The Martial Unity

”Fascinating…” Rui murmured as her Martial Art managed to stoke his curiosity and interest.

”Tsk,” she tutted with anger as she launched both swords at him swiftly. WHOOSH WHOOSH!

”Woah,” Rui exclaimed with surprise as the two weapons followed him around magically, threatening to decapitate or cleave him in half with each swing.

And yet, she had just begun.

Rui’s Primordial Instinct rang alarm bells as it warned him of a myriad of projectiles surged towards him.

Shuriken.

”Seriously?” he muttered .

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH

He evaded the countless projectiles one after another.

Except, not really.

The shurikens followed him around just like the swords did, seemingly controlled magically by his opponent who only drew more weapons from her baggy clothes as she surged towards him with a spear in her hands.

”Oh, come on, where the hell did that come from?” Rui exclaimed with a hint of amazement.

From what he could tell, the spear was not foldable or anything like that; it was very solid and inflexible. With all the weapons of varying sizes converging on him from all directions, he decided that it was time to stop holding back. It was one thing to find an interesting Martial Art, it was another entirely to let his fascination become his defeat.

”Temporal Disharmony.”

Her eyes widened with shock as the world around her sped up tremendously, accelerating to astronomical levels. Suddenly, it was as though her body had slowed in time, unable to go too fast in order to remain in track with her mind.

And this applied to the weapons that chased Rui around too; they too had grown slower.

This was evidence that the weapons were being manipulated by her actively as opposed to some sort of passive system that allowed the weapons to automatically converge upon him.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t nearly as shaken as Rui would have liked. By now, most of his major technique systems were well known to his enemies due to how many times he had abused them in the war. ”If you hamper my speed…” She gritted his teeth. ”Then I will compensate with numbers!”

She wasn’t lying.

Rui’s eyes widened with shock as a myriad wave of weapons erupted from within the depths of her robes. Shurikens, kunais, knives, swords, axes and even just countless spikes and shrapnel that were difficult to avoid. Rui was surprised.

The emerging weapons shredded open her clothes, revealing a Martial Body that could store weapons in her body.

She was a walking weapon inventory unit!

That was not all.

She raised her hands, exerting her full power through high principles that enabled her to manually control all the weapons, causing them to converge upon Rui with blinding speed.

”Tsk.” Rui narrowed his eyes as he leaped away as fast as he could.

The tsunami of weapons that surged from her was so widespread that the only way to avoid it was to run away. He couldn’t dodge them in any other direction even if he tried. And yet, he was in a closed combat arena.

He had limited space to retreat.

”Metal Dominion!” she roared with jubilation as she activated one of her most powerful grade-ten techniques. Rui’s eyes widened as metal from around the entirety of the combat arena converged upon him.

Master Mito grinned with bloodlust as she watched the Dawnbringer face what would undoubtedly be his death!

Nobody had ever survived this technique. It was so powerful that even high-grade defensive Martial Masters could not withstand the onslaught of weapons. She was aware that he possessed a fiery and icy domain, which was why she had upgraded her weapons to be made from alloys highly resistant to ice and cold. She also knew that he had a body-morphing technique that altered his physical configuration to be maximally inclined for defense, but she knew that it was a stamina-consuming technique.

She knew she would win a stamina battle due to all the stamina that she had strategically gotten the Dawnbringer to waste. She had accounted for everything, all to ensure that things would end up in a way that would ultimately lead to her victory.

This was her system of thought, the Epilogue of Metal.

He had no escape.

Defeat was his only option.

And yet, just as he reached the edge of the combat arena and the weapons converged upon him, all but ready to shred him to bits, a single whisper escaped him. ”Graveyard of Metal.”

Her eyes widened with shock as all her weapons froze midair.

One moment, they surged towards him with immense speed.

The very next, they were suspended midair as though frozen in ice.

Try as she might, she was unable to control them any more.

For the first time in her entire life, she was entirely unable to control her weapons. As a weaponmaster, there was no greater despair.

Pure horror entered her eyes. ”How…?”

”You control magnetic esoteric alloys by generating and alternating electromagnetic fields,” Rui replied calmly. ”It was but a simple matter for me to adaptively evolve to manipulate the permittivity of heaven and earth as a medium to make it entirely opaque and entirely resistant to electromagnetic flux.”

This was a concept of electromagnetism that one could only know if one studied it academically. Martial Artists were only partially familiar with high principles through experience; they could not understand all the ways in which they could be applied nor could they understand all the ways in which they could be negated.

”Do you understand?” Rui’s voice burned her. ”This domain is your antithesis.”

It ravaged her emotions.

”This is the Graveyard of Metal…” Rui’s voice pierced her heart. ”And this… is the Grave Uprising.”

Rui manipulated heaven and earth to harness her own weapons against her, turning them against her.

Despair and horror unlike anything she had ever felt crushed her heart. She considered each weapon of hers to be like an offspring. A child that she had given birth to herself. To see them turning against her was the most excruciating agony she had suffered. Her horrified gaze shifted to Rui’s eyes.

An endless darkness stirred in their depths.

An infinite void.

It consumed everything she had to offer.

Her weapons.

Her Martial Art.

Her techniques.

And even her path.

RUMBLE

Just as she felt her Martial Path about to be cracked under the weight of her despair and horror, Rui’s fist crashed into her jaw, cleanly knocking her out. BAM!

THUD

Her unconscious body fell to the ground.

”…Phew,” he heaved a sigh. ”No harm, no foul.”

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