The Martial Unity

Perhaps this would have been worth pursuing in their peaks, but they had already pushed themselves beyond their limits.

"Retreat!" General Dereftar coughed blood as he gritted his teeth. "The operation is a failure!"

Rui watched as they rushed away from him, hoping to get as far away from the demon as possible!

They could only grit their teeth and cut their losses. Internally, each of them was cursing. It was humiliating to run away when they were in such a dominating position.

They were Martial Seniors. They were national treasures of a warrior each.

Yet, they failed.

Miserably.

That alone was humiliating, and yet it wasn't even the full extent of their embarrassment.

Not only had they failed, but they had failed despite having a four-on-one advantage!

An inexplicable Martial Senior came out of literally nowhere!

It was mind-boggling.

The intelligence of the Kaddar Treaty Organization was as clear as the brightest daylight. There were only three Martial Seniors in the Floating Sect.

There had been only three Martial Seniors of the Floating Sect.

And there would almost certainly be only three Martial Seniors of the Floating Sect.

And yet, there was a fourth.

His aura was that of a Martial Senior.

His Martial prowess was easily on par with Martial Seniors in their base forms. He was paired up with an assistant Martial Squire who was incredibly powerful for his Realm. And he was frankly overwhelming all three of them almost alone.

"Why didn't he use his Martial Heart?" General Dereftar wondered as he thought back to when Rui appeared.

He had appeared wounded and bruised.

('He must have already burned his Martial Heart out prior given his appearance…') The man's eyes narrowed. ('Maybe one of their guardians broke through and exhausted their Martial Heart and was not able to use it this battle. It would also explain why he didn't show up earlier. He could not contribute if his Martial Heart was exhausted.')

That made a lot of sense to him in many ways.

Yet he wasn't happy.

Not at all.

It meant that not only had they failed despite their sheer advantage.

But also, they lost a Martial Senior!

General Dereftar's heart burned as he thought of the death of Senior Ferin, the poison user. They were from the same nation, and they had just suffered a tremendously heavy blow due to his death.

But that wasn't everything.

The fact that the Floating Sect gained a new Martial Senior, but also an incredibly capable one meant that the difficulty of taking down the Floating Sect was significantly higher!

They would need to bring several more Martial Seniors to have the probability of success that they did have in this fight.

General Dereftar didn't know how he was going to look into the eyes of the emperor and tell him the extent of the humiliating defeat that they had suffered.

"Hehe... They ran with their tails tucked between their legs!" Kane smirked.

They had managed to kill one Martial Senior. That alone was momentous.

"Great job Rui. You really did a number on them." He turned towards Rui with a wide grin.

He froze.

His eyes widened in horror at what he saw.

DRIP DRIP DRIP!

Blood.

Everywhere.

Rui inexplicably began bleeding from his eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, and from hundreds of different places across his entire body.

He bled so much that even the gravely injured Senior Xanarn seemed healthy compared to him!

"Damn…!" Rui vomited blood as he fell to his knees.

"RUI!" Kane yelled in shock and sorrow as he rushed to him.

"Just thirty-four seconds… Pathetic…" He murmured before losing consciousness.

Kane desperately tried feeding him a healing potion.

Yet, it didn't work very well, much to his shock.

He was able to stop the bleeding, but the wounds did not heal.

Unbeknownst to him, Rui had used two Metabody techniques at once. Something that he had never done before.

He used Void Forestep at the start of the fight.

Then he used Weaving Blood immediately after.

That was the reason, that for at least half a minute, Rui was able to push back three Martial Seniors, albeit exhausted and stressed as they were.

Unfortunately, power did not come free of cost.

Using one's Martial Body was extremely stressful on the body. It literally altered the spec configuration by force. The Godspeed technique was irrefutably unhealthy because it got rid of healthy and essential body mass for a boost in power, the negative consequences of which would be felt after the technique wore off.

The same was true for Weaving Blood.

It literally triggered mass cell death across the body.

Now, what would happen if both techniques were used together?

Rui had plotted many graphs and models based on empirical data he collected on them as well as his own theoretical extrapolations, having arrived at many answers.

Now he knew.

If he used Void Forestep and Weaving Blood together, he would be invincible for thirty-four seconds.

And he would die immediately after.

If not for Kane's Fulminata allowing him to react swiftly and administer potions on the spot, Rui would have undoubtedly bled to death.

Hell, his condition was so bad that he would die before he even bled to death.

The damage done to his body was so deep, so fundamental, that not even a high-quality healing potion could heal his wounds.

The loss in body mass, the mass cell death that the Reaper's poison has caused, was too great. The potion struggled to prevent his body from plummeting towards death.

However, Rui had a small smile on his face even as he lost consciousness. He had succeeded in protecting Senior Xanarn.

Furthermore, he had gone and done far more than just that. Even as he lost consciousness, he knew the ramifications of his most recent accomplishments would not be mild, he knew that some of the things that he had accomplished were nothing short of historic.

Yet it was not something that moved him, it wasn't the first time.

Or the second.

Or even the third.

By the time the dust settled, Kane couldn't help but wonder how far his destiny stretched.