The Martial Unity

Chapter 3131: Fear

BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM!!!!!

Rui gritted his teeth as the number of blows he launched reduced with each passing moment, while the number of attacks Anthea simply increased.

Rui’s hand balled into a fist, surging forth with great speed and power towards Anthea’s sternum, only to be swiftly deflected by Anthea’s elbow.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!

Anthea’s other fist struck Rui’s guard like a meteorite impact, ravaging his guard, leaving a bloody bruise on his forearms despite Rui deploying both the Body of Water and Anti-Spiral. Rui’s body churned and turned, fueled by the tremendous attack as his other fist surged forth towards Anthea’s skull.

WHOOSH

Anthea sharply evaded it by a hair’s length even as his foot flashed forward to Rui’s jaw, threatening to blast his head off.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!

Rui barely managed to intercept the attack with a grim expression as he felt the bones in his arm cracking from the sheer impact. By the time he had defended it, his opponent’s fist had already flown to his chest, warping the very fabric of space and time with its sheer momentum.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!

Rui’s body quaked upon the impact, crumbling his offense as he diverted all his power to defend against the already incoming attacks from Anthea.

BOOOM BOOOM BOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM!!!!!

Each fist ravaged Rui’s body even as he deactivated Hypertrophic Surge and Neo Godspeed, and activated Nemean Blossom, focusing entirely on the defensive as Anthea surged forth with an even more ruthless offensive onslaught, eager to kill Rui as fast as possible.

Each attack was more powerful than the prior as his body continued to evolve to greater and greater heights.

It was as though the evolutionary was limitlessly powerful.

As though he could be as strong as he needed to be.

Out of all the six species across all the six continents, the evolutionaries appeared to be among the most dominant and terrifying species. They possessed a scary amount of potential, second only to the giants who possessed unfathomable potential if they ever discovered their Martial Minds and Souls. And yet, unlike the giants, the evolutionaries were far more rational and in control, allowing them to better tap into that potential.

It was a seemingly broken species with far too many strengths and gifts.

An entire species with Rui’s Martial Path.

Even as Anthea devastated Rui with a destructive onslaught, the air grew ever more perilous.

The atmosphere boiled with prickling tension.

The mood darkened inexorably despite the bright light of the afternoon Sun bathing the entirety of West Panama.

The Martial Sages gritted their teeth as they clenched their fists, struggling to wonder whether they ought to intervene, even if they were in no condition to, even if it would trigger yet another battle with the other evolutionaries.

”Have faith.”

Amare’s voice was clear.

There wasn’t even the slightest hint of hesitation.

A warm smile emerged on her face.

”He will not lose.”

Even as she uttered those words, Rui coughed blood as a destructively powerful and blindingly swift attack blasted his guard.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!

The sheer power of the attack broke his arm bones, rendering them into a reddish pulp of flesh as even Weaving Blood struggled to keep up with all the damage that Anthea inflicted on him despite Nemean Blossom.

Rui’s body staggered unsteadily as his breathing grew strained and labored.

He was bloody from head to toe.

And yet, the spark of life, drive, and power in the pitch-black darkness of his eyes remained stronger than ever.

He would never give up.

Not even in death.

”Then die.”

Anthea’s tone was murderous.

His eyes flared with malice as he unleashed the most powerful attack, surging straight towards Rui’s head, threatening to utterly annihilate him.

And yet, it didn’t.

WHOOSH

Anthea’s eyes widened as his attack crashed into an empty image.

A feint.

The final feint he could muster.

Having learned that the evolutionary didn’t have a great resistance against misdirection and hypnosis was the sole reason that Rui had preserved his Greater Phantomind Void for that very moment.

All so that he could use his final trump card against his opponent when he was most vulnerable to it.

CLASP

Before Anthea could even react, Rui’s arms had already coiled around his neck with Hypertrophic Surge increasing the intensity of his grip around Anthea’s neck while his powerful legs wrapped around Anthea’s body, restraining him as hard as he could while crushing his windpipe and bloodstream.

RUMBLE!!!!!

Anthea’s expression grew ugly as he immediately tugged at Rui’s arms as hard as he could. Each motion they made generated explosions and shockwaves of great proportions as the very world shook under the weight of their wrestled resistance.

They wrangled across heaven and earth as Rui crushed the man’s body with all he had.

”Fool.”

Anthea sneered with his ethereal voice.

”I can breathe through my skin and shift my blood vessels.”

His strength began overwhelming Rui’s, untangling him bit by bit from his entire body.

”Your final gambit was a pathetic failure—”

Anthea froze.

He froze where he was.

His eyes widened as chills crawled across his skin.

Shivers ran down his spine.

In that moment, he sensed it.

He sensed death itself.

He sensed the very manifestation of death emerging from within the depths of Rui.

It surged towards Anthea, entering his body as it greedily began consuming his entire life.

”AAARARGGGHHGRARHHHH!!!” Anthea roared with pain as Rui deployed one of his greatest trump cards.

He deployed the poison of death itself.

He deployed Gu.

The legacy of the Demon of Asmodeous coursed through Anthea’s veins and his flesh as his ethereal and ephemeral body began growing a pitch-black.

RUMBLE!!!!

The world shook.

It shook as Anthea thrashed and resisted with all his might.

And yet, Rui’s eyes blazed with ferocious determination and willpower.

He had kept this trump card hidden deep within him the entire fight, unwilling to deploy it too early. His greatest fear was that Anthea would be able to adaptively evolve to the poison the same way that Rui had after breaking through to the Sage Realm, thus he didn’t carelessly throw the poison at Anthea early on the battle when his stamina was at its very highest and the chances of failure were the highest.

He waited.

And waited.

And waited until the right moment had come.

”Rghhhh!!!” Anthea snarled with pain as his invisible body began growing more visible.

A once ephemeral and ethereal body began regaining its color.

As though Rui has forcefully dragged him from a higher plane to that of mortality.

Anthea’s face became clear to everyone who beheld the battle.

A single emotion could be seen in his eyes.

Fear.

In that moment, Anthea experienced fear for the first time in a long time.