The Martial Unity

THUD

Runark collapsed, heaving in an exhausted manner. “Alright, alright, it’s your win. Just… get this poison out of me. I can barely move!”

“Alright.” Misha walked over towards him, extracting her blood cells from him.

Ria watched with a kind of morbid fascination as to how her ability worked. “Do you preserve your blood cells like that?”

“Of course I do,” Misha huffed, turning towards Ria with a dubious glint in her cybernetic eyes. “Blood is very important to me.”

In contrast, her aunt was much more prone to just destroying her blood when she was done with it. Though that was probably because she was a member of the royal family of Kandria. Misha gathered some blood in a vial, muttering to herself under her breath. “I need to run more tests and develop new solutions.”

Ria’s eyes widened at those words. “Wait. You engineer your own blood?”

“I am half tekvore, remember?” Misha popped the vial into her bag, wiping Runark’s blood from her dark skin with a cleaning device. “Blood is my technology. I treat it like a machine. More importantly…”

She turned towards the unconscious neo-evosapien. “You managed to defeat him?”

Her expression was one of surprise. Ria simply nodded. As if it were nothing special.

“You’re even more nonchalant than I am,” Misha murmured with amazement. “It’s incredible that you managed to beat him when he has such a categorical advantage over all of us.”

“You’re half hemosapien,” Ria reminded her. “You have half of that advantage too.”

She turned towards Runark, helping him get up. “No kidding,” Runark murmured, coughing. “You’re way too tough.”

“You’re just too weak,” she ruthlessly declared. “But still, good enough to be on the team. So we have measured everybody’s fighting ability, right? Oh, except for…”

They turned towards the elf, who simply stood there, uncomfortable.

“Just to confirm, but you can fight, yes?” Misha asked, folding her arms. “I-I can, I just don’t like doing it when there’s no need…”

It added up with the pacifist nature of the elves. Out of all the races, they had gotten into the fewest wars in the past thirteen years. “Ngh…” They turned towards Sternon, who got up with a grimacing expression, his hand pressed against his head. “…my head hurts. What happened…?”

Then he remembered.

He turned towards Ria with an amazed expression. “You… you’re incredible.”

Ria shrugged lightly. “You’re strong too.”

“How did you do all of that?” Sternon got up, his hand still fixed to his head. “How did you manage to take me down despite my stronger body? I thought only Martial Sages or the Realm above that could fight me head-on and take me down.”

She huffed with a glint of irritation at the implicit arrogance. “You would get pummeled by almost all Martial Sages. Don’t think too highly of yourself. I managed to beat you because there existed possibilities of me defeating you. I made those possibilities manifest.”

Sternon, Misha, and Siliscia simply stared at her in silence, while Runark simply smirked smugly.

“What did you say your Martial Path was again?” Misha asked with a surprised tone.

“Er… dynamic combat.”

“Uh-huh,” Misha snorted with clear disbelief. She was far too intelligent, as a half-hemosapien, to believe Ria. But she didn’t push the matter forward, understanding that the girl wanted to keep it a secret.

“Well, that was informative and telling, but I need to get back,” Misha glanced at the time. “I need to run a few tests and then head to sleep. After all, tomorrow is the big day. I think all of us need to get some rest.”

Ria nodded, yawning lightly. “We have used our Realms of sleep multiple times today, so we need to get some shut-eye as well.”

Sternon heaved a sigh. “I would have loved to spend more time with all of you, but… very well.”

“T-Then, let’s meet up tomorrow for some light training?” “Sounds good. Goodbye then.”

They parted ways. Ria and Runark walked away from the training wing of the Blood Humanist Society.

“That was fun,” Ria remarked with a hint of enthusiasm. “We got to make some new friends.”

“Well, teammates is probably the word you’re looking for,” Runark remarked, drinking a healing potion. “I don’t think we’re going to hang out with them after this mission.”

“Why not? Maybe we could form a party and do other kinds of missions together,” Ria mused thoughtfully. Runark didn’t like the sound of that. He preferred having the time to be with Ria alone rather than having to entertain other people whom he simply didn’t care for. But he understood that Ria welcomed the change, so he ultimately decided not to be too open about his thoughts on the matter.

BZZZT

Ria’s commpad buzzed. She pulled it out as her eyes lit up at the notification. “It’s a text from Aunt Arastia.”

[Come to this address in the community wing. Let’s have the promised sleepover. :)]

“Nice, let’s go immediately!” Ria immediately took off. “Are you that excited for a sleepover?” Runark scoffed at her. “What are you, twelve?”

She turned around, glaring at him.

“Kidding!” he raised his hands in defense.

“Sleepovers with Arastia at the best!” she hissed at him, taking off even faster.

Runark heaved a sigh as he followed through, running after her. They swiftly arrived at the Blood Humanist community. A residential area within the large branch office of the Blood Humanist Society that offered a home for all the members of the blood community, including half-bloods like Misha, of course.

The homes were cozy, although there was strange blood symbolism and an odd prominence of the color red, as opposed to more relaxing colors like blue. The people who walked the streets possessed the traits associated with hemosapiens, including red hair and eyes. She didn’t just spot employees and staffers, but also families taking a walk with their children, enjoying the peace and quiet.

WHOOSH

They arrived before a particular residence in the area. One that was no different from any other residence, with a simple garden out front with blood-red roses. CLACK

The front door opened as Arastia emerged. She wore simple, casual clothes. A pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Her hair was tied up in a bun. She smiled at the two of them. “Come in, we’re going to have some fun today!”