The Martial Unity

Arastia was not a Martial Artist, she merely mastered a martial art meant to complement her blood manipulation. Every time their attacks did manage to connect with her body, it simply didn’t seem to faze her all that much. The reality was that Arastia could manipulate the blood within her body to such an extent that she could spike pressure at the moment of contact with an attack, canceling internal and external pressure at the point of contact for that one moment, completely negating the attack.

She could also simply absorb the kinetic energy that they unleashed at her as well, if she truly wanted.

Ria knew that.

That was why she aimed for spots with minimal blood presence.

Like hard bone.

BANG!

Arastia’s eyes flickered with surprise as she felt a sharp pain in her elbows from the attack. Ria began targeting areas of pure hard bone with her super-condition knuckles, allowing her to inflict some damage to the calcium comprising the structure.

Even though bones also have blood, the blood didn’t reinforce the hardness, which was largely a product of the lattice of calcium. If Ria was going to avoid her annoyingly impregnable blood defenses, then she would have to avoid confronting them entirely.

This was her way of adaptively evolving to Arastia’s strengths.

“Truly, like father, like daughter.” Arastia’s words were thoughtful, her tone of voice sweet. But her actions weren’t nearly as nice. She raised both hands, her eyes sharpening with a little bit more seriousness. “Allow me to step it up a notch.”

Her blood began to glow with power, growing faster and stronger. Ria and Runark widened their eyes as a surge of blood began emerging from her body, increasing the volume of blood that she was outputting. The blood sloshed forth, washing across her body as it formed wings that emerged from the back of her body.

She pointed her fingers at them as her blood-red eyes glowed with power.

“Take this.”

BOOOM!!!

Ria and Runark leaped away as an attack beyond their caliber threatened to crush them where they stood, forcing them to stop holding back as well.

BADUMP

Shining blood-red streaks emerged from their heart, spreading across their bodies in the blink of an eye as they activated their Martial Heart.

BOOOM!

Arastia was hardly unfazed when they emerged from the attack successfully, shining with power. Their Martial Hearts were extremely bright despite their youth. This was entirely due to the superiority of their Martial Bodies, allowing their Martial Hearts to reach the brightness that would have only been possible after decades of training of their Martial Body during the archaic Age of Martial Art many decades ago.

They were stronger than any Martial Senior in the history of Martial Art thanks to the biotechnology advancements that had occurred in the Era of Expansion.

“This won’t be enough to defeat me.”

Arastia’s voice sparked with power as her blood began to shine, as did her body. The Blood Path equivalent of the Martial Heart was the Blood Blaze, which brought out the true potential of the blood and its capacity for power, causing her entire body to radiate an intense but bright red.

She wanted to force them to go all out, gesturing at them with a single remark.

“Blood Tsunami.”

RUMBLE

The world shook as a powerful wave of blood emerged from her, flooding the entire battlefield, much to their shock. Arastia not only drew from the extra mass in her body to produce the blood, but she also drew matter in with her blood, turning it into the basis for nutrients in her body to fuel the production of even more blood, allowing her to create virtually limitless amounts of blood. Blood that was all as powerful as her main body, pound for pound, allowing her to vastly outstrip her conventional limits.

They didn’t stand a chance, even with their Martial Hearts.

RUMBLE!

The blood tsunami simply swept them as it consumed the entire training arena with enough force to flatten entire cities into non-existence.

“Gah!” Runark was completely overwhelmed in the blink of an eye. Even with his Martial Mind, he wasn’t able to overwhelm the sheer power that Arastia effortlessly outputted. “Alright, I give up! Sheesh—GAAAH!”

Arastia’s blood-red eyes remained focused on Ria even as her powerful surge of blood threatened to consume everything.

Not once did Ria ever give up.

She activated her Martial Mind even as the blood swept her.

Then, the world around her shifted. When she opened her eyes, she found herself in a dreamy state of mind.

She found herself in a hive of filaments. Strange white bands of light that cut against endless darkness.

A hive of galactic filaments.

A hive of galactic filaments that ran across the entirety of the cosmos. She found herself in the universe.

For just the faintest of moments, she could feel its thoughts.

Its mind.

Its consciousness.

Then, she woke up, her mind returning to reality as a surge of blood threatened to completely wash her away as it had done Runark. The sheer power that Arastia had poured into it despite only having activated her Blood Blaze, was so great that even a Martial Master would have struggled to withstand it.

Arastia had expected that it would be the end of their little spar.

And yet, Ria merely stuck a finger out.

As if pointing at something.

Her finger made contact with the wave, tapping it gently, as if she were trying to push a marble.

A meaningless gesture.

And yet, what ensued defied understanding.

SPLAT

BOOOM!!!

Arastia’s eyes widened as the simple gesture caused her blood to splatter apart like it had no integrity. The flood of blood parted with the gesture, completely spreading apart. Arastia’s expression was one of amazement, but not entirely one of surprise.

“Truly…” Arastia murmured. “Your father was right…”

Her blood-red eyes sharpened.

“He was right when he said that your Martial Path was the most powerful Martial Path to have ever existed.”

In the depths of Ria’s amber eyes were reflected the entire world. Not as everybody saw it.

But as she saw it.

She saw the flow of causality of itself.

And every action she took allowed her to tamper with it from within. She wasn’t merely exerting force when she pushed.

She was toppling a house of cards.

She was pushing the first domino in a long chain.

That was her Martial Path.

Martial Causality.

BOOM!!!

She blasted the blood out of her way with ease, shooting at Arastia with a blinding speed.

She was just getting started.