The Martial Unity

Anthea had adaptively evolved his cells to become infiltrators, attackers, and saboteurs. He gave his cells the ability to move around by themselves quite nimbly, like amoeba cells, while making them as biochemically stealthy as possible, leaving no chemical imprint.

He also had them adaptively evolve to become more like Rui’s modified Anthean microbiology. Rui hadn’t simply copied the cells verbatim; he had changed the DNA with his quantum tweezers over the years, making it more suited to him.

With each blow, Anthea allowed his cells to invade Rui’s body as he coordinated them with radio signals. If he couldn’t best Rui in a physical brawl, he hoped to at least give him a horrific Anthean bacterial infection.

And yet—

WHOOSH

His eyes widened as each and every single cell he deployed into Rui’s body died instantly.

“Did you think such a paltry vector of attack would work on me?”

Rui’s chilling voice reached him.

“What did you do…?” Anthea’s ethereal eyes bore deep into the darkness in Rui’s. The smallest of smiles emerged on his face.

“Nothing.”

The Poison of Yin and Yang flowed through Rui’s body at all times. Adapted white blood cells from Anthea’s own physiology worked in tandem with the gu, forming a poison that was much, much more lethal than the sum of the parts.

No lifeform could survive it, certainly not hastily constructed cells.

“You don’t understand how to use power, either.”

Rui’s tone was calm, but his words bore heavily on Anthea’s body like a mountain. His ethereal eyes were filled with judgment. “You achieved this miraculous body of yours on the verge of death. You only had a few minutes with it before I killed you. Which means that you have absolutely no experience with the miracles your biology is capable of. But…”

His eyes sharpened. “…I do, I have had many years of experience with it in the real world and in the manifold.”

His tone intensified.

“Let me show you how it’s done.”

Anthea’s eyes widened as Rui deployed his own saboteur spells into Anthea’s body.

Their DNA was more perfected for the job.

Their attributes were suited.

Their configuration was far more optimized.

He had created techniques of biological warfare via the Gene Realm of his body with the Forge of Creation, and had further refined them over the years, relying on Anthea’s own memories to greatly enhance them even further.

Compared to something Anthea had scribbled up on the spot, they were of a much higher caliber.

“Rgh!!!” Anthea screamed through gritted teeth as Rui began infecting his body, slowly taking over it with an army of infiltrators and saboteur cells. Unlike Rui, he wasn’t able to stop the invasion very easily. He tried deploying his white blood cells, but Rui wisely avoided his bloodstream, instead spreading through the outer layer of his body first before seizing his neurology. What shocked Anthea was how independent, intelligent, and autonomous the army of cells marching and multiplying through his body was. The shocking truth was that they had inherited the quantum entanglement network across them.

Meaning even that army of cells was bestowed with integrated information.

They were collectively conscious.

Intelligent.

They could operate without active intervention from Rui, which was why he was able to smoothly react when the Dragon Emperor sneaked up on him.

“Rargh!” WHOOSH

Rui easily evaded his attack as Anthea gritted his teeth, turning back to Rui with eyes blazing with vengeance.

“I will not forgive you for this!”

Both the Dragon Emperor and Anthea charged forth at full power and speed as their coordination grew even better. They set aside their egos, understanding that the Rui before them was not the same as the Rui they had fought.

If they didn’t completely embrace the fact that he was superior and fully work together to try and kill him, they were doomed. WHOOSH!

Rui evaded a devastating radiating claw swipe, only to find Anthea sneaking up behind him with a lethal ambush.

THWACK! Rui parried the blow effortlessly, only to find that the Dragon Emperor had spun, unleashing a devastating tail swipe upon both of them. WHOOSH

Rui smoothly extricated himself from the attack, only for Anthea to never once let up on him, unleashing an onslaught of attacks on him, desperately trying to kill him while the Dragon Emperor circled around with frustration, unleashing more attacks.

And yet, not a single one of them could even begin to harm him. Yet, despite his obvious superiority, he seemed strangely content simply remaining passive and on the defensive. Even with his biological warfare against Anthea, he didn’t seem to want to go all the way through and fully infect and kill the man.

[The question is why?]

NOVA had been furiously computing away, improving her predictions on him, feeding the Dragon Emperor and Anthea the future of Rui’s movements. But not even that was enough for them to overcome Autocorpus, not to mention Rui’s own predictions of the Dragon Emperor.

Yet, he displayed a clear willingness to simply fall into a rhythm where he didn’t press for an advantage or simply win the battle.

Her sharp intelligence allowed her to grasp his mindset.

[He doesn’t want to trigger an even tougher challenge from the alien virus.]

The first round he had faced was beasts and monsters, all too easy. The second round he had faced was Martial Artists, not as easy as the beasts, but still light work for him at his current stage of power.

The current round he was facing required even Rui to exert himself. Three top-ten powerhouses were not something that he could face without at least using a meaningful proportion of his power.

But if he defeated them, then following the established pattern, the chances were that he would face something much stronger than the three of them. There was no need to rush to defeat them when he could take his time and prepare.

She studied his eye movements and his body language, trying to understand where his attention was.

14:59

It was not on the desperate and intense offensive from the former Supreme Commander and the Dragon Emperor, and certainly not on NOVA, no matter how insulted she ‘felt’ at being treated like background fodder.

But she could sense that his attention was everywhere else.

[He’s doing reconnaissance on this chamber of creation and on the alien virus.]

He was trying to understand how the alien virus was controlling the minds of the creatures it created. Even she understood that while she may have had enmity with Rui, she would not choose to attack him as she was doing so now.

That meant that the alien virus was actively controlling her as its own creation.

But how?

She could sense any radio signals or any other kind of energy transmission between her conjured body and some external source.

That left only one explanation.

[It is controlling me through some other extra-causal manner.]

That was what Rui was trying to understand. His eyes shot around, the chamber of creation sharply, trying to glean even the slightest of hints that could prepare him for a more serious confrontation while he treated the three of them like little toddlers trying to pick a fight with him.

The very notion of that filled her with emotion.anger().

[You will pay for underestimating us. Do it now, Anthea!]

SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT!

Rui’s eyes widened as Anthea’s flesh melted upon contact with one of their many brawls. His flesh surged forth, connecting with Rui’s Anthean side as their bodies momentarily merged at the fists.

He shackled Rui where he stood with a bond of flesh.

“GET HIM NOW!” Anthea roared with murderous glee.

Rui’s eyes widened as they shifted to find themselves face to face with the Dragon Emperor’s jaws of razor-sharp fangs that radiated blood-curdling gamma radiation.

RUMBLE!!!!!

The world shook as the Dragon Emperor’s jaws converged on Rui and Anthea collectively with an astronomically intense impact.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!!