The Martial Unity

The sheer range and magnitude of the pain-induction ability that the forest had been drowned in was enormous. It was an ability that didn't even seem to belong within the Senior Realm.

'This isn't real!' Rui gritted his teeth as he calmed down. 'I can feel my own body, and there is nothing that could cause this much pain, the damn dragon is casting an illusion of pain by messing with my nervous system!'

It was the dragon's turn to gloat.

And, gloat it did.

"ROOOOOOAAAR!!!" The dragon released an enormous bellow that echoed across the forest. It arrogantly took a moment to pause its hunt as it inspected its work across the entire forest, deeply satisfied by all the creatures that had fallen prey to its ability, before turning to Rui, looking down on him.

It had initially hunted Rui for food, but now it no longer cared about that. Now its main motivation was killing the creature that dared to dishonor its pride.

"ROOOOAAR!" It flapped its mighty wings, rushing down at Rui with its jaws wide open. it would instantly eat him whole in a second, it even planned to undo the illusion so that it could experience Rui's despair and suffering as it chomped down on him.

And yet;

WHOOSH!

Rui sidestepped the charge at the last moment before.

BAM!

A powerful blow crashed into the creature's neck, containing more force than the creature had expected from someone as small as Rui. The impact permeated deep, passing through the outer scales, and striking its more vulnerable tissue and flesh.

"RROOOOAAR!" The creature grimaced in rage and pain.

"Hehe..." Rui took a neutral stance before removing his Mind Mask, and unleashing his Senior-level aura, instantly catching the creature off-guard. "Man, I'm glad I created this technique."

He would be dead had he not created Riemannian Echo. While the technique had not been immune to the dragon's sensory blackout, it was not entirely sealed. The reason for that was that the Riemannian Echo was not connected to Rui's nervous system.

'From the pain illusion and the fact that the dragon could entirely seal Riemannian Echo, I can logically infer that its illusions are more based on the nervous system or the part of the subconscious parts of the brain that process the input from the sensory organs.' Rui concluded. 'The fact that I can feel my own body proves that it isn't absolute. It cannot get entirely rid of my sense of self.'

Riemmanian Echo was not based on any sensory organ. It was based on Rui's ability to internally sense his own body, which had not been suppressed since Rui was able to sense himself even though all his other senses were voided.

'Furthermore, as long as I have the ability to indirectly sense through the partially functioning Riemannian Echo, Primordial Instinct will be able to function as well.' Rui grinned.

Primordial Instinct was not a sensory technique. It was merely a technique that emerged from putting the subconscious danger sense of the mind through extreme training, improving its effectiveness and capabilities to an extreme extent. As long as Riemannian Echo was partially effective, he could rely on Primordial Instinct to help him avoid danger.

That was why he was able to avoid the Illusionary Dragon's charges towards him. Yet, that was all he was able to do.

"ROOOOAAAAR!" The dragon lunged at him. The sheer force and speed of the physical attack were remarkably high.

And yet;

WHOOSH

Rui calmly evaded the attack distancing himself from the source significantly. And yet, by the time he landed, he felt a deep sense of danger acutely to his left.

WHOOSH!

He somersaulted backward, avoiding the dragon's powerful sweep. Yet the creature was not done, not by a long shot. Rage filled its prideful eyes as it raised both its forelimbs, before bringing them down on the ground with tremendous force.

BOOM!

An enormous crater the size of a hill emerged as an entire chunk of the forest was instantly leveled. The ground beneath Rui shook and erupted in a volatile manner, throwing him off the ground and off-guard.

Yet, his face coiled in alarm as he felt a spike of danger coming from the forward direction.

THWOOM!

"RROOOOOAARR!" The dragon bellowed in pain as a powerful sound projectile flew into its wide-open jaws, crashing into its throat before it could reach Rui. Rui panted as he landed away, relieved at narrowly avoiding death.

'This isn't viable in the long run,' Rui gritted his teeth. 'I can sense danger from the vestiges of environmental information that the suppressed Riemannian Echo supplies me, but I can't sense the layout of my environment. If I leap back to avoid an attack and there's a mountain impeding my path, It'll impede my maneuver and I'll die on the spot.'

He knew that as long as he continued simply maintaining this stalemate, such a thing was going to happen. It was not statistically unlikely that his environment would get in the way, causing him to make mistakes that would get him killed.

It was just a matter of time before he would die. In the first place, it was miraculous that he was still alive. Had it been any Martial Senior of the same power level, they would most likely be dead.

Unable to sense the environment.

Unable to sense the opponent.

Under the spell of excruciating pain.

Victory against such a perversely powerful creature should have been nearly impossible.

Only a handful of those at the pinnacle of true power were qualified to pursue victory.

What the dragon didn't know was that Rui was one of them.

'You'll come to learn why.' Rui's closed his eyes as a boundless drive rose from deep within his heart. He couldn't even suppress the smile that cracked at the edge of his mouth. 'If you think robbing me of all perception and drowning me in pain is enough, you're kidding yourself.'

His mind furiously raced into action as he disconnected his consciousness from his pain, employing the principles of the Mind Mask technique to minimize the impact of the pain on his mind as he began furiously analyzing and processing his circumstances to come up with a plan.

It was a race against time.

A battle against a dragon.