The Martial Unity

When -o—o-o had rallied his fellow warriors, blessed warriors, and ascendants, he had expected that he would gather a force so powerful that it would be capable of destroying the alien invaders. After all, they were descendants of the Divine Mothers, infected with the power of Rust. No ordinary lifeform could possibly take them on. They had expected that the battle would last minutes, at most. That they would be able to roll up and simply wipe out the bipedal outsiders. And yet, reality begged to differ.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!

-o—o-o widened his eyes with shock as the volley of high-powered web fluid that they launched at the outsiders failed to vanquish them the way that he had expected. The initial volley caught them off guard since they had managed to emerge undetected from underground, causing several of the bipedal outsiders to fall to their ambush. But the moment they were alerted to the threat, the bipedal outsiders managed to immediately gather their bearings and organize.

Their formations tightened as they shifted pathwalkers to deal with the various legions of homoarachnoids that emerged in response. The second volley of attacks failed to deal as much damage as -o—o-o might have hoped. Not only did the bipedal outsiders manage to avoid being crushed, but the strongest among them managed to straightforwardly deflect and overpower the incoming attacks. -o—o-o with amazement as the pathwalkers of the Blood Arc operation began mobilizing their power, using the power of their Paths not only to withstand the volley of attacks that he and his brethren launched, but also to retaliate with their own volleys.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!

Waves of attacks of heaven and earth, of light, plasma, and other high principles, enabled pathwalkers to attack the ambushing homoarachnoids from afar. There was also a large swirl of red blood that emerged from individuals with visual features of the same theme, using their own blood as a weapon against the homoarachnoids.

CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK!

The homoarachnoids, however, didn’t succumb to the attacks that easily. They intercepted most of them with heavy cloaks woven from their web fluid. As well as interceptions of long-range attacks through web fluid shots. -o—o-o watched as the ambush swiftly became a mutual exchange of a volley of attacks. Even as the homoarachnoids invaded the crater that the bipedal outsiders had begun turning into their base, they were rained upon with heavy fire of a level of power that -o—o-o hadn’t expected from his enemies.

They were even stronger than he had anticipated based on their successful entry of Planet Amadeus III and their successful defense of their presence on the planet. He knew they were strong, perhaps because of the alien technology that they were armed with, but this was something else.

The strongest among them possessed an ability that far exceeded what should have been possible for any kind of lifeform that had developed organically. Despite possessing almost no discernible esoteric matter inside their bodies, they were somehow able to launch enough power to ravage land, destroy mountains, and even rupture small portions of the surface of the planet.

Chief among them that drew -o—o-o’s attention were those who expressed massive surges of energy that resembled those of nuclear reactions when matter was converted into energy.

Yet, rather than exploding like bombs, they were somehow able to harness and redirect this power into a long-range attack against their enemies. -o—o-o found himself face to face with one such Martial Sage as the two armies drew closer, clashing together at close range.

The first thing -o—o-o experienced was a thundering blow to his abdomen from his opponent.

BOOOOOOOOM!!!

Enough power to destroy an entire nation. And yet, much to the Martial Sage’s shock, -o—o-o was intact.

Not only was he intact, but he was also unharmed. The Martial Sage’s fist had struck the homoarachnoid’s web armor, which covered much of his body. The web was composed of particularly powerful esoteric substances. But that alone didn’t explain how an alien lifeform had managed to withstand a blow from a Martial Sage that was armed with materia prima. The Martial Sage learned, belatedly, that some homoarachnoids were much, much stronger than others.

The specimen before him was larger and markedly different from the other specimens that they had fought in the first wave of attacks upon entry into Planet Amadeus III.

CLICK CLICK CLICK

An eerie set of clicks emerged from -o—o-o.

“Interesting,” -o—o-o mused with faint intrigue. “Bipedal. Outsiders. Are. Interesting. But. Can. You. Withstand. This?”

The Martial Sage wasn’t able to understand the speech of the homoarachnoid, since techniques such as fauna flow required the two members to be from the same tree of life. It was also why he wasn’t able to foresee the incoming attack.

The stinger-like appendage at the back of the homoarachnoid’s lower body shot web fluid not at the Martial Sage, but rather at the hand-like appendages of the homoarachnoid, instantly solidifying into a rope-like weapon that y-o—o-o blasted the Martial Sage opposite him at blinding speeds.

Faster than he could react.

BOOOOOM!!!

“Rgh!”

The Martial Sage grimaced, flung backwards by the sheer speed and force of -o—o-o’s attack. The powerful blast had launched his body away at great speed, launching at speeds greatly surpassing even that of sound. The Martial Sage balled up, trying to prepare for what was going to be a devastating crash landing.

Instead, he felt a sort of elastically increasing force that pulled at him as he went further away, halting his momentum. He glanced down with a shocked expression to find the web fluid that had completely fastened itself to his abdomen.

He turned towards -o—o-o who began clicking with what felt like a hint of enthusiasm.

CLICK CLICK CLICK

“Withstand. This.”

-o—o-o pulled at the web fluid with tremendous force that greatly exceeded what should have been powerful for a creature of that size, pulling the Martial Sage towards him before balling his fist and swinging at the Martial Sage the moment he arrived.

BOOOOOOOM!!!