The Martial Unity

A hypnotic wave struck their exposed subconscious as their minds were misdirected with the image of Master Uma. Simultaneously, the world went almost entirely dark, allowing their conscious mind to dim more easily as their subconscious minds rose to prominence.

"SOUL System activated."

SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT!

In just a moment, the converging claws tore at his flesh moments before he shifted to Nemean Blossom. It could not singlehandedly stop them, but it certainly could help Rui survive.

"Huff?" The wyverns glanced at each other, confused as they wondered what had just happened.

Rui, on the other hand, swiftly deactivated Nemean Blossom before shifting to Weaving Blood to heal his wounds.

Yet, his focus was fixed on the obsidian wyverns.

With each passing moment, he gathered an immense amount of data on their SOULs, forming SOUL models on each and every single one of them. Once more, he noticed there was an immense amount of overlap in their individual SOULs. While there was less than a twenty-five percent overlap in the SOULs of humans, there was more than a fifty percent overlap in the SOULs of the obsidian wyverns.

These creatures were far more the same than they were different.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

THWOOM THWOOM THWOOM!

He evaded three obsidian wyverns, somersaulting away while launching a flurry of Mighty Roar Flash Blasts, each pumped with the power to reduce large hills to rubble.

The wyverns zig-zagged across the sky in evasion.

But, alas.

The Pathfinder always found its path.

BAM BAM BAM!!!

"ROOOAAAAR!" The wyverns plummeted from the sky, roaring in pain as they were thrown off trajectory.

Rui grinned as the VOID algorithm and the ODA System worked hand in hand, allowing him to fire multitudes of Mighty Roar Flash Blasts.

And they struck their victim true.

Every single time.

BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM!!!

Nearly half a dozen wyverns were struck nigh simultaneously, being thrown off course. Yet before Rui could even acknowledge it, a dozen wyverns converged on him at the same time, threatening to crush him.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

Rui leaped away, narrowly dodging each of them while activating Speed Void at the right moment.

He felt a deep sense of peril as a powerful obsidian wyvern appeared behind from his blind spot.

Temporal Disharmony!

WHOOOSH!

The wyvern's razor-sharp fangs missed Rui by an inch as it grew disoriented by the hypnotic technique of the Hypnomatrix.

Yet, even before he could celebrate, twelve more had appeared around him.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

Rui barely managed to avoid death as he evaded each of them one after another.

Almost.

SPLAT!

His face grew grim as one of the claws of the wyverns caught him in the chest, releasing three deep gashes across his torso. The pain made his mind rush into action, pushing it to the very limit as it furiously burst into activity, accelerating the process of forming associations between data points of recorded subconscious non-verbal communication and intent, as measured retroactively by actions.

Unfortunately, collecting data on twenty-two high-grade Senior-level creatures was quite taxing, even for him. On top of that, he continuously needed to operate the predictive model to ensure that he didn't die in the meantime.

THUD

He returned to the ground, racing through the forest at blinding speeds dozens of times above that of sound. While land had lower degrees of freedom than the sky, it certainly allowed him to handle their speed much more comfortably since he was faster.

Martial Artists could never beat avian creatures in the sky if all else was equal unless they specialized for the sky. Especially not twenty-two of them coordinating with each other. If not for Rui's predictive model and the Pathfinder's ODA System, he would have never even tried.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

Rui sprinted away at top speeds, occasionally firing Mighty Roar Flash Blasts back at them, taking them down, all while evading their swoops and swings one after the other.

"ROOOOOAAAAAR!" They made their frustrations known as they flashed through the air, trying to kill Rui once and for all, earning a good grin from Rui.

Unfortunately, good things came to an end.

SPLAT!

"Rgh!" Rui grimaced as one wyvern surprisingly managed to tag him without any problem.

The Metabody System had been running at top gear. He had used nearly all of them extensively throughout the battle, especially the Neo Godspeed Metabody technique at full power.

His reactions grew slower as his movements grew sluggish.

The obsidian wyverns were far too keen to fail to notice this, they immediately rallied together, converging on Rui.

"ROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAR!!!" A triumphant bellow escaped one as it reached Rui much faster than before. It jaws opened as it flashed forward, ready to eat him whole.

Alas, it was too late.

"I can see your SOUL."

CLASP

Rui's words cut through its jubilation as a single hand stopped the dragon in its tracks. Its eyes widened as it felt its momentum disappearing. What should have been a devastating impact where it would have torn him to shreds was reduced to a gentle grasp.

All that energy and speed that it had accrued was sunk down the drain with a single gesture.

RUMBLE

The very world shook as Rui dispersed that energy to the depths of the bedrock of the Beast Domain using Flux Earther.

The technique had no hard upper limit, yet it also had no lower limit either. Poor timing would make the technique more garbage than a human technique, but with godly timing, it could be elevated to something truly special.

"ROOOOOOAAAAAAAAR!" Another wyvern rushed in from the side, looking to finish what the earlier wyvern couldn't, yet it met the same fate.

RUMBLE!

Rui effortlessly held off two wyverns with one arm each as he continuously dispersed their energy to the world around them.

"ROOOOAAAAAR!"

The two lesser dragons complained. It felt like walking on a treadmill. They were unable to make any progress whatsoever.

WHOOSH!

Rui casually somersaulted, evading a third wyvern who zoomed in while firing a single Mighty Roar Flash Blast.

THWOOM!

SPLAT!

"ROOOOAAAAAAR!" The creature roared in pain as the attack precisely crashed into its eye, blinding it on the spot.

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