The Martial Unity

BAM

Rajak smacked Rui away with a swift kick. But he was immediately rushed by Fae and Kane. One launched an immensely powerful palm attack, the other riddled him with incredibly speedy strikes.

He turtled up, crouching with his arms in front of him as he retreated trying to put some space between them.

POW

"Argh!" He grimaced as Rui landed a kick straight on his head. Just as he turned to swing at Rui;

BAM

THWACK

Fae and Kane resumed their offense forcing him to just barely defend against them. The three of them bombarded him with attacks from three directions, giving him no time or space to consolidate his defense.

All three of them were menaces for three different reasons.

Fae had the greatest firepower among three of them, surpassing even his own. Every attack chipped away at his defense, inflicting some amount of damage. She was a relentless canon, who fired with the intention of taking him down with every strike. As far as game-ending attacks went, she was the strongest of the three. He paid an immense of attention to her, because he knew that of the three of his opponents, she was the likeliest to actually take him down if he made a mistake.

However, the one who truly irritated him was Kane. The boy's speed and agility were a level above his, furthermore, he was far more nimble, smaller, and mobile than Rajak himself was. He danced around, squiggling his way through narrow spaces and landing a flurry of attacks from everywhere. Landing an attack was practically impossible, especially with the other two. He frustrated Rajak the most.

However, the one that unsettled Rajak the most was the third one. As far as only Martial Art techniques went, he was the weakest of the three. Rajak could tell he had only barely formed the foundation of his Martial Art.

Yet for some reason, there was something about the kid that was eerie. As the fight went on, the kid fought better and better, and grew harder and harder fight against. The boy stared at him with pitch-black eyes, and Rajak felt naked in front of his gaze. He felt transparent, as though the boy could see thought everything. Every though, action, decision.

There were moments where he fought incredibly smoothly against Rajak, almost as though he knew what Rajak would do before he even did it, and even knew exactly what needed to be done in order to punish Rajak the most.

In the beginning, the boy struck him as an all-rounder, but his fighting style kept changing and altering growing strangely more and more difficult to deal with.

WHOOSH

BAM

Rui flipped out of the way of a low sweeping kick from Rajak, landing a bicycle kick on his head. Rajak grimaced, stunned. At that moment, Rui had begun the jump even before Rajak began the kick!

Fae and Kane appeared on the opposite sides of him, sandwiching him ins a storm of attacks; swift and numerous on one side and powerful and devastating on the other.

Rajak back away, grimacing in pain. His condition was bad, the addition of Fae had contributed to the deterioration of his condition significantly. He was at the stage where he was coughing blood. His mental faculties had taken a hit from the damage and fatigue from combating the constant bombardment from three of them.

His chances of escape were becoming more and more remote.

('I still have a chance. If I sacrifice defense to some extent, I'll be able to use some offensive techniques open up some distance between all of us, I'll be in a bad condition but I will have a clean chance to escape.') He began planning. ('Once I hide even for a brief few seconds, I should be able to partially consume a healing potion, escape will become much more feasible.')

Just then, a large sound broke him out of his reverie.

BAM

"ARGH" Han grimaced as collapsed to the ground.

Rajak's cursed when he saw Han's leg broken in a horrible manner. The Martial Artists of the Lowminer Industries had managed to cleanly break it.

Everyone knew in that moment, that he was as good as dead. He would never be able to escape from this scenario alive.

The only bandits left fighting were Rajak and Feilin.

Rajak glanced at his second-in-command with hopelessness. She was bloody, and battered with wounds all over her body. She had even lost her left eye.

It was over for them, Feilin had already collapsed to a knee, she would last one exchange and would die immediately after.

The battle had gone from eight-on-four to now effectively eight-on-one.

Rajak was strong, but against eight Martial Apprentices, he stood no chance in hell whatsoever. Only the pinnacle of Martial Apprentices had a chance of surviving this predicament.

BOOM

Fae managed to cleanly land a palm attack into his solar plexus. He leapt back, grimacing in pain. He looked around, the Martial Apprentices circled around him like wolves ready to make the final strike.

He glanced at Han and Feilin, they were already dead.

They attacked, aiming to end this in one go.

Just as eight Apprentice-level attacks were about to mangle his mangle alive.

BOOM

An impact far greater than any on the battlefield blew them away, forcing them to leap back. The impact reverberated through the land, shaking the earth.

"Hahaha!" A voice pierced through the dust. "What a disagrace, you've really fallen."

As the dust cleared, an unknown masked man, supporting the golden-haired man appeared.

Rajak coughed blood. "Took you... cough cough... long enough."

The Martial Artists had no idea who this intruder was, but they all leaped at him with determination.

WHOOSH

Just as their attacks were about to strike the duo, they cleanly passed through them, as thought they were just an illusion.

The bandits had disappeared into thin air.

The Martial Apprentices were shocked. The fact that the man managed to insert himself in the middle of eight hostile Martial Apprentices and evacuate with a comrade, unharmed, was an unbelievable notion.

The atmosphere, which was previously filled with assurance and confidence, had been replaced with that of uncertainty.