The Martial Unity

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!!!

Amare watched with a stunned expression as she watched Rui on the backfoot.

A feat that only Martial Sages could achieve.

And yet, his opponent was extraordinary, almost able to defy causality in the way that his attacks emerged from nowhere.

BOOM!!!

Rui’s expression crumpled with pain and displeasure as the monster’s attacks were just a beat faster than his active defense.

And before he could even readjust.

The next attack had already appeared out of nowhere in Rui’s face.

BOOOM!!

A last-minute Acute Edge and Elastic Shift were the only reasons that Rui managed to evade getting knocked out.

BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM!!!!

The monster of a man smiled with even greater kindness in his eyes.

“Ah…” a whisper escaped him. “See? You need my help, after all.”

His tone was eerily soothing.

One could almost believe that he was on their side.

That he truly wanted to help them. BOOOM!!!

His attacks shifted trajectory as though inertia was a fictional concept.

Almost as if he could freeze time, adjust his trajectory, and then unpause time.

BOOOM!

His fist abruptly shifted to the right in front of Rui’s guard, winding about it as it struck Rui’s abdomen.

BOOOM!

Rui staggered, reeling from the impact.

And yet, the next blow has already arrived.

BOOOM!

His ribs stung with pain at the impact, only for a sweeping kick to batter his ankles.

BOOOM!

A jab appeared before his solar plexus.

BOOOM!

A thundering roundhouse kick almost phased itself on his shoulder.

BOOOM!

Two blows struck his diaphragm in rapid succession.

BOO-BOOOM!

The monster systematically chipped away at his body with powerful blows, one after another. Amare watched with a grave expression as the monster ravaged his body with blow after blow after blow.

Neither side had chosen to deploy their Realms of power.

She knew that Rui wanted to conserve his power as much as possible.

The more time he spent with his Martial Mind active, the more time he would have to rest in a manner that left him completely vulnerable.

The monster, on the other hand, seemed only unwilling to use his Realms of power until Rui did as a way of proving that he was stronger.

He battered each and every single one of Rui’s vitals.

BOOOM!

A blow teleported to his liver.

BOOOM BOOOM!!

A double rib shot.

BOOOM!

A thundering roundhouse kick to the knee.

BOOOM!

A blast to the jaw.

With each passing moment, the battle grew one-sided as the monster gained an even greater edge of dominance.

Amare’s expression heightened with concern as Rui’s condition worsened.

His breathing grew more ragged.

His wounds grew more numerous.

His balance staggered.

His vision blurred.

And then came the final straw.

SPLAT SPLAT!!!

Two fingers almost phased themselves into his eyeballs, robbing him of his vision.

The peril in the air was palpable.

The specter of death seemed to loom heavy behind Rui.

The monster’s smile sweetened.

“You should have accepted my help from the beginning.”

His fingers sharpened into a death jab as it surged straight towards Rui’s neck, almost phasing to its target in the blink of an eye.

The final blow.

Or so he thought.

BOOOM!!!

CRACK CRACK CRACK!!!

The monster’s eyes widened with shock as a flood of pain washed over his entire arm.

One moment, his attack was all going to bestow salvation upon his opponent.

The very next?

His entire arm was mangled.

His bones were rend, broken, and crumpled across every inch of his arm.

He leaped away with a stunned expression as Rui staggered unsteadily.

“The secret of your Martial Art is…”

Rui opened his eyes slowly.

“Quantum entanglement, isn’t it?”

It hadn’t been easy to learn this truth. However, Rui had slowly but surely chiseled away at the possibilities one by one before arriving at the only conclusion that he thought was viable.

“Most lifeforms communicate through a nervous system,” Rui’s tone was chillingly calm as his wounds healed one by one. “A nervous system has a fixed speed. A speed that grows slower and slower with each passing Realm.”

The Martial Body had greatly evolved nerve impulse transmission speed, but there were still limits to how fast a bioelectric system could transmit information. Of course, the evolved nerve speed was extraordinarily fast, so much so that it was entirely irrelevant to Martial Squires and even Martial Seniors.

“But in the Master Realm, the speed of nerve impulse transmission is a liability.”

Since the liability was largely even across the entirety of the Master Realm, the impact it had on either side largely canceled out. All Martial Masters, including Rui, had long gotten accustomed to this lag, to the point that it had gotten burned in their muscle memory and even their subconscious processing of their mind.

“You…” Rui’s dark eyes peered into the depth of the monster’s eyes. “Your brain communicates with your muscles through quantum entanglement, doesn’t it?”

The moment a decision was made, his body had already begun acting it out. This essentially meant that his brain had a direct causal relationship with his body, vastly reducing any lag between thought and desired outcome.

On top of that, with Martial Masters having completely gotten subconsciously accustomed to this gap on every level, their reactions were profoundly delayed due to the absence of a cognitive gap that everybody took for granted, creating the illusion that his movements had essentially phased forward in time.

It also explained why the SOUL System and the VOID algorithm were unable to effectively deal with his opponent.

There was no lag between the decision and the inception of his attack.

The moment he made up his mind, or perhaps even before he made up his mind on a conscious level, his body had already surged forward, completely negating the viability of Rui’s system of thoughts.

And with some feints and afterimages thrown in to enhance the illusion of teleportation, it created an almost unstoppable Martial Art that simply could not be combated.

A small smile emerged on the Monster’s face.

“You are strong.”

BADUMP

The world shook as his Martial Heart and Mind roared to life while his Embodiment subsumed all of heaven and earth.

RUMBLE!!!

–