The Martial Unity

The world shook as the man’s eyes flared with power. He unleashed a maelstrom of close-range attacks at Rui, swinging haymaker after haymaker.

And yet, they all missed.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH

Whether it was by sabotaging him or simply by manipulating the distance between them, Rui was able to evade each and every one of the blindingly fast attacks that the Martial Sage threw at him.

Despite being astronomically slower than his opponent, Rui was able to evade each of them. The combination of the Scriptures of Terra, the VOID algorithm, and the Gigabrain-empowered Reverse Temporal Disharmony, he could avoid the catastrophic attacks of the Martial Sage each and every single time.

His own attacks never missed.

BOOOOOM!!!!!

A tremendous fist struck the man’s gut, having wound his way past his guard.

“Argh!” the Terrampager snarled with rage, throwing a tremendously powerful barrage of attacks.

And yet again, none of them struck.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!!!

The land between them seemed to bend and warp ever so slightly at just the right moment, causing all attacks to miss him. Ordinarily, this could easily be bypassed by forcing the battle into the air, but it was because they were underground that Rui had chosen this path to adaptively evolve to his greater movement.

“GODDAMI—!”

BOOOOOM!!!!!

A destructive impact blasted the man in the face before he could react to it. Ordinarily, reacting to a Martial Master was effortless for any Martial Sage. Yet, with the Void of Water information overload forcing most of his attention away from Rui, his reaction time had increased substantially, allowing Rui to outmaneuver him with his predictive model.

BOOOOOM BOOOOOM BOOOOOM!!!!!

A barrage of staggeringly powerful blows emerged one after another, weaving through his guard as it struck him over and over.

And yet, Rui was just barely able to leave the lightest of scratches and bruises on the extraordinary Martial Sage.

“This is your answer?” The Martial Sage’s voice was derisive. “You’re going to blast me over and over with these weakling attacks?”

“You think…” His eyes flared with rage. “You think that’s all it takes to defeat a Martial Sage?”

His fists clenched as an omnidirectional shockwave emerged from him. “Give me a break!”

BOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

If not for the Yin-Yang Terra Surge being relevant defensively, Rui probably would have died then and there. And yet, the peril he felt only grew increasingly intense.

“I’m getting sick of this.”

The cold bloodlust in his voice didn’t lie.

“You dare come to our nation with the pretense of goodwill…” his voice reflected his frustration. “And make a mess of it by siding with a rebellion?”

The tension in the air boiled tumultuously.

“You dare hold my people hostage in front of me?” his eyes grew malevolent.

The air curdled under the weight of his bloodlust.

“Fuck the Scriptures of Terra.”

His expression crumbled with hostility.

“I should just kill you.”

RUMBLE!!!!!

The world shook as he leaped towards Rui with menacing power, all but ready to destroy him. WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!!!

The fact that Rui evaded him didn’t so much as faze him. “It doesn’t matter how incredible your earth-bending is; you still need space to evade me,” the Terrampager growled. RUMBLE!!!!!

The space that had formed at tunnels at the bottom of the Nest of Terra that had widened in their battle began enclosing. It took a lot of effort to ensure that this didn’t affect the people of the Nest of Terra. Thus, he couldn’t simply close it in the blink of an eye. And yet, surely but slowly, the amount of space over which Rui could avoid his attack began reducing acutely.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!!!

Rui barely evaded three incoming attacks one after another.

THUD

He suddenly found himself back against a wall.

BOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!

A tremendous Sage-level attack almost killed him then and there.

And yet, by the time he had finished evading, the Terrampager had unleashed a barrage of blasts, one after another, with rapid succession.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!!!!!

He evaded them with a hair’s breadth, relying on Phantom Airwalk to avoid being crushed by the shockwaves.

The Terrampager grinned as the space between them grew smaller and smaller.

With each passing moment, Rui had less and less space to evade the Martial Sage.

Eventually, he ran out of space and backed into a corner.

Pure bloodlust erupted from within the Martial Sage as he pulled his fist back, winding a powerful attack that would erase the Dawnbringer into a fine, bloody mist.

The final attack.

And even as the attack converged on Rui, a single whisper escaped him.

“Grand Terra Funeral.”

RUMBLE!!!!!!!

The Terrampager froze as he felt a tremendous weight weigh down on him. It was the weight of the entirety of the Nest of Terra.

BOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!!

“AARRGHHRRGHGRRHRGHRRHG!!!” the miserable howl of the Martial Sage reverberated throughout Gaia as the weight of a tectonic plate crushed him.

Rui, being extremely close to him, was not exempt from the attack, either. Whether it was because his entranced Gigabrain prioritized survival or whether it was because it deemed it the most optimal way to adaptively evolve the crisis it had brought upon itself, it voluntarily deactivated.

It voluntarily deactivated as Rui activated Nemean Blossom to its absolute fullest while using prepared Forge of Creation defensive techniques to survive the apocalypse that he brought upon himself.

Thus, he, too, was consumed by his own technique, even if only very partially.

BOOOOOOMMM!!!!!

“Rghh!!!” Rui grimaced as an extraordinary amount of weight threatened to flatten him then and there. If not for the extraordinary Scriptures of Terra, he would have surely died then and there, although his entranced self had taken that into account as well when he had begun planning this technique from the very beginning.

From the very beginning, Rui had known that taking this Martial Sage down would have required something big. Unlike Sage Himari, who had only very recently entered the Sage Realm, Rui knew he was dealing with a relatively experienced Sage who had spent plenty of time in the Sage Realm.

He had known that his opponent could only be taken out by something big. Grand Terra Funeral was the only technique created by the Forge of Creation that could defeat the Martial Sage.

Thus, the preparatory effort across an entire battle culminated in a spectacular subterranean catastrophe.

RUMBLE!!!!!