus, gathering his mind, and refining his concentration.

Had a human been there, they may have already fainted from the tremendous amount of pressure that he was generating.

When he was ready he immediately took the sensory readings of the Tempestuous Feel technique before throwing them into the second phase of the ODA system, processing them as quickly as possible. Unlike with the first phase, he was on a restrictive time limit. If he was even a moment too late, then it would be too late as the data would have grown outdated by then.

Just when he finished, his expression dropped. “Tsk! Too late, I’m not as used to this yet.”

Thankfully, he didn’t need to begin with the first phase, which didn’t have a relevancy lifespan, not a short one anyway. He immediately began with the second phase once again, furiously completing the already highly simplified calculations.

Suddenly he swiftly positioned himself appropriately before lightly opening his mouth.

THWOOM

A sound projectile flew out of his mouth, traveling forward with a certain inclination down. Less than two seconds later.

POW!

The little tree’s stump exploded in the middle, as several baseball-ball-sized holes and a deep hole in the ground appeared in the trees behind it.

A perfect shot.

“YES!” Rui leaped hundreds of meters into the air in unrestrained celebration. “It only took more than half a year for the very first successful execution of Project Sniper!”

Even as he tried to compose himself, he couldn’t stop a wide grin from appearing on his face. It couldn’t be helped, the sheer satisfaction and pure joy that came with succeeding with a project after nearly seven months of work was immense.

This marked a new chapter in his Martial Path, a new milestone. This was his first truly original Martial Art technique as a Martial Artist. While it was true that there were other instances of individuality and

“Ok ok… Calm down, it’s just one success amidst a lot of failed tries. I still need to reach a point where I succeed one hundred percent of the time, only then is this project an absolute and true success in every sense of the word.”

Rui sky-walked over to the target site, wanting to get a closer look. Now that he got over the joy of success, he was fully cognizant of just how incredible the feat he just performed was!

Almost half a kilometer under windy conditions and he launched a sound bullet that traveled and struck the target accurately.

The sheer difficulty of such a feat could not be overstated!

Rui was extremely certain that extremely few, if not zero, Martial Squires in the Kandrian Empire were capable of such accuracy at such a large distance away from the target. His feat would likely shock even Martial Squires whose Martial Paths were centered around long-range accuracy! Regardless of which system of technique they relied on.

(‘This is the power of synergy and individuality.’) Rui’s eyes glinted with a deeper understanding.

Project Sniper and the ODA system that he had created were extremely synergetic with him, they were born out of his understanding of science, and were only viable because of his monstrous ability to process a large amount of data necessary in a short amount of time.

Its very existence was born out of his strengths and its very functioning required his strengths. Strengths that no Martial Squire in the entire Empire possessed!

In return, it gave him frightening long-range accuracy!

Now, Rui could fight enemies from an extreme distance, sniping them with accurate Sonic Bullets while his enemies would have no way of fighting back! This was a broken strategy that not many could viably overcome.

However, its greatest strengths showed up when its targets were unaware that they were being targeted but were still highly protected and secure.