The Martial Unity

Amare didn’t even register the taunt. Instead, she noticed that despite being aggressive and belligerent against Amare, Transentia did not chase after her like a predator chasing after her prey.

Amare knew that her goal was to capture her alive, after all. So why didn’t she aggressively run after Amare to get her? Why did she seem so willing to allow Amare to simply put such a massive distance between them if her goal was to capture her?

’I knew it!’ Amare realized. ’She can’t move too fast or too easily!’

A vicious smile emerged on Amare’s face as she realized that this was a weakness that she could exploit. Her Martial Mind surged as she began charting out a strategy that would allow her to make the most of this opportunity.

WHOOSH

Her body melted out of existence, fading into thin air as she stepped away.

One moment, she was there.

The very next moment, she was gone, seemingly drowning in the darkness of the night sky.

Transentia stiffened at the sight. “…Stealth? I thought Martial Artists were brave. You are a coward of the highest order.”

Silence.

It was clear that Amare was not going to fall for such a cheap provocation into revealing her position.

“Tsk.” Transentia tutted under her breath with a hint of irritation appearing on her crystalline face. “Fine, if this is how you want to play at it, my scalpels will find you and carve you up when they do.”

She spread her arms as trillions and trillions of quantum scalpels emerged from her body, spreading across the air around her. They spread around, combing the region around her as Transentia tried her best to detect Amare.

It didn’t matter what kind of stealth Amare used that could hide her even from Transentia’s powerful eyes. Her scalpels could not be fooled by stealth, and they would instantly detect the atoms and molecules in her body the very moment they made contact.

And yet, her scalpels registered nothing.

Transentia’s eyebrow twitched as she widened her region of search. ’Did she truly just run away? Surely a Martial Artist would not be so cowardly, right?’

The very thought of failing NOVA’s mission to her was deeply disheartening. The moment she thought about failure, her heart began clenching up, while she felt a tremendous amount of stress, anxiety, and general sadness.

This was part of NOVA’s reward/punishment system.

Failure to adhere to her instructions became the absolute worst thing for all of them, while succeeding became the most pleasurable and loving thing that they had ever experienced in their life.

Transentia’s determination to adhere to NOVA’s mission made her widen the field of search even more. She spread her quantum scalpels far and wide, diluting their power as she desperately searched for the invisible Amare.

And then, it came.

A gravitational wave from within the depths of the ocean surged towards Transentia at the speed of light.

WHOOSH

Before she could even react, it swept her body, pushing on everything within it, including the black hole.

“Rgh…!” Transentia gritted her teeth as she stabilized her position, stabilizing the position of the singularity within her, immediately shifting her attention to the ocean.

“Hiding in the ocean like a little clam,” she cursed, before her arms shifted to the ocean in a determined manner. “If that is where you wish to die, then so be it.”

RUMBLE!!!

The world shook as her quantum tweezers swept through the ocean, scouring it for Amare.

BOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!

This time, a more powerful gravitational wave emerged from above her, sweeping her once more. It shifted her entire body greatly, while barely shifting the singularity within her a millimeter due to how heavy black holes were and how little of the gravitational wave they were exposed to.

The internal singularity mobilization system began firing large gravitational pulses at the black hole, ensuring that it never touched the chamber walls of the singularity.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

Before she could even react, another gravitational wave swept her from another direction. Almost destabilizing the singularity within her once more. Before Transentia could even turn around to blast her quantum scalpels in that direction once more, more gravitational waves began emerging from all kinds of directions, sweeping her entire body.

BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM!!!

“Rgh…!” Transentia gritted her teeth as she struggled to stabilize the position of the singularity within her body relative to her own position.

The damage from the gravitational wave was almost nil.

That was not the point.

Even if Amare had poured all her power into an attack, she likely would not have been able to damage Transentia very much with gravity alone, given that gravity was much less efficient as a means of transferring power compared to her fist.

On top of that, Transentia’s crystal body was actually something that she had commissioned from Dwarven Sage. Meaning it had the otherworldly, almost magical toughness and mechanical efficiency that dwarven artifacts were known for having.

Amare’s purpose for swamping Transentia with gravitational waves was to push her body even just a meter from its location so that she would touch the singularity within her and become consumed by it. All she needed to do was displace herself faster and harder than the internal singularity mobilization system could.

It would make her greatest source of strength into a source of her demise.

Amare’s eyes flared with determination as she pushed herself to the very limit, activating her stealth techniques to the very limit while simultaneously shooting around the battlefield at extremely high speeds to blast Transentia with gravitational waves from all directions.

Because gravitational waves moved at the speed of light and did not give any forewarning to detect them ahead of time, it was impossible for Transentia to foresee them, and that made it all the more difficult for her to defend against them.

RUMBLE!!!

The world shook as Transentia was swept with gravitational wave after gravitational wave, displacing her body relative to the singularity more and more.

Her body shook violently, no matter how much she tried to control it, causing her to come dangerously close to touching her own singularity!

“No!” Transentia’s crystal eyes flared with a ferocious determination as she mobilized each and every single quantum scalpel she could create.