The Martial Unity

RUMBLE!

A small mountain erupted from within the depths of the land, displaced by the sheer power that Rui exerted.

The Roaring Dragon Blood Potion benefitted his long-range techniques the most, increasing their upper limit significantly.

"Aarggrhrhrgrvhghrgr!" The Suffocator's unintelligible screams echoed through the air.

CRACK CRACK CRACK!

The gear that surrounded his torso, that attached to his mask broke down.

Rui's eyes narrowed as he recognized what the contraption was. "Just as I thought. You avoided your own domains by having breathing cylinders feed your air through your mask."

In other words, he was using a special artifact contraption to mitigate the shortcomings of his own techniques.

Rui's mouth curled with contempt. "You're a disgrace of a Martial Artist. You will never become a Martial Master."

"Kugh!" The man coughed a bout of blood. "Hehehe...you maybe right. But I won't be the one dying here today.

Before Rui could finish him off, he felt a surge of peril behind him.

FLICK!

SPLAT

It was a simple nick, yet Rui's eyes widened with alarm when he saw the color of the woman's skin and nails that drew his blood.

'Poison,' He cursed as he leaped away.

His eyes narrowed with severity as he made a painful decision.

SPLAT!

A piece of the chunk that had been inflicted with the toxin was cleaved off his shoulder with some precise heaven-bending as he immediately activated Weaving Blood, regenerating the missing chunk of his shoulder.

He glanced at the severed piece of his flesh with a grave expression.

SIZZLE

It had already begun rotting at an alarming rate.

"Your regeneration is far better than the intelligence reports indicated," The woman's course voice reached out to him. "Yet it will not save you next time."

WHOOSH!

She lunged forward towards him as her nails were poised for action, ready to inject their venom and turn him into a rotting corpse.

Her deadliness and lethality exceeded even that of Senior Zenshin.

His eyes narrowed as time slowed down to a crawl.

He had several courses of action.

Firstly, he could activate Gale Force Breathing, put distance between and bombard her with distant attacks.

Secondly, he could employ Neo Godspeed as be ran circles around her trying to knock her out.

'My goal is to take her down with as little energy as I can get away with,' His eyes narrowed. 'In which case...'

The third option was the best.

His flesh grew thicker and denser, growing darker in shade.

He rushed forward, activating Nemean Blossom.

CRACK!

The poison assassin's eyes widened as her nails cracked against his flesh, breaking into pieces.

Yet, he wasn't done.

BAM BAM BAM!!

They were simple straightforward blows that ceashed against her guard.

Yet...

"AAAAAARRGHRGRH!!!!" She screetched as each blow caused excruciating, mind-meltingg pain the likes of which she had never experienced since the Squire evolution breakthrough procedure.

Her flesh like it was melting off.

Her muscles felt like they were being blow-torched.

Her bones felt like they were being systematically pulverized.

'Phantom Pain,' Rui fixated his eyes on hers as he cast the third technique of the Hypnomatrix.

POW POW POW POW POW!

He bombarded her with short and swift strikes.

Yet each one of them was nothing short of horrific torture.

CLASP

She grabbed Rui's shoulders with tears of pain in her eye, before leaning forward and exhaling in his face.

HISSSSSS

A green gas exited her mouth spraying all over her face.

Yet the gesture created blindspot below her.

One that Rui did not forgive.

BAM!!!

A powerful flying knee kick crashed into her jaw. The sheer pain that it caused triggered the brain's emergency shutdown, causing her to collapse then and there.

Yet her effort had not been in vain.

"Cough...cough...." Rui fell down to one knee as he felt a distinct bout of weakness. "A muscle relaxant? Damn..."

Yet, he didn't have any time to relax whatsoever.

Primordial Instinct warned him off an incoming attack.

WHOOSH!

BOOM!

Even though he evaded direct impact, the sheer force from the explosion caused enormous explosions that erupted across the entire battlefield.

He didn't know what became of the many injured assassins across the entire battlefield.

He didn't care.

He immediately faced the direction that the projectiles came from with a wary expression.

He had been fighting for a while now, and he was starting to feel the impact on his stamina.

His breathing grew labored. His movements had become weaker and sluggish.

On top of that, the wounds that he had sustained across the entire battle were not low. He had taken considerable damage from each of them, barring the Hammerer.

On top of that, the damn poison lady had slipped him a poison that made him feel even weaker.

He was far from his peak.

On top of that, each assassin that came started off in their prime.

It meant that he was forced to hold back and defeat them with just a portion of his full power.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

Rui evaded wind attack after wind attack, ensuring that he never once took a direct hit.

He directed his senses deep in the direction of the attacks, eventually coming across his target within the jungle.

The man had planned himself many kilometers away, acting like the typical sniper as he shot attacks at Rui from a great distance away.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

He evaded five wind attacks, not thinking much of them as they passed him.

That was a mistake.

BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM!!

They converged onto him immediately after, clashing into him.

"Rgh!" He gritted his teeth as he did his best to disperse them with heaven-bending, the remaining impact was negated with Adamant Reforging and Flux Earther.

His eyes sharpened gravely. He recognized this field of techniques, it was the same niche specialty that Master Ceeran specialized in.

It meant that dodging was no longer an option!

He needed to take down the assassin before he bled to death.