The Martial Unity

Much to Rui’s ecstasy, Lunden Marble was not too toxic and poisonous to the Martial Body. A week passed as Rui quickly all the experiments that would verify this.

He subjected the substance to tissue from his body and other origins to test harmful the substance was to the Martial Body.

It turns out, that the substance was instantly lethal to the human body, but only mildly to the Martial Body. That was quite the desirable outcome.

It meant that it could be integrated into the body with some degree of conditioning to acclimatize the body to the substance.

“Lunden Marble…” Kane murmured. “You sure that this is it?”

“Positive,” Rui replied, nodding.

“How does it work?” Kane asked.

“You’ll have to integrate the substance into two parts of your body, bringing them into contact will charge your body in a similar fashion to the lightning bolts of Thundering Valley,” Rui told him. “You’ll also have to undergo a conditioning training technique that will allow your body to naturally integrate Lundenfire Marble into your body if and when you ingest it, or its building blocks.”

“That sounds rough,” Kane grimaced. “But if it will allow me to use my Fulminata technique, then I’m willing to go through with it.”

His Fulminata technique was something that he was deeply attached to and unwilling to let go of, the technique was the first technique that he had created from scratch. It not only turned out to have an incredible affinity with him and his Martial Art and Path, but it also turned out to be a grade-ten technique that allowed Kane to keep up with Rui going all out, something he never thought that he would be able to do.

He was determined to get his hands on any way that would allow him to retain the technique.

“I want to get started immediately,” Kane told him.

“Sure, I’ve already confirmed that the institute has enough of the substance that we can purchase with our services so that we can employ them in our techniques,” Rui replied.

“Oh,” Kane raised an eyebrow. “You’re telling me you have use for this technique as well?”

Rui nodded. “Not as much as you do, however, I do believe I can make good use of this technique.

He had mostly come up with two technique projects.

The first technique project was centered around a grappling and wrestling technique. His plan was to employ lightning in a manner that allowed him to be able to impart a current and charge to his opponent to cause a certain degree of paralysis, weakening them in the process of grappling with him.

Thus, even coming into contact with him in a fight was unsafe in the first place, he could paralyze weaker and lighter victims without any doubt. Only the stronger or heavier ones would be able to resist or negate the technique’s influence.

Grappling in particular was a field of combat that required constant struggle from the entire body exerting force every moment. Any lapse in effort could cause one to instantly lose the battle as their opponent would be able to gain a dominating position and the fight was as good as done.

This was Rui’s attempt at closing the shortcomings that existed in his grappling. Although it was not perfect, this technique made Rui confident of being able to engage in grappling in general.

His next technique project was a close-range striking technique centered around the same principle as the previous technique. This technique employed lightning to paralyze his opponent by passing electricity through their autonomous nervous system through their nerves and pressure points.

Unlike in the grappling technique, he did not have full-body contact with his opponent, which meant that he had a reduced surface area to work with. That was why he had to specifically aim for the nerves and the pressure points, otherwise, the technique would be meaningless.

He considered trying to master the Fulminata technique through the same way Kane would be doing so with Lundenfire, but he ultimately decided against it, his body was evidently not able to sustain the same amount of current and charge as Kane was, for some reason. This was why Kane was able to reach a stage where lightning bolts did not hurt, but actually helped him.

Rui, instead, decided to employ lightning in different ways. He decided to employ it not to empower himself, but actually to depower his opponents and weaken them mid-fight. This would create holes that he could exploit and win the fight.

Of course, he was aware that there was a limited scope with this ability, he would not be able to one-shot any powerful Martial Squire magically, most certainly not. However, it would become a powerful tool when employed at the right time and place.

More than anything, it increased the versatility of his Martial Art. The solutions that he could not employ prior were not possible now that he had a depowering technique that could hamper and incapacitate his technique in such a fashion.

Rui was quite excited to train and realize both these techniques, yet not nearly as much as Kane was to regain the Fulminata technique.

“It probably won’t be as strong as it was in the Thundering Valley,” Rui warned him. “It’s hard to replace something that powerful this easily.”

Kane nodded. “I understand. I’m not naive enough to believe that everything will turn out perfectly, if I can gain a good chunk of the prowess that I had in the Thundering Valley, I’ll be happy.”

Even with a portion of that technique, Rui suspected that he would still become a lot more formidable than without it. It was a powerful enough technique that, along with Godspeed allowed him to fight Rui as an equal. As long as he lowered Godspeed’s output to match the resultant Fulminata technique, he would still be extremely powerful.

“Heh,” Kane grinned. “I can’t wait to fight those Martial Squires deployed by the surrounding nations after I remaster this technique.”