The Martial Unity

-o—o-o found himself staring at the five pathwalkers who had gathered around him with each of the eyes embedded in his skull. Yet, his attention was fixed on Ria, who stood some distance away defiantly. The gulf in raw power between them was titanic.

Yet, somehow, she managed to survive a battle with him, even if for a brief period of time. When he studied her presence, he couldn’t sense what he sensed in the other four.

He couldn’t sense a limit.

RUMBLE

The world around them shook violently as pathwalkers and homoarachnoids waged an all-out ground war against each other around the crater where the former had begun setting their base up. The atmosphere had become nearly opaque gray with all the dust that had been launched up from the ensuing battles that ravaged bedrock, destroying mountains, and even ravaging a portion of the surface of the planet.

The sound of impacts and explosions emerged from around as tremors passed through the ground around them. And yet, neither -o—o-o nor Ria took their eyes off each other. For a moment, nothing happened.

Then, in just the blink of an eye, -o—o-o arrived before her in the blink of an eye. WHOOSH

The creature was a foot taller than her, gazing down at her with its many eyes as its hand thrust towards Ria, threatening to blow a hole in her body with the sheer force of the strike. Her amber eyes widened.

The motion had caught her off-guard. Her body contorted under the sheer force of her opponent’s fist.

And yet, it was -o—o-o who experienced the impact.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

Its body shook, rocked off its feet, as Ria’s fist blasted its abdomen, burying deep into its turquoise fur. The sheer force of the attack unleashed a powerful shockwave that shattered the land around them with crushing force, ravaging the land and breaking up the bedrock of the ground around them.

RUMBLE!!!!!

The other four members of her party did a double-take as their reactions only just barely caught up with what had just happened. In their eyes, -o—o-o had completely disappeared, only for his body to be ravaged by Ria’s retaliation despite the creature attacking first.

RUMBLE!!!

The world around them cracked as a web of deep fissures spread across the ground for many kilometers to come under the sheer force of the impact. “What…” Sternon muttered with a stunned expression. “What just happened?”

“Impossible!” The recovering Martial Sage muttered with an expression of disbelief. “How can a Martial Master be this strong?!”

Not a single one of them understood how Ria had managed to defend against such a powerful attack. Nor how she had managed to blast the homoarachnoid with such a powerful impact, either.

-o—o-o’s eyes sharpened as they focused on her, as the pincers at his mouth began clicking.

“I. Knew. You. Are. Special.”

CLICK CLICK CLICK

“That. Power. I. Will. Capture. You. And. Take. That. Power.”

The mechanically active fascial-web in his body contracted alongside his muscles, causing his hands to shoot at Ria in less than a microsecond.

And yet, it was within her prediction.

WHOOSH

She had moved out of the way just the briefest of moments before the creature’s motion had begun. Her amber eyes narrowed as the creature’s stinger pointed towards her, unleashing a blast of web fluid towards her, hoping to drown and bind her with it.

The sheer speed at which the fluid moved through the air matched that of lightning, leaving just the briefest of moments for her to react.

And yet, it did not elude her understanding of the flow of causality.

She didn’t try to evade the attack, nor did she try to deflect it.

Instead, she intercepted it head-on with her palms, as if trying to guide with a gentle paddling gesture. The web fluid, an extraordinary adhesive that remained intact even when used to pull down massive ships from outer space, should have been utterly impossible to contact and escape.

And yet, in her hands, it may as well have been dough. Her amber eyes glinted with certainty as she pressed against it with just the gentlest of touches.

A touch too gentle for the web fluid to stick to.

And yet, firm enough to exert force on the fluid.

There was a microscopically precise nano-range of distance and force one could apply, where one would be able to contact the fluid without getting stuck to it.

She had nailed it, threatening the pinhole of the thinnest needle one could imagine.

SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT! She smoothly redirected the web fluid with extraordinarily well-timed motions after motions, dispersing streams of web fluid one motion at a time, causing them to spew around her. -o—o-o widened its eyes with shock at the sheer effectiveness of every motion he made, even as he continued blasting her with streams of web fluid, expecting her to dodge them and put some distance between them.

Instead, she cleanly redirected them with elegance, maintaining a close-range distance with the creature even as it tried nailing her with a blast of web fluid. Not only did she disperse the web fluid, she even redirected back to him, drowning him in his own web fluid.

SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT!

She smirked at her opponent as it grew drowned in its own white web fluid, expecting the battle to end then and there after she had incapacitated him in his own incapacitating adhesion.

And yet, she had underestimated what the creature was capable of.

CLICK CLICK CLICK

“You’re only helping me.”

Her eyes widened as the web fluid began to move across its body, forming a powerful armor and second skin that covered its entire body. Lines of web began weaving together to form a fabric that could expand and contract in any manner, allowing it to supplement the movements of the homoarachnoid. The creature’s turquoise fur was wrapped in a white second skin that tightly bound to its developed muscles. Immediately, Ria felt a massive surge in danger as she leaped away.

CLICK CLICK CLICK

“Web. Armor. Mode.”

The webbing contracted and expanded as the creature moved and leaped towards her, enhancing the speed and power of its movements.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

It blasted her body faster than she could absorb the energy of the impact.