The Martial Unity

2899  Faring Sages

While Kane surged across the entire battlefield at extraordinarily high speeds, struggling to engage in defense or offense, the other Martial Sages had greater luck than him. Sage Zentra’s body altered as he deployed his Martial Soul, his body control techniques, and his systems of thought to create a body that would allow him to not just resist the heat but to absorb it and fuel his own attacks. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!!

Inferno upon inferno washed across his body, singeing his grey Martial attire woven from quasi-Transcendent substances. They washed over his well-groomed hair, beard, and mustache.

And yet, while others suffered under the heat, he welcomed it, consuming it with his altered physicality, allowing him to use it to fuel his own power. Mild as the energy boost was due to how little of it he was directly exposed to, it was still worth ingesting, if for no other reason but because it helped him defend himself effortlessly.

Upon entry to the Sage Realm, his bodily control had risen to levels previously unseen. He had already been one of the very most powerful Martial Masters when it came to the mastery of body.

It was as though he had been born for the Sage Realm. He surged forth steadily, his body continuously adapting to the extraordinary rigors of the serpent’s visceral heat while hardening his bones, altering his bone structure, and preparing bioweapons within his body to attack the serpents with.

Upon entry to the Sage Realm, he discovered a more powerful way to weaponize his body against others and completely bypass their physical defenses by deploying bacterial agents of his own making into their bodies, causing rapid disease to spread through his opponents. He would slowly weaken the serpents throughout the entire battle, allowing the Martial Sages to fall them sooner.

Of course, the closer he drew to the serpents, the less he was protected by Rui’s domain and the more intense the heat was, slowing done his progress.

While he chose the long game, there were those who chose a more direct and simple method of inflicting wounds upon their opponent.

Sage Kole Kellin, the master of the Inferno Fist, ferociously drowned her fists in an even more intense heat than the extraordinary heat of the inferno serpents, cutting through their enormous but impotent flames with the concentrated quark-gluon plasma that wrapped around her fists.

She surged straight ahead towards an inferno serpent as the serpent unleashed a blindingly fast strike, lashing out at her at a fearsome speed.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!!

The extraordinary attack shook the entire battlefield, ravaging the entire continent and sending tremors across the very fabric of space and time.

And yet, she evaded it with a smooth summersault, landing cleanly on its head.

“Die!” A double-fisted hammer blow blasted right onto the monster’s head, making for an extraordinarily intense temperature as matter began spontaneously turning into energy.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!!

“SSS!!!”

The inferno serpent writhed in agony as a painful wound emerged on its head. And yet, it didn’t fall.

Before she could realize it, the inferno serpent coiled itself around her with a shocking speed as every scale on its body shifted autonomously, pointing at her.

They unleashed every ounce of fire upon her.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!!

“Rghh!” she grimaced as she balled up, struggling to withstand the tremendous convergence of heat that threatened to melt her very existence. She struggled to break out with raw force, only to find that the gargantuan serpent had her beat in regards to physical power.

Her skin blistered before singeing and burning.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!!

“Unhand the woman, filthy serpent!” Sage Zeamer shrieked as he cast a powerful hypnosis to paralyze the creature while blasting it with his most powerful physical attack to release Sage Kole.

“Ah, m’lady—”

“Thank you, but no thank you.” She growled. “Focus on the fight.”

Sage Zeamer watched her return to battle, heaving a depressed sigh.

Of course, not everyone was having it nearly as rough as the two of them. Matriarch Nephi surged through the inferno of heat, finding just the right paths through it to minimize her exposure to the heat as she evaded the serpent’s attacks with effortless ease. She even prepared powerful attacks, unleashing them into serpents’ mouths one in the brief window of time when it was open momentarily before their strikes landed.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!!

She became a merciless carpet bomber with shockingly precise attacks that ravaged the serpents’ mouths where they were vulnerable, becoming highly effective landing attacks. Sage Sera, on the other hand, was even more incompatible against beasts and monsters compared to Kane, entirely unable to use her most powerful weapons against the likes of beasts and monsters. Her expression was cold with displeasure as she relied exclusively on physical attacks with some mental destabilization, but not nearly as much as she would have been to do against a Martial Artist. “Tsk, it’s a shame that I am unable to shine in this mission.

The most productive of them all was, of course, the Devil himself, who wrangled with nine serpents at once, unleashing his destruction upon them.

“HAHAHA!!!” he guffawed with gruesome bloodlust. “DIE MAGGOTS!!!”

An extraordinary wave of antimatter and nuclear power emerged from him as he unleashed destruction on a level entirely unfathomable to the others.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!!

“SSS!!!”

The ignited serpents violently shook as their bodies began melting away at the sheer ferocious power of the Devil. A tremendous amount of heat converged upon him, so much so that not even he could withstand of all of it.

The faintest burns appeared on his skin and body.

And yet, his smile only grew more malevolent and excitable.

“You think this is enough to kill me?”

His Realms of power surged with power as he unleashed his destruction.

Not against the creatures.

No.

But against their flames.

One moment, the flames converged upon him violently.

The very next?

WHOOSH

They were gone.

The serpents were shaken by the sudden disappearance of their attack as the Devil grinned.

“I ‘destroyed’ your attack,” he laughed. “And now…”

His eyes flared with malevolence.

“I will destroy you as well.”

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!!

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