The Martial Unity

The battle’s intensity escalated as Sage Sekiei poured increasingly greater amounts of power into his Heavenly Bladestorm, unleashing a tsunami of extraordinary winds. The elevating power and speed impeded Rui’s progress toward the Sage.

The two combatants entered a ferociously intense deadlock as Rui evaded the extraordinarily intense onslaught of attacks one after another while Sage Sekiei began truly exerting his immense power to destroy his opponent.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH

Rui evaded attacks as though he was surfing heaven and earth. His movements were fluid and clean, devoid of any sharp turns as he gently wound about with the grace of a dancer.

This was a clue into the mysterious nature of his extraordinary evasive power.

Bodhisattva Maitreyi was the first to understand what it meant.

“Foresight.” Her tone was wise. “That explains why his evasive trajectories are so smooth that they seemed pre-ordained. It is because they are indeed pre-ordained, he is able to predict the Bodhisattva’s attacks with a shocking degree of accuracy and depth. It is well known that the Dawnbringer has extraordinary insights into his opponents, but…”

“But?” Amare asked with a curious tone.

“But it doesn’t make sense that he has such a profound depth of insight this early in the battle,” Sage Shinken continued with a knowing tone. “His opponent’s movements are complex and sophisticated; he likely even has a system of thought centered around adaptively evolving his movements to his opponent. Even the Dawnbringer would need time to collect all the data he needs for his expansive system of thoughts, and yet…”

Sage Shinken’s eyes sharpened.

“And yet he is evading all the attacks like he already has everything he needs.”

Sage Damian grinned with a knowing expression.

Unlike the outsiders, he had a better understanding of what Rui was capable of when he prepared for a battle ahead of time. “So you decided to stop holding back, hm?” Sage Damian’s grin was viciously excited. “That’s how it should be!”

With preparation to bolster his insights into his opponents, he was on a level by himself. He has sealed this measure for many years in order to make his battles more stimulating. But on this occasion, when his opponent was in a higher Realm, and he sought to win, he would not do something as foolish as holding back. “But…” Sage Himari frowned as she watched Rui wading through a perilously potent maelstrom of blade and wind attacks. “I still don’t understand how he is displacing himself out of the way of Sage Sekiei’s attacks so fast.”

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!!!

With movements that appeared to defy the Laws Of Motion, Rui smoothly wound about the two-dimensional waves of attacks that sought to cleave him in half. The way his body was displaced defied what one would have expected from his physical actions, giving his evasions an unearthly luster.

“Against me, he resorted to minute movements across his entire body to summate to just a few inches of evasion to avoid my blows,” Sage Himari sharpened her gaze as she studied the battle. “But here…”

WHOOSH

Rui’s entire body sharply leaned back, evading a wave of sharp heaven that sought to cut him in half at his waist. Several more waves of heaven converged upon him, aiming to dice him into little bits.

And yet—

WHOOSH!!

A swift and smooth pirouetting summersault allowed him to contort his body through a narrow opening, just barely evading being sliced into pieces. This was very different from the subtle and minor shifts he had made against Sage Himari to evade her blows.

They were full-blown evasive maneuvers against an opponent an entire Realm above him in speed.

Sage Himari gritted her teeth as she watched him evade Sage Sekiei’s increasingly powerful and swift surge of attacks converge on him, failing to land even a single scratch on him. She didn’t understand.

Almost none of them did.

“This…” The Terrampager’s expression grew ugly. “This is a more refined version of what he did against me.”

He was a mountain away, yet his words were heard by all the Sages gathered. They shifted their gaze towards him with an inquiring glance.

The Terrampager’s expression grew even uglier as he clenched his jaws, explaining what was happening. “…He displaced earth to sabotage my aim because he could move out of the way. It allowed him to evade my attacks without moving from his spot whatsoever.”

And yet, they could all plainly see that that was not what was happening. Sage Sekiei’s attacks all converged upon him true and straight, threatening to slice him then and there if he didn’t move out of the way. That clearly was very different from the Terrampager’s recounting.

It was Sage Kyria who connected all the dots.

“He… He’s shifting the earth immediately under his feet.” Her eyes widened with realization. “Even if his raw speed isn’t enough to move him out of the way if the world immediately underneath him also moves, the speed will be additive, allowing him to vastly exceed his limits.”

With the Scriptures of Terra, he could displace the earth immediately beneath his feet with a level of efficiency and smoothness, unlike anything he had ever seen in his entire life. “But even then…” Sage Kyria murmured with shock. “Earth-bending is time-consuming. He would not prepare the maneuver even be the attack begins for it displace him in time—”

Her eyes widened with realization as the dots finally clicked.

“That must be where his foresight comes in…” Sage Nathen realized. He foresaw all the attacks with the pre-prepared predictive models, setting powerful earth-bending maneuvers that would add to his own speed by essentially fling him, allowing him to evade Sage Sekiei’s attacks well enough.

They watched with shock as Rui continuously evaded an onslaught of blade attacks one after another. WHOOSH

He sidestepped a vertical wave of heaven before several more sharp waves of heaven converged upon him.

And yet, he moved. The earth beneath his feet surged with tremendous power, almost catapulting him out of the way!

WHOOOSH!!!

In a singularly smooth motion, he evaded several foreseen attacks while setting up the earth-bending displacements with the Scriptures of Terra to evade future attacks. –