The Martial Unity

”Once we enter the firestorm, we will have to be quick,” Ria remarked with a serious tone. ”I don’t want our suits exposed to the heat for any longer than is absolutely necessary.”

Her eyes remained fixed on the distant firestorm. It resembled a vast, swirling pillar of heat and wind, blowing against them despite the great distance it was still away from them.

RUMBLE

The world around them shook upon the energy of the firestorm, the swirl of black smoke and red fire made it extraordinarily ominous, even to rank-four pathwalkers like themselves.

”For now, let’s just stick together and—” Ria froze in her tracks.

”What?” Runark immediately asked with concern. ”Is it trouble? Is something wrong—”

”We are surrounded,” Ria whispered with an urgent tone, gazing around her with gritted teeth. ”It happened before I even realized.”

They were surrounded by the iron protruding structures, which were generally indicative of macrobe presence. The mountains didn’t have any of them, but they had had no choice but to skirt through a region of the Ser Colony that had them if they wanted to eventually reach the firestorm.

When she paid closer attention to them, she could sense them releasing the faintest of electromagnetic fields with a minor amount of current running through them. The hydrogen and especially the helium impeded her senses of it by altering the permeability of the atmospheric medium. Something that she had yet to grow fully accustomed to.

It was a mistake that she wouldn’t make a second time, but that didn’t matter if they didn’t get through this first time.

”Here they come.” Ria took a stance.

WHOOSH

A swarm of macrobes emerged from the distance in all directions. The others quickly detected them a minute later. Their first instinct was to immediately make a run for the firestorm, but the densest fleet of macrobes emerged from the side of the firestorm.

”They knew we were aiming for the firestorm.” Ria’s amber eyes widened. ”And they knew that we would take this route. These creatures… are truly intelligent!”

It was perhaps their fault for underestimating the macrobes. Part of it was the fact that they resembled their micro-cousins, which were utterly devoid of intelligent. Another part of it was that their civilization didn’t appear to be sophisticated on the surface, but that was because they were working with a limited understanding of what sophistication could look like. The fact that they had a sophisticated surveillance apparatus that even Ria hadn’t noticed showed that they were a lot more sophisticated than Ria had given them credit for.

”Just stick together,” Ria said with a serious tone. ”Let’s see what they do. But if it comes down to it…”

Her expression tightened.

”We blast through.”

What could only be described as a wave of macrobes converged upon them from all directions. It was a truly strange sight that would have surprised anybody who beheld it, having a massive army of single-celled organisms pulling up towards one.

They didn’t immediately pounce, to their credit.

They settled some ten meters away from the five of them, simply floating up close. Having the opportunity to sense how they worked at such proximity, Ria could perceive exactly how they maneuvered. They were filled with hydrogen and helium, which was what allowed them to float. Their internal density was lower than atmospheric density. On top of that, they could use the expulsion of gases through the pores in their bodies to maneuver and generate thrust and torque.

It was a fascinating method of locomotion, unlike anything she had ever seen in Gaia or in any other alien species that humanity had come across.

The sea of macrobes before them parted as several, much larger macrobes floated through. They were bigger, redder, with streaks of metallic gray running through the cell wall. Their receptors were bigger and stronger, while their tentacles and other appendages were thicker.

They felt more dangerous than the other macrobes, not that they were overwhelmingly dangerous.

The uncertainty that hung in the air made the five pathwalkers more cautious than they would have been had they been dealing with a known entity.

VMMM MM M

”We-know-you-are-aliens,” the macrobe that floated forth in an authoritative manner addressed them with ultrasonic pulses. ”Why-are-you-here? Where-are-you-from? And-why-do-you-go-towards-the-firestorm?”

None of the five were able to discern what the macrobe was saying, if it was saying anything. They could hear the ultrasonic pulses, of course, but they had no idea what it meant.

They could wing their way with the communication, especially since these were creatures from a tree of life that was fundamentally different. Things like fauna flow simply didn’t work.

Ria was the only one who could potentially decipher the language of these macrobes, but even she couldn’t do it on the fly with just a handful of samples. She would need something a lot more concrete.

They simply remained silent, poised for battle.

”I-will-not-repeat-myself,” the macrobe asked with a more intense ultrasonic pulse this time. ”Why-have-you-come-to-our-world?”

There was silence.

That was enough for the leader of the Ser Colony to make a decision.

”Capture-them.”

The macrobe army rushed forth, all but ready to drown them in what should have been an utterly overwhelming wave of macrobes. Even though each of them was only one meter in length, on average, there were countless macrobes that rapidly rushed towards them in a powerful surge.

But the attacks that they mounted weren’t simply collisions.

They spewed fire from their bodies, pouring it towards the five pathwalkers.

FWOOSH!!!

And yet, it was their turn to be shocked.

Ria’s amber eyes flared with a high intensity.

On the spot, she created a new technique.

”Firebending.”

She understood the causality of fire extremely well. Most Martial Artists and even pathwalkers didn’t use fire as an attack very often simply because it was limited and often very primitive.

But when put to the test, she spontaneously created a breathing technique that allowed her to create the pressure and atmospheric composition gradients that were perfect for redirecting and controlling the flames of her opponents.

FWOOSH!!!

Much to the shock of the macrobes, the flames they spewed didn’t harm the pathwalkers, instead, they all collected in a swirling ball of flames in her hands.

A second remark emerged from her as the fireball expanded into a field of pure heat.

”Muspelheim.”

BOOM!!!