The Martial Unity

The Dragon Emperor lunged forth with an aggressive charge, flashing through the water at high speeds even as he struggled against the water that the dragon had on him. Whatever his speed in the air was, it was vastly inferior to the speeds that he could achieve within water, giving Rui plenty of time to evade the charge.

Except Rui’s own movements were highly limited as well, causing his own slow movements to make up for the extra time that he got. He began moving ahead of time as the Dragon Emperor surged towards him, unleashing yet another destructive attack with unimaginable force and power.

RUMBLE!!!!!

The destructive attack caused yet another supermassive tsunami to emerge from within the depths while his attacks converged upon Rui.

WHOOSH!

Rui leaped backwards, floating through the water at high speeds as he evaded the attack, only to find the Dragon Emperor lunging forth for another.

WHOOSH

He side-stepped, evading an overhead jab while surging forth towards the Dragon Emperor’s abdomen with a fist prepared for a heavy blow.

BOOOOOOOOM!!!

Despite the tremendous force that Rui had put into it, the drag of the water, along with the extreme durability of the Dragon Emperor’s scales, made it so that the attack did virtually nothing against the Dragon Emperor, who simply laughed at Rui’s paltry attempts to take him down.

“Is that the best that you can do?!” the dragon roared as he unleashed a ferocious volley of blows, one after another, against Rui while he moved to evade them, unwilling to challenge the Dragon Emperor in a direct test of strength.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH

Rui evaded the series of blows, stepping back as he unleashed powerful sonic bullets with tremendous force. While the difference in medium affected the technique in ways he couldn’t entirely anticipate, it was known that water was a much better conductor of sound than air was.

BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM!!!

The sonic bullets blasted against the charging dragon’s invintium armors, barely causing him to stir as the dragon lunged at him, threatening to eat him in one snap. Rui activated Hypertrophic Surge as his body grew larger and more muscular, while an extraordinary flood of power coursed through his body.

BANG!!!

A thundering blow hooked at the side of the charging dragon’s jaw, deviating his trajectory just enough to parry him away. The dragon snarled as he shot himself towards Rui with a single whip of his tail, branding his claws and jaws at Rui, eager to kill him right then and there.

But alas, Rui was not so easy to defeat.

WHOOSH!

The dragon’s eyes widened as his attacks crashed into an empty image.

A feint.

BANG!!!

Rui’s foot crashed down into the dragon’s head, toppling him over as he spun within the depths of the water. Rui frowned at how difficult it was to do what he did so effortlessly on land.

The water environment changed the dynamics of the battle more than he could have ever anticipated.

Their movement speed had slowed down greatly, while their reaction speed, reflexes, and mental processing had remained the same. In other words, they were both moving in slow motion toward each other, making it much easier for both of them to anticipate each other’s movements due to the slowed-down trajectories.

In other words, reaction speed had been replaced by foresight.

Whoever had more foresight would have an undeniable advantage.

And there was only one of the two of them who could be regarded as a master of foresight.

Rui’s glowing red eyes sharpened, remaining trained on the dragon.

And yet, it was not the dragon that he was looking at.

No.

It was the future.

He fought against the future.

Lord Shenlong snarled as he charged against Rui with all the might that his body was able to muster.

Each motion he made shook the world.

Each stride he took ravaged the vast ocean floor.

Each flap of his wings created tsunamis across the entire world.

He was a force of nature in and of himself.

And yet, he couldn’t so much as touch Rui.

WHOOSH

Rui smoothly crouched, helped by the buoyant force of water, as he watched the giant claw of the Dragon Emperor pass right over him cleanly, before easily side-stepping a devastating stomp.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!

The Dragon Emperor’s food blasted into the depths of the crust. The sheer force with which he ravaged the ocean floor was so intense that it penetrated past a layer of the planet.

It gave birth to a fissure for the lava and magma within the depths of the ocean floor to erupt.

RUMBLE!!!!!

The world shook as the tremendous internal pressure within the depths of Gaia began making its way to the surface.

Rui’s eyes widened as he sensed the impending environmental disaster that would flood the ocean. “You… monster.”

Rui couldn’t even fathom how it was possible for one living creature to generate so much power. In terms of energy output alone, the Dragon Emperor was more than an order of magnitude above Rui at his very strongest.

Each blow he made vastly exceeded what Rui could possibly unleash at his very strongest. A single stomp from the Dragon Emperor was enough to reshape tectonic plates and alter the geology of the world.

And yet, Lord Shenlong didn’t care.

His eyes remained focused on Rui.

As did his bloodlust and hunger.

“This battle is just getting started,” the Dragon Emperor’s voice was eerily calm. “I will consume you, one way or another.”

Rui’s glowing red eyes sharpened with ferocity. “The only one who will be consumed today… is you, Shenlong.”

The Dragon Emperor cackled at Rui’s words as his eyes flared with bloodlust.

He didn’t bother uttering more words.

There was only one thing left to do.

“Rarrgh!!!” The Dragon Emperor snarled as he charged towards Rui, unleashing a maelstrom of attacks, each more powerful than the last, to kill Rui where he stood.

RUMBLE!!!!!

The sheer force and power of his blows sent the Great Void Ocean into an explosive maelstrom from within, from which countless tsunamis emerged!