The Martial Unity

CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK!

The creature clicked with ecstasy as its eight legs blasted into Arastia’s body, piercing her flesh in eight different spots. The creature didn’t understand why Arastia’s reactions had been as weak as they had this time, but she didn’t mind.

The sooner she overcame this monster of an alien, the sooner she could go retrieve the special human that the Divine Mother wanted.

She leaped away from the wounded hemosapien despite her condition. The black-furred homoarachnoid was an opportunistic ambush hunter who didn’t engage in frontal combat unless she had to.

Even if her prey was weak, she would dedicate her power by launching attacks with minimal risks.

Since Arastia couldn’t follow her, there was nothing that could go wrong in this particular manner.

Or so she thought.

”I have you now.”

Arastia’s murderous voice emerged from behind the homoarachnoid. Pure terror emerged in the pits of the gut of —oo—oo, who turned around to find herself staring at one thing.

One color.

Red.

Blood red.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

The sheer force with which Arastia blasted the homoarachnoid launched the powerful creature through the disjointed fabric of her own space-time web domain. Arastia’s wounds rapidly healed as blood poured into them, restoring the flesh as if rewriting reality itself.

The technique that her elder brother had invented many decades ago, Weaving Blood, had become a mainstay in the Blood Path and Blood Art. They literally weaved flesh from blood, boasting one of the most powerful healing factors in the entirety of all pathwalkers, one of the reasons that they were categorically superior to other pathwalkers.

CLICK CLICK CLICK!

”How. Could. You. Catch. Me?!” —oo—oo clicked away with alarm as she shot away from the hemosapien who simply hunted her alive with a tsunami of blood, never once losing track of the powerful hemosapien.

Arastia hadn’t the faintest clue what the alien creature was saying.

And she didn’t care.

”Die.” She growled as she gestured a clawing motion towards the homoarachnoid.

It corresponded with a flood of blood shaped like a mouth, with tendrils of blood shaping like fangs that closed on the homoarachnoid, threatening to crush the alien creature where she was.

And yet, it wasn’t so easy.

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”Vectorized. Path. Reversal.”

Arastia widened her eyes as the attack that was supposed to pounce on the homoarachnoid and consume her alive had been completely reversed.

It rushed towards Arastia point-blank.

As if reality itself had been mirror-reversed.

In the blink of an eye, Arastia’s attack consumed her before she could even react.

CLICK CLICK CLICK!

The homoarachnoid seemed to gleefully mock Arastia before freezing, realizing that the blood was still active.

She was still alive.

”Your manipulation of the structure of space and time is impressive.”

She emerged from a cloud of blood as a stream of blood reattached her arm to her shoulder in the blink of an eye. Her eyes opened to reveal red dwarf suns in her pupils, shining brighter than they ever had before.

”But it’s not going to save you.”

She lunged at the homoarachnoid, eager to hunt down the alien as soon as she could so that she could return to fighting alongside her fellow pathwalkers and put an end to the war with her personal power.

Meanwhile, far away from the battle between Arastia and —oo—oo, Ria’s former party found themselves face to face with a powerful homoarachnoid.

RUMBLE!!!

Around them, the land beneath their feet shook significantly. The heavens danced violently as the sound of countless explosions rang in the air from across the vast battlefield. Gray land was checkered with blue and red blood, creating a purple hue that gave color to the otherwise monochromatic world.

The four pathwalkers wore grim expressions, standing with adopted stances. Their bodies were taut with tension, the same tension that hung in the air, weighing down on their nerves electrically.

Before them was the homoarachnoid they had fought earlier in the day. His turquoise fur was covered in a dense white webbing that covered his direly wounded and healing body. Homoarachnoids could clearly heal quickly, given that the creature had restored much of its combat power in a short span of time, but the wounds on its body were still fresh and grave.

Ordinarily, a creature that could dominate a junior Martial Sage was not one that could be taken on by junior rank-four pathwalkers like themselves. They knew that and yet…

”Ria!” Runark yelled as he lost sight of her in the distance. ”Dammit, get out of my way!”

WHOOSH

He blasted off into a sprint, trying to work his way around the giant homoarachnoid. His biggest priority was getting to Ria at all costs.

And yet, -o—o-o had no intention of allowing the young man to get to where he wanted to be.

SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT!

He found himself face to face with a spew of webbing that moved towards him at blinding speeds.

Unlike Ria, he couldn’t have foreseen the causality.

Evading it was impossible.

BANG BANG BANG!

”Rgh!” Runark gritted his teeth as the webbing spewed all over him, binding his body. Because the EvoArmor exo-Martial suit was a bioarmor whose nervous system was connected to his own, he could feel the sensation of being drowned in glue that rapidly quickened, making it impossible for him to move his body.

Ironically, it was the same web that protected him from the devastating blow from -o—o-o slamming into his bound body.

07:04

BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

If not for the webbing and the EvoArmor exo-Martial suit, Runark would have died then and there. Sternon intercepted the launched body, catching him with gritted teeth as the two skidded away.

”Dammit!” Runark struggled violently. ”Get this shit off of me! I have to get to Ria!”

”Calm down!” Sternon urged, never taking his eyes off -o—o-o. ”Your exo-Martial suit is based on evosapien biology; just manipulate the genome to produce an extremely anti-adhesive sebum secretion; there should be a setting for that.”

Sternon’s suggestion seemed to work, allowing Runark to strip the webbing off of him smoothly. He turned towards Sternon with a grateful expression.

”Thanks.”

He turned towards -o—o-o with a murderous glare. ”Now, time to get to Ria. Even if it costs us our lives!”