The Martial Unity

WHOOSH!

He ducked, evading a pillar of exploding wood from blasting in his face, before flipping away midair as he ran through the air, avoiding a barrage of leaves that threatened to cleave him apart.

BOOOM!!!

He barely managed to dispel an explosion with a sonic bullet, instantly finding himself surrounded by vines that circled around him, trying to shackle him where he stood.

WHOOSH!

He leaped in the air, narrowly evading the attack, only to find himself face to face with a giant tree that deformed and surged to crush him with great momentum.

BOOOM!!!

A powerful Yin-Yang Spear blasted a hole in the wood as roots dug up from the ground, trying to shackle him in one place while he was distracted by the branches.

WHOOSH

The roots found themselves wrapping around an empty image.

A feint.

BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM!!!

He unleashed a barrage of Transverse Resonance attacks, stacking sound bullets atop each other with constructive resonance to blast the roots into smithereens. And yet, he remained on the defensive as he barely managed to evade the powerful attacks of the wooden trees around them.

Rui barely managed to stay ahead of the tremendous attacks as he bobbed and weaved through them with the help of his nascent predictive model and the Eye of Prophecy, allowing him to tap into the Prophecy of the Void.

“Enough.”

The frustrated voice of the dark elf reached his ears as she unleashed even greater power from the forest.

RUMBLE!!!

The world shook as the trees at the edge of the forest began merging with each other to form a common barrier of wood that prevented them from escaping, while the leaves at the top began merging with each other to form an unyielding canopy.

Suddenly, Rui was drowned in darkness, save for the bright light of his Martial Heart.

“Behold the full power of the forest.” Her voice reverberated through the forest.

RUMBLE!!!

The trees began slowly converging on Rui as they closed off the space and volume around them, making for less and less space.

Rui’s eyes sharpened as he understood what she was trying to do.

Having dealt with the dark elves for a while now, he had learned that their tactics involved using the volume, space, and omnipresence of nature to their advantage to box and imprison their opponents in a small space, leaving them no room to actually escape.

And he had to admit, it was a good strategy that was extremely effective.

BOOOOOM BOOOOOM BOOOOOM BOOOOOM BOOOOOM!!!

The sheer magnitude of the explosions that followed was extremely intense.

Rui gritted his teeth as he activated Nemean Blossom and Weaving Blood.

“Niflheim.”

RUMBLE!!!

The world shook as a domain of frost emerged within the forest prison as Rui did everything in his power to smother the tremendously powerful explosions. Yet, the sheer heat of the explosions meant that Nifleheim could hardly freeze everything when it struggled to neutralize the explosions.

BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM!!!

“Your freezing technology is impressive, but it will not protect you against my power. Against the power of nature.”

Because each tree was astronomically larger than normal trees, the explosions were also astronomically greater, becoming nothing short of nuclear in proportion and magnitude, save for radiation.

In terms of raw power, it massively exceeded anything that any ordinary Martial Senior could possibly conjure up.

“Rgh…!” Rui gritted his teeth as he pushed his Martial Heart as far as he could, squeezing every ounce of his power from within to withstand the sheer energy that his opponent brought to the table.

Meanwhile, the forest enclosed him as the explosions grew more and more intense.

It grew increasingly concentrated, compressing Rui’s Niflheim domain to the very limits, making it so that he had almost no way of actually escaping the sheer inferno that followed.

“Perish with the power of nature, underestimating the dark elves will be the final mistake you make.”

In the blink of an eye, all the trees converged on him from all directions, threatening to kill him where he stood as they exploded in unison.

BOOOOOOM!!!!!

A tremendous green explosion ensued deep in the skies.

One that could be seen from hundreds of kilometers away.

RUMBLE!!!

The world shook as the dark elf simply beheld the explosion from a distance in the skies with an expression of finality before closing her eyes and turning away.

“Arrogant outsider.”

It was a brilliant victory for the elven way of life.

They were pacifist, but that didn’t mean they were weak by any means. Their capacity for danger and violence was no less than that of any of the other civilizations in existence.

And yet, she had overseen one important factor.

Her opponent was none other than Rui Quarrier.

RUMBLE!!!!!

The world shook as she froze where she stood in the air.

What ensued shocked her to her very core.

From within the depths of the green smoke emerged water.

Boundless water.

RUMBLE!!!!!!

It shook the very world as an astronomically titanic tsunami of water emerged midair.

Out of nowhere.

“Wha—!” the dark elf barely managed to protest as the colossal wave of water crashed into her.

It subsumed heaven and earth.

It consumed the Forest of War, drowning countless dark elves who haplessly resisted in vain.

“ARRRGHHH!”

“HELP US!”

“WHAT IS THIS?!”

The entirety of the forest around them had become submerged in the depths of water.

His water.

“Where did this calamity come from?!” Veruschia grew agitated in the distance as she gritted her teeth with mental strain. “How did all this water get here?!”

“Relax.”

Amare’s voice was calm.

“It’s just an illusion. You can still breathe and talk, see?”

Veruschia’s eyes widened with shock. “…What?”

“It’s called a Martial Embodiment,” Amare explained. “It’s a form of passive hypnosis that changes what people see when they look at Martial Masters. Only those with a powerful mind and cognition can possibly behold his true physical form. lthough…”

She directed an admiring smile in his direction.

“His Martial Embodiment is the strongest in all of human civilization. Even now, he is showing mercy. Otherwise, all of you would be dead.”

Veruschia directed a stunned gaze in the same direction.

Each and every elf directed a shocked gaze in the direction of the epicenter of the calamity of water.

And yet, they saw nothing.

They could only see the Water that his Martial Mind unleashed upon the people of the Forest of War.

The Water that he himself had become.