The Martial Unity

She merely misdirected his attention away from the creation of the attack for just a crucial movement, preventing his brain from inferring the incoming attack ahead of time. It was not a technique. It was not a mastered sequence of events. It was just the essence of misdirection, which she had mastered, allowing her to use it as she pleased.

Creating the illusion that the attacks spawned out of nowhere.

BOOOOOM!!!

A powerful, charged spinning kick blasted him away, sending him flying against the wall of the combat facility. And yet, Ria simply chased after him, refusing to give him any reprieve.

A single remark escaped as she uttered a single word.

“Speed Mode.”

She exhaled deeply, and the matter in her body became lighter, making her feel like she had wings. The modern Martial Body in the Era of Expansion could come equipped with the Metabody System already prepared for it. Ria had chosen to go for that kind of Metabody System because she preferred the flexibility over a body that was more limited in its approach.

WHOOSH

She blurred, turning into a flash as she shot towards him, unleashing an onslaught of attacks against him. Her eyes flared with tremendous power.

“Yin-Yangism.”

The yin and yang vibrations within her body began harmonizing with each other as she unleashed an onslaught of extremely heavy attacks towards her opponents’ most vital spots, using her newfound speed to make them land cleaner. Yet, her form was formless. Every action she made was a new technique in and of itself. She didn’t use techniques. Instead, she applied the foundation of techniques directly, bypassing the inflexible frame of a technique, and understanding the essence of what made them strong.

She didn’t wield the yin and yang vibrations like they were a rigid engine. She instead wielded them like they were streams of water that she could direct and manipulate with her hands.

It allowed her to use them however she wanted.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!

It allowed her to maintain tremendous amounts of power despite having made her body weaker with Speed Mode. And yet, Sternon wasn’t so easy to defeat, either.

CLASP

He caught her fist mid-air, much to her surprise.

“You’re strong,” he admitted, turning towards her with dilated pupils. “I can’t afford to hold back.”

Ria’s eyes widened as his fist suddenly appeared before her eyes.

BANG!!!

If not for the last moment impact dispersion shift, she would have undoubtedly been knocked then and there. She spat out some blood as Sternon appeared before her in the blink of an eye, a powerful palm jab heading straight towards her abdomen.

BOOOM!!!

Ria intercepted the attack on the elbow, turning it into an attack of blunt force. She absorbed the energy of his attack, spinning as she used it to launch a blindingly swift kick to his head.

And yet, he smoothly evaded even at the final sect, much to her surprise. It was as though his reaction speed had evolved to become as fast as lightning. And in fact, the flashes of an electromagnetic field she felt from his body all but confirmed that it had.

He had turned his nerves into electrical conductors that allowed electricity to flow smoothly, drastically cutting down on the lag that existed between brain and body.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!!!!!

His attacks became heavier as well, amplifying the hardness of his bones and his flesh, making her feel like she was being blasted with invintium each moment in time. He also adaptively evolved his senses, making them extremely sensitive, making misdirection that much more difficult than it would otherwise be. Ria closed her eyes. She knew she couldn’t rely on them to defend against her opponent’s attacks. Instead, she honed her senses.

For the electromagnetic flashes that she could detect with her skin. Every time his brain sent a thought to his body, it came in the form of electrical signals that flowed through his body.

They generated an electromagnetic pulse.

Each pulse was unique to each signal.

That was all she needed.

WHOOSH

She smoothly evaded a punch to the face, ducking smoothly as her leg shot forward at extremely high speeds. She used the underlying principles of the Godspeed technique to a single part of her body, gathering energy and then consuming all of it in one burst.

It allowed her kick to fly through at exceptionally high speeds, blasting Sternon’s jaw before he could even react.

BANG!!!

The devastating blow rocked his head, causing his brain to bounce around violently. Immediately, he felt dizzy, feeling his consciousness begin to fade. He stumbled, struggling to stay awake.

And yet, Ria charged forward like a predator, unleashing an onslaught of attacks at his head.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!

Impact after impact, his brain shook more, until the blunt-force trauma crossed a critical threshold, causing the neo-evosapien to lose consciousness and collapse.

THUD

Just like that, the battle between them was over. She had managed to emerge victorious against one of the strongest kinds of pathwalkers in the world. She heaved a sigh, turning towards the others.

She grew amused at the sight of the elf, Siliscia, just standing there uncertainly, her ears drooping a bit. Her sapphire eyes were glinting with concern. Ria knew that elves were averse to conflict, although she would have never thought of looking at someone like Mother Alicia. But she still found the poor girl to be adorable.

She turned towards Runark, fighting Misha, studying the latter with a curious eye. She already knew Runark’s Martial Art inside out. She wanted to see how her new teammate’s combat was.

To her credit, Misha was extremely strong. Ria guessed she must have found a way to poison Runark, because he was stumbling unsteadily, his skin was of a sickly red color. Meanwhile, Misha wove biotechnology out of her blood, using it to unleash an onslaught of attacks of special kinds against her opponents. She used blood very differently from the hemosapiens that Ria was familiar with, like her aunt. Instead of focusing on directly manipulating. She turned her blood into machinery. She almost treated her blood the way tekvores treated nanotechnology, allowing the tremendous versatility that ultimately allowed her to achieve victory against Runark.