The Martial Unity

Of course, if Rui wanted to be able to understand what the clue that the Shield of Gaia had given them meant, he would need to gain a deep understanding of the Dance of Terra and earth-bending in general.

Of course, he wasn’t without a foundation. He had already gained a pretty solid mastery of earth-bending from training under Master Gurren, and his years of experience with domains and then the extensive foundational mastery with Ieyasu for the Forge of Creation also increased his mastery with domains.

And yet, he was significantly inferior to the Martial Masters of the Nest of Terra, who had a level of mastery far above him. “I hope it’s not just a pure muscle memory mastery, though,” he muttered. “I’m confident that there are high principles of earth-bending that I have yet to tap into.”

He looked forward to learning them at the hands of a powerful Martial Artist who would surely be able to tell him everything that he needed to know.

And that was exactly the request he made of Sage Kyria.

“You want me to teach you about the Dance of Terra?” she raised an eyebrow. “Is this a personal request or something relevant to that matter?”

She refused to say it aloud, in fear of giving away what their plan was. “The latter,” Rui replied with a hint of interest. “Although, I can’t deny that I have personal motivation in this matter as well.”

As a lover of Martial Art, he was inclined to master the supreme earth-bending of the Nest of Terra in the long run. It was unlikely that he would fully master it in the time he would spend in the Nest of Terra.

“If it’s relevant to our mutual interests, then I’m more than willing to teach you all about the Dance of Terra,” she replied with a willing tone. “However, mastering it takes many years and sometimes even decades. The Dance of Terra is not just a simply chronological set of movements in the Upper Realms. It is quite formless in combat and requires you to fulfill its steps with your own understanding, experience, and mastery of earth-bending.”

“A formless dance…” Rui murmured as he fell into thought. “That’s fascinating. Doesn’t the fact that it’s a dance increase the difficulty?”

Martial Art was quite difficult in and of itself. The same could be said for dances. Merging both of them would surely increase the difficulty compared to if they had just mastered either of them.

“The dance form does not diverge too much from ordinary Martial Art movements,” Sage Kyria patiently explained. “Obviously, we won’t demand our Martial Artists to perform silly pirouettes or twirls in the middle of a battle. I have already told you that something does not need to be superficially pretty for it to be an art form.”

Rui nodded with interest. “Still, even considering that, codifying it into a dance surely increases the difficulty by some margin, I would imagine.”

“Of course, it does. But there are benefits,” she replied with a composed tone. “However, there are benefits. One of the largest benefits being that the art form empowers Martial power, making it stronger than just Martial techniques and movements alone.”

Rui tilted his head with confusion.

“Art empowers Martial power?”

“You seem skeptical.” She remarked knowingly.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of art empowering Martial power.” Rui frowned.

“Tell me…” she continued. “Why are your attacks strong?”

Rui frowned even more. “…because of my Martial Art, Body, Heart, and Mind?”

“Yes, but what is the driving force to actually draw out as much power as you are able to?” she asked with a pointed tone. “Why are you able to bring out your full power with each strike?”

“…Because I will my body to put everything into my attacks if that is why I desire?”

“Indeed, the stronger your will, the stronger your attacks,” she replied. “That is the benefit of turning each movement, turning Martial Art itself, into an art form of expression. By expressing your strongest emotions with each movement, you are able to bring out your very best, maximizing your output tremendously.”

Rui’s eyes lit up with amazement. “The stronger your will, the stronger your attacks, hm?”

Perhaps the way she was putting it was overstating the relationship between willpower and output. It certainly wasn’t linear. But there was some truth underlying the fundamental message that she was conveying.

In fact, John Falken had even conducted research into the correlation between one’s mental state and physical output, finding a positive correlation between self-reported mental state compared to corresponding kicking force.

The mental force that drove one’s Martial Art did end up affecting the physical output.

Motivation, emotion, and drive. These were not static forces that were entirely unchanging with time or with circumstances and situations. In that case, there could be merit in bolstering these with an expression of one’s self. It was possible that by turning every movement into an expression of everything one had to express, one could increase the mental force dictating the body to move.

“Truly fascinating.” Rui nodded. “In that case, please focus more on the Martial aspect, as opposed to the artistic aspect. I respect the philosophy of the Nest of Terra, but I’m more interested in the Martial Art aspect of the Dance of Terra.”

Additionally, he was confident that the Scriptures of Terra didn’t pertain to the art form aspect of the dance. After all, the art form was merely an expression of one’s deepest emotions to increase mental force. It was categorically separate from external information that would ‘complete’ the Dance of Terra.

“Very well then, it doesn’t appear to be the case that you even require the art form in your case,” she replied with a knowing expression. “Your drive is tremendous, and you are able to bring out your absolute best with just that alone. If you master an art form, your head might explode with the sheer mental force that it will generate due to how innately strong it already is.”

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