The Martial Unity

Sage Nathan huffed as he gazed at his exo-Martial suit.

It was ruptured.

But that was fine. The suit had been designed with the idea of Martial combat in mind. The breathing apparatus was present within his mouth, while the maneuvering systems were designed not to collapse even in Martial battle.

“Huff… huff…” Sage Nathan floated in outer space, gazing at his hands with a shocked expression. “I’m alive.”

VMMM…

A MECHA unit to him. “Sage Nathan, this is Senior Sorel. Are you doing alright?”

In that moment, the Martial Sage felt more humiliation than he had ever felt in his entire life. He, a Martial Artist of the fifth rank, had been saved by a Martial Artist of the third rank.

Of course, the MECHA, the Martial Senior, played a large role. The MECHA was one of the few units deployed to Pioneer III omni-ship. It was a premium unit armed with cutting-edge hybrid technology of esoteric and hadronic technology. It was armed with great resources and even had a warp drive with negatron matter in it.

MECHAs were already extremely powerful in combat, elevating a Martial Artist an entire Realm above where they would be if they just fought alone. But a MECHA that was designed by the Esoterist and the Astromind for spaceborne combat and armed with great negatron resources?

It was even greater.

In comparison, Sage Nathan simply floated in hair helplessly like a piece of space junk. Despite being a Martial Sage, despite being able to inflict a tremendous amount of damage on land and even in the air, he was greatly diminished in outer space.

It was bad enough that the prestige of Martial Sages had been utterly crushed in the past six years as their numbers exploded thanks to the EoS AI treatment. But now that he was being helped by Senior-level MECHA, he wasn’t even sure if he could hold his head high as a Martial Sage anymore.

“Thank you for saving my life.” Sage Nathan gritted his teeth. He turned away from the MECHA, gazing into his surroundings. WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH…

The strange octopus-like aliens maneuvered around them in the emptiness of space, using the very fabric of space itself as a scaffolding for their motions. But that wasn’t all. They could alter their energy signature. Their bodies were dark, checkered with light spots to resemble the stars of the cosmos in the background. The most adept ones were even hazy to the senses of Martial Sages, which was shocking because of how extraordinary the senses and instincts of Sages were.

“They’ve evolved for the environment out of outer space,” Sage Nathan gritted his teeth. “We don’t stand a chance against them in this environment.”

His eyes sharpened.

“Here it comes!”

WHOOSH

A new wave of octopus-like aliens flooded them, with even greater numbers than before. The moment they had taken away from the battle had been to bolster their numbers and to overwhelm the Martial Artists all at once.

RUMBLE!!!!!

The war grew more intense as Martial Artists fought tooth and nail, growing more and more intense. Battles grew more vicious as both sides pushed themselves to the very limit. Sage Nathan found himself swarmed by the octopus-like aliens more and more as each passing moment made him more convinced that he wasn’t going to make it out alive.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!

Tentacles turned into devastating stringed projectiles as the energy the astralites stored in their body, absorbed from the battle, had been returned to their enemies in a swarm of devastating impacts that drew blood from Sage Nathan’s body, riddling him with wounds.

SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT!

Sage Nathan abandoned defense entirely as his eyes grew ferocious with bloodlust. If he was going to die anyway, he would have rather died taking them down with him.

That was when the world around them changed.

RUMBLE

Everybody froze as a powerful wave through the very fabric of space and time rippled across reality. The astralites seemed to even recoil as they immediately drew away with a hint of alarm. RUMBLE!!!

The quivering across the fabric of reality grew even more intense as space and time warped deeper and deeper. And then, it tore.

It tore to reveal a hole through the very fabric of reality.

A wormhole bridging solar systems that were light-years away.

Sage Nathan’s expression grew amazed as he spotted the familiar world of Gaia in the distance behind them, as a fleet of warships emerged from Sol, crossing over into Barnard’s Star in a slow and deliberate manner. The warships showed signs of damage, with many dents and even slight cracks in some parts across their bodies.

The battle with the Laminar Civilization and later the invading nebulars had certainly done a number on their space war capital. However, the crest of the Panamic Alliance and the Panamic Space Force were untarnished, shining brightly in the light reflected from Barnard’s Star.

WHOOSH

The fleet entered the solar system entirely as the wormhole behind was dispelled allowing for the very fabric of space and time to return to normal.

For a moment, not a single person could move.

They had been warned that once they got through to their destination, they would be by themselves for a limited fraction of time. They had been told that it wouldn’t be possible for them to have any kind of aid until much later. And indeed, they had prepared with the reality in mind that they would be isolated.

That was why this conflict was existential to them.

And yet, somehow, a second wormhole had opened up, connecting Sol to Barnard’s Star once more.

It sent reinforcements.

WHOOSH

The warships drew closer and closer, training their guns on the astralites that weren’t too close to the Martial Sages or Pioneer III, unleashing an onslaught of destruction.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

Devastatingly powerful lasers streaked through the environment of space, ravaging the octopus-like aliens. And yet, despite the onslaught of destruction, the octopus-like aliens didn’t so much as even fret. They withstood the onslaught with a calm demeanor, absorbing most of the energy of the attacks and using it to shield themselves from the rest.