The Martial Unity

Chapter 4177: A Broken Memory

The hemispherical thicket of vegetation protecting Siliscia came apart, revealing an utterly frozen elf, terrified into inaction. ”I-I thought I was going to die...”

Ria glared at her new teammate. ”Why did you attack us? Are you trying to kill us?”

”Just making sure that you lot are worthy of teaming up with,” Misha replied with the same nonchalance that had become characteristic of the half-blood. ”I think I can be in a team with you lot. Still, we’re just getting started. It’s like I said...”

A lazy smile emerged on her face.

”Last man standing wins.”

She raised both her hands once more as an onslaught of lasers emerged from them, firing towards her teammates. This time, Runark hadn’t been caught off-guard, leaping into motion the very moment she moved.

He sprinted towards her with a determined expression, eager to get payback for the earlier attack. He adjusted his EvoArmor to minimize drag and give him a boost to power. The mitochondria cold fusion reactors in each cell of the EvoArmor began churning energy, pouring into his cells, allowing him to output more power than he would otherwise.

And yet, Misha was no ordinary opponent. Her cybernetic eyes shifted towards him. As a gush of blood emerged from her body, threatening to crush him in a powerful blast.

BOOOM!

To her surprise, Runark managed to evade the attack quite well. She shot several more bouts of blood at him, each threatening to detonate open contact. Exploding blood was a powerful technology that released all the hidden potential energy in blood, allowing it to become a dangerous weapon, even if it came at the cost of the blood itself.

BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM!

Explosion after explosion erupted into the air, threatening to blast Runark away. And yet, he managed to weave past them all. In the blink of an eye, he reached her, threatening to blast her with a powerful attack.

And yet, he hadn’t appreciated the fact that she was a half-blood hemosapien, not a full-blood one.

FWOOSH!

A burst of red gas struck his face, making his lungs burn upon contact.

”Rgh!” Runark leaped away, burying his nose into his arm, grimacing in pain. ”What the hell was that?”

To his surprise, Misha had already fashioned a gas mask to protect herself from the red gas.

”Blood mist,” Misha’s muffled voice emerged even as she launched more attacks at Runark. ”My blood cells can serve as poison and can turn gaseous.”

The former was a result of her tekvore side, while the latter was a result of her hemosapien side. Because she was a half-blood, she couldn’t manipulate blood as precisely and accurately as a pureblood hemosapien.

But her blood cells themselves were technology, not just individual battering units to manipulate. She could give them all kinds of properties with chemical signals, but because she couldn’t manipulate them well, she herself could succumb to her own blood’s poisonous properties.

”Rgh...” Runark leaped away, putting some distance between himself and Misha. ”You’re tricky as hell!”

”Thank you for the compliment, but there’s more where that came from.”

She unleashed more attacks at Runark as the battle between them grew more and more intense. Ria, standing some distance away, furrowed her eyebrows, heading to Runark’s aid.

Only for her senses to detect a powerful incoming attack at her back.

BANG!!!

She turned around, blocking the attack with two arms as it launched her away. The sheer force of the kick was so high that it made her skid away. Such was the power of a neo-evosapien of the generation of miracles. She raised an eyebrow as she found herself staring at Sternon, his leg still raised from the kick he had just struck her with.

”You’re picking a fight with me now?” Ria asked with an almost intrigued tone of voice, completely unfazed by the threat.

”She did say last man standing wins,” Sternon smiled at her, growing more comfortable. ”The mission is tomorrow, so we should get all of this out of the way while we can. Besides...”

He took a fighting stance as his translucent eyes glinted with curiosity. ”You feel much stronger than a Martial Master should. I wish to understand this power that I feel in you. And...”

His tone grew more serious.

”...why your presence feels so familiar to me.”

In the depths of his mind, a broken memory flashed.

It was a memory of the Dawnbringer killing him.

Or more precisely, the Dawnbringer killing former Supreme Commander Anthea.

It was a canonical experience for every neo-evosapien, and many evosapiens had allowed the hatred they felt from that memory to consume them, which was what compelled them to remain in the Evolutionary Army.

He had broken free from it, but the memory remained nonetheless. The overwhelming sense of raw, unfettered boundlessness that he felt in the eyes of the man who was once called the Dawnbringer...

He sensed that same boundlessness in the eyes of Ria.

As if she were limitless.

”Show me your power.”

His voice was serious. His translucent eyes flared with intensity as he rushed towards her with a blinding speed, arriving before her in less than a millisecond.

A powerful fist charged towards Ria as his cells shifted their DNA, hardening to inflict as much damage as he possibly could.

WHOOSH

His attack struck an empty image, hitting thin air.

It was a feint.

BOOOOOOM!!!

The devastating impact that struck his solar plexus had eluded his awareness. As if Ria had managed to worm her way through his blind spot. The moment her palm struck his body, every cell in her body pushed, contributing to a fluidic surge of force within her that inflicted a ravaging impact on Sternon, flinging him away.

BOOOM!

He blasted into the chamber walls in a heavy impact, coughing blood, and an expression of sheer amazement emerged on his face.

All she had done was apply a technique.

A principle.

The principle of outer convergence was one that Martial Artists learned at a young age.

Yet, she hadn’t merely learned it.

Like her mother, she had engraved it in every cell of her body.

It was a realm of mastery that far exceeded anything almost any other Martial Artist was capable of.

It was then that Sternon understood.

Even though his body was vastly superior to hers, he was the challenger.