The Martial Unity

The two forces of nature collided against each other with extraordinary intensity.

And yet, only one emerged with the upper hand.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

Her fist ravaged his body.

It threatened to crush his skull; it took him every ounce of foresight to just barely shift to prevent the attack from taking his life, leaving his body even more crippled. He diverted every ounce of energy and power into his brain.

Accelerated his neurocognition with the Gene Realm.

Made his blood-brain barrier even stronger to withstand even more blood, diverting even more blood to his brain, elevating it to an even greater rank of power. He enhanced his cognition to the absolute limit, while dedicating the sum totality of his mind and consciousness towards one and only one thought.

‘If she is the embodiment of the archetype of the Martial Artist, then she must possess the archetypal weaknesses of one.’

The rationale was simple.

It was simple, and yet mind-bogglingly difficult.

An archetype was a universal civilizational pattern.

An archetypal weakness was a universal civilizational pattern of weakness in every single Martial Artist to have ever existed. It would be a weakness so inscrutable, so unfathomable, so abstracted and spread across a civilization that it would be impossible for anybody to identify, unless…

“Unless I create a predictive model on each and every single Martial Artist in existence.”

RUMBLE!!!!!

The world shook.

It shook as Rui deployed the sum totality of his mind in the pursuit of the Archtypical weakness of the Martial Artist itself. A predictive model and a style of Martial Art designed to be antithetical to the essence of Martial Art itself.

“Anti-Martial.”

His solemn voice bore heavily on the world as his senses swept the world.

They peered deep through the Gaia as they reached the surface of the Panama Continent. He could sense every human.

Every Martial Artist.

He didn’t even need to scour his memories.

He had everything he needed right there.

Every Martial Artist in existence.

It was an unfathomable amount of data, even for Rui. Without the sheer enhanced cognition of Gigabrain and all the other cognitive enhancements he had placed upon himself, he would never have been able to even consider such an ambitious project.

And yet, he did.

He constructed a predictive model for each and every single Martial Artist in the world.

Some trained.

Some fought.

Others meditated, or ate, or slept.

They each led their lives individually.

They were each an individual.

And yet, to him, they were merely datapoints across a dataset.

A dataset encompassing all of humanity.

One that would allow him to gather the most fundamental patterns there were, and create the Martial Archetype Model.

And yet, he didn’t have all the time in the world.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

Her fist ravaged his chest, yet missed the vital spot by just a millimeter, barely allowing him to get away with his life intact. She surged forth, launching a high roundhouse kick to the head.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

His head rocked violently as the wave of the impact rippled through his skull, threatening to scramble his brain. But the embodiment had already surged forth with a devastating impact, threatening to claim his life with a deep attack to the throat.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

He choked.

He choked, struggling to breathe.

And yet, his neck managed to remain intact, even if the devastating impact caused the flesh to rupture, bleeding vigorously. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

Each attacks intended to snuff the remaining embers of vitality and life within him.

Each of them was more than powerful enough to kill any other pathwalker in existence.

Each of them was beyond what anybody in the Sage Realm could have ever hoped to have dealt with.

She perceived that they would overwhelm him.

She perceived that he wouldn’t defend them.

She perceived that he wouldn’t evade them.

And her perception came to be.

Anything she perceived, she made happen.

And yet, he could perceive what she couldn’t.

“Your breathing is flawed.”

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

This time, he stood his ground.

For the first time in the battle, Rui managed to defend himself.

Her fist ravaged his guard, causing his forearms to break upon impact.

Yet, his blood-red suns never once broke contact with the boundless depth of her eyes.

“You breathe within the shackles of civilization.”

A devastating hook kick threatened to shatter his jaw.

And yet, it was within his predictions.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

He rolled with the attack, negating the worst of it. Only to find himself face to face with her fist.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

The extreme hook rocked his head once more.

And yet, it failed to kill him.

It failed to even knock him out.

The faintest glimmer of impatience flickered in the dark, boundless eyes of the Noosphere embodiment as she unfurled an onslaught of attacks.

An onslaught of archetypes.

Each of destructive power.

Devastating speed.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

RUMBLE!!!!!

Each threatened to snuff his life.

And yet, not a single one could bring him down.

RUMBLE!!!!

Ever as he was blasted with extraordinary attacks, the blood-red suns in his eyes flared with blinding brightness, never once breaking contact with the boundless eyes that contained the Noosphere. “You breathe like a Martial Artist.”

His words sounded meaningless.

And yet, they were anything but.

It was the first fundamental weakness he had identified.

All Martial Artist breathed wrong.

No, it was more accurate to say that all humans breathed wrong.

This realization was built upon an insight he had obtained from the most unlikely of sources.

It had come from Ria.

He had observed her closely and extremely carefully while she grew up, studying everything about his precious baby daughter.

The one thing that stood out to him was how she breathed.

No, it was how all babies breathed.

When babies breathed, their entire bodies seemed to shift to accommodate that breathing. Their ribs seemed to ripple, their bellies would inflate like balloons, and their bodies would move along with each breath they took. Over time, they would grow to breathe ‘normally.’

Upwards and downwards, rather than inwards and outwards, due to a combination of environmental and sociological reasons. It was this that was an archetypal weakness that he exploited.