The Martial Unity

It wasn’t long before father and daughter found themselves in a high-tech training chamber in North Kandria, which had become entirely dedicated to training resources in the past eighteen years.

After all, the rising spike in the number of Martial Artists emerging from people led to a parallel rise in the resources needed to train them all. North Kandria, which was historically dimly populated, became the prime spot for establishing such infrastructure due to its relatively low population.

Though in the Era of Expansion, training infrastructure had also expanded to outer space in the Constellation of Cities that spread across the entire solar system. Rui avoided going for space infrastructure since the risk of exposure was much higher.

STEP

The two of them stood in a vast, empty chamber with walls and ceilings that were entirely white. There was pin-drop silence, with cutting-edge acoustic dampening technology that prevented any sound from bouncing around.

”This facility is extremely expensive, and it was designed to withstand the power of Martial Corporeals,” Rui remarked, stretching his body. ”It even has environmental generation features that allow you to construct any kind of terrain.”

He was wearing his Martial attire, as he normally did when not working. Ria wore a more modern Martial suit with several features that made life easier. She studied her father’s attire. ”Dad, haven’t you considered moving on from primitive fabric-driven Martial attire to suit technology? I’m sure you can get access to the single greatest Martial suit that humanity has to offer, no?”

Rui smiled bittersweetly at those words. ”While I am generally accepting of technology, I just cannot get used to modern Martial suits. They just don’t have the charm of classic Martial attire.”

”Charm?” Ria scoffed. ”You look like someone who doesn’t belong in this era wearing ancient stuff like that.”

”…”

”Wake up, Dad. We don’t live in the Age of Martial Art anymore. That was centuries ago.”

”Alright, let’s relax with the exaggerations,” he raised his hands in a halting gesture, a dubious expression emerging on his face. ”It was not centuries ago. Closer to decades ago.”

”Civilization has moved on since then,” Ria ruthlessly remarked, stretching her arms and legs as she lightly warmed up. ”Sentiment is no reason to deprive yourself of the best solutions available.”

Rui knew she was right, of course. At least, she was right on paper. The reality was more complex. Familiarity and comfort were important in a battle, since discomfort could inhibit effective output for psychological reasons.

In that sense, the gains made from sticking to what he was used to generally exceeded the net gains from having a Martial suit that lessened his comfort and thus lowered his effective output.

Still, her words did make him reconsider his decision.

’Water flows to adaptively evolve to its environment. It changes shape to fit its container. How can I call myself Water if I’m unable to change to the container of a Martial suit?’

It was certainly interesting food for thought.

Of course, there were other practical constraints that prevented him from moving on to a Martial suit. And one of those was durability and endurance. The way Martial attire managed to avoid being completely obliterated was that it was woven from esoteric matter that could very efficiently transfer the impact of all attacks to his body.

Similar to how ordinary clothing articles like t-shirts or trousers weren’t harmed by blunt force attacks like punches and kicks, but were dialed to the highest possible extent. In other words, his Martial attire provided no practical utility in combat beyond protecting dignity.

Martial suits were more ambitious. They amplified a Martial Artist’s combat power, but that also meant that they could be destroyed since they no longer simply tried to survive a battle at all costs.

The battles that Rui fought were against Transcendent beings who were of the same caliber of power as him.

There simply did not exist a Martial suit with the power to survive such a battle.

’Maybe if I commission the most powerful blacksmith among the dwarves and give them some truly powerful Transcendent materials…’ His ethereal eyes lit up with faint interest.

”Alright, I’m ready Papa.” She took her stance, facing him with a determined expression.

”Good,” Rui replied. ”I’ll restrict myself severely.”

She furrowed her eyebrows. She knew that she stood no chance even then, but it was vexing that it was overwhelming despite such massive restrictions on his power. ”You’re on, Dad.”

Rui smiled at his daughter with a glint of amusement. ”I’ll only use as much power as you can force me to use. So you can use me as a measuring stick.”

WHOOSH

Ria dashed at him, arriving in the blink of an eye. Her palm surged forth with powerful momentum, flying straight towards his solar plexus.

THWACK

Rui calmly redirected the attack with a rotating guard, intercepting the attack at her wrist and driving it, of course. She used the deflection as a set-up for a powerful roundhouse kick to the side of his head, smoothly transitioning to the next attack.

WHOOSH

Rui effortlessly evaded the blow with a simple step back, only to find himself facing a barrage of blows.

BANG BANG BANG

He crossed his arms in a simple guard, blocking a three-blow combo from his daughter. Each attack was shorter and briefer than the two powerful, but large motions of the previous attacks.

Yet, they lacked in power, unable to so much as even shift his center of gravity in the slightest.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!

She continued to pepper him with blows, attacking him from all kinds of angles. She wasn’t even slightly surprised when her father defended against each of the attacks she mounted against him.

Not only did he defend against them perfectly, but he did it with minimal effort, defending for just a minor fraction of the effort that she put in. She wasn’t surprised, of course. Her father was the ultimate Martial Artist, and the power of Martial Artists came from efficiency.

She didn’t expect to beat him with such a simple offensive. No, what she was doing now was merely farming for data in her causality models. Once she formed a preliminary model, she stopped holding back.

Her eyes sharpened as she threaded a future to victory, launching her fist at a sharp angle, exploiting a chink in her father’s armor.

BANG!!!