The Martial Unity

"Oh?" Rui's eyes lit up in interest as the outcome of the experiment was better than he had expected. "This… might work!"

Using all three techniques simultaneously yielded a result that hadn't occurred when he used them individually.

When observing the Thundering Valley, he felt some strange vague strange sensation that preceded a lightning strike. He wasn't sure what it was, but it did not exist when he used all three techniques individually.

('Each technique was insufficient individually,') Rui mused. ('But together, they could help close the gap that they themselves are unable to.')

Tempestuous Feel could help him identify the flux of particles in the atmosphere, but it wasn't able singlehandedly able to identify the streamer.

Seismic Mapping could help him identify the seismic radiation throughout the Thundering Valley, but he couldn't identify the seismic radiation caused by the stream of positively charged particles flowing up to the clouds.

Riemannian Echo could help him identify mass and energy, but he wasn't able to distinguish the energy and mass of the positively charged stream of particles as opposed to all the energy in the atmosphere.

Each sense was unable to lead him to where he wanted to go, they could only get him part of the way there.

('But together…') Rui's eyes narrowed. ('Together, they can allow me to see more than I would have been able to by myself.')

With Riemannian Echo, he would be detecting high-energy phenomena, with Seismic Mapping he would be able to distinguish those phenomena that produced seismic radiation, with Tempestuous Feel he would be able to distinguish drifts of particles in the air.

Any phenomena that registered in all three senses in these manners was either a lightning bolt or the positively charged stream of particles from the air.

('And I can use my eyes to distinguish between those two,') Rui realized as he applied all three of his senses to try and see if he could distinguish the positively charged upward stream.

Unfortunately for him, he realized it was difficult distinguishing it from the ocean of information that bombarded his senses. He was able to distinguish hazes and sensations, but it wasn't concrete enough.

('Still, this is worth pursuing!') He realized, smiling. His proficiency could be improved with practice, so he wasn't too concerned. ('Eventually, I'll be able to handle being able to sense the destination of lightning all by myself.')

In the grand scheme of things, this wasn't groundbreaking, but it meant that he had an out against lightning. He wasn't sure how many Martial Artists were out there that used lightning-based techniques, but he would be able to detect the trajectory of any lightning if he ever ran into it in the future.

As small as it was, it was a step down his Martial Path of being able to adapt and evolve to anything.

"You look like you figured something out," Kane remarked.

"I have," Rui nodded. "I think I found a way to be able to handle the lightning better than before."

"Oh?" Kane raised an eyebrow. "Well, so did I."

"What have you come up with?" Rui asked, intrigued.

"Secret," Kane shook his head with a smirk. "Let's have a contest, whoever's solution is able to deal with the lightning the best wins."

Rui snorted, amused. "Interesting, I'll take you up on that."

He didn't mind a little fun and healthy competition. It was all fun and games, and a little rivalry would stimulate their growth by pushing them.

Besides, Rui was curious whether Kane would be able to outdo him in this regard. In general, he would be inclined to say that Kane wouldn't be able to. He had surpassed Kane for quite a few years now.

However, this wasn't just any challenge, this was an area that was closely related to Kane's forte, his Martial Path. Rui did not for one second believe that it would be easy to outdo a Martial Artist in their specialty, especially one as talented as Kane.

Although he often came off as ordinary compared to some of the things that Rui was capable of in some circumstances, the truth of the matter was that Kane's rate of growth put an overwhelming majority of Martial Squires to shame. The amount of progress he made considering his youth in the Squire Realm was quite astounding. So much so that he didn't fall too much behind Rui in his growth rate considering how much time Rui had spent in the Squire Realm.

The rest of his friends most likely would not ever be able to catch up to the two of them, asides from perhaps Nel.

"I'm going to need some training though," Rui added. "What I have in mind is not something that I can apply in combat straightforwardly."

"Same here," Kane replied. "I'm gonna need tons of training actually. So you might actually beat me to it."

The two of them returned back to the inn as they bantered back and forth. They both had a lot of things to think about and consider about their first experience in the Thundering Valley.

Just the fact that they saw fantastic and exotic sights and even creatures alone gave them a lot of food for thought.

Rui noticed that Kane was particularly in a thoughtful mood as he spent the rest of their day absorbed in a stupor.

('He must have come up with a truly interesting idea,') Rui mused. He was glad that Kane was getting into the groove of developing his Martial Art. All of the previous places that they had visited weren't exactly conducive to the growth of his Martial Art. He just didn't have many opportunities where his Martial Path was directly challenged in regard to its strongest suit.

Rui wondered if that was a factor that influences the rate of growth of a Martial Artist, being exposed to challenges that challenged their Martial Path sounded like an excellent way to confront the shortcomings and flaws in the most important field to any Martial Artist, after all.