The Martial Unity



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Rui glanced down at the fist with which he had struck her.

It was bleeding profusely. Just coming into contact with her rough skin in a strike had caused not just the skin of his fingers and knuckles but all of the flesh to completely be shredded off.

('What a lethal Martial Art and body,') Rui sighed as he walked away.

It was just a single strike, yet she had already caused him significant damage. Unfortunately for her, the impact of a strike was conveyed through the bones of the hand and not the flesh.

Thus, she wasn't able to soften the blow any bit at all. He had struck her diaphragm with incredible force without any defensive technique protecting it. He debilitated her far more than the loss of flesh had debilitated him.

"You made that look easy," Kane marveled at Rui. "Did you make a predictive model ahead of time?"

"Not really," Rui shook his head. "I used the data from her previous match and this match to find a chink in her armor that I managed to exploit to the absolute very best with an incredibly well-timed and placed powerful blow. It's all just applying what I had cleverly."

Rui only managed to take her down so quickly due to his incredible observation skills, not the sheer potency of his techniques.

Although his Flowing Canon was incredibly powerful, had she used even a single defensive technique, she would have been in the game, even if injured. Furthermore, with the injury that she had inflicted on him just by virtue of him touching her, she would certainly make it count. The entire fight had been Rui gaining more information by observing her and using that information to create the perfect opportunity to take her down.

He knew that had he tried taking her down by simply brute forcing her with power, long range or short range, he would have been bleeding tremendously, just like her previous opponent had.

"Here," Kane handed him a healing potion. "That wound looks nasty."

"I'm glad that I only took one of it," Rui sighed as he inhaled the potion. "She would have started eroding away at my bones and muscles had I continued hitting her."

"Guardian Falken," A staff member stopped before him. "You have just ascended to your position, allow me to guide you around and run you through everything that you need to know.

Rui glanced at Kane, who shrugged, before turning back to her. "Sure, lead the way."

Rui and Kane left the colosseum as they headed deeper into Ajanta Island, following the staff member.

Rui raised an eye once they reached a huge spiraling complex. Its overall shape was like that of a flat spiral seashell.

He recalled reading that the reason that it was in a spiral was that the deeper that went into the spiral, the better the training conditions of the training chamber because it was closer to the center of the island. Thus all one thousand chambers had been arranged in a spiraling pattern inward and down into the island.

('That way they can ensure that each chamber is the same size, eh?') Rui immediately realized the significance of the architectural choices.

Apparently, word spread about Rui's match quickly, because the various guardians that they passed all glanced at him strangely.

It was rather strange because he did understand their incredulity. It was probably unheard of for a Martial Squire to be able to beat the nine hundred and first chamber of the tenth rank, and quickly take over.

He had recalled that there were only five guardians spectating at that time, meaning only those five knew the way that the fight went down as far as the guardians went. There were plenty of initiates watching the fight, of course, but something told Rui that none of them were likely inclined to challenge him any time soon.

That was a good development because Rui wasn't interested in subjecting himself to death matches.

As they passed through a spiral corridor that connected all the chambers, Rui found that the chambers were armed with anti-sensory technology. However, that wasn't enough to stop his Riemannian Echo.

Of course, what did stop his Riemannian Echo was the sheer gravitational field of the island that increased the deeper they went. It became harder and harder to sense anything through the walls of the chambers or anything as they went deeper and deeper into the spiral of chambers.

"This is your chamber, guardian Falken," She informed him. "Each chamber is staffed by a personal aid staff that will aid you in operating any parts of the chamber in any way you wish. As well as tending to your every need. Inside, you will also find a book that details all the rules and guidelines that all members of the Floating Sect are expected to follow."

Rui nodded. "Thank you."

"I'm glad you've finally gotten your chamber." Kane grinned. "Come on. Let me show you around."

The two of them stepped in as Rui took in his new personal quarters for the foreseeable future.

"Spacious," Rui murmured. "No wonder they take up most of the island."

The chambers contained training avenues for all forms of training at all ranges, including long-range techniques that required hundreds of meters of space.

He was quite impressed with the level of sophistication that he saw in the chamber's training avenues. It was a robust and diverse avenue for training and provided everything that a Martial Squire would generally need.

Rui could definitely feel its appeal now that he no longer had the Martial Union to lean on. In fact, most Martial Squires from most places would probably find the chambers of the Floating Sect to be quite appealing, there was no doubt about that. This was a level of quality and extravagance that ordinary Martial Squires would not even be able to dream of having for themselves. That was why he was certainly pleased by what he saw.