The Martial Unity

The Esoterist entertained a minute of silence as the Human Summit processed what they just saw. They just saw an Apprentice brawl with a Squire, tank his blows, and even deal damage of his own through his MECHA weapon.

Unless this Martial Apprentice was a talent as extraordinary as the Dawnbringer himself, this battle was truly stunning.

“I can assure you…” the Esoterist remarked knowingly. “That this was an average Apprentice, an average MECHA, and an average Squire. As I have stated, I have had the opportunity to conduct many studies on MECHAs, including to measure their power. I will be publishing them in renowned peer-reviewed journals for all of you to pore over.”

The Esoterist’s words broke the stupor that much of the Human Summit found themselves in, returning their sense of awareness back to the conference at hand.

“I have presented you with the revolutionary strengths and power of MECHAs, and now it would be remiss of me as a scholar to not delve into its categorical shortcomings,” he continued. “Of which there are more than I would like to admit.”

His words grounded them.

Of course, there were shortcomings and caveats.

There was no way that MECHAs could grant so much power without equally large shortcomings.

“The first and most self-evident shortcoming would be the high material requirements for MECHA Martial Artists and corps.” He raised a single finger. “One of the greatest advantages of Martial Artists is that they are not resource-intensive compared to beasts and siege weapons despite being the strongest forces in the world. This advantage is completely non-existent for MECHA Martial Artists. Not only does each MECHA require a sizable amount of resources, but they will also require technicians for maintenance and repair. In addition, you will need development teams of MECHA designers, a new field of esoteric engineering that I have invented, to develop MECHAs in the first place. You will also need heavy industrial capital to manufacture MECHAs.”

This dampened some of the enthusiasm among the human leaders who grew excited by the power they witnessed in the duel.

These were indeed heavy shortcomings that normal Martial Artists didn’t possess. Even the most powerful Martial Sages could be sustained and maintained with low-middle class income while it became clear that MECHAs were going to be extremely taxing on capital.

“In addition, weapon Martial Artists often progress a little slower due to an additional element of mastery—their weapon—causing their training to be more time-consuming,” the Esoterist continued. “This problem is highly exacerbated in MECHA Martial Artists. MECHAs are far and away the most complicated and sophisticated Martial weapon that has ever been created in the history of humankind. It takes an immense amount of time and training to master piloting a MECHA. About five years until one achieves preliminary proficiency and can be trusted to be able to pilot a MECHA outside of a controlled environment and supervision. A few more years before they gain any combat effectiveness at all.”

This dampened the enthusiasm for MECHAs even further.

It meant that even if all human nations began implementing them today, it would take years before they could make any difference on the battlefield at all. No normal human weapon took four years for basic mastery!

“Fortunately, I am developing special training methods with my colleague, the Psycher, to accelerate the training process, but even then, it will most certainly be much slower than normal weapons.”

It was only a fair trade-off considering the sheer power that MECHAs gave relative to swords or spears.

A MECHA pilot would be able to mow down an army of spearmen or swordsmen from the looks of it.

“Additionally, and this is a disadvantage for MECHA Martial Artists, but their individuality can only occur as long as their MECHAs are customized to suit their Martial Path just like the Martial Body is. This means that in order to progress, MECHA Martial Artists will need to depend on MECHA developers, they cannot progress without them.”

This would also dampen enthusiasm for MECHA among prospective Martial Artists, but not by too much.

Ultimately, MECHA Martial Artists would most certainly be the absolute very strongest of the strongest in each Realm that they touched.

“There are a myriad of other smaller advantages and disadvantages that would take me forever to cover, so I have included all of them into the documents that the Beggar’s Sect will distribute around the world.” He smiled. “Be sure to deeply familiarize yourself with all of it. And for now, that brings me to an end of the final solution I have prepared for human civilization.”

He waved his hand, shutting off the projections and the screen. “I believe that MECHAs are the future of Martial Art. All this time, Martial Artists and technology have been in a silent competition. I’m sure that many of you have suspected that my ambition was to crush Martial Art with esoteric technology and frankly…”

He shrugged with a mischievous smile. “I most certainly did. In fact, until a year ago, I most certainly still harbored the goal of crushing Martial Art with the power of esoteric technology.”

His smile disappeared and his eyes grew serious. “That was until the first MECHA pilot broke through to the Apprentice Realm and I witnessed their unrivaled dominance and the unfathomable potential of MECHA Martial Artists. What was merely just a side project of intellectual curiosity and academic pursuit showed me a new world that I simply could not deny. I realized that esoteric technology would never be able to outcompete MECHA Martial Artists. The same could be said for normal Martial Artists. I truly believe that MECHA will be the future and rest assured…”

His eyes flared with determination. “I will exert every ounce of my mind to ensure that no other future is possible. I would advise all human nations to adopt MECHA or eventually fall behind those that have. You would be foolish to deny power due to your fear of the unknown. Power is power. And we are in an apocalypse that could wipe us all out if we don’t muster every ounce of power we have.”