The Martial Unity

If that was the case, then it meant that they had absolutely no idea what the net battle power of this civilization was. They could be ten times stronger than any of them could ever imagine. Suddenly, Arastia felt a deep pit forming in the depths of her stomach. The kind of pit that only formed when one realized just how bad a mistake one had made.

The decision to deploy their pathwalkers on the surface of the planet had been based on the information that they had gathered about the homoarachnoids on the surface of the planet. They had not had the information that they had now when they made the decision that they had made. With the information that they had now, she realized that they were dealing with a civilization that was much, much more dangerous than any other she had ever fought.

”We need to get the hell off this planet before-!”

She froze as a wave of seismic radiation swept across the tent she was in. Her table, a makeshift foldable metal table, rattled as the fabric of the tent she had deigned to work in also began to shake. The air grew electric with tension as the winds began to dance, while the books and documents on her table began to quiver.

Each and every single pathwalker grew deathly grim immediately. They could each feel it. They could each feel the very familiar sense of danger that was coming their way. They could feel the frenzy in the air that tickled at their nerves, causing their heartrates to rise.

Schoel’s eyes sharpened.

”They’re coming.”

RUMBLE!

The world began shaking more aggressively as their commpads began buzzing with emergency reports from the scouts at the perimeter of the developing base.

[Incoming army of homoarchnoids emerging in the distance against the base! Size is massive, estimated to be in the tens of thousands! They emerged from underground faster than we could realize! There’s something off about this planet!]

Arastia shot up to her feet as her expression immediately shifted. Her eyes grew ferociously sharp. She had many questions as to what was happening, but she knew that now was not the time to ask questions. Now was the time to get work done and get into action.

”Command the pathwalkers to immediately deploy!” She ordered as she rushed outside along with her other pathwalker subordinates. ”Have them adopt their positions immediately! Prepare for the incoming assault!”

The entire base was whipped into a frenzy as alarms began to go off, and each and every single pathwalker was smacked in the face with yet another attack less than half a day after the second attack on their base upon establishing a presence on Planet Amadeus III. And yet, not a single pathwalker dared to reject the emergency deployment orders, no matter how much all of them wanted to get some rest. Arastia, on the other hand, left her subordinates in charge of managing the pathwalkers. A part of her wanted to immediately rush to Ria’s side and ensure that she was safe at all times, but she knew that she wouldn’t be able to strictly fight solely for the sake of Ria either. She suspected that if the homoarachnoids had chosen to attack at this moment, then they had likely accounted for her existence as a factor in the battle.

After all, one of the homoarachnoids, the one that had attacked Ria, had managed to escape with his life alive. She knew that he carried with him intelligence that a being as powerful as Arastia was present in the base, guarding the territory. That as long as she was there, the same measures would not work.

Yet, they had chosen to attack immediately, within a day of gathering that information. That suggested two things, as far as she was concerned.

A deep naivety or arrogance that they could somehow catch her off-guard in the hopes that she was somehow spent.

Or… they had prepared a countermeasure.

One that they were certain could take her on.

WHOOSH!

She shot through the camp at blindingly high speeds as her senses focused deep into the distance where the homoarachnoid army emerged from. She spotted a faint layer of turquoise that sharply cut against the gray-scale world around them.

THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD

She spotted the regular blessed warriors that formed the bulk of the legion, drawing towards the camp in distinct groups. She could faintly sense racial and even ethnic differences between each group in their physical differences and differences in their attire.

She spotted the stronger and bulkier members of their race at the front lines of the conflict, prepared to take on the strongest of the pathwalkers, whether they were Martial Sages or Blood Sages.

And then she spotted what she had been looking for.

Her opponent.

The solution that their enemies had prevented to take her on in combat.

The female homoarachnoid at the forefront of the marching army was different from the rest of them.

Her fur was black.

Her body brimmed with more power than any of them, perhaps even all of them combined.

Her webs seemed to tug at the very fabric of space and time themselves, suggesting exotic properties that were more powerful than any of her peers.

Her six eyes fixated on Arastia and no one else.

They both knew that they were to fight each other. Arastia’s blood red eyes sharpened as they began shining with the brightness of the red dwarf stars in the gray skies of Planet Amadeus III. She raised an arm forward, slitting a small cut on the tip of her index finger that pointed straight at her presumed opponent.

A single drop of blood emerged from the wound, falling to the ground.

And then the blood cells expanded with the aggression of a nuclear cancer. It voraciously consumed the elements and compounds it needed from the otherwise barren atmosphere and ground of the planet, dividing and proliferating at a truly incredible rate.

Within minutes, she found herself in a puddle.

Then, a lake.

Then, a sea.

A single remark escaped Arastia as she unleashed an attack that covered half the planet in one fell swoop.

”Blood Mist Armageddon.”

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!