The Martial Unity

Rui winced.

He knew what he had to do.

Yet, the thought of doing it in his current state was painful, to say the least.

Yet he did it nonetheless.

'Temporal Disharmony,' His expression grew strained as he employed the Hypnomatrix yet again. Yet that wasn't all.

"Speed Void."

With both anti-speed hypnotic and domain techniques, the man's very existence had been downgraded to a lower plan of speed. He appeared to be a sloth and a tortoise rolled up in one.

BOOOOOM!!!

Rui blasted his body with the most powerful Hypertrophic Surge-enhanced Flowing Canon he could possibly muster. Just a moment before the impact, he breathed in tremendously, dispelling the domain in the process but giving him a huge surge of power at the moment of impact.

It was the principle of Fire Breathing.

Rui had come to decode this powerful breathing technique naturally over the many years he had been practicing breathing techniques.

The resulting impact was the single most powerful punch that Rui had thrown in his entire life.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!!

The assassin was propelled across the forest, creating enormous gaping hill-sized craters. Because his perception of time and speed were hampered, he was unable to defend in time. Rui knew that his passive defense and durability were minimal at best.

Now, his condition was at least as bad, if not worse, than Rui's.

'I'd be dead without the Hypnomatrix, Metabody, and Yggdrasil System,' Rui mused as he prepared himself.

The three systems intersected in the VOID algorithm while also being their own groups of techniques, and they had saved Rui many times in this battle. While the VOID algorithm was still the most flexible and powerful, it also required the most amount of time and preparation.

These three techniques could be executed instantly and oppressed his opponents very hard, allowing him to take them down incredibly swiftly by relying on openings created by the hypnotic techniques and domains while he exploited them to the fullest with the Metabody System.

On top of that, most Martial Artists had a healing factor that was only a fraction as good as his, they could not recover from extremely damage the way Rui could.

'Three more to go,' He fell to one knee as he panted heavily trying to conserve his stamina.

The umpteenth sense of peril arrived out of nowhere.

Yet his exhaustion made him too sluggish.

SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT!

"Rgh!" Rui grimaced as painful gashes appeared across his entire body despite a last-second Nemean Blossom.

He glanced up at his new opponent.

A tall, hooded woman stood before him.

Her arms were raised before her.

Her hands were open, and her fingers were spread, wriggling in a specific manner.

She resembled a sorcerer more than she did a Martial Artist. He hadn't even understood what she had done to inflict cuts on his body. He couldn't even see how she did it.

But he did hear it.

SZZZZZZZZZ

A distinctly familiar sound rang around the forest they were in.

His eyes widened. "Wires?"

"You're more resilient than any of my previous victims to have survived them."

He immediately reduced the range of his senses, focusing on detail as he noticed thin strings all around him in the entire forest.

Yet, not all of them were small.

Her hands and fingers burst into action abruptly, alarming him.

SZZZZZZZZ!

He barely managed to pick up several strings converging on him from all directions!

THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM!!

He fired off several attacks, trying to curb as many as he could.

SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT!

He gritted his teeth as his eyes bore into hers.

'Breathing Crucifix.'

Since the strings could converge on him omnidirectionally, he could not avoid them. If he was going to avoid them, then he needed to ensure that the damage the attacks did were minimal.

"It's useless."

Her voice rang in his ears as several more layers of strings lashed out at him.

SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT!

"Rgh!" Rui grimaced with shock as he realized that the string attacks had not lost an iota of power.

In fact, they had grown stronger!

If not for some defensive-heaven bending, Flux Earther, and Nemean Blossom, he would have long been cleaved into thin strips!

'Somehow, her wire attacks are immune to any impediment to her brea-'

His eyes widened as realization dawned upon him. "Your Martial Art…it's already fought the battle."

It sounded like an extremely bizarre thing to say. Yet his assassin's eyes twinkled with appreciation even as her hands and fingers worked even faster than before, releasing new sets of attacks.

"Very good. Rui Quarrier. The reputation of your intelligence precedes you. In all the decades that I have spent shaving people into ribbons, you are the only one who has seen through the truth. However…"

Her tone grew cold. "Knowing will not help you. You will die, ignorant or knowing."

Pure peril radiated from her.

Bloodlust flashed in her eyes.

It wrung the atmosphere taut.

Rui's eyes narrowed gravely. He had understood why Breathing Crucifix was ineffective against her. She was not employing any power at all. The only reason she was using her Martial Heart was to keep up with him in speed.

'She's not employing raw power now, but she did before the battle began,' He gritted his teeth.

Her Martial Art was not just about wielding strings. It was also about preparing string set-ups. The strings that converged upon him were those that had already been stretched taut and set in place long before the battle began!

This preparation phase was when she employed her Martial Heart. During preparation, she stored the energy of her Martial Heart in the strings. Using her Martial Heart, she stretched the strings as far as she could, converting her physical power into potential energy in the strings.

Once the battle began, she would simply release the super-

stretched strings, causing them to snap back with the potential energy she gave them, attacking her opponent with tremendous power!

Her Martial Art was not active.

It was a Martial Art centered around preparation.

'Her Martial Path is something like preparatory wire system manipulation.' Rui's expression grew grave.

The peril in the air was palpable.

As were the wires that converged upon him once more.

SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT!